Sometimes, a conversation takes you to places you never would’ve expected. Matt Wall and I struck up a chat about brain-scanning technology early this year, and he mentioned that he’d like to do an interview for The Connectome. Since he’s got 5+ years of published brain research under his belt, I jumped at the chance. [...]
Posts Tagged ‘emotions’
Brain Scans and Bold Plans: Our Interview with Matt Wall
October 28th, 2012 
The Connectome 
Posted in Feature Stories, Featured 
Tags: drugs, emotions, fMRI, imaging, neuroanatomy, technology, therapy 
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Becoming Bad
May 13th, 2012 The Connectome The brains of psychopaths are anatomically different from healthy brains in a specific set of ways, says a new study. Areas of the brain that enable us to feel guilt and fear, and to understand other people’s emotions – particularly the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex and the temporal poles – are significantly smaller in psychopathic [...]
Posted in Brain News, Featured Tags: emotions, fear, neuroanatomy, psychology, psychopathy 2 Comments »
Why I Love and Hate "Game"
February 14th, 2012 The Connectome Yes, it’s that special time of year again – time for flamboyant bouquets and chalky candy to appear at office desks – time for Facebook pages to drown in cloying iconography – time for self-labeled “forever aloners” to dredge the back alleys of OKCupid in last-ditch desperation – and time for me to load up my trusty gatling [...]
Posted in Feature Stories, Featured Tags: biology, emotions, evolution, learning, literature, psychology, sex 5 Comments »Sacred Values
January 25th, 2012 The Connectome Principles on which we refuse to change our stance are processed via separate neural pathways from those we’re more flexible on, says a new study. Our minds process many decisions in moral “gray areas” by weighing the risks and rewards involved – so if the risk is lessened or the reward increased, we’re sometimes willing [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: emotions, ethics, fMRI, imaging, morality, neurophysiology, psychology, science to the rescue! 4 Comments »Stress Intervention
December 15th, 2011 The Connectome Scientists have discovered a way to shut down the brain’s “stress process” before it gets going, says a new study. By blocking the brain’s ability to manufacture certain chemicals called neurosteroids, researchers have managed to temporarily cut off a biological process crucial for stressful behavior – and for many stressful feelings as well. Animals from amphibians [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: anxiety, biochemistry, depression, emotions, fear, neuropharmacology, neurophysiology, stress 1 Comment »Harry Potter and the Nature of the Self
November 19th, 2011 The Connectome Yup, this is what we’re doing today. I finally got to see Deathly Hallows Part 2, and it got me thinking about neuroscience like frickin’ everything always does, and I came home and wrote an essay about the nature of consciousness in the Harry Potter universe. And we’re going to talk about it, because it’s [...]
Posted in Feature Stories Tags: consciousness, emotions, literature, memory, psychology, senses, vision 3 Comments »Chemical Parasites
November 7th, 2011 The Connectome A certain brain parasite actually turns off people’s feelings of fear by increasing levels of the neurotransmitter chemical dopamine, says a new study. Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic protozoan (a kind of single-celled organism), mostly likes to live in the brains of cats - but it also infects birds, mice, and about 10 to 20 percent of people in the U.S. [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: biochemistry, biology, emotions, fear, neurochemistry, neuropharmacology 2 Comments »Digital Friendships
October 21st, 2011 The Connectome Those of us who have loads of Facebook friends tend to have greater development in several specific brain regions, says a new study. Researchers have found a strong correlation between large numbers of Facebook connections and increased development of gray matter – tissue containing neuron cell bodies, where dense communication occurs – in several regions crucial [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: emotions, evolution, memory, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, technology No Comments »Modified Memories
October 20th, 2011 The Connectome Each time we retell a story, our actual memories of its events change, says a new study. When we receive hints – true or not-so-true – about a story’s details from our friends, we often revise our version if what they say makes sense to us. But what’s incredible is, it isn’t just our retelling [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: emotions, fMRI, memory, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, psychology 3 Comments »The Sound of Fear
October 14th, 2011 The Connectome A certain inaudible sound frequency may directly trigger feelings of “creepiness” and physical symptoms of fear, one scientist says. A sound frequency of around 19hz – just below the range of human hearing – has been detected in several “haunted” places, including a laboratory where staff had reported inexplicable feelings of panic, and and a pub [...]
Posted in Brain News Tags: biology, emotions, fear, neurophysiology, psychology, senses, technology, technosophy 2 Comments »
