As some of you may know, for the last 4+ years I’ve been organising and hosting a wee event here in Wellington called Nerd Nite (you guessed it) Wellington. I’ve made mention of it occasionally here over the last few years, and today seemed as good a day as any to mention it again! For two […]
neuroscience
What a thought looks like
Ever wondered what a thought might look like, in real life, as it flashes across the various neurons and synapses we call ‘the brain’? Yes, sure, there are numerous digitally-animated artist’s renditions out there, but what about reality? Now, for the first time, a thought has been filmed as it forms and flashes across a […]
Cute animal pictures are good for your work!
Workers! Throw off your shackles! Be not afraid to be seen by your boss cooing over Cute Overload! Hiroshi Nittono and colleagues, of Hiroshima University in Japan, have shown something most intriguing: that looking at ‘kawaii’ or cute images of baby animals improves focus and careful behaviour. It is, perhaps, not surprising that the research […]
This is your brain on implants (spoiler: it’s better)
Today, the Journal of Neural Engineering published rather an interesting paper. In it, they showed that they had been able to restore (and in some cases, improve) decision-making ability in primates through the use of an implanted prosthetic. Sounds like something out of science fiction, doesn’t it? The region of the brain responsible […]
This is your brain on hacks
No, not hacks in _that_ sense. More, here are a number of ways to hack your very own grey cells or (I guess) someone else’s*. Remember that your brain is more like a computer than you might, at first, think. It takes a series of inputs (generally from your senses), does something with them (such […]