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Neuroscience
The Reasons We Stay Friends With An Ex
June 14, 2017
Why do we sometimes stay friends with ex-partners? There may be many reasons, but according to a new paper in Personality and Individual Differences they fall into seven main categories – and men and women don’t quite see eye-to-eye on them. The research also found that certain personality traits were related to motivations for staying friends after a break-up. From the ratings, Mogilski and Welling identified seven main categories of reason for wanting to stay friends with an ex: Reliability/sentimentality...
June 14, 2017
Why do we sometimes stay friends with ex-partners? There may be many reasons, but according to a new paper in Personality and Individual Differences they fall into seven main categories – and men and women don’t quite see eye-to-eye on them. The research also found that certain personality traits were related to motivations for staying friends after a break-up. From the ratings, Mogilski and Welling identified seven main categories of reason for wanting to stay friends with an ex: Reliability/sentimentality...
Your Smile Gives You Away
June 12, 2017
Smile and the whole world smiles with you? Well, not necessarily. In a winning scenario, smiling can decrease your odds of success against the same opponent in subsequent matches, according to new research presented by the USC Institute for Creative Technologies and sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. People who smiled during victory increased the odds of their opponent acting aggressively to steal a pot of money rather than share it in future gameplay, according to a paper presented...
June 12, 2017
Smile and the whole world smiles with you? Well, not necessarily. In a winning scenario, smiling can decrease your odds of success against the same opponent in subsequent matches, according to new research presented by the USC Institute for Creative Technologies and sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. People who smiled during victory increased the odds of their opponent acting aggressively to steal a pot of money rather than share it in future gameplay, according to a paper presented...
The Cognitive Cure For Stage Fright, According To Neuroscience
June 11, 2017
A world famous pastor who speaks to sold out stadiums once admitted to me that in his first year as a minister, his hands would shake as he approached the lectern. His palms would sweat and his heart would race. He had severe stage fright. When he overheard a critical comment about his speaking, he would focus on it and replay it over and over in his head. Reappraisal: Changing the channel The minister told me he overcame the fear of public speaking by “changing the internal channel.” Instead...
June 11, 2017
A world famous pastor who speaks to sold out stadiums once admitted to me that in his first year as a minister, his hands would shake as he approached the lectern. His palms would sweat and his heart would race. He had severe stage fright. When he overheard a critical comment about his speaking, he would focus on it and replay it over and over in his head. Reappraisal: Changing the channel The minister told me he overcame the fear of public speaking by “changing the internal channel.” Instead...
The Biology of Our Best and Worst Selves
May 14, 2017
How can humans be so compassionate and altruistic — and also so brutal and violent? To understand why we do what we do, neuroscientist...
May 14, 2017
How can humans be so compassionate and altruistic — and also so brutal and violent? To understand why we do what we do, neuroscientist...
Behavioral Economics & the Patent-Antitrust Intersection
May 10, 2017
Daryl Lim (The John Marshall Law School) has posted Retooling the Patent-Antitrust Intersection: Insights from Behavioral Economics (Baylor Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Behavioral economics has been embraced in finance and implemented by the government. In IP law, scholars have argued it can inform non-obviousness analyses, decipher patent damages, and develop a more nuanced narrative for incentivizing innovation. In antitrust law, scholars have argued for a larger role...
May 10, 2017
Daryl Lim (The John Marshall Law School) has posted Retooling the Patent-Antitrust Intersection: Insights from Behavioral Economics (Baylor Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Behavioral economics has been embraced in finance and implemented by the government. In IP law, scholars have argued it can inform non-obviousness analyses, decipher patent damages, and develop a more nuanced narrative for incentivizing innovation. In antitrust law, scholars have argued for a larger role...
Brains May Make Automatic Memory Back-Up
May 5, 2017
The way brains form memories could be completely different than previously believed according to new research. It suggests we make two simultaneous memories: one for short-term and one for the long-term. Until now the prevailing belief was that the hippocampus creates a memory that is then transferred to the cortex. That was partly derived from patients with conditions, similar to those depicted in the movie Memento, in which hippocampus damage means they are unable to form new memories but retain...
May 5, 2017
The way brains form memories could be completely different than previously believed according to new research. It suggests we make two simultaneous memories: one for short-term and one for the long-term. Until now the prevailing belief was that the hippocampus creates a memory that is then transferred to the cortex. That was partly derived from patients with conditions, similar to those depicted in the movie Memento, in which hippocampus damage means they are unable to form new memories but retain...
The Busier You Are, the More You Need Quiet Time
March 30, 2017
Recent studies are showing that taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps sustain energy, and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive to the complex environments in which so many of us now live, work, and lead. Duke Medical School’s Imke Kirste recently found that silence is associated with the development of new cells in the hippocampus, the key brain region associated with learning and memory. Physician Luciano Bernardi found that two-minutes of silence inserted...
March 30, 2017
Recent studies are showing that taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps sustain energy, and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive to the complex environments in which so many of us now live, work, and lead. Duke Medical School’s Imke Kirste recently found that silence is associated with the development of new cells in the hippocampus, the key brain region associated with learning and memory. Physician Luciano Bernardi found that two-minutes of silence inserted...
The Neuroscience of Humor Investigated
March 13, 2017
A study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience takes a look inside the brains of professional comedians and compares them with less humorous humans. They attempt to home in on the seat of creative humor and ask what it can tell us about creativity. Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles recently undertook a rather ambitious project: they set out to spy on the neural correlates of creating a joke. Interestingly, the activation in these particular...
March 13, 2017
A study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience takes a look inside the brains of professional comedians and compares them with less humorous humans. They attempt to home in on the seat of creative humor and ask what it can tell us about creativity. Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles recently undertook a rather ambitious project: they set out to spy on the neural correlates of creating a joke. Interestingly, the activation in these particular...
3 Simple Ways to Make Yourself Happy Every Day, According to Neuroscience
March 12, 2017
Do you want to be happier? That's a pretty silly question--who doesn't want more happiness? Fortunately, there are simple...
March 12, 2017
Do you want to be happier? That's a pretty silly question--who doesn't want more happiness? Fortunately, there are simple...
The Function of Reason
February 26, 2017
Contrary to the standard view of reason as a capacity that enhances the individual in his or her cognitive capacities—the standard image is of Rodin’s "Thinker," thinking on his own and discovering new ideas—what we say now is that the basic functions of reason are social. They have to do with the fact that we interact with each other’s bodies and with each other’s minds. And to interact with other’s minds is to be able to represent a representation that others have, and to have them...
February 26, 2017
Contrary to the standard view of reason as a capacity that enhances the individual in his or her cognitive capacities—the standard image is of Rodin’s "Thinker," thinking on his own and discovering new ideas—what we say now is that the basic functions of reason are social. They have to do with the fact that we interact with each other’s bodies and with each other’s minds. And to interact with other’s minds is to be able to represent a representation that others have, and to have them...
