A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
“Automatic response to being hit between the legs with a hammer!”
Some people may excel at riding a bike, tying a tie, or playing the piano, but those same people may find it difficult to explain or teach those skills to someone else.
Continue reading… “Frontal Lobe of Brain Key to Automatic Responses!”
New connections begin to form between brain cells almost immediately as animals learn a new task, according to a study published recently in Nature. Led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the study involved detailed observations of the rewiring processes that take place in the brain during motor learning.
Continue reading… “New Brain Connections Form Rapidly During Motor Learning”
There are areas in the brain devoted to our arms, legs, and various parts of our bodies. The way these areas are distributed throughout the brain are known as “body maps” and there are some significant differences in these maps between left- and right-handed people. For example, in left-handed people, there is an equal amount of brain area devoted to the left and right arms in both hemispheres. However, for right-handed people, there is more cortical area associated with right arm than the left.
Continue reading… “Vast Right Arm Conspiracy? Study Suggests Handedness May Affect Body Perception”
Learning to juggle leads to changes in the white matter of the brain, an Oxford University study has shown.
Continue reading… “Juggling Enhances Connections In The Brain”
In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun.
A common household nuisance, the fruit fly, is capable of intricate social learning much like that used by humans, according to new research from McMaster University.
Continue reading… “Light, Photosynthesis Help Bacteria Invade Fresh Produce”
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“Push your finger as hard as you can against the surface. Now as hard as you can but move it slowly – follow the ticking clock. Now faster. Now faster.” Continue reading… “One-finger Exercise Reveals Unexpected Limits To Dexterity”
Fear is a powerful emotion, and neuroscientists have for the first time located the neurons responsible for fear conditioning in the mammalian brain. Fear conditioning is a form of Pavlovian, or associative, learning and is considered to be a model system for understanding human phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders.
Continue reading… “Finding Fear: Neuroscientists Locate Where It Is Stored In The Brain”
We humans prefer to be addressed in our right ear and are more likely to perform a task when we receive the request in our right ear rather than our left. In a series of three studies, looking at ear preference in communication between humans, Dr. Luca Tommasi and Daniele Marzoli from the University “Gabriele d’Annunzio” in Chieti, Italy, show that a natural side bias, depending on hemispheric asymmetry in the brain, manifests itself in everyday human behavior.
It’s safe to say that humans are smarter than animals, but a University of Iowa researcher is investigating the extent of that disparity in intelligence.
Continue reading… “Baboons And Pigeons Are Capable Of Higher-level Cognition,”
