Over the past decades, psychologists and neuroscientists worldwide have been trying to gain a better understanding of how humans make simple decisions about the state of the world around them. To do this, they devised theoretical models describing how decisions should...
Researchers at University of Illinois and City University of New York have recently carried out a study investigating the effects of early acoustic experiences on gene activation in songbirds. Their paper, published in Elsevier's journal Neuroscience Letters, shows...
Past neuroscience research has consistently highlighted the role of the hippocampal formation in contextual memory, the ability to remember specific contexts or environments. In this brain area, context is typically represented by the activity of a specific neuronal...
Serotonin (5-HT), one of the primary hormones released in the human brain, has many essential functions. For instance, serotonin is known to stabilize the mood, produce feelings of well-being, regulate sleep patterns and facilitate communication between cells.
The hippocampus is a brain structure within the temporal lobe known to play a key role in memory and learning. The hippocampus contains neural networks that support what is known as declarative memory. This is the human ability to recall specific facts or events that...
Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that manifests itself through a diverse range of motor and non-motor symptoms, including shaking and stiffness of the limbs, as well as difficulties in maintaining balance and coordination, walking and...
Humans have the innate ability to store important information in their mind for short periods of time, a capability known as short-term memory. Over the past few decades, numerous neuroscientists have tried to understand how neural circuits store short-term memories,...
Typically, pyramidal cells and GABAergic interneurons in the brain are activated simultaneously. A team of neuroscientists at New York University, however, recently identified a unique class of neurons that do not fire at the same time as all principal neurons, cells...
Anxiety is a common emotional state that can be particularly pronounced or difficult to process for individuals diagnosed with anxiety disorders and depression. While neuroscientists have carried out numerous studies aimed at better understanding the neural processes...
The Colavita visual dominance effect is a psychological observation named after Francis B. Colavita, the psychologist who first gathered evidence of its existence in 1974. Colavita observed that when human adults are presented with visual stimuli and other sensory...