Our Social Nature Keeps Us from Truly Zoning Out

January 31, 2015

On Twitter yesterday, social psychologist Amy Cuddy asked psychologists what theme they believe to be generally true about human nature. Among the great responses was this by social cognitive neuroscientist Jay Van Bavel: “We are social animals.” Indeed, in a new study, researchers have found that even when we are […]

Beauty is in the Brain of the Beholder

January 21, 2015

The paintings of Paul Cézanne, whose birthday we celebrated this week, transport us to a different time and different place. His use of color and brushstroke force us to look at people and places in new ways. But any person’s evaluation of a single piece of art, of course, is […]

Why It Should Always Be the Season for Exercise

January 14, 2015

Guest Post by Michelle Voss, University of Iowa We all know that exercise is good for us And this past holiday season, the market was awash with activity monitors like the FitBit and Nike Fuel Band to help you reach your fitness goals from the neck down. But what about […]

Hubble Telescope

Judging Beauty in Places, Faces

January 12, 2015

Seeing the new photos of the Pillars of Creation from the Hubble Telescope took my breath away. Beautiful and awe-inspiring. But what was happening in my brain when I looked at them? How and why we react to beauty is something we rarely think about, but neuroscientists are making progress […]

A Year in Cognitive Neuroscience: 10 Stories from 2014

December 29, 2014

Our round-up of some of the top CNS blog posts of the year, featuring a range of cognitive neuroscience, from new research on memory, learning, and language, to the importance of neuroscientists using Twitter. 1. If the CIA Tweets, Cognitive Neuroscientists Can Too: Harnessing Twitter’s Power for Your Research Micah […]

Lessen Anticipated Pain With Your Imagination

December 15, 2014

Imagination is not just something for creative endeavors — it is a real-world tool that can not only shape the way we act in the future, but also affect how we feel right now. Think about the dread you feel the day before a tooth extraction, imagining the pain to come. […]

fNIRS: The In-Between for Brain Activity in Real-World Settings

December 8, 2014

Guest Post by Nick Wan, Utah State University  Imagine driving in a simulator while undergoing an fMRI. No, you won’t be lying down — this is not your typical large, chamber-like scanner. An instrument called functional near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, is using a smaller, more portable design to record brain activity in more […]

Getting Past Dyslexia Myths: How Neuroscience Has Helped

November 28, 2014

Guest Post by Priya Kalra, Harvard University  Although scientists now understand dyslexia better than ever before, it is still a condition shrouded in myth and misunderstanding. I first came to see our flawed perceptions of dyslexia while tutoring a 4th grader. Despite normal intelligence and effort, he could not read. I saw […]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bouquet_de_roses_roses.jpg

Smell Stimulates Early Visual Processing in Women But Not in Men

November 21, 2014

Smells are undeniably powerful, able to transport us to different places and times in our memories. Think of how you feel when you smell cookies baking in the oven. But can they also change how we see things? New research shows that smells can enhance visual processing – but only […]

5 Things You Didn’t Know About EEG Studies

November 5, 2014

“Think of it as a weird massage…” Journal articles can often feel impersonal to the readers. The participants are nameless subjects, the equipment and the meticulous lab set-up overshadowed by the findings. But as I learned firsthand, such studies are anything but impersonal. I recently participated in an electroencephalogram (EEG) […]

Blog Archives

CNS2025-Logo_FNL_HZ-150_REV

March 29–April 1  |  2025