Tag Archives: fMRI

May 25

The Brain’s Self

What are you to your brain?

May 04

Shape of you – neuroscience of body image perception

The rise of Ozempic “Everybody looks so great. When I look around this room, I can’t help but wonder: Is Ozempic right for me?” Jimmy Kimmel joked during his Oscars monologue earlier this year.  Ozempic, or Wegovy, or Mounjaro, has become quite popular in the last year. A drug primarily used for treating type 2 […]

April 13

Your Brain on Stories

The brain is wired for stories, but what exactly happens to it when we hear and tell stories?

February 09

Boredom and the Brain

Given how overstimulating our world has become (or perhaps because of it), we spend a surprising amount of time absolutely bored to tears. Maybe your wireless headphones died during a long flight and you are simply left to sit in silence, or perhaps your work meeting has just crept into its third hour with no […]

December 22

Fatal Attraction: What is Sex and Love Addiction?

Have you ever been in love? Has it made you do crazy things? Whether it was sending your lover bundles of flowers, stalking their social media (or stalking them in person), or boiling a rabbit in a pot of water, we’ve all been there. We know that love is enthralling. It is potent enough in […]

November 17

A Series of Exciting Events

Have you ever wondered what it is like to have a seizure? Well, I have epilepsy, and let me tell you: so do I. That is because there are many different types of seizures and of epilepsy, and some—like mine—involve a loss of consciousness, as well as memory deficits. What all seizures have in common, […]

April 14

“Fearless” climbers: how the amygdala mediates fear

Rock climbing, both in a specialized gym and outdoors on natural rock formations, is a very popular hobby here in Southern California. Some people find it exhilarating and enjoyable, while others are simply terrified. Like with any athletic venture, climbers assess risk before embarking on new routes, and may quell their fears with the knowledge […]

August 30

Defining Cognitive Adulthood: When Neuroscience Influences Law

In 2006, a grand jury convicted Evan Miller in a homicide case, sentencing him to mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility for parole. At the time of his crime, Evan was 14-years-old. Years later, after a series of appeals, Evan’s case–Miller vs. Alabama–made it to the Supreme Court, which ruled that a sentence of life […]

June 22

Psychopathy, qu’est-ce que c’est

Psychopathy, qu’est-ce que c’est A thought experiment Imagine that you are a respected scientist trying to better understand psychopathy.  What might be different in the brain of a psychopath?  As you look through brain scan after brain scan of psychopathic individuals—many of them convicted killers—you see a pattern.  In brain regions important for impulse control, […]

October 27

Fear IT

There’s nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight – Lon Chaney [En español] With Halloween just around the corner and the latest clown craze hitting American and United Kingdom cities, it seems like a great time to talk about clowns. More specifically, about fear of clowns, which I recently found out there’s a term for: […]