Getting lost for better architecture

Getting test subjects lost in a virtual building could reveal a lot about how to construct more people-friendly hospitals, schools and other spaces, according to a unique collaboration by a group of California neurologists and architects.

Experts Study Neuroscience Use in Courts

When Peter Braunstein was put on trial last year for a twisted Halloween torture attack, his lawyers used a visual aid to suggest that his actions were the product of mental illness.

Brain scans reveal intentions of calculating minds

Activity patterns in the green regions of the brain scan revealed the subject’s covert intentions before he began to perform the calculation (Image: Bernstein Centre for Computational Neuroscience)

Fasting may boost recovery from spinal injury

Fasting may improve recovery from spinal cord injury, according to a new rodent study.

It's easy enough to understand the ghastly accident that befell poor Phineas Gage in Cavendish, Vermont on Sept. 13, 1848: the 25-year-old railroad worker was using an iron rod to tamp down blasting powder when the stuff exploded, sending the 43-inch-long, 13-pound rod through  …

The home in the photo (right) is the $1.75 million mansion of the Reverend Randy White, the former head pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Florida. While some people may be bothered by the fact that there are pastors who live in multimillion dollar homes, th …

Genes in in the human brain that only recently evolved - allowing us to speak and make complex decisions - are missing in some people with autism and learning disabilities. ‘This is the cost of being human,’ said Nenad Sestan, associate professor of neurobiolog …

Atheism (% who say “I don’t believe in God, 2008)Top 5Germany (East): 52.1%Czech Republic: 39.9%France: 23.3%Netherlands: 19.7%Sweden: 19.3%Bottom 5Philippines: 0.7%Cyprus: 1.9%Chile: 1.9%United States: 3.0%Poland: 3.3% Changes over time:  Religiosity is decre …

Doomsday is just around the corner, or so believe 10 per cent of people in the US - with almost one in four thinking the world will end in their lifetime.Worldwide, 10 per cent believe the Mayan calendar on December 21 signifys the apocalypse will happen in 2012, according to a …

Mormons and Muslims are now two of the most rapidly growing religious groups in the United States - swiping ground from the Protestants and Catholics who dominated the country throughout the 20th century.In a census that today reveals the changing face of religious America, Mus …

While Sagan communicated this bedrock scientific principle throughout his work, I want to draw special attention to how he dealt with religion and superstition. On nearly every topic, Sagan was very measured and very careful. And while he was certainly not as confrontational as  …

I wasn't aware that there were both literalist and "metaphorizing" Scientologists! Don't forget, though, what the literalists have to believe about Xenu (from Wikipedia) if they are to be "true to the writings of Mr. Hubbard". Have a gander at this nonsense: Hubbard …

It turns out your brain is organized even if you're not. At least that's the conclusion of a study in Science that looked at the network of fibers that carry signals from one part of the brain to another. Researchers used cutting-edge imaging technology to look at places where  …

Are we the Author of our own Thoughts? ~ The Illusion of Free Will ~ Sam Harris ~ Caltech Lecture ~ Video

 Sam Harris (born 1967) is an American neuroscientist and best-selling author. He is the author of The Moral Landscape, and The End of Faith which won the 2005 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction  

We have all experienced this: a seemingly insignificant trigger, a scent, a song, or an old photograph transports us to another time and place.  Researcher have shown that it is possible to activate a memory on demand, by stimulating only a few neurons with light, usi …

Neurons clusters fire at pinpointed sequences whilst working memory is holding on events

Great and towering Breakthrough in Neuroscience

Our sense of controlling our actions might sometimes be decoupled from those actions themselves. Recent experiments in cognitive science show that some deliberate acts occur before they reach our consciousness (typing or driving, for example), while in other cases, brain scans  …

The movie 'The Synapse' from BrainU tells an entertaining and informative story of how neurons communicate with each other at synapses.

If you could save 5 people from getting hit by a train by pushing another single person in front of it, would you do it?  This type of thought experiment is used in research to investigate the mechanics of our moral decision-making processes.  The results are pretty int …

Regularly smoking marijuana over a number of years can affect your short-term memory, researchers have found.

Evolutionary Psychology is a research field centered around the belief that human cognitive abilities and patterns are as much a product of evolution as any other part of the human body.  Not surprisingly, many readers in the lay public (and in science!) have shrill emotiona …

Okay, it’s Friday so it’s okay to post stuff like this.On Friday, the overrated singer Miley Cyrus tweeted this:

Animals and humans feel emotions very differently, so much so that it makes human emotions harder to study.  However these feelings and emotions come from the same basic "survival circuits" in the brain, which are the same in all mammals.  In truth, researchers …

The question of free will touches nearly everything we care about.

"Sticks and stones may break your bones, but names can hurt just as much. Indeed, according to converging evidence reported in a new review in Current Directions in Psychological Science, physical and social pain are processed in some of the same regions of the brain."

"The smaller, quieter half of the magician duo Penn & Teller writes about how magicians manipulate the human mind."  He explains that neuroscientists are way behind magicians in trying to understand the cognitive patterns that magicians exploit.  "Magic is not easy  …