There was a time not too long ago when many believed that your intelligence quotient, or IQ, predicted your path in life; that how smart you were — how quickly you could solve a puzzle, learn a language, understand a passage of reading — was the indicator of how well you would do in life
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It’s not just fresh air that helps clear your mind when you take a walk in the park — simply being around plants and trees has a beneficial effect, too. What can numb pain, make you a better person, and help you concentrate … ? A plant. It may sound far-fetched, but it’s true. While big pharmaceutical companies spend billions trying to come up [ … ]
Elkhonon Goldberg is one of those rare scientists who are able to distill complex ideas into accessible, entertaining, and even literary prose. His books “The Wisdom Paradox” and “The New Executive Brain” are as compulsively readable as they are insightful and instructive. [ … ]
Steven Pinker is a world-renowned author, experimental psychologist, and cognitive scientist at Harvard University. Considered one of the most influential thinkers in the world, he has written a substantial amount of literature on language, human nature, and the mind, and received multiple awards [ … ]
All people have emotions — although some are more in touch with them than others—but most people don’t know how emotions work. Dr. Jaak Panksepp, a neuroscientist, psychologist and psychobiologist, coined the term “affective neuroscience” to refer to the study of the neural mechanisms of emotion. [ … ]
That feeling of satisfaction you get when someone likes the new photos on your Instagram is processed by the basal ganglia and is probably a big reason you spend too much time on it — your brain is constantly craving the next little reward — reinforced each time you upload a new picture and get feedback. [ … ]
If you’re a parent, you’ve no doubt grumbled something about losing your mind. According to clinical psychologist Jonathan Baylin, who, along with Daniel A. Hughes, wrote “Brain-Based Parenting: The Neuroscience of Caregiving for Healthy Attachment,” maybe that’s not so far-fetched. [ … ]
Alzheimer’s disease afflicts an estimated 33.9 million people worldwide — 5.3 million in the United States alone. Most cases begin after age 65. But the condition is not inevitable. In his new book, “The Alzheimer’s Prevention Program: Keep Your Brain Healthy for the Rest of Your Life,” [ … ]
In the 17th century, something amazing happened in Western medicine: Anton van Leeuwenhoek of Holland invented the microscope and discovered the biological nature of disease. Once a scientific basis for illness had been identified, the effectiveness of treatments could be observed and measured for the first time. [ … ]
A study from the University of Arizona which looked into using text messaging to deliver educational information about nutrition and physical activity to teens found that most teens were open to receiving such texts, but the way in which they were worded made a big difference. The study, which appears in the [ … ]
It used to be the general consensus that being bilingual was not good for children. The practice was frowned upon by teachers and education experts because it was believed that trying to speak two languages at the same time confused children and made it difficult for them to learn either language properly. Now, however, thanks to [ … ]
The brain’s frontal lobe is crucial to driving—it controls judgment, problem-solving, reasoning and anticipating consequences. [ … ]
Nothing, as the ultimate reality and the source of the unity of energy and consciousness, is not only my personal realization of what I really am, but also the essential teaching of the Korean tradition of Tao, to which I am culturally indebted. To give proper credit to this great body of knowledge, I would like to explain its core principles briefly. [ … ]
The study of epigenetics is illuminating more of the intricacies of how our genes affect, and are affected by, our life. “Epi” comes from Greek, meaning “upon,” “over,” or “near,” so epigenetics is the study of mechanisms “on top of” or “near” the classical mechanisms that affect gene expression. I [ … ]
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, children ages 8 to 18 spend an average of more than 7.5 hours a day engaged in digital media — social networking, video games, websites, music, and television. Figuring in media multitasking — playing a video game, say, on an iPhone while watching television — they are actually [ … ]
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