It’s breakfast time, and you head to the fridge to grab some orange juice but just as you go to pour it into your cup, you hear someone calling to you, turn toward the sound, and pour it into your cereal bowl instead or maybe even onto the floor. We’ve all been there – had […]
For the past 15 years, researchers have been studying the effects of neglect on the developing brain through the study of Romanian orphans. The work has spawned dozens of papers, and even a book, detailing the profound consequences of early institutionalization on brain and behavior development. In one of the latest studies, researchers found that […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
