Consciousness – the internal dialogue that seems to govern one’s thoughts and actions -is far less powerful than people believe, serving as a passive conduit rather than an active force that exerts control, according to a new theory proposed in the journalBehavioral and Brain Sciences. “The interpreter presents the information but is not the one […]
New University of Waterloo research that examined people’s smartphone habits as well as their analytical, verbal, and numeracy skills found an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence. The three studies, appearing in the journalComputers in Human Behavior, suggest that having convenience at our fingertips is making it easy for us to avoid thinking […]
For the first time, researchers have measured the level of entropy for different networks in the brain under the influence of psilocybin, the psychedelic chemical in magic mushrooms. They found that activity in the more primitive brain network linked to emotional thinking became more pronounced – a pattern of activity similar to that observed in […]
Free will, the ability that we believe we have to make choices – and mistakes – might arise from simple random fluctuations in the brain’s background electrical noise, say neuroscientists from the University of California, Davis. “How do we behave independently of cause and effect?” said Jesse Bengson, a researcher at the University’s Center for […]
Biologists from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have discovered that burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain that alleviate anxiety and depression, suggesting that an entirely new class of medicinal drugs might be right under our noses. Reporting their findings in The FASEB […]
When you nod your head to show approval or shake your head to show disapproval, it’s not just sending a message to others – you may also be influencing yourself. A recent study has shown that these simple movements influenced people’s agreement with an editorial they heard while nodding or shaking their head. Researchers found […]
