Neuroscience
Maggot infestations, rotting carcasses, unidentifiable gunk in the kitchen sink – how much your brain responds to disgusting images could predict whether you are liberal or conservative.
If you don't want to read any further because this is based on functional magnetic resonance imaging and claims that political leaning is a biological trait, here is the short version and you can just rant in the comments: if you are not grossed out, you are a liberal. The authors feel so confident in the result they say they can predict your politics based on a single image with 95 percent to 98 percent…
Targeting cognition through the body. Cognition by Shutterstock
By Michal Schwartz, Weizmann Institute of Science; Aleksandra Deczkowska, Weizmann Institute of Science, and Kuti Baruch, Weizmann Institute of Science
When we age our whole body gradually deteriorates. This includes our brains, where our personality, memories and personal values reside. It is therefore understandable that dementia and memory loss are some of the most devastating hallmarks of aging, for the elderly, their families, and the healthcare system.
This is why researchers want to find ways to rejuvenate the brain and…
A new study has found that age-related memory decline in healthy older adults
can be reversed by dietary cocoa flavanols, the naturally occurring bioactives found in cocoa.
As people age, they typically show some decline in cognitive abilities, including learning and remembering such things as the names of new acquaintances or where one parked the car or placed one's keys. This normal age-related memory decline starts in early adulthood but usually does not have any noticeable impact on quality of life until people reach their fifties or sixties.
Age-related memory decline is different…
A new study found that people ages 60 and older who do not have dementia benefit from light alcohol consumption; it has been associated with higher episodic memory, the ability to recall memories of events.
Moderate alcohol consumption was also linked with a larger volume in the hippocampus, a brain region critical for episodic memory. The relationship between light alcohol consumption and episodic memory goes away if hippocampal volume is factored in, providing new evidence that hippocampal functioning is the critical factor in these improvements.
This study used data from…
A paper presented at the annual congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) in Berlin says that moderate cannabis use by adolescents does not lead to educational or intellectual decline, but that heavy cannabis use is associated with slightly poorer exam results at age 16.
The results come from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, also known as "Children of the 90's") a long-term study that follows the health of children born in the Bristol area (UK) in 1991 and 1992. They analyzed data from 2,612 children who had their IQ tested at the age of 8…
Is fairness built into the brain? According to a new Norwegian brain paper, people appreciate fairness - but fairness is not that everybody gets the same income, which is sure to concern those who believe all money should be distributed equally.
Economists from the Norwegian School of Economics and brain researchers from the University of Bergen decided to try and assess the relationship between fairness, equality, work and money: how brains react to how income is distributed.
The team looked at the striatum - the "reward center" of the brain. By measuring reaction to questions related to…
A region of human chromosome 16, known as 16p11.2, is prone to genetic changes in which segments of DNA are deleted or duplicated and is considered to be one of the leading candidates for genetic causes of autism, schizophrenia, and other conditions.
A new study finds that a genetic variation that evolved in the last 250,000 years, after the divergence of humans from ancient hominids, likely plays an important role in disease.
Researchers analyzed the genomes of 2,551 humans, 86 apes, one Neanderthal, and one Denisovan. They found that certain segments of DNA in this region are…
Unless you are trapped at a Larry Summers protest at Harvard in 2006, you know that male and female brains are not equal in all ways.
Another study affirms that, finding a difference when it comes to the biological response to a high-fat diet. Cedars-Sinai Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute scientist Deborah Clegg, PhD, and colleagues found that the brains of male laboratory mice exposed to the same high-fat diet as their female counterparts developed brain inflammation and heart disease that were not seen in the females.
"For the first time, we have identified remarkable…
Won't get fooled again. Credit: Tinfoil hat by Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock
By Rebecca Slack, University of Sheffield
How do you decide if you can trust someone?
Is it based on their handshake, the way they look you in the eye, or perhaps their body language?
We know that what someone wears has an effect on our trust in them. If you happen to be a doctor, 76% of us will favor you if you wear the white coat, compared to only 10% if you happen to just pop out in your surgical scrubs. Labels matter too. In one test, four times as many people were willing to stop and answer a survey on one day…
Time is in our hands, more than we realize. Credit: Spanish Flea/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND
By Kristin Alford and Neil Houghton, Monash University
We are curious about time. It holds us in a state of wonder, of anticipation for the future. The ability to categorize the past - history - and think about the future - planning - is a basic element of intelligence.
The literature on time and temporality is vast. It spans the fields of consciousness to cosmology. Between the time of our lives and the time of the universe is a panorama of temporal meanings, experiences and practices. Within these, our…