Jason Bourne didn’t really have amnesia – it was more of a writer’s trick

It turns out Jason Bourne didn’t really have amnesia. That would require a hit on the head or something similar. He would then lose all of his past memories and kind up wake up clueless, maybe even unable to make new memories. No, Jason Bourne had selective amnesia where he was able to forget all …

Crows are basically flying monkeys, their brains are so large

Here’s the deal with crows. They are basically flying monkeys. Their brains are as large as a monkey’s brain of their size would be; much larger than other birds. Remember the Wizard of Oz? That pack of flying primates that hunted Dorothy and her companions had nothing (stylish hats and coats aside) on the crows …

The Center for Human Imagination – new research institution from the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation

Imagination — one of the least understood but most cherished products of the mind and brain — will become the focus of wide-ranging study at a new center jointly founded by UC San Diego and the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. The two institutions have created the UCSD-based Center for Human Imagination, which will involve thinkers …

Our brains can brake a car faster than our feet

If you’ve ever had to slam on the brakes to prevent an accident, you know that the time it takes to get your foot to that pedal can seem like an eternity. Now, German researchers aim to cut that reaction time by getting drivers’ brain waves to help stop the car. Their findings appear in …

Americans’ heads are getting bigger

It’s not clear why—medicine? cars? supermarkets?—but the skulls of white Americans, and perhaps of other races and nationalities, have become slightly taller and roomier, according to new forensic research. New measurements of hundreds of skulls of white Americans born between 1825 and 1985 suggest that their typical noggin height has grown by about a third …

MIT scientists prove that individual neurons store memories

MIT researchers have shown, for the first time ever, that memories are stored in specific brain cells. By triggering a small cluster of neurons, the researchers were able to force the subject to recall a specific memory. By removing these neurons, the subject would lose that memory. As you can imagine, the trick here is …

Genetic evidence: the Amygdala determines if you're gay or hetero

In my recent study of the Amygdala, a brain structure that accounts for much of the in-fighting in couples, I found something possibly more interesting. Brain scans of this region have found that gay males have similar patterns as hetero females, and vice versa, gay females exhibit a patterns similar to hetero males. This is …

Genetic evidence: the Amygdala determines if you’re gay or hetero

In my recent study of the Amygdala, a brain structure that accounts for much of the in-fighting in couples, I found something possibly more interesting. Brain scans of this region have found that gay males have similar patterns as hetero females, and vice versa, gay females exhibit a patterns similar to hetero males. This is …

Amy's Amygdala: the emotional brain that controls fight-or-flight

The brain evolved from the bottom up and one of its first structures was the Amygdala. An almond-shaped set of neurons located deep in the brain’s medial temporal lobe. It plays a key role in the processing of emotions and is linked to both fear responses and pleasure. For this reason it is often known as …

Amy’s Amygdala: the emotional brain that controls fight-or-flight

The brain evolved from the bottom up and one of its first structures was the Amygdala. An almond-shaped set of neurons located deep in the brain’s medial temporal lobe. It plays a key role in the processing of emotions and is linked to both fear responses and pleasure. For this reason it is often known as …