Letters Remain

Tag: brain

  • The Evolutionary History of the Brain

    The development of the human brain is intricately linked with almost every moment of our evolution from sea-dwelling animals to advanced, social primates. That is the the overwhelming theme from New Scientist‘sĀ brief history of the brain. The engaging article ends with a look at the continued evolution of the human brain (“the visual cortex has…

  • Our Amazing Senses

    As neuroscientist Bradley Voytek points out, “we’re used to thinking of our senses as being pretty shite”, and this is mostly thanks to the plethora of animals that can see, hear, smell and taste far better than we can. “We can’t see as well as eagles, we can’t hear as well as bats, and we…

  • Social Cognition and Staving Off Dementia

    A longitudinal study of health and mental lucidity in the agedā€”focusing on the huge retirement community of Laguna Woods Village south of Los Angelesā€”is starting to show some results. From studying members of the so-called ‘super memory club’ (people aged 90+ with near-perfect cognitive abilities) it is being suggested that not all mental activities are…

  • The Infant Brain, Redux

    An interesting follow-up if you enjoyed reading about the development of the infant brain last week: Seed Magazine interviews Alison Gopnik, asking about her research and “why everything we think we know about babies is wrong“. Seed: You describe children as being “useless on purpose.” What do you mean by that? AG: It’s related to…

  • Development of the Infant Brain

    Looking primarily at the research of Alison Gopnik, Jonah Lehrer looks at the development of the infant brain. Gopnik argues that, in many respects, babies are more conscious than adults. She compares the experience of being a baby with that of watching a riveting movie, or being a tourist in a foreign city, where even…

  • 6 False Beliefs About the Brain

    ScienceBlogs’ Neurophilosophy details 6 iconoclastic discoveries about the brain and gives a brief description of the research showing the truth behind these false dogmas: The adult human brain is not plastic The adult human brain cannot regenerate Neurons are the functional elements of the nervous system Neurotransmitters are released from the nerve terminal Neurons are…

  • Jill Bolte Taylor – Neuroanatomist On Her Own Stroke Experience

    Lots of people have been saying how impressed they were by neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED Talk at this year’s conference. None, however, have summed it up better than Vaughan: It’s a bit poetic in places. You can almost hear the sound of a thousand cognitive scientists gritting their teeth as she describes the supposed…

  • Deep Brain Stimulation and ‘Conscious’ Brain Surgery

    Wired Science have got a great short film that follows two people who have deep brain stimulation devices implanted in their brains to treat tremors.While most people assume brain surgery is all pre-planned beforehand, for many treatments for cognitive or behavioural functions, the surgeons need to wake up the patient after they’ve open their skull…