Tag Archives: health

July 23

Deep Depths and Breaths

posted by

Keep Holding On How long can you hold your breath for? Is it over two minutes? Pretty impressive–now imagine holding your breath for that long while sinking deeper and deeper below the dark depths of the ocean, reaching distances of 100 feet (about the length of a 10-story building), while thousands of pounds of water […]

»»
May 15

Making a mom: hormones and maternal behavior

posted by

It was Mother’s Day this weekend… have you called your mom yet? Maternal bonds are essential for the survival of the infant, as well as to encourage the mother to make sacrifices and engage in parental behaviors to care for her young. This is something that your mom probably felt as soon as she met […]

»»
April 05

Feeling Pooped? Gut Microbiome Interventions for Depression

posted by

We often think of depression as a disorder rooted in the brain—a chemical imbalance or faulty wiring. But what if the roots of depression extend far beyond and below the skull, into an unexpected place? Scientists are increasingly finding that the gut microbiome—a vast ecosystem of bacteria, viruses, and fungi living in your gut—could play […]

»»

Learning and Concussions: a Brain Renovation

posted by

What a Wonderful World Being human, with the brains we have, is wonderful. Our brains give us an amazing ability to learn that sets us apart from other animals. We aren’t the fastest, strongest, or biggest. But we sit at the top of the food chain, enjoying a wonderful world, because of our ability to […]

»»
February 13

A Sweet Treat for the Brain

posted by

We all need a little treat sometimes – maybe on a special occasion, maybe after a long day, or maybe just as a pick-me-up in the afternoons. If you’re a chocolate lover like me, this treat might be a lindor truffle or a mocha latte. Many research studies have found that people show improvements in […]

»»
February 06

Déjà Vu: Have We Been Here Before?

posted by

SEEING THE FUTURE Remember that time you were sitting in the lunch hall with your friend and they were telling you a story that you thought you’d heard before? Not only that, but you also felt like the exact experience you were having had already happened. The scene was so familiar –the room you were […]

»»
January 30

The Magic of a Memory Model

posted by

You know that moment when you can’t quite remember a song, but the instant it starts playing, the memory floods back and you can sing along perfectly? This last year the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Hopfield who came up with an elegant model for how this process could work in the […]

»»
November 07

A Biological Time Machine

posted by

Time is a paradox; it’s both simple and complex. On the one hand—in its most literal form—time is linear, methodical, unidirectional, and can be measured in well-defined units. On the other hand, or hands, it is warped—circular even—multidimensional, and scalar, among many other properties that constitute a sometimes exciting, sometimes saddening, and sometimes maddening concept, […]

»»
August 13

Food for Thought: Docosahexaenoic Acid

posted by

This series is dedicated to exploring nutrients that improve cognitive function. This month, we kick off with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and its effects on neuroplasticity.

»»
July 11

The World in 3D: A Glimpse Into Depth Perception

posted by

We see the world around us in three dimensions. These dimensions can be described as different planes in physical space, extending from any central point in not only vertical and horizontal directions, but also in depth. By using our vision to assess how near or far something is from us, and interpreting objects in three-dimensional […]

»»