| | Sneaky ways to move more Do you want to up your exercise game (and boost your brain health too)? Here are 11 fun ways — including “exercise snacks” and gardening — to make that a reality. Learn more. |
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Could you benefit from BrainHQ? Take this quiz to find out! Answer 6 simple questions to figure out if your brain needs a tune-up. Learn more. |
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Turning neural activity into language—and music In two related breakthroughs, scientists have recently interpreted brain activity to reproduce language and music. In the first study, new brain implants were able to transform neural activity more quickly and accurately than ever before to understand what paralyzed people intended to say. In the second, researchers decoded brain waves to reproduce Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall.” Both studies have practical implications for bridging the gap between what the brain intends and what the mouth can produce. Learn more about the language study and the music study. |
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How do we know what’s real? As it turns out, the neuronal communication our brains use to represent things that we actually perceive (see, hear, or otherwise sense), is very similar to the representation of things we imagine. So how do we decide what is real, and what isn’t? According to recent research, our brains have a “reality threshold” that makes the difference. A strong enough signal passes the threshold; a weak one doesn’t. But sometimes imagery passes the threshold. Learn more. |
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Learning without a brain A new study has demonstrated that tiny jellyfish—the Caribbean box jellyfish—with no centralized brain can still learn. The researchers showed these jellyfish demonstrated “associative learning,” a more complex kind of learning than basic habit learning. How did the scientists construct such an experiment with these jellyfish, and what are the implications? Learn more. |
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Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music (2023) By Lawrence Sherman and Dennis Plies What is happening in your brain when you listen to music? When you play it? Write it? Teach it? Music has been a part of human culture for centuries, and it activates not only the creative capacity of the brain, but also its memory, auditory, and motor areas (among others). In Every Brain Needs Music, authors Lawrence Sherman and Dennis Plies (along with illustrator Susi Davis) dig into the ways in which music and the brain play together. |
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