Articles

NeuroMedia: Library of Articles & Resources

Life Span May Be As Wide As Your Smile

By Shari Roan
Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2010

"A study looks at smiles in pictures of baseball players and compares death rates. The bigger the smile, the longer the life, they found."

Read the full article at Los Angeles Times

Overlooking the Frail Years

By Paula Span
New York Times, March 13, 2010

"An either/or conception of the future made more sense decades ago, when old people were more likely to die suddenly from heart attacks or strokes. Now, cardiac disease and hypertension are treatable chronic conditions. This adds years to elders’ lives, but not necessarily vigorous years."

Read the full article at New York Times

Memories in Nature

By Olivia Judson
New York Times, March 13, 2010

"I am also moved to reflect on the nature of memory — and on memory in nature. For the conscious, brain-based memories that we humans set so much store by are not the only memories out there."

Read the full article at New York Times

Environmental Hypocrisy

By Sharon Begley
Newsweek, March 9, 2010

"A new study shows that people are more likely to cheat and steal after buying green products."

Read the full article at Newsweek

Playing Along with the Mozart Effect

By Melissa Healy
Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2010

"If you want music to sharpen your senses, boost your ability to focus and perhaps even improve your memory, you need to be a participant, not just a listener."

Read the full article at Los Angeles Times

Naps Can Refresh Brain Power

By Melissa Healy
Los Angeles Times, March 1, 2010

"Midday naps have long been touted as a good thing, lowering blood pressure and driving down the risk of heart attack. And if you snooze long enough, researchers have now found, they also permit your memory banks to do their filing, leaving your brain cleared and ready to learn in the latter half of the day."

Read the full article at Los Angeles Times

New Research Focuses on the Power of Physical Contact

By Benedict Carey
New York Times, February 22, 2010

"... in recent years some researchers have begun to focus on a different, often more subtle kind of wordless communication: physical contact. Momentary touches, they say — whether an exuberant high five, a warm hand on the shoulder, or a creepy touch to the arm — can communicate an even wider range of emotion than gestures or expressions, and sometimes do so more quickly and accurately than words."

Read the full article at New York Times

Afternoon Naps Can Increase Ability to Learn

By Roni Caryn Rabin
New York Times, February 22, 2010

"It turns out that toddlers are not the only ones who do better after an afternoon nap. New research has found that young adults who slept for 90 minutes after lunch raised their learning power, their memory apparently primed to absorb new facts."

Read the full article at New York Times

Internet Making Our Brains Different, Not Dumb

By Suzanne Choney
MSNBC.com, February 19, 2010

"A decade from now, Google won't make us 'stupid.' The Internet may make us more literate in a different kind of way and efforts to protect individual anonymity will be even more difficult to achieve, according to many of the experts surveyed for a look at 'The Future of the Internet' in 2020."

Read the full article at MSNBC.com

How Different Cultures Shape the Brain

By Sharon Begley
Newsweek, February 18, 2010

"...Scientists have been surprised at how deeply culture—the language we speak, the values we absorb—shapes the brain, and are rethinking findings derived from studies of Westerners."

Read the full article at Newsweek

‘Empathic Civilization:’ Our Brains Were Built For Feeling Each Other’s Pain

By Richard Restak
Huffington Post, February 15, 2010

"In our culture we're taught to think of ourselves as independent and self-actualizing. In reality, our brain is uniquely constructed for experiencing other people's thoughts, emotions and actions as if they were our own."

Read the full article at Huffington Post

Mind Over Matter: Brain Control Interfaces Become a Reality - CPUs, Boards & Components

By Robert Oschler
Extreme Tech, February 12, 2010

"The ability to influence the physical world merely by thought has been a dream of mankind for many years. Now researchers are making real progress in letting people control a PC simply by thinking, and the first crop of consumer Brain Control Interface (BCI) headsets has arrived."

Read the full article at Extreme Tech

Revising the Book on Disorders of the Mind

By Benedict Carey
New York Times, February 10, 2010

"The eagerly awaited revisions — to be published, if adopted, in the fifth edition of the 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,' due in 2013 — would be the first in a decade."

Read the full article at New York Times

Heavy Web Users Likely to be Depressed

By Shari Roan
Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2010

"People who are addictive Internet searchers should probably browse for a phone number to the nearest therapist. Though almost everyone uses the Internet to conduct business, connect with people, pay bills or find information, the people who spend hours each day aimlessly surfing the Net appear more likely to be depressed."

Read the full article at Los Angeles Times

The Riddle of Consciousness

By Benedict Carey
New York Times, February 5, 2010

"So far, the precise neural correlates of consciousness — the brain circuits critical to 'turning on' conscious awareness — have eluded capture."

Read the full article at New York Times

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