FeaturedNeurosciencePsychology·December 12, 2021·4 min readOur Emotions and Identity Can Affect How We Use GrammarStudy reveals how emotional context affects how we use and understand language at the neural level.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscience·December 11, 2021·3 min readSpeaking “Baby Talk” to Infants Isn’t Just Cute: It Could Help Them Learn to Make WordsParents who use "baby talk" help their infants to produce speech, a new study reports.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscience·November 13, 2021·5 min readTool Use and Language Skills Are Linked in the Brain: Practicing One Improves the OtherFine motor skills utilized by using tools engage parts of the brain similar to those mobilized when we think about the construction of a sentence, researchers report.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscience·November 8, 2021·3 min readWant to Throw off Your Chatbot? Use Figurative LanguageWhen chatbots are faced with human interaction containing similes and idioms, their performance falls to between 10 to 20%.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscience·September 16, 2021·3 min readComplexity in Language Is Driven by the Needs of the SpeakersWhen faced with having to distinguish similar pairs of meanings, speakers adjust their colexification preference to maintain efficient communication.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscience·September 2, 2021·3 min readWhy Words Become Harder to Remember as We Get OlderResearchers reveal the neurobiological basis of why we often find it more difficult to find the right words as we age.Read More
Auditory NeuroscienceFeaturedNeuroscience·August 3, 2021·3 min readSimlish Is Less Distracting Than English in Background Music During a ConversationBackground music in Simlish, an unintelligible language used in the popular game The Sims, allow people to better listen to and understand each other than when the songs are in English, researchers say.Read More
Auditory NeuroscienceFeaturedNeuroscience·August 2, 2021·3 min readLearning Foreign Languages Can Affect the Processing of Music in the BrainLearning a new language can affect musical processing in children, researchers report. Findings support the theory that musical and linguistic functions are closely linked in the developing brain.Read More
FeaturedNeurosciencePsychology·July 30, 2021·5 min readWhy Animals Recognize Numbers but Only Humans Can Do MathWhile the response to numbers may be an evolutionary trait we share with some animals, our ability to perceive language and digits underpins our advanced mathematical skills.Read More
FeaturedNeuroscience·July 26, 2021·4 min readExercise Boosts Kids’ Vocabulary GrowthChildren who swim or participate in other motor movement-focused exercises were 13% more accurate in vocabulary tests than children who did not engage in exercise. Researchers say movement-focused exercises can help with the encoding of new words in children.Read More
FeaturedNeurosciencePsychology·July 21, 2021·3 min readThose Who Are More Creative Can Think Of Ideas With Greater “Distances” Between ThemA simple exercise of naming unrelated words and measuring the semantic distance between the words could serve as an objective measure of personal creativity, a new study reports.Read More
AutismFeaturedNeurosciencePsychology·June 3, 2021·5 min readBilingualism as a Natural Therapy for Autistic ChildrenBilingualism in children on the autism spectrum partly makes up for deficits in theory of mind and executive function, a new study reports.Read More
