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This Sensory Substitution Device uses the camera to gather visual data and then uses a rather nifty computer algorithm to translates this data into sound. With a little practice, blind users can identify complex objects, and even read words. More »
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Metaphors and other figurative language are deeply woven into the fabric of human communication, as this very sentence actually demonstrates. But how do our brains translate these metaphors into something they can understand? More »
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Neuroscientists have made huge breakthroughs in our understanding of the inner workings of the mind, particularly how various regions of the brain are linked to specific cognitive processes. This is powerful knowledge... and it could be headed to the battlefield. More »
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Neuroscientists have developed a way to listen to words you've heard, by translating brain activity directly into sound. Their findings represent a major step towards understanding how our brains make sense of speech, and are paving the way for brain implants that could one day translate your inner thoughts into audible sentences. More »
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The brain's long-term memory allows us to hold onto experiences long after we initially encountered them. But short-term memory is a more fleeting and mysterious phenomenon, allowing us to hang onto a thought only until we're distracted by something else. More »
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Schizophrenia is among the most damaging and least understood of all mental disorders. Now a seemingly minor symptom — the fact that many schizophrenia patients complain of sleeping problems — could actually provide a crucial key to unraveling the disease. More »
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Few sensations are weirder than the bizarre feeling that you are floating outside your own body. "Out of body" experiences are a mysterious phenomenon that's often mixed up in the occult, but scientists are still trying to puzzle out how it works. More »
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Scientists have long searched unsuccessfully for the genetic factors that cause schizophrenia. Now we know why: the disorder is actually caused by what happens in cells around the genes. That knowledge could give us our best treatment yet for schizophrenia. More »
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In an effort to test the plasticity of the brain, scientists a decade ago decided to scramble a ferret's brain so that its eyes were hooked up to its auditory cortex. So clearly the ferret was blind, right? Wrong. Find out about the experiment that lead scientists to understand exactly how adaptable our brains can be. More »
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Unless you're an art expert, your brain is completely unable to distinguish between a genuine masterpiece and a convincing forgery. But if you're told you're looking at a forgery, your brain goes haywire trying to deal with being duped. More »
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Our brains don't like being overfed, as obesity can age the brain prematurely and even make it more vulnerable to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Now we've discovered the opposite effect: a strict diet turns on molecules that keep the brain young. More »
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Spiders aren't generally thought of as particularly smart creatures, but some spiders' brains are literally too big for their heads. It seems that no matter how big or small a spider's body is, its brain is always the same size. More »
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When it comes time for honeybee swarm to split off from their mother colony and find a new place to live, something remarkable happens. To communicate most effectively, they organize themselves exactly like the neurons of a complex brain. More »
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Humans evolving into hyper-intelligent beings is a powerful idea in science fiction, but that's probably where the idea will have to stay. Our brains have reached an evolutionary "sweet spot", and we can't get much smarter without making major trade-offs. More »
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If you get a bad reputation, you're going to get noticed. That little bit of homespun wisdom might actually become a verifiable scientific fact, as new research indicates people really do prefer to look at people with bad reputations. More »
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There's no neurological disorder quite as infamous as psychopathy, and yet figuring out exactly what goes on in a psychopath's brain is extraordinarily difficult. We've now got an answer...and all it took was scanning the brains of forty medium-security prisoners. More »
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Your brain is home to around 100 billion neurons, all of which are perpetually establishing and breaking connections, known as synapses, with other neurons. There are trillions of these connections throughout your brain helping orchestrate everything from movement, to learning, to establishing and recalling memories. More »
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Have you ever been so frightened or surprised by something that you peed yourself, even just a little? It's ok, you're in the company of friends — nobody is going to make fun of you. After all, it's not like it was your fault; strictly speaking, if you did leak a little bit the last time you were scared, it was probably the result of your brain acting on its own. See what happens when you let your grey matter think for you? More »
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It seems like such a simple question, but it's actually one of the most biggest mysteries in all of science. Is it because of how our brains are organized, how ancient humans gripped tools, or is it simple anti-lefty prejudice? More »
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Letting your mind wander allows you to be introspective, and to think in abstract ways most other animals cannot. And yet rats possess the same brain structures we use for introspection — which suggests deeper evolutionary roots for introspection and, by extension, consciousness itself. More »
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Optical illusions just keep getting more extreme. We once examined an optical illusion in which a silhouetted figure spins in different directions depending on how you look at it. Here's the sequel, which is four times the optical illusion craziness. More »
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From an evolutionary perspective, excessive optimism is generally a bad idea. After all, if you're constantly assuming good things will happen, you'll probably be ill-prepared when bad things inevitably come along. Now scientists have an explanation...which isn't exactly flattering to the eternally optimistic. More »
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Babies are already way more adorable and beloved than other humans, but at least we old-timers could scoff at infants and proudly declare, "My senses of fairness and altruism are way better developed than yours!" Well...I've got some bad news. More »
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Depression is the most common mental illness, but there's still a lot we don't know about how the condition affects the brain. But now, a new MRI study reveals that depression deactivates vital pieces of brain circuitry... including, surprisingly, the region that controls hatred. More »
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How did our remarkable brains come to be, and what will they become? These are the questions that David Robson addresses in this excellent feature on the evolution of the human brain, published in the latest issue of New Scientist. More »
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If you try to figure out the connection between how words sound and what they mean, you'll be working for a long, long time. While patterns do exist, most language sounds are random...and there's a very good reason for that. More »
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This is about as awesome as neuroscience gets. This video shows us some everyday clips, and - thanks to some super-advanced brain imaging and computer simulations - how those clips are seen inside our brains. More »
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If you ask people why they yawn, the most typical answer will be "because I'm tired." But sleepiness and boredom might not be the real reasons behind yawning. It actually might be a way of getting rid of hot air. More »
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As far as invertebrates go, you don't get much smarter than the members of the mollusk phylum, which includes octopuses, cuttlefish, and squid. But mollusks apparently didn't think through their evolutionary path very well, developing brains four times over. More »
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Truth serums are something of a staple in scifi and fantasy. They even exist in real life. But now, scientists have found a new way to induce spontaneous truth telling: magnetic fields. What's more, these fields can not only increase your propensity to tell the truth — they can also turn you into a liar. More »
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From the perspective of neuroscience, listening to music is one of the most complex things you can do. Many parts of your brain have to work together to comprehend even the simplest tune. So what is music really doing to our minds? More »
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Biologically speaking, humans are pretty much just another animal, and it's actually hard to come up with any clear explanation for what sets us apart. But we have a hard time accepting this ... and the reason we're in denial about our animal status may be hardwired into our brains. More »
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Alcohol has its uses, medically speaking, and one of them might be staving off dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment. Moderate social drinking appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and similar diseases by a massive 23 percent. More »
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When we're born, the part of our brain that controls our most complex cognitive functions, such as self-awareness and creativity, isn't fully formed yet. It then starts developing very quickly...and much the same happens with chimpanzees. More »
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Animal brains, ours included, have evolved to be powerfully aware of where we are at any given moment. But it turns out that our brains are surprisingly, frustratingly two-dimensional, and that we're only dimly aware of changes in altitude. More »
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Though pundits have argued that the "bell curve" of human intelligence favors big-skulled northerners, a new study shows definitively that large heads have nothing to do with intelligence. More »
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Personality might seem like it's something you can only have if you've got complex, human-like intelligence, but that isn't necessarily the case. In fact, the brainless sea creature Actinia equina reveal distinct personalities in how they respond to threats. More »
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Not everyone reacts to optical illusions equally: some are completely fooled by them, while others just can't see what all the fuss is about. It depends on the size of your visual cortex...and that can determine how introspective you are. More »
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Cocaine is a hugely addictive drug, capable of fundamentally changing the brains of those who use it. But that dependence doesn't necessarily come out of nowhere, as we've now discovered what part of the brain predisposes people to cocaine use. More »
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That's the finding of a new study examining the link between cognitive ability and handedness. Lefties score consistently lower on aptitude tests than righties, and left-handedness is cognitively equivalent to being born prematurely. Yeah...this one's going to be controversial. More »
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