Tag: Neuroscience
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Meditation therapy ‘as effective as drugs’
A new study suggests that the Buddhist-inspired practice of mindfulness is as effective as medication in treating depression. Do religious ideas have a place in modern medicine?
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Humans getting smarter, psychologists claim
Performance in IQ tests is rising drastically all over the world, leading some psychologists to talk of a ‘cognitive revolution’. Are we becoming more intelligent, or just better at tests?
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Beloved neuroscientist faces death head-on
Oliver Sacks has spent his life understanding neurological disorders, and as he faces death he talks of having a deeper grasp of living. Can we all experience this level of clarity?
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Paralysed man walks again after cell transplant
The patient’s spinal cord was severed four years ago, but a Polish-British medical team has let him walk again after groundbreaking surgery. Is this a new dawn in restoring damaged lives?
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Let teenagers lie-in, urge top scientists
An extra hour in bed every morning could improve the academic performance and well-being of teenagers, researchers say, due to their unique sleep patterns. Is it time to give them a break?
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World’s tallest waterslide opens in the US
Higher than both Niagara Falls and the Statue of Liberty, the Verrückt slide opens in Kansas this week. Should we celebrate these terrifying feats of engineering or be alarmed by them?
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‘Mindfulness’ mania discussed in Parliament
This week, an all-party parliamentary group has been launched to look at how meditation can improve public policy. Is this just new age nonsense or can it really transform modern living?
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Brain study pits girls’ skills against boys’
A study of brain scans suggests that male and female brains are arranged differently, leading to bold conclusions about how the two sexes think. Are gender differences predetermined?
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On show: how scientists mapped the human mind
A new exhibition at London’s Science Museum reveals bold research into the uncharted territories of the human mind. After centuries of progress, are there still new secrets to discover?
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Breakthrough for research into Alzheimer’s cure
Signs of a possible cure for dementia have been warmly welcomed, even though the treatment is unlikely to emerge for decades. Why do degenerative brain diseases frighten us so much?
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Neuroscientist claims to have proof of free will
If the brain’s workings can be reduced to chemical reactions, is there room for free will? This question has puzzled philosophers for decades; now science may have the solution.
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Psychologist reveals tale of man without memory
He was intelligent and witty, but the man science knew as HM could remember nothing beyond the past 30 seconds of his life. A new book recounts the story of the world’s most famous brain.
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Psychologists claim psychiatry is useless
In a bruising attack, The British Psychological Society has claimed that psychiatrists are diagnosing people without any scientific basis. Is all psychiatry a waste of time?
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Robot brain dream could be real within decade
Scientists in Switzerland are working on a ‘fantastic new scientific instrument’: a working virtual simulation of a human brain. The consequences of success might stretch the limits of...
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Scientists draw up league of world’s worst noises
Scratching blackboards, scraping plates and the screech of tyres: according to a new study, these are the world’s nastiest noises. Why do we find them so excruciating?