Portions of Albert Einstein’s brain have been found to be unlike those of most people and could be related to his extraordinary cognitive abilities, according to a new study led by Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk.
A new study of eight child prodigies suggests a possible link between these children’s special skills and autism.
Neural study provides new insights into how neuron activity changes when the brain is forced to make hasty decisions.
Weizmann Institute researchers find that humans are able to learn to use “whiskers” to locate objects in their environment, much as rats do. The findings give new insight into the process of sensing and may point to new avenues in developing aids for the blind.
Mathematics anxiety can prompt a response in the brain similar to when a person experiences physical pain. Using brain scans, scholars determined that the brain areas active when highly math-anxious people prepare to do math overlap with the same brain areas that register the threat of bodily harm—and in some cases, physical pain.
Cognitive functions improve significantly after four months of high-intensity interval training program in middle-aged people with increased cardiovascular risk.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayo Clinic researchers are presenting new findings on the early treatment of child and adolescent attention deficit hyperactivity disorder this week at the American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry annual meeting in San Francisco. They include a method to get better input from parents and teachers of children who are being diagnosed with ADHD for the first time -- allowing for more effective treatment upon the first consultation. Researchers also showed how a tool can help clinicians better diagnose and treat children who have both ADHD and oppositional defiance disorder.
A new study from the University of Washington shows that digital media helps teens reach developmental milestones, such as fostering a sense of belonging and sharing personal problems. But the study also raised questions about whether digital connectedness might hinder the development of an autonomous sense of self.
Neuroscientists from New York University and the University of California, Irvine have isolated the “when” and “where” of molecular activity that occurs in the formation of short-, intermediate-, and long-term memories. Their findings offer new insights into the molecular architecture of memory formation and, with it, a better road map for developing therapeutic interventions for related afflictions.
Bad news articles in the media increase women’s sensitivity to stressful situations, but do not have a similar effect on men, according to a study undertaken by University of Montreal researchers at the Centre for Studies on Human Stress of Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital.
Keeping the lungs healthy could be an important way to retain thinking functions that relate to problem-solving and processing speed in one’s later years, new research suggests.
New research suggests that a mother’s high blood pressure during pregnancy may have an effect on her child’s thinking skills all the way into old age. The study is published in the October 3, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
An Arizona State University research study with ants shows that collective decision-making proves more efficient than individual selection.
Research at Sandia National Laboratories has shown that it’s possible to predict how well people will remember information by monitoring their brain activity while they study.
Imagine a prosthetic device capable of restoring decision-making in people who have reduced capacity due to brain disease or injury. While this may sound like science fiction, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proven for the first time that it is possible in non-human primates, and believe that one day it will be possible in people.
Many high-achieving students experience math anxiety at a young age — a problem that can follow them throughout their lives. In a study of first- and second-graders, researchers found that students report worry and fear about doing math as early as first grade. Most surprisingly math anxiety harmed the highest-achieving students.
Direct displays of respect can reduce conflict in protests in the Middle East, where a premium is placed on honor.
Ben W. Strowbridge, PhD, Professor of Neurosciences and Physiology/Biophysics, and Robert A. Hyde, a fourth year MD/PhD student in the neurosciences graduate program at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, have discovered how to store diverse forms of artificial short-term memories in isolated brain tissue.
Columbia University Medical Center researchers have identified a potential medical treatment for the cognitive effects of stress-related disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study, conducted in a PTSD mouse model, shows that an experimental drug called S107, one of a new class of small-molecule compounds called Rycals, prevented learning and memory deficits associated with stress-related disorders. The findings were published today in the online edition of Cell.
A drug originally developed to stop cancerous tumors may hold the potential to prevent abnormal brain cell growth and learning disabilities in some children, if they can be diagnosed early enough, a new animal study suggests.
Pretend play that involves uses of the imagination to create a fantasy world or situation can be fun for preschool children, but a new University of Virginia study finds that it is not as crucial to a child's development as currently believed.
A research team led by the University of Iowa has upended current thinking about areas in the human brain responsible for self-awareness. Using a rare patient with damage to areas considered vital to be self-aware, the team learned the patient was not only self-aware, but capable of introspection and self-insight. The researchers propose that self-awareness is a product of a diffuse patchwork of pathways in the brain rather than confined to specific areas.
Scientists are developing profiles of the contents of individual brain cells in a search for the root causes of chronic pain, memory loss and other maladies that affect millions of people. They described the latest results of a one-by-one exploration of selected cells or “neurons” from among the millions present in an animal’s brain at the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Children as young as 3 apparently can tell the difference between whining and when someone has good reason to be upset, and they will respond with sympathy usually only when it is truly deserved, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
Cross-cultural experts acquire cultural knowledge efficiently and maintain their motivation to keep learning about new people and places by knowing how to make the best use of a few types of information.
Young children who are able to pay attention and persist on a task have a 50 percent greater chance of completing college, according to a new study at Oregon State University. Tracking a group of 430 preschool-age children, the study gives compelling evidence that social and behavioral skills, such as paying attention, following directions and completing a task may be even more crucial than academic abilities.
Global Cognition researchers used new techniques in cognitive-cultural analysis to unpack complexity in Afghan values and thinking.
A study, performed in mice and utilizing post-mortem samples of brains from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, found that a single event of a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt proteins that regulate an enzyme associated with Alzheimer’s. The paper, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, identifies the complex mechanisms that result in a rapid and robust post-injury elevation of the enzyme in the brain.
Infants are able to detect how speech communicates unobservable intentions, researchers at New York University and McGill University have found in a study that sheds new light on how early in life we can rely on language to acquire knowledge about matters that go beyond first-hand experiences.
In a new study that has implications for distracted drivers, researchers found that people are better at juggling some types of multitasking than they are at others.
Ever wonder how the human brain, which is constantly bombarded with millions of pieces of visual information, can filter out what’s unimportant and focus on what’s most useful? The process is known as selective attention and scientists have long debated how it works. But now, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have discovered an important clue. Evidence from an animal study, published in the July 22 online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows that the prefrontal cortex is involved in a previously unknown way.
Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis who were decoding the activity of populations of neurons in the motor cortex discovered that they could tell how a monkey was planning to approach a reaching task, in effect, reading their minds.
The ability of infants to recognize speech is more sophisticated than previously known, researchers in NYU’s Department of Psychology have found. Their study showed that infants, as early as nine months old, could make distinctions between speech and non-speech sounds in both humans and animals.
A new psychology study from The University of Texas at Austin found that people associate past memories with novel information. This memory-binding process allows people to better understand new concepts and make future decisions. The findings could lead to better teaching methods, as well as treatment of degenerative neurological disorders, such as dementia.
We’ve all been there: Meeting someone new and seconds later forgetting his or her name. According to an expert, it’s not necessarily your brain that determines how well we remember names, but rather our level of interest.
Has your memory failed you today, such as struggling to recall a word that's "on the tip of your tongue?" If so, you're not alone.
Children who are skilled in understanding how shapes fit together to make recognizable objects also have an advantage when it comes to learning the number line and solving math problems. The work is further evidence of the value of providing young children with early opportunities in spatial learning, which helps them mentally manipulate objects.
Stress may affect brain development in children — altering growth of a specific piece of the brain and abilities associated with it — according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Working memory training is unlikely to be an effective treatment for children suffering from disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity or dyslexia, according to a research analysis published by the American Psychological Association. In addition, memory training tasks appear to have limited effect on healthy adults and children looking to do better in school or improve their cognitive skills.
Infants ignore information that is too simple or too complex, focusing instead on situations that are “just right,” according to a new study. Dubbed the “Goldilocks effect” by the University of Rochester team that discovered it, the attention pattern sheds light on how babies learn to make sense of a world full of complex sights, sounds, and movements.
A new UCLA study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning--and how omega-3 fatty acids can minimize the damage.
After completing the first study of its kind, researchers at McMaster University have discovered that very early musical training benefits children even before they can walk or talk. They found that one-year-old babies who participate in interactive music classes with their parents smile more, communicate better and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.
Women who are obese before they become pregnant are at higher risk of having children with lower cognitive function - as measured by math and reading tests taken between ages 5 to 7 years - than are mothers with a healthy prepregnancy weight, new research suggests.
Researchers uncover cognitive strategies that support cross-cultural competence regardless of personality traits.
UCSF scientists have identified patterns of brain activity in the rat brain that play a role in the formation and recall of memories and decision-making. The discovery, which builds on the team’s previous findings, offers a path for studying learning, decision-making and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
A new study confirms that though born with equal abilities to tell other-race people apart, by age 9 months infants are better at recognizing faces and emotional expressions of same-race people and the ability to distinguish other-race faces and match emotional sounds with expressions declines.
Just 20 minutes of playing a violent shooting video game made players more accurate when firing a realistic gun at a mannequin – and more likely to aim for and hit the head, a new study found.
People aren't very good at media multitasking - like reading a book while watching TV - but do it anyway because it makes them feel good, a new study suggests. The findings provide clues as to why multitasking is so popular, even though many studies show it is not productive.
The ability to navigate using spatial cues was impaired in mice whose brains were minus a channel that delivers potassium — a finding that may have implications for humans with damage to the hippocampus, a brain structure critical to memory and learning, according to a Baylor University researcher.
Challenging a mainstream scholarly position, a study suggests that the number-line concept is not innate but learned and that precise numbers can exist in a culture without linear representation. Related work shows there is another way to think about time too – one that does not rely on placing past and future on a line, or use the body as a reference point.
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