Research & Articles

Brain's 'Traffic Directors': Neurons That Keep Us Focused on Tasks

Researchers have illuminated how our brain maintains focus amidst distractions.

Key Brain Activity Absent in Borderline Personality Disorder

Researchers have identified a brain region, the rostro-medial prefrontal cortex, which reacts differently to social rejection in individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

A Role of the Parasympathetic Nervous System in Cognitive Training

Vision-based speed of processing (VSOP) training can result in broad cognitive improvements.

Exercise and the Brain: The Neuroscience of Fitness Explored

The neuroscience of fitness explores how regular exercise profoundly impacts our brain and nervous system.

Brain Study Asks: Where Does All the Glucose Go?

This is the most direct and clearest evidence yet that neurons are metabolizing glucose through glycolysis and that they need this fuel to maintain normal energy levels.

Fasting May Tell the Brain To Break Down Unhealthy Molecules

Our study shows that autophagy is not only controlled in the body cells themselves, but also by the brain.

We make thousands of unconscious decisions every day. Here's how your brain copes with that.

But how – and why – do you go from concentrating on a task to making it automatic?

Why Every Kindergarten and First-Grade School Day Should Begin with Inquiry and Imaginative Play

We must have a mindset shift in this country. A shift from seeing schools as buildings that children attend to understand reading, writing, math, and social sciences to schools as part of our communit...

Dopamine Levels Could Determine Whether Working Out Feels Easy or Hard

Researchers have long been trying to understand why some people find physical effort easier than others.

Brain–Gut Interactions Could Explain Sleep's Mysteries

Harvard study implies that dietary choices impact sleep quality.

These Neurons Are the Reason You Yawn When You See Others Do It, And They Could Help Us Teach Children More Creatively Too

Mirror neurons are essential for the human species. Not only do they allow us to learn by observation and imitation, but they also are essential for the development of empathy and social behaviors.

How the brain rewards pleasurable physical touch

Using optogenetics, neurobiologists traced a stimulating physical touch from the skin all the way to the reward center of the brain for the first time.

World-First Study Identifies Brain Changes Caused by High Blood Pressure

A new study has, for the first time, identified specific brain areas damaged by high blood pressure.

A new take on psychoneuroimmunology

Research pointing to a circuit linking the immune system and brain connects illness, stress, mood and thought in a whole new way.

Too much pleasure causes pain

Happiness has been declining precipitously in the West for 30 years, despite better access to healthcare and education and decreases in poverty and violence. Groundbreaking Stanford psychiatrist and a...

Sensory emotion regulation

Sensation and emotion are inextricably linked.

'Cyclic sighing' can help breathe away anxiety

There's a growing interest in nonpharmacological ways of helping people regulate their mood. We may be able to identify certain kinds of anxiety that respond substantially to this sim...

Green eyeglasses reduce pain-related anxiety in fibromyalgia patients, study shows

May reduce need for opioids in those with chronic pain.

Can Cognitive Training Improve Shoot/Don't-Shoot Performance? Evidence from Live Fire Exercises

Recent research suggests that shoot/don't-shoot errors (e.g., commission errors of shooting at nonhostile or unarmed civilians) can be linked to specific cognitive abilities, and these errors could be...

Researchers Find Missing Link Between the Brain and Immune System

Implications profound for neurological diseases from autism to Alzheimer's to multiple sclerosis.