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Category: neuroscience

It’s not ‘us’ (reasonable people) vs. ‘them’ (irrational conspiracy nuts).

Let’s face it — you love a good conspiracy theory. At least, statistically there is a good chance you do. About half of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory in any given year. How could that be? What is it about the regular, everyday reality we don’t like?

A recent study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology says that the answer to this predilection towards conspiracy-fueled thinking may lie in how our brains deal with probabilities. What may be responsible is a general cognitive bias associated with low probabilities. People tend to believe more in conspiratorial explanations of events as the probability of them actually occurring gets lower.

A conspiracy theory offers an alternative explanation for events and how things seem to be in the world around you. No, says a conspiracy theory, just because most people think this is the real state of things (especially politically), that’s not how matters really stand.

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Our current approach to treating chronic pain is drug-based, but a vaccine-based approach can cut addiction out of the equation. In this video, Big Think contributor Lou Reese, co-founder of United Neuroscience, explains how soon we may soon be able to vaccinate people, en masse, against pain!

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The evidence is far less clear than popular media might lead you to believe.

By: richard roberts and roger kreuz

You may have heard that learning another language is one method for preventing or at least postponing the onset of dementia. Dementia refers to the loss of cognitive abilities, and one of its most common forms is Alzheimer’s disease. At this time, the causes of the disease are not well understood, and consequently, there are no proven steps that people can take to prevent it. Nonetheless, some researchers have suggested that learning a foreign language might help delay the onset of dementia.

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Researchers found that using a computer, playing games, and participating in social activities may reduce the risk of mild cognitive impairment.

New research suggests that playing games, using a computer, and having a rich social life can keep mild cognitive impairment at bay.

Our brains go through changes as we get older, and some people may experience issues with memory, thinking, or judgment.

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“Get Out of My Head!”

For now, the phrase “Get out of my head,” is a lighthearted joke uttered when someone shares the same thought as a friend or colleague. But thanks to research in telepathic communications and computer technology by a team from the University of Washington, it could become a literal directive in the future.

Or, perhaps you’ll want to invite someone into your mind to help you solve a tricky problem. After all, two (or three) heads are better than one.

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Hailed as a pioneer by Photonics Media for his previous discoveries of supercontinuum and Cr tunable lasers, City College of New York Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering Robert R. Alfano and his research team are claiming another breakthrough with a new super-class of photons dubbed “Majorana photons.” They could lead to enhanced information on quantum-level transition and imaging of the brain and its working.

Alfano’s group based its research on the fact that photons, while possessing salient properties of , wavelength, coherence and spatial modes, take on several forms. “Photons are amazing and are all not the same,” Alfano says.

Their focus “was to use a special super-form of photons, which process the entanglement twists of both polarizations and the wavefront … and would propagate deeper in brain tissues, microtubules and neuron cells, giving more fundamental information of the brain than the conventional forms.”

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