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Category: Neuroscience

The brain isn’t hardwired to read – here’s how we pull it off and why some are better at it than others

The brain isn’t hardwired to read – here’s how we pull it off and why some are better at it than others

By Mikael Roll, Lund University For an experienced reader, recognising the words on this page feels effortless. Yet, evolutionarily speaking, your brain shouldn’t be able to read. Reading has existed for too short a time to have shaped a dedicated centre in the brain. Therefore, the brain has to learn to read using systems that evolved for other purposes. But it has long been unclear exactly which systems it recruits to do so and how. This is important, as differences…

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Aging brains maintain robust language networks despite cognitive decline

Aging brains maintain robust language networks despite cognitive decline

Neuroscience News reports: As human beings age, many cognitive functions naturally decline. Brain scans have consistently shown age-related deterioration in neural networks responsible for executive functions, working memory, and problem-solving. But when it comes to language, the aging brain tells a completely different, highly resilient story. Barring neurological conditions such as stroke or dementia, most older adults retain excellent language skills. In fact, many individuals experience linguistic improvement as they accumulate a richer vocabulary throughout their lives. A newly published…

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Neuroscience separates logic and language

Neuroscience separates logic and language

MIT News reports: Some people find it useful to talk through their problems — but language isn’t necessary for logical reasoning, cognitive neuroscientists at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research say. In research published last month in the journal PNAS, researchers led by MIT associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences Evelina Fedorenko have shown that people can perform well on tasks that require logical reasoning even if their language abilities are severely impaired. What’s more, brain imaging shows that…

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The brain’s language network is more extensive than previously thought

The brain’s language network is more extensive than previously thought

MIT News reports: For decades, neuroscientists have known that specific regions in the brain’s left hemisphere are responsible for processing language. However, a new study by MIT researchers shows that language processing also occurs in many other parts of the brain. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from more than 700 people, the researchers identified 17 additional regions of the brain that appear to play a role in language. These regions are scattered across the brain, including parts of…

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Reading is the ultimate cognitive enhancer

Reading is the ultimate cognitive enhancer

Neuroscience News reports: In his new book, Falk Huettig, Senior Investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, brings together research spanning psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, and education to answer that question. The result is a systematic account of how literacy reshapes memory, attention, language processing, and reasoning – and even abilities readers might not expect, like face recognition. Cognitive enhancement is having a moment, with people turning to better sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress management, and tools like caffeine or neurostimulation…

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The ‘little brain’ may give the aging mind a big boost

The ‘little brain’ may give the aging mind a big boost

Science News reports: The cerebellum, the wizened “little brain” nestled in the base of the skull, may help keep us sharp as we age. Regions at the back of the cerebellum that resisted shrinkage with age were tied to better mental functioning, or cognition, even in people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers report June 10 in Nature Neuroscience. Though traditionally thought of as a movement control center, scientists now know the cerebellum is a key player in…

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How your brain creates ‘aha’ moments and why they stick

How your brain creates ‘aha’ moments and why they stick

Nora Bradford writes: Here are three words: pine, crab, sauce. There’s a fourth word that combines with each of the others to create another common word. What is it? When the answer finally comes to you, it’ll likely feel instantaneous. You might even say “Aha!” This kind of sudden realization is known as insight, and a research team recently uncovered how the brain produces it, which suggests why insightful ideas tend to stick in our memory. Maxi Becker, a cognitive…

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Speedy, spiraling electrical waves may be key to brain’s information flow

Speedy, spiraling electrical waves may be key to brain’s information flow

Science reports: Like a stadium full of sports fans doing the wave, neurons coordinate their electrical signals in rhythmic patterns that sweep across the cortex, the brain’s outermost layer. Recent studies in humans and animals have shown these patterns, called traveling waves, can take on complex shapes, among them a rotating spiral that has been observed during deep sleep, memory retrieval, and other brain processes. A new study has now captured the fast-spinning waves spanning whole brains, offering clues to…

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Are memories transferable — or edible?

Are memories transferable — or edible?

Claire L. Evans writes: It was the dead of winter in Boston. The surface of the Charles River was frozen solid. But Zachary Kelso braved the biting cold to finally put to rest a mystery that has haunted neuroscience labs for over half a century. To do that, Kelso, a research assistant in the Harvard lab of the neuroscientist Sam Gershman, needed some worms. Specifically, planarians: arrow-headed flatworms, which are among the simplest creatures to possess a brain and a…

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Neuroscience needs to stop treating the brain as if it is a computer

Neuroscience needs to stop treating the brain as if it is a computer

Àlex Gómez-Marín writes: What is a brain? The question might seem obvious, but it is not trivial. Neuroscience has progressed in the past century, with the development of sophisticated techniques to measure and manipulate brain cells, neural circuits and even animal behaviours. Yet how the brain actually works still eludes us. In The Brain, In Theory, neuroscientist Romain Brette deconstructs the predominant model of the brain, which treats the organ like a computer. He concedes that engineering metaphors can be…

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The brain processes language even under anesthesia, a new study finds

The brain processes language even under anesthesia, a new study finds

Time reports: Nestled in the core of the brain is the hippocampus, a little curve of tissue central to memory and learning. It serves as a processing center for our experiences, helping organize information as it comes in. The hippocampus does that when we’re awake—and, a new study suggests, even when we’re unconscious. The small study, published recently in the journal Nature, drew on data from seven people who had surgery to remove portions of their brains as a treatment…

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Neuroscientists are studying octopuses for insights into how intelligence evolved

Neuroscientists are studying octopuses for insights into how intelligence evolved

Nature reports: Three hearts; blue blood; no skeleton; arms like tongues. These are just some of the alien features of octopuses, squid and cuttlefish — members of the cephalopod family. The outlandish list continues. Cephalopod skin can taste chemicals, sense light and change colour and texture rapidly. In many species, the sucker-covered arms can even regenerate. These invertebrates have evolved independently from the vertebrate lineage for more than 600 million years. Their last common ancestor was probably a worm-like creature…

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Shared music listening synchronizes brain activity

Shared music listening synchronizes brain activity

PsyPost reports: While sharing a musical experience with a friend might not drastically alter your overall enjoyment of a song, it tends to synchronize your brain activity and emotional responses. A recent study published in the journal Cortex has found that listening to music with another person increases the moment-to-moment similarity of subjective pleasure and enhances neural alignment. These findings help explain how music acts as a powerful tool for social bonding and collective emotional experiences. Human beings naturally use…

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A new type of neuroplasticity rewires the brain after a single experience

A new type of neuroplasticity rewires the brain after a single experience

Yasemin Saplakoglu writes: Every experience we have changes our brain, the way a ceramicist reshapes a slab of clay. Every corner we turn, every conversation we have, every shudder we feel causes cascading effects: Chemicals are released, electricity surges, the connections between brain cells tighten, and our mental models update. The brain is “incredibly plastic, and it stays that way throughout the lifespan of a human,” said Christine Grienberger, a neuroscientist at Brandeis University. This plasticity, the quality of being…

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How understanding bioenergetics can help our brain health

How understanding bioenergetics can help our brain health

Hannah Critchlow writes: About 2 billion years ago, evolution performed an improbable experiment. A larger ancestral cell engulfed a smaller bacterium. It should have been a meal. Instead, it became a merger. The bacterium survived inside its host, and together they forged one of the most consequential partnerships in the history of life. The host offered shelter and access to oxygen. The bacterium supplied something revolutionary: a vastly more efficient way to generate energy. From this intimate alliance emerged the…

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Does exposure to nature really help reduce negative emotions?

Does exposure to nature really help reduce negative emotions?

Neuroscience News reports: You probably heard it from your mom a thousand times – fresh air and sunshine; it’s the cure for most anything. Now scientists at the University of Houston concur, measuring the impact of mother’s advice on mother nature to find that exposure to nature is associated with reductions in negative emotions. Given that nearly 90% of the U.S. population is projected to reside in urban areas by 2050, researchers say integrating nature into urban design and public…

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