“Colors are something we experience, individually and collectively. But without our experience of color, science would have no reason to suspect its existence. There would just be fifty shades, or more likely fifty thousand shades, of electromagnetic waves. That is why even a Nobel Prize-winning biologist like Gerald Edelman tells us that reality is actually … Continue reading “Color? What’s That? Neuroscience Is On The Case”
“While Freud’s concept of the superego played a more ethical role, encouraging the id and ego to follow moral rules, [the] Id-Ego-Superego structure roughly matches onto the Unconscious-Conscious-Metacognition structure of the mind studied in neuroscience today.”
“Tell me if this sounds familiar: you just turned off the light, your head is on the pillow, your eyes are closed, and yet, instead of drifting off to dreamland, you find yourself thinking about something that happened earlier in the day. Surprisingly, this process of reactivating your memories occurs even when you aren’t aware … Continue reading “Can Neuroscience Help People Learn New Languages?”
Three decades of studies seemed to “point in the same, troubling direction: We don’t really have free will. In fact, until recently, many neuroscientists would have said any decision you made was not truly free but actually determined by neural processes outside of your conscious control. Luckily, for those who find this state of affairs … Continue reading “Neuroscience And Free Will Seem To Be Rethinking Their Divorce”
Viacom Inc.’s New York-based laboratory is concentrating primarily on brainwave activity from test subjects who are given media to watch or interact with, and the project’s core objective is to determine the timing of ads. The general notion behind the research which makes use of electroencephalogram (EEG) brain readings, is that scenes which gain emotional … Continue reading “TV Networks Turn To Neuroscience To Make Ads More Effective”
Alva Noë: “The problem is that neuroscience has yet to frame an adequate conception of our nature. You look in vain in the writings of neuroscientists for satisfying accounts of experience or consciousness. For this reason, I believe, we can’t use neuroscience to explain art and its place in our lives. Indeed, if I am … Continue reading “Neuroscience Alone Can’t Explain What Art Is And Why Humans Make It”
“Now we know that there is something anatomically different about them.” Their ability to keep time gives them an intuitive understanding of the rhythmic patterns they perceive all around them.
“These days neural approaches to art — so-called neuroaesthetics — are all the rage. We find it somehow compelling to think that the brain holds the answers to the questions about, well, everything that matters to us, including art. It’s hard not to be impressed by the excitement scientists feel as they try to hunt … Continue reading “Can Neuroscience Help Us Understand How We Understand Art? Maybe, But…”
A team of Hungarian researchers scanned the brains of people who got high scores on a test for Machiavellianism (yes, this is a clinical term for a personality trait) while they played a game of trust. “They found that Machiavellians’ brains went into overdrive when they encountered a partner who exhibited signs of being fair … Continue reading “The Neuroscience Of Being A Selfish Jerk”
Drumming ultimately has therapeutic value, providing the emotional and physical benefits collectively known as “drummer’s high,” an endorphin rush that can only be stimulated by playing music, not simply listening to it. In addition to increasing people’s pain thresholds, Oxford psychologists found, the endorphin-filled act of drumming increases positive emotions and leads people to work … Continue reading “The Neuroscience Of Drumming: Why Drummers Drum And What It Does For Them”
