Human Quirks: Mind & Brain

March 2, 2025

Top Headlines

Brain-Wide Activity Change Visualized as Geometric Patterns

Feb. 21, 2025 — Researchers have applied a visualization technique to depict the brain's activity related to visual perception as geometric patterns. They visualized different shapes as the ever-changing neuronal activity in the temporal and frontal lobes of the ...

Scientists Solve the Brain's Motion-Source Separation Problem

Feb. 19, 2025 — Neuroscientists have discovered how the brain distinguishes between visual motion occurring in the external world from that caused by the observer moving through it. Known as the 'motion-source separation problem,' researchers have long wondered how ...

Don't Know Something? Apes Can Tell

Feb. 3, 2025 — To get treats, apes eagerly pointed them out to humans who didn't know where they were, a seemingly simple experiment that demonstrated for the first time that apes will communicate unknown information in the name of teamwork. The study also ...

3D-Printed Brain-Like Environment Promotes Neuron Growth

Jan. 30, 2025 — Key cells in the brain, neurons, form networks by exchanging signals, enabling the brain to learn and adapt at incredible speed. Researchers have now developed a 3D-printed 'brain-like environment' where neurons grow similarly to a real brain. Using ...

Latest Headlines

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Adults Can Learn Absolute Pitch: New Research Challenges Long-Held Musical Belief

Feb. 12, 2025 — It's been a long-held belief that absolute pitch -- the ability to identify musical notes without reference -- is a rare gift reserved for a select ...

The Big Chill: Is Cold-Water Immersion Good for Our Health?

Jan. 31, 2025 — In a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis, researchers have taken a deep dive into the effects of cold-water immersion on health and wellbeing. Analyzing data from 11 studies with 3177 ...

A Hearing Aid for ... Your Nose?

Jan. 30, 2025 — Scientists have discovered a feedback loop in the brain's odor center that seems to put smells and sounds into context. The feedback loop may help animals adjust their behaviors in response to new ...

Scientists 'Mimic Real Biological Processes' Using Synthetic Neurons

Jan. 29, 2025 — A new collaboration has unlocked new potential for the field by creating a novel high-performance organic electrochemical neuron that responds within the frequency range of human ...

Sharp Look Into Ockham's Razor

Jan. 28, 2025 — A new article argues that by relying too much on parsimony in modeling, scientists make mistakes and miss ...

Individual Cells Can Be Connected to Plastic Electrodes

Jan. 28, 2025 — Researchers have succeeded in creating a close connection between individual cells and organic electronics. The study lays the foundation for future treatment of neurological and other diseases with ...

Why Are Most Companies Failing to Benefit from AI? It's About the People Not the Tech

Jan. 22, 2025 — Successful uptake of new technology is a matter of emotions -- and with 4 in 5 companies saying they're failing to capitalize on its potential, ...

Scientists Identify Neurons in Mice That, Once Activated, Can Change Body's Metabolic Rate, Induce Hibernation-Like State

Jan. 21, 2025 — A new study has identified a group of neurons that, when activated, can induce a hypometabolic state, akin to hibernation. The discovery could have ...

Building Sentence Structure May Be Language-Specific

Jan. 21, 2025 — Do speakers of different languages build sentence structure in the same way? In a neuroimaging study, scientists recorded the brain activity of participants listening to Dutch stories. In contrast to ...

'Unprecedented' Level of Control Allows Person Without Use of Limbs to Operate Virtual Quadcopter

Jan. 21, 2025 — A brain-computer interface, surgically placed in a research participant with tetraplegia, paralysis in all four limbs, provided an unprecedented ...

Sometimes, When Competitors Collaborate, Everybody Wins

Feb. 27, 2025 — A framework helps rail system operators or other planners identify the best joint infrastructure projects to collaborate on with other firms. Their tool can tell an operator how much to invest, the ...

Sound Is a Primary Issue in the Lives of Skateboarders, Study Shows

Jan. 31, 2025 — Sound plays a significant and often poignant part of skateboarders' relationship with their sport, a new study ...

Fine-Tuned Brain-Computer Interface Makes Prosthetic Limbs Feel More Real

Jan. 16, 2025 — Two new articles document progress in neuroprosthetic technology that lets people feel the shape and movement of objects moving over the 'skin' of a bionic ...

Using Robots in Nursing Homes Linked to Higher Employee Retention, Better Patient Care

Jan. 8, 2025 — Facing high employee turnover and an aging population, nursing homes have increasingly turned to robots to complete a variety of care tasks, but few researchers have explored how these technologies ...

Advancements in Neural Implant Research Enhance Durability

Jan. 7, 2025 — Neural implants contain integrated circuits (ICs) -- commonly called chips -- built on silicon. These implants need to be small and flexible to mimic circumstances inside the human body. However, the ...

Brain Cells Remain Healthy After a Month on the International Space Station, but Mature Faster Than Brain Cells on Earth

Dec. 17, 2024 — Microgravity is known to alter the muscles, bones, the immune system and cogni tion, but little is known about its specific impact on the brain. To discover how brain cells respond to microgravity, ...

Heart Rate Activity Influences When Infants Speak

Dec. 17, 2024 — A psychologist found that a baby's first sweet sounds and early attempts at forming words are directly linked to the baby's heart ...

Travelers Weigh in on Weight-Based Airfares for Eco-Friendly Skies

Dec. 17, 2024 — The holidays are in full swing and people are shopping, wrapping and packing to visit loved ones. Along with the extra fees for checked baggage and seat upgrades, some airlines are also considering ...

Sculpting the Brain (Without Chisel or Scalpel)

Dec. 10, 2024 — Researchers report that they have successfully tested a novel approach for teaching the human brain to learn through external manipulation and neural feedback -- what they call the ...

Researchers 'See' Vulnerability to Gaming Addiction in the Adolescent Brain

Dec. 9, 2024 — Researchers found that adolescents with more symptoms of gaming addiction showed lower brain activity in the region involved in decision-making and reward processing; this blunted response to reward ...

Scientists Create AI That 'Watches' Videos by Mimicking the Brain

Dec. 9, 2024 — Imagine an artificial intelligence (AI) model that can watch and understand moving images with the subtlety of a human brain. Now, scientists have made this a reality by creating MovieNet: an ...

Giving a Gift? Better Late Than Never, Study Finds

Dec. 9, 2024 — If you feel terrible about giving a late gift to a friend for Christmas or their birthday, this study has good news for you. Researchers found that recipients aren't nearly as upset about ...

Scientists Identify Brain Cell Type as Master Controller of Urination

Dec. 3, 2024 — Researchers have identified a subset of brain cells in mice that act as the master regulators of ...

Temporary Tattoo Printed Directly on the Scalp Offers Easy, Hair-Friendly Solution for Measuring Brainwaves

Dec. 2, 2024 — Scientists have invented a liquid ink that doctors can print onto a patient's scalp to measure brain activity. The technology offers a promising alternative to the cumbersome process currently ...

Political Opinions Influence Our Choice of Chocolate

Nov. 25, 2024 — We distance ourselves from completely neutral products if they are liked by people who have political views that we find disagreeable. Even chocolate can be political, according to new research from ...

Smarter City Planning: Researchers Use Brain Activity to Predict Visits to Urban Areas

Nov. 21, 2024 — Researchers have measured the brain activity of people who had never been to a specific city and then use this brain activity to predict other people's actual visits to places around that city. ...

Northerners, Scots and Irish Excel at Detecting Fake Accents to Guard Against Outsiders, Study Suggests

Nov. 20, 2024 — People from Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin and the north-east of England are better at detecting someone imitating their accent than people from London and Essex, new research has ...

Synchronized Movement Between Robots and Humans Builds Trust, Study Finds

Nov. 20, 2024 — Trust between humans and robots is improved when the movement between both is harmonized, researchers have ...

The Chilling Sound of the Aztec Death Whistle

Nov. 19, 2024 — The Aztec skull whistle produces a shrill, screaming sound. A study shows that these whistles have a disturbing effect on the human brain. The Aztecs may have deliberately used this effect in ...

How Cells Habituate

Nov. 19, 2024 — Up until recently, habituation -- a simple form of learning -- was deemed the exclusive domain of complex organisms with brains and nervous systems, such as worms, insects, birds, and mammals. But a ...