A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
We are, right now, in the middle of a revolution in our thinking about the developing brain. We have always known it was important to nurture the very young but now we know why. A burgeoning number of new technologies, such as MRI, PET and rainbow [...]
The flipside of the placebo effect, the nocebo effect is where we experience negative symptoms because we expect them. Our minds are more powerful than most of us realise. The placebo effect accounts for as much as one third of symptom relief in sick people, according to the American Cancer Society. When we believe we will [...]
For example, raw speed in processing information appears to peak around age 18 or 19, then immediately starts to decline. Meanwhile, short-term memory continues to improve until around age 25, when it levels off and then begins to drop around age 35. For the ability to evaluate other people's emotional states, the peak occurred much [...]
Scientists are now seeing that continued exposure to porn gives the brain an unnatural high—something it literally isn’t wired to handle—and the brain eventually fatigues. Anatomy and physiology instructor Gary Wilson notes this is the same pattern noticed when drugs are abused: the brain becomes desensitized. More of the drug or harder drugs are needed [...]
In a remarkably short period of time, we have become habituated to an endless supply of easy answers. You might even say dependent. Google is known as a search engine, yet there is barely any searching involved anymore. The gap between a question crystallizing in your mind and an answer appearing at the top of [...]
Despite efforts to used fact-based approaches in education, teachers and the public may be incorrect on core assumptions that influence the way educational material is presented. In a new study, researchers from the University of Bristol wanted to show that educators often fail to heed their own advice as they make assumptions and use methods [...]
The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to learn information about that topic. New research publishing online October 2 in the Cell Press journal Neuron provides insights into what happens in our brains when curiosity is piqued. The findings could help scientists find ways to enhance overall learning and memory [...]
Do you like brain science? Sure, we all do. It looks cool, it sounds exciting, it tickles our intellect, and it promises to solve all of life’s questions. Why do we do the things we do? We've all seen the pulsating red, yellow and blue brain scans from laboratories of people doing any number of things [...]
In the last 10 years, a new field of neuroscience has mapped the mental zone that can literally change the brain to quiet an overly active stress response system and simultaneously pave the way for higher brain networks to perform at optimum. The more we function from this mental zone, the less we stress, and [...]
Technology offers innovative tools that are shaping educational experiences for students, often in positive and dynamic ways. The research by Mueller and Oppenheimer serves as a reminder, however, that even when technology allows us to do more in less time, it does not always foster learning. Learning involves more than the receipt and the regurgitation [...]
