For parents of deaf children, deciding whether to get a cochlear implant can be tough. The great hope is that an implant will help deaf children gain oral language skills. Behavioral data has suggested that congenitally deaf children best receive implants by age 4, but little has been known about how they perceive their first […]
How the Lonely Perceive Threats
Loneliness is not something trivial to ignore; it is an important health issue at the heart of emotional distress syndromes. A growing body of research is illuminating the evolutionary roots of loneliness and how those feelings interact with our social environment. In a new study, researchers found that lonely people’s brains perceive social threats automatically […]
Devil is in the Details: Specific Planning Leads to Unique Brain Activity
In our daily lives, we are all constantly setting goals, whether to go to the gym more or to save up for a vacation. In creating goals, some people more specifically outline the steps to get there than others. Those different approaches to planning engage different structures in the brain, according to a new study, […]
Genetic Effects on Cognition are Stronger as We Age
No two people age the same way. Some become stereotypically absent-minded while others remain just as cognitively sharp as their younger counterparts. Shaping these differences in behavior is a complicated interplay between genes and lifestyle. A growing body of research is teasing out the relative roles of genetics and lifestyle factors in cognition in old […]
How We Map Our Bodies from Infancy
I recently found myself in a touch tunnel at a science museum. Basically in pitch darkness in a box, I had to feel my way through a maze of turns. As I did so, I found myself often thinking about my arms’ position relative to not just the tunnel but to each other and the rest of […]
How We Sharpen Attention on the Fly in Response to Incentives
A simple trip to the grocery store can be an exercise in trying to keep your attention focused on a task. You may have a list of items you need to buy but have a constant barrage of sale signs and displays enticing you to reward yourself. How do these incentives affect our attention? A […]
Judgments of Competence Affect Anticipation of Pain
Picking a new dentist or doctor can be harrowing experience. Internet reviews and word of mouth may help, but oftentimes it comes down to first impressions, maybe even just a photo online. A new study shows that these impressions of people’s competence actually affect our anticipation of pain. “The goal of this study was to […]
Distinguishing Consonant Sounds in Noise Predicts Reading Ability in Preschoolers
When babies are born, they undergo a hearing test with a simple little machine. What if one day that test could also predict how well a child will be able to read and identify those children early may need extra help? A new study has taken a crucial first step toward that possibility. In PLOS […]
Patterns of Brain Activity Match Vividness of Memories
Pixar’s Inside Out portrays memories as glowing individual spheres that we replay in our minds like a movie on a projector screen. But in real life, neuroscientists have found that memories are not compartmentalized into perfect little bubbles; they are represented over a largely distributed set of brain regions. And the same brain regions at […]
Evidence from Tone Deafness: Limiting Musical Exposure Can Deteriorate the Auditory System
Often thought of in pop culture as a funny quirk (think: Cameron Diaz singing karaoke in My Best Friend’s Wedding), tone deafness is actually a brain disorder. Whereas most of us derive great pleasure from music, someone who is tone deaf may hear music as a noisy din and may even avoid situations where music […]
