brain imaging
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Theta Rhythm and Memory Performance
In a recent study, Sebastian Guderian and colleagues examined the relation between theta oscillations and memory performance. During the study phase of this memory experiment, participants were presented with words and either p...
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Alpha Oscillations, Attention and Consciousness
One way to describe brain activity measured by EEG or MEG is by its frequency content. Frequencies can be categorized into one of the following ranges: low, middle and high. The low frequencies include the delta and theta range...
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1/f Scaling and Emergent Pattern Formation in Complex Systems
1/f scaling (or 1/f noise) refers to a scaling relation followed by fluctuations that have been widely observed in nature. 1/f fluctuations have been observed ubiquitously across different disciplines of science (e.g. chemistry...
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Learning, Arts, and the Brain: the Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition
From the Dana Foundation: The Dana Foundation released at a news conference on March 4, Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a three-year study at seven universities, which finds strong links between arts education and cognitive deve...
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Investigating the Awareness of Remembering
Ken A. Paller, Joel L.Voss, Carmen E. Westerberg Article in Perspectives on Psychological Science Abstract There is a marked lack of consensus concerning the best way to learn how conscious experiences arise. In this article, w...
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The Default Mode Network and Self-Referential Processes in Depression
In a recent study, Sheline and colleagues examined whether patients with major depression were impaired in their ability to regulate the activity of the default mode network, which is characterized by self-referential functions...
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When Your Gain is My Pain and Your Pain is My Gain: Neural Correlates of Envy and Schadenfreude
We often make social comparisons to evaluate others and ourselves. In a recent study in Science, Takahashi and colleagues investigated the neurocognitive mechanisms of envy and schadenfreude (pleasure at another’s misfo...
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Theta phase synchrony and conscious target perception: Impact of intensive mental training
Heleen A. Slagter, Antoine Lutz, Lawrence L. Greischar, Sander Nieuwenhuis, and Richard J. Davidson. Article in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience Abstract The information processing capacity of the human mind is limited, as is...
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God on the brain
From BBC (and read exciting transcript): Rudi Affolter and Gwen Tighe have both experienced strong religious visions. He is an atheist; she a Christian. He thought he had died; she thought she had given birth to Jesus. Both hav...
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Measuring pain
Nature News features an article about a recent study relating pain intensity and EEG signals. Recordings from electrodes in the human brain may offer the first objective way to measure the intensity of pain. Researchers say tha...