People with aphantasia can’t imagine seeing things in their mind. People with ‘deep aphantasia’ may have no inner voice, either, and different real-world visual experiences.
Medications can open a biological window of opportunity for psychotherapy to take advantage of.
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Combining psychotherapy with medication can lead to more immediate and enduring results by boosting the brain’s neuroplasticity.
Gliomas can form connections with distant areas of the brain, exploiting them for their own spread and growth.
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Glioblastoma is the most aggressive type of brain cancer, causing significant decline in cognitive function. New research suggests a common anti-seizure drug could help control tumor growth.
Bringing scientific research online can help improve collaboration to a degree.
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The European Union’s 10-year Human Brain Project is coming to a close. Whether this controversial 1 billion-euro project achieved its aims is unclear, but its online forum did foster collaboration.
Reason is not the only factor that guides vaccine decisions. Understanding human decision-making is the first step in changing behaviour.
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Vaccine hesitancy is often met with one of two responses: Ridicule, or factual information. Both assume a failure of reason, but human behaviour is more complex than reason, so both responses fail.
Computational modeling can predict language therapy response in bilingual people with aphasia. In the future, this could help clinicians identify the best language for treatment.
In popular films and TV shows, poetry is typically used to express human feelings. This popular wisdom chimes with findings in cognitive neuroscience about how language works.
Cognitive neuroscientists use brain imaging and behavioral economic games to investigate people’s sense of fairness. They find it’s common to take care of yourself before looking out for others.
Napping reboots the preschool brain and clears the deck for learning.
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The internet is awash with videos that claim to use ‘binaural beats’ to improve your focus or relieve stress. But while they can influence your brain, the touted mood-enhancing effects may not be.
With the ubiquity and availability of devices connected to the internet, access to pornography is easier than it has ever been.
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Cognitive neuroscience finds that regular consumption of pornography affects the centres of the brain responsible for will power, impulse control and morality.
When you’re looking for a destination, you might need to cut down the volume.
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Do you ever find you suddenly need to turn off the radio so you can concentrate on what you’re doing? It’s because you only have a finite amount of attention, for particular types of tasks at least.
A lifetime of memories… but not always readily accessible.
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The ‘contexual-binding theory’ suggests memories are easier to retrieve when your brain is in a similar context to when the memory was first formed. Food for thought if you’re cramming for an exam.
It gets easier with practice.
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Despite its huge complexity, your brain directs its neural traffic in relatively straightforward ways when approaching cognitively demanding tasks such as puzzles.
What makes a brain tick is very different from how computers operate.
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Brain functions integrate and compress multiple components of an experience, including sight and smell – which simply can’t be handled in the way computers sense, process and store data.
Have you ever walked into a room and realised you can’t remember what you were looking for? We tend to do this more when we are thinking of a few things at once or doing two things at the same time.