Stimulants’ ADHD calming mechanism revealed
When Dr. Charles Bradley administered Benzedrine to a group of children with hyperactivity in 1937 a new era of psychopharmacology…
Could suicide be a variant of an evolutionarily adaptive set of behaviors?
Snapping shrimp, naked mole rats, ants, honeybees, and humans – what do they all have in common? They all share…
fMRI data trove yields new insights into consciousness and abstract thought
Using 20 years of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from tens of thousands of brain imaging experiments, neuroscientists at…
Missing link found between brain and immune system
In a discovery that overturns decades of textbook teaching, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined…
Scientists create artificial link between unrelated memories
Working with mice, researchers at the University of Toyama were able to generate artificial links between unrelated pieces of information…
High-fat intake could trigger psychiatric disorders
High-fat diets have long been known to increase the risk for heart disease and stroke, but there is new evidence…
New research suggests smartphone use associated with lowered intelligence
New University of Waterloo research that examined people’s smartphone habits as well as their analytical, verbal, and numeracy skills found…
Marijuana’s long-term effects on the brain: do you want the good news or the bad news?
A study by University of Texas scientists has found that chronic marijuana users have a smaller orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), but…
Biological basis for magic mushrooms’ mind-expansion revealed
For the first time, researchers have measured the level of entropy for different networks in the brain under the influence…
Could “free will” arise from random brain noise?
Free will, the ability that we believe we have to make choices – and mistakes – might arise from simple…
Speed-reading apps hinder comprehension, say researchers
Speed-reading apps for phones and tablets work by eliminating the time we supposedly waste moving our eyes as we read.…
Scans reveal frenzied activity inside the autistic brain
Neuroscientists say that the brains of autistic children generate significantly more information in a resting state, a discovery that helps…
Gene expression altered with meditation
Previous studies have shown that meditation can trigger changes in the brain and body but the biological mechanism for these…
“Striking” differences between brains of men and women
Scientists studying brain connectivity have found striking differences in the neural wiring of men and women that lends credence to…
Brain’s processing power vastly underestimated, suggests new study
In work that could change the way we think about how neural circuitry functions in the brain, scientists have shown…
Effects from Toxoplasma gondii infection appear to be permanent
The Toxoplasma gondii parasite’s ability to hijack the mammalian brain is well documented, but in an intriguing twist, scientists say…
Inner-ear disorders may be key to ADHD
Behavioral abnormalities are traditionally thought to originate in the brain, but researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have…
Who’d have thunk it? Overthinking handicaps human performance
Appearing in the Journal of Neuroscience, a new University of California – Santa Barbara study reveals why under certain circumstances…
Brain mapping gets a reality check
The idea that researchers can unravel different brain functions by performing MRI scans while subjects perform tasks is deeply flawed,…
Brain-training claims questioned
Brain-training companies claim scientific studies back the effectiveness of their programs, but according to a new report, most studies like…
Eyes used to measure pleasure response
The brain’s pleasure response to tasting food can be accurately measured through the eyes using a common, low-cost ophthalmological tool,…
This is your brain on iTunes
Researchers have been using an MRI scanner to work out what happens in our brain when we decide to purchase…
Future criminal behavior predicted with brain scan
Researchers from The Mind Research Network and Duke University say neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal…
Brain wave trajectories challenge area-specific notion of brain activity
Our understanding of brain activity has traditionally been linked to specific brain areas – an area associated with speech, vision,…
Sports brain injury may actually be an autoimmune phenomenon
U.S. medicos have proposed a radical new way of thinking about concussions and sub-concussive hits to the head that are…
Appreciation of musical harmony is nurture, not nature, say Aussie scientists
Our love of music and appreciation of musical harmony is learnt and not based on natural ability, say researchers at…
Republicans’ brains wired for fight-or-flight
Measuring the brain activity of Republicans and Democrats while they played a game has revealed striking differences in each group’s…
Synesthesia traced to childhood toy
Experiencing a color when viewing particular letters or numbers – known as color-graphemesynesthesia – may partly be a learned behavior,…
Multitasking: you’re bad at it
Most people believe they can multitask effectively, but a new University of Utah study indicates that the people who multitask…
MRI scans reveal fructose’s effects on brain’s appetite regulators
Scans of the human brain after ingesting fructose have provided insights into how the substance affects brain chemistry and increases…