The world of brain-machine interfacing (BMI) has a new posterchild. A study on people with tetraplegia, published in Nature, has shown participants were able to control a robotic arm and hand over a broad…
Despite being considered a scientific taboo in the past, the study of consciousness is slowly gaining momentum.
emmakate deuchars
Until 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting…
Rugby player Nate Myles (far right) shouldn't have returned to the field after suffering a concussion.
AAP
“He got a free trip to Disneyland.” That’s how Wally Lewis described the knockout of Nate Myles, from the Gold Coast Titans, during a tackle two weeks ago. Rugby league is a tough game with tough players;…
The jury is still out on whether mobile phones cause cancer.
yago.com
Neurosurgeon Charlie Teo is, to many of his patients, the “angel” who cuts where other surgeons fear to go. He feels strongly about the possibility that using mobile phones might increase the risk of brain…
You know that guy in the pub that goes on and on and on? You wouldn't believe how happy he is.
Jaysun
Have you ever been at a party where someone has talked about themselves without pause? You may have thought this a case of “too much information”, but science is begging to differ.
According to new research…
Using lab rats allows us to experiment in ways that would not be acceptable in humans.
ressaure
Many forms of mental illness can affect our moods. But that isn’t all they do: they can also damage our willpower. Problems such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity…
When emotions meet economics: New York police and protesters clash during the Occupy movement protests on Wall Street.
AAP
In a 2008 paper on neuroeconomics, Carnegie Mellon University economist George Loewenstein said: “Whereas psychologists tend to view humans as fallible and sometime even self-destructive, economists tend…
Differences in the brains of autistic infants emerge well before behavioural signs.
Awen Photography
For parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the diagnostic process can be a long and stressful journey. Behavioural signs of ASD can appear around the child’s first birthday when he fails…
It just isn’t possible for someone with a normal brain to selectively use just one side of it.
vaXzine
When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, getting your body in shape often tops the list. But what about your brain?
If your left or right brain is feeling a little flabby, there’s a wide range of books…
Hesitation might be our crowning achievement.
nana untel
Understanding what is special, if anything, about the human brain is a scientific problem of such magnitude it has defied all manner of investigation for centuries.
And human consciousness, our experience…
Dopamine, which is released during gaming, can influence the wiring of the adolescent brain.
Steven Andrew Photography
Teens who frequently play video games have larger reward centres in their brains than those who play less often, according to a study published today in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
The researchers…
Neuroimaging is commonplace, but do you know what you're getting into?
Katrina Lawrence/AFP
This month, fMRI brain imaging celebrates its 20th anniversary. And so it should. It has come to dominate cognitive neuroscience.
Massive amounts of precious funding are poured into it and thousands of…
The brain repairs itself only minimally following damage or disease.
x-ray delta one
Welcome to the sixth and final part of On the Brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Professor Malcolm Horne…
Welcome to part five of On the brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Lachlan Thompson, head of the Neurogenesis…
Addicts have choices, but those choices might be severely constrained.
davidblume
Welcome to part four of On the brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Neil Levy, Head of Neuroethics at Florey…
Susceptibility to addiction can be seen as a form of Russian Roulette.
kriffster
Welcome to part three of On the brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Professor Andrew J. Lawrence, the Florey…
"A venerable orang-outan": editorial cartoon depicting Charles Darwin as an ape from The Hornet, 1871.
Author unknown
Welcome to Peer Review, a series in which we ask leading academics to review books written by people in the same field.
Here Neil Levy, ARC Future Fellow, based at the Florey Neuroscience Institutes…
The emerging field of neuromarketing exploits the gap between what we say and what we think.
Flickr/DierkSchaefer
How do we choose? Consumers imagine themselves as rational decision-makers, able to weigh up the relative costs and benefits of decisions to arrive at reasoned choices.
Yet, a growing body of research…
Everything from playing sport to speaking a foreign language is better when done automatically.
pfv
Welcome to part two of On the brain, a Conversation series by people whose job it is to know as much as there is to know about the body’s most complex organ. Here, Malcolm Horne,
deputy director of the…
Our understanding of how people's minds perceive time is still rudimentary.
numb3r
Our perception of time is something we take for granted. It drags. It goes too fast. It’s always there in the background, ticking away.
But the means by which we measure, interpret and remember the flow…
