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Subconscious mental categories help brain sort through everyday experiences

By Guest PostMay 2, 2013Health, Scienceanna schapiro, brain, brown university, chopping vegetables, computational model, dynamic, experiences, functional, magnetic resonance imaging, matthew botvinick, michael frank, natalia cordova, nature neuroscience, neural populations, nicholas turk browne, princeton university, similarity structure, subconscious mental, temporal relationship, timothy rogers

Your brain knows it’s time to cook when the stove is on, and the food and pots are out. When you rush away to calm a crying child, though, cooking is over and it’s time to be a parent. Your brain processes and responds to these occurrences as distinct, unrelated events.

But it remains unclear exactly how the brain breaks such experiences into “events,” or the related groups that help us mentally organize the day’s many situations. A dominant concept of event-perception known as prediction error says that our brain draws a line between the end of one event and the start of another when things take an unexpected turn (such as a suddenly distraught child). (more…)

Tests Conducted on Israel’s Ariel Sharon Reveal Significant Brain Activity

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2013Healthalon friedman, american, ariel sharon, ben gurion university, brain hemorrhage, brain response, conducted on, evidence, external stimuli, external world, fmri, functional, galia avidan, ilan shelef, Israel, israeli brain scientists, israeli prime minister, level of consciousness, magnetic resonance imaging, martin monti, medical center, negev, neuroscience, reveal, significant brain activity, soroka university, tactile stimulation, tests, tzvi ganel, vegetative state, zlotowski center

Scientists use new methods developed by UCLA’s Martin Monti

A team of American and Israeli brain scientists tested former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to assess his brain responses, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Surprisingly, Sharon showed significant brain activity.

The team consisted of Martin Monti, an assistant professor of psychology and neurosurgery at UCLA, professors Alon Friedman, Galia Avidan and Tzvi Ganel of the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Dr. Ilan Shelef, head of medical imaging at Israel’s Soroka University Medical Center. (more…)

Why Older Adults Become Fraud Victims More Often

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2012Scienceanterior insula, brain, brain mechanism, brain scan, dishonest, early warning, elizabeth castle, face, financial exploitation, financial scam, financial swindles, fmri, fraud, functional, ian boggero, imaging, magnetic, mark grinblatt, money, naomi eisenberger, older people, photograph, region, resonance, shelley e taylor, signal, ucla study, untrustworthy face, victim, vulnerable

Brain shows diminished response to untrustworthiness, UCLA scientists report

Why are older people especially vulnerable to becoming victims of fraud? A new UCLA study indicates that an important clue may lie in a particular region of the brain that influences the ability to discern who is honest and who is trying to deceive us.

Older people, more than younger adults, may fail to interpret an untrustworthy face as potentially dishonest, the study shows. The reason for this, the UCLA life scientists found, seems to be that a brain region called the anterior insula, which is linked to disgust and is important for discerning untrustworthy faces, is less active in older adults. (more…)

UMD Study Shows Exercise May Protect Against Future Emotional Stress

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 2012Healthacute exercise, aging, alzheimer's disease, anxiety, anxiety level, brain function, carson smith, emotion research, emotional exposure, fmri, functional, iaps database, imaging, kinesiology researcher, magnetic, maryland, mental health, moderate exercise, physical activity, resonance, stress, symptom, university

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Moderate exercise may help people cope with anxiety and stress for an extended period of time post-workout, according to a study by kinesiology researchers in the University of Maryland School of Public Health published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

“While it is well-known that exercise improves mood, among other benefits, not as much is known about the potency of exercise’s impact on emotional state and whether these positive effects endure when we’re faced with everyday stressors once we leave the gym,” explains J. Carson Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology. “We found that exercise helps to buffer the effects of emotional exposure. If you exercise, you’ll not only reduce your anxiety, but you’ll be better able to maintain that reduced anxiety when confronted with emotional events.” (more…)

Tag Archives: functional

Subconscious mental categories help brain sort through everyday experiences

Tests Conducted on Israel’s Ariel Sharon Reveal Significant Brain Activity

Why Older Adults Become Fraud Victims More Often

UMD Study Shows Exercise May Protect Against Future Emotional Stress