Hannah Critchlow writes: In 1959 Paul D MacLean set out a new way of thinking about the evolution and function of the brain, which he christened the “triune” – three-in-one – model. It quickly became one of best known and most enduring concepts in human biology. His idea was that a trio of distinct brains are layered inside our skulls, one on top of the other, all fighting to generate our feelings and thoughts. Deep inside, at the centre, lurks…
Conor Feehly writes: I get out of bed. I walk through the dimly lit hallway, thinking of what’s in my fridge and what I should have for breakfast. With no real effort, I’ve navigated my environment, accessed my memory, and assessed the energetic state of my body, all in the space of a few seconds. How is the brain able to do this? Partly by harnessing electricity. The brain spends about half of its energetic resources maintaining the electrochemical gradients…
In a review of Antonio Damasio’s new book, Natural Intelligence and the Logic of Consciousness, David Eagleman writes: The part of the mind that Damasio says has been too long underappreciated is the feeling mind, built on interoception, which includes the continuous monitoring of respiration, temperature, heartbeat, blood circulation, blood chemistry, visceral musculature and other internal affairs. These three categories [the perceptual mind, the reflective/linguistic mind, and the feeling mind], he explains, have different biological foundations, different evolutionary ages and…
John M Lund / Getty Images By Briar Wormington, QIMR Berghofer and Michelle K Lupton, QIMR Berghofer Personality is something we all share, but the different ways we think and feel also make us unique. Personality is relatively stable and influences nearly every aspect of human life, from academic performance and career choices to health behaviours and longevity. For example, someone who is responsible might avoid taking risks or alcohol and drug use. Our new study, published in Nature, has…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…