We are saddened to hear of the death of Suzanne Corkin (MIT). Suzanne Corkin, whose painstaking work with a famous amnesiac known as H.M. helped clarify the biology of memory and its disorders, died on Tuesday in Danvers, Mass. She was 79. Sue was a phenomenal neuroscientist and communicator who carely deeply about her work, especially […]
Archives for 2016
What New Memory Research Can Tell Us About Second-Language Learning
Guest Post by Angela Grant, Pennsylvania State University Tell me if this sounds familiar: You just turned the light off, your head is on the pillow, your eyes are closed, and yet instead of drifting off to dreamland, you find yourself thinking about something that happened earlier in the day. Frustrating as rehashing those memories […]
Playing An Instrument Enhances Pitch Perception
Actions may speak more melodically than sounds. A new study shows that playing a melody on a musical instrument enhances how those melodies are perceived and remembered, above and beyond just listening to them. “We wanted to understand how the auditory system encodes and responds to musical events that the motor system has learned, says […]
Watch the Great Debate on Connectomics
Mapping and analyzing the brain at the level of neural circuitry – “human connectomics” – is hotter than ever. Many scientists think that by mapping neuronal connections in the brain, we will both better understand cognition and better be able to treat any deficits. Talking of its $40 billion Human Connectome Project, the National Institute of Health says it “will lead to […]
Invading the Brain to Understand and Repair Cognition
CNS 2016 Blog (Press Release) April 5, 2016, New York – People are using brain-machine interfaces to restore motor function in ways never before possible – through limb prosthetics and exoskletons. But technologies to repair and improve cognition have been more elusive. That is rapidly changing with new tools – from fully implantable brain devices […]
Neuroscientists Working to Test Brain Training Claims
CNS 2016 Blog (Press Release) April 5, 2016, New York – The draw is huge: Play video games and get smarter. For the past decade, various groups have claimed that their cognitive training programs do everything from staving off neurodegenerative disease to enhancing education and improving daily functioning. Absent from many of these claims has […]
How A Brain Can Rewire After Surgery
CNS 2016 Blog When neurosurgeons remove a tumor from the brain, there is often a risk to the patient of cognitive deficits resulting from injury to the surrounding brain tissue. But even in cases where the surgery leads to deficits, many patients are able to recover. New work on a patient with a post-surgery language deficit […]
Understanding How We Trigger and Rehearse Memories
CNS 2016 Blog Today I met Daphna Shohamy. Will I remember who she is if I run into her later for dinner? If I see her, I probably won’t relive her morning talk but memories of CNS likely (hopefully!) will come to mind to help me remember who she is. This is how Shohamy likes […]
Music on the Mind: Rocking Out for CNS 2016
Cognitive neuroscientists are often masters in multiple fields, such as psychology, neurology, and anatomy. But some go even further by living a double life: scientists by day, rockers by night. “Unlike submitting papers or grant applications, music is immediately satisfying.” -Earl Miller Three bands made up of CNS members – The Amygdaloids, Pavlov’s Dogz, and […]
Inducing Amnesia of Daily Events by Trying to Forget Unwanted Memories
When we try to forget something unpleasant, whether a bad argument or a traumatic event, we may be unintentionally inducing amnesia of unrelated memories. According to a new study, this temporary state of amnesia mimics organic amnesia, disrupting the processes in the hippocampus that lead to long-term memory creation. The work, says senior author Michael […]