Five myths about the brain
Editor’s note: RudiyTanzi is Harvard’s Professor of Neurology and has written a new book, Super Brain. Here are five myths dispelled.
Browsing: neuroscience
Brain plasticity: How learning changes your brain
Editor’s note: A short article that explains neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to change throughout life – and the impact learning has on that.
Neuroscientist creates a large scale model of a functioning brain
Editor’s note: Neuroscientists have built a model brain that “captures many aspects of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and psychological behaviour, which we demonstrate via eight diverse tasks”. In orther words, see neurons at work as the brain works.
Rappers and neuroscientists team to uncover creativity key
Editor’s note: When neuroscience meets rapping we find out how the brain ‘behaves’ to enable rappers to create freestyle raps. An interesting look into the world of spontaneous creative behaviour. Thanks to Mike Collins for sharing this link.
Empathy represses analytic thought, and vice versa: Brain physiology limits simultaneous use of both networks
Editor’s notes: Research shows for the first time that we have a built-in neural constraint on our ability to be both empathetic and analytic at the same time. Implications on learning styles?
Did you know? Stress makes you worse at reading
Editor’s note: You probably did know this but worth a reminder as barriers to learning exist in all their many forms in the wider context of the learner. Stress is just one factor.
Moving and thinking
Editor’s note: physically moving around helps our brains function well, according to Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast and Slow. So why don’t we move around more at work, asks Flora Marriott.
Google award for Do Something Different
Editor’s note: Behaviour change app Do Something Different has won the Google Outstanding Use of Technology in the Field of Diversity’ category at the European Diversity Awards, 2012. The app is worth a look – it is on your mobile and based on the neuroscience of behaviour change ie doing lots of small, achievable activities to make change happen.
Three behaviour change principles
Professor Karen Pine shared her three behaviour change principles at today’s Meaning Conference. 1 Learn…
Left brain right brain illustration
Editor’s note: A bit of graphic fun for a Tuesday morning with this cartoon of what the left and right side of our brain provide us with.
Ready to learn? Brain scans can tell you
Editor’s note: Researchers have shown that activity in the brain’s parahippocampal cortex predicts how well people will remember a visual scene.
This is your brain on Jane Austen, and researchers at Stanford are taking notes
Editor’s note: Researchers are looking into the effects on the brain of reading Jane Austen. The experiment focuses on literary attention, or more specifically, the cognitive dynamics of the different kinds of focus we bring to reading.
The biology of emotions
Editor’s note: It’s fair to say that our emotions affect our behaviour and they certainly affect our capacity to learn and to ‘take things on board’. So, interesting to see that scientists are setting out to understand how emotions are generated in the brain.
Brain filter for clear information transmission: neuronal inhibition is key for memory formation
Editor’s note: The information we learn or remember is processed in the brain through nerve impulses. Researchers have shown how the brain ensures the right impulses get through to neurons.
The eyes have it: men and women do see things differently, study of brain’s visual centers finds
Editor’s note: Is neuroscience going to blow apart theories around how we learn? This study shows differences in the way men and women process visual information.