Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience

A wooden box filled with assorted old black-and-white photographs and postcards.
Changing the narrative on false memories might be surprisingly simple.
A man rubs his eyes while holding his glasses in his left hand and wearing a white shirt, with a watch on his left wrist, perhaps tired from hours of Zoom science sessions.
Why “audio gaps" in video meetings wear us out — and why we need the meaningful relationships forged in communal workspaces.
A diagram combines a 3D brain connectome with text and geometric shapes, with arrows pointing to areas labeled "The child bent down to smell the rose." A list and graph are shown on the left, illustrating how words in the brain are processed.
The findings show that even small areas in the brain may have the potential to represent complex meanings.
An illustration showing a side view of a human brain with colored dots representing neurons and text excerpts in three languages in circular insets.
In the brain's language-processing centers, some cells respond to one word, while others respond to strings of words together.
A black-and-white photo of a seated person with their head in their hand, partially overlaid with an image of flames, evocatively captures the intense struggle to treat anxiety.
Manipulating a signaling pathway in mice reversed their anxiety — and offers hope for a new class of anti-anxiety medications for humans.
A person with white hair and a dark hat looks surprised, mouth open and eyes wide, holding up one hand with fingers spread.
3mins
“Say what you want to say, and not what you feel.” Harvard happiness professor explains ‘metacognition’ techniques so you can grow your emotional intelligence:
A person with long hair faces the ocean, wearing a white shirt. A sheer gray fabric is draped over their face, obscuring their eyes. The background is cloudy with a view of the sea.
Propofol, a drug commonly used for general anesthesia, derails the brain’s normal balance between stability and excitability.
A display of vintage Italian newspapers and magazines, including "Cinema," "La Ragione," and "L'Era Nuova," arranged on a table at an outdoor market.
The evidence is far less clear than popular media might lead you to believe.
A historical illustration depicts an automaton dressed in Ottoman attire, seated behind a chessboard with mechanical components visible below the table, showcasing an early concept akin to mind-body AI.
Our “embodied minds” suggest an eventual escape from mortality via computer is unlikely.
A person in a white shirt looks out a large window at a cityscape with skyscrapers and distant water under a cloudy sky.
Neuroscientist Christof Koch on human minds, AI, and bacteria.
A woman with grey hair, wearing a colorful sweater and purple gloves, holds a human brain.
9mins
At age 37, neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke that would take her eight years to fully recover from. This is how it changed her understanding of the brain.
Unlikely Collaborators
A display of various marble busts and sculptures arranged on two wooden shelves against a dark green wall.
An argument for emphasis on subjective experience.
Black and white wireframe rendering of a human brain, with the left hemisphere shown in sparse lines and the right hemisphere rendered more densely detailed, highlighting areas associated with cognition.
A new framework describes how thought arises from the coordination of neural activity driven by oscillating electric fields — a.k.a. brain “waves” or “rhythms.”
Abstract orange and pink collage with intricate line drawings of human figures and anatomical details, connected by white lines.
“If we could target those circuits very precisely, then there’s great potential to block the inflammation response for many diseases."
Visitors exploring why people get lost in a large, complex wooden maze installation in an indoor gallery setting.
Research suggests that experience may matter more than innate ability when it comes to a sense of direction.
A book titled "Cultures of Growth" by Mary C. Murphy lying on a dark blue fabric surface.
Psychologist Mary C. Murphy explains why growth-mindset teams outperform those centered around a lone genius.
An image of a glass jar containing a brain on a textured background.
Even with the best technology imaginable, you'd probably never be able to exist as a consciously aware brain in a vat.
A toothbrush with blue and white bristles, topped with a large dollop of minty toothpaste.
Claims circulating on the Internet — some from dentists' websites — suggest toothpaste isn't necessary for dental health. Is that true?
Elderly man with a full white beard and glasses, wearing a brown jacket, against a white background.
11mins
“Forget about essences.” Philosopher Daniel Dennett on how modern-day philosophers should be more collaborative with scientists if they want to make revolutionary developments in their fields.
A person stands at the entrance of a door located on the side of a large human head, with a ladder leading up to the doorway.
6mins
Psychologist Daniel Goleman on how to train your brain with just ten minutes a day.
Collage of a young person's face with abstract red scribbles and geometric shapes symbolizing ADHD.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has been a controversial diagnosis since it was first described, back in the 1940s.
a man sitting in a wheel chair next to a laptop.
Dennis Klatt developed trailblazing text-to-speech systems before losing his own voice to cancer.
An illustration of a hand with mechanical fingers and wires, symbolizing the inception of dreams in the integration of technology with the human body.
One MIT-trained poet spent nine months trying to find out.
A woman, channeling her best ai humor, is holding a microphone in front of a purple background.
The secret sauce of humor is incongruity. AI knows this as well as we do.
An image of a pelican with its feet in the water, capturing the essence of Stanford Duck Syndrome.
When we view hard work as a sign of low aptitude, it harms our ability to learn and grow.
A teacher in a classroom with children sitting on the floor, learning a second language.
Being bilingual benefits children as they learn to speak — and adults as they age.
A statue of a woman with a red blindfold on her head, symbolizing the human experience in the realm of science.
Here's the case for why science can't keep ignoring human experience.
A black and white photo of a man and a woman to memorize.
To make a ton of information stick in your mind, you have to make it chunky.
A clock hanging from a wall.
Research suggests you can influence your sense of time by changing the “embodiedness” of your daily habits.
A human eye is drawn in pencil on the left, blending into a stylized version of the same eye overlaid with blue and red concentric circles on the right.
3mins
What is perception, really? Philosopher Alva Noë on why perception is a puzzling phenomenon: