brain imaging
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Attention: inhibition or facilitation?
What are the mechanisms behind attention, our ability to focus on some aspects or stimuli, and ignore others? Is it due to an inhibition of all other inputs than the attended one or by facilitating the one input and not the oth...
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Waiting for an aversive event
A study by Nitschke and colleagues now demonstrate the neural correlates to the expectation of an aversive event. Experiencing as well as anticipating an aversive event involves specific structures such as the amygdala, insula ...
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Brain mapping of social cognition
What is the relationship and difference between Theory of Mind (ToM) and empathy? In the literature of social cognition, these terms have been used interchangeably. Völlm and colleagues demonstrate that there are indeed some d...
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Mind over pain
Patients could suppress chronic pain by learning to control the activity of certain areas of their brains.
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Discovery localizes visual awareness
A new discovery published in PNAS, from researchers at Dartmouth College and the Barrow Neurological Institute offers new insight into the localization of visual awareness of simple unattended targets in the visual system. Open...
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Reward, hedonic experience and the brain
In a recent paper in Nature Neuroscience, Morten Kringelbach summarizes the research on orbitofrontal cortex and its relation in organizing behaviour. In this paper, Kringelbach presents a new, integrated model of the functions...
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Loss of brain signal points to difference between visual imagery and perception
In a recent brain imaging study published in Neuron, Amedi and colleagues demonstrates that visual imagery deactivates areas in the auditory brain system and other “deeper” areas. This seems to suggest that normal v...
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Battle in the brain predicts risky behaviour
Pleasure and anxiety centres decide when a safe bet beats a dicey one.
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‘Thoughts read’ via brain scans
Scientists say they have been able to monitor people’s thoughts via scans of their brains.
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Neural mechanisms involved in error processing
Anterior cingulate is not sufficient for conscious awareness of errors or post-error adaptation of response strategies