Smart people may learn music faster
The strongest predictor of musical skill acquisition is intelligence, followed by musical aptitude.... Read More...
information processing
What your friends’ brains look like when they think of you
To accurately perceive another person, your neural representation of that person has to match the pattern in the persons' brain when they think about themselves.... Read More...
Faith, truth and forgiveness: How your brain processes abstract thoughts
The human brain acts like an indexing system to help compose the meaning of abstract concepts.... Read More...
A new theory of brain organization takes aim at the mystery of consciousness
Entropy during consciousness is higher than during unconscious states.... Read More...
Navigating ‘Neuralville’: Virtual town helps map brain functions
Combining neuroimaging and a constructed virtual reality town, researchers found the brain uses three different systems to perceive environment. One system allows us to recognize a place, another helps navigate through that location, and the third helps navigate from one place to another. The parahippocampal place area (PPA) helps encode location recognition, while the retrosplenial complex allows for mentally mapping the locations of specific places.... Read More...
Brain tunes itself to criticality, maximizing information processing
Criticality in the brain was linked to inhibitory neurons imposing and organizing the computational dynamics.... Read More...
Low-cost blood pressure drug improves brain function in individuals with autism
Propranolol, a common 'beta-blocker' drug used to control blood pressure, could be a promising new treatment for those on the autism spectrum. The medication improved cognitive performance and positively altered the frontal-parietal control network, an area of the brain associated with word and information processing, in those with ASD.... Read More...
New insights into how astrocytes help the brain process information
Noradrenaline is essential for astrocytes to respond to local stimulation.... Read More...
The brain processes words placed on the right side of a screen more quickly
The left and right hemispheres of the brain are characterized by different word processing strategies. ... Read More...
New findings on human speech recognition
Increased activity of the ventromedial geniculate body indicates the processing of auditory information begins before the auditory pathways reach the cerebral cortex.... Read More...
Autism can be measured through a non-verbal marker
A visual test may be a new tool in the diagnosis of autism. Individuals on the autism spectrum are slower to dampen neural activity in response to visual stimuli in the brain. Using EEG data collected from the visual region, researchers could predict with 87% accuracy whether or not a person had ASD.... Read More...
What the brains of people with excellent general knowledge look like
An individual's level of general knowledge is associated with structural brain network connectivity. Fluid intelligence is best predicted by cortex volume in males, and by functional network connectivity in females. ... Read More...