Our brains are designed to help us survive. That might be why, when it comes to thinking about death, we have a built-in protective mechanism. A fascinating new study shows that our brains distance the concept of death from ourselves, generally thinking about it as something that happens to other people. As one of the […]
Dear Parents, the reality is . . . waiting for your child to “grow out of” learning, reading, or attention difficulties is not really an option. Learning struggles rarely go away with time. On the contrary, waiting and hoping a problem will go away without appropriate intervention will only lead to frustration, poor grades, low […]
The brain uses about 25% of the body’s energy—which is a lot, considering it makes up only 2% of the body’s weight. As it turns out, it takes the brain about 400 calories per day just to keep you alive—to maintain your breathing and other life-sustaining functions. So does engaging in mentally stimulating tasks burn […]
In the last few years, many researchers have found that using social media can have negative effects on mental health, and shared their findings with provocative titles like “Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation?” But according to new research, those studies don’t tell the full—or even a very accurate—story. Instead, “…social media research is the […]
In a new study, researchers have linked anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to the dysfunction of a special type of brain cell, called “Hoxb8-lineage microglia.” They also linked anxiety to female sex hormones, which may explain why more women than men suffer from debilitating anxiety. This finding may be the first step toward new treatments. […]
When you’re in a noisy place, how does your brain tune out background noise, and tune in to the one person’s voice that you’re trying to hear? New research published in Neuron suggests that a part of the brain called the “superior temporal gyrus” may weight one voice over others. Read more on this interesting article from […]
