DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE NOVEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. Textbooks have traditionally taught that when it comes to the immune system, the brain and body are separate entities. When exposed to foreign objects such as bacteria or transplant tissue, the body stirs up a torrent of immune activity: white blood cells devour invading pathogens […]
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE OCTOBER 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. “Awesome” has become a common descriptor, yet genuine awe is a profound emotion: the intake of breath at a starry night sky, a shiver down your spine during live music or a lump in your throat at the sight of a silent vast crowd holding […]
DOWNLOAD ENTIRE SEPTEMBER 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. The arrival of a child brings big changes in the brains of the new mothers and fathers. Mothers experience a near immediate shift, thanks in part to the hormones involved in giving birth and nursing. Fathers’ brains tend to change in different and more subtle ways. […]
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE AUGUST 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. After wandering round a unfamiliar part of town, can you sense which direction to travel back to get to your car or the station? If so, you can thank your entorhinal cortex, a brain area recently identified as being responsible for our sense of direction. […]
DOWNLOAD ENTIRE JULY 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. Sometimes a solution just appears out of nowhere. Intuition! This is the name we give to the uncanny ability to quickly and effortlessly know the answer, unconsciously, either without or well before knowing why. The conscious explanation comes later, if at all, and involves a much […]
DOWNLOAD ENTIRE MAY 2015 NEWSLETER including this month’s freebie. Did you know that depression could be a symptom of something as simple as infection? Doctors have long viewed depression as a complex disorder. Stress, neurochemical imbalances, physical pain and ill health can all precipitate an emotional collapse. Yet a flurry of research during the past […]
DOWNLOAD ENTIRE APRIL 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. Across cultures and throughout history, music listening and music making have played a role in treating disorders of the mind and body. Much of the power of music-based treatment lies in its ability to meld numerous subtle benefits in a single, engaging package. Music is perhaps […]
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE MARCH 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. Examples of the desperate midlife-crisis stricken characters abound in popular culture (think, Kevin Spacey in American Beauty, Billy Crystal in City Slickers or Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County), and the concept seems to be entrenched in our collective psyche. But are people […]
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE FEBRUARY 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. “Eye tracking for marketing purposes?!” I was flabbergasted, and not in a good way. This was my reaction a couple of years ago when I attended a training for a machine I was going to be using as part of the neuroscience research I was […]
DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE JANUARY 2015 NEWSLETTER including this month’s freebie. You lie in bed in the morning, reluctant to get out from under the warm embrace of your duvet. After several bleary minutes, you finally rouse yourself, throw on some clothes and head to the office. Having arrived at your desk, you stare blankly as […]
This may sound a bit far-fetched for a cold morning in December but many researchers believe that within the next few years this ‘electrifying’ form of treatment could become commonplace. In fact, some scientists suspect that this could launch a new era in treatment that could rival traditional medicines. The technique, called transcranial direct-current stimulation […]
You can probably remember some morning you struggled to get out of bed. Maybe you kept thinking about the exam you failed, the party you were not invited to or the job you didn’t get. If you are clinically depressed, every day is like this—but worse. Nothing you used to enjoy is fun anymore, and […]