Tag: thinking
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Just… because!
It can be hard to dispute the common adage ‘survival of the fittest’. After all, ‘most of the genes in the genome are there because they’re doing something good,’ says a researcher. But, she says, ‘others are just there because they’ve figured out a way to be there.’ (1) We tend to find reasons for…
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Rubik’s cube. Blindfolded.
The classic Rubik’s Cube has a zillion different states. And yet some people can solve it in seconds by just seeing it for a moment. How can you solve anything while seeing? Close your eyes. And the solution will be covered in darkness. But so will the problem… Do you see now?
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Brain. Skin. Thinking. Not being.
Brain activity has an unmistakable signature: the firing of neurons, as brain cells relay information to one another through the triggered release of chemical neurotransmitters, which are received by the long, branching dendrites of neighbouring cells. This microscopic ritual is distinctive, but it doesn’t belong only to neurons. Scientists have now found bursts of neuron-like…
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Ancestral asymmetries…
The left and right side of the brain are involved in different tasks. This functional lateralization and associated brain asymmetry are well documented in humans, but little is known about brain asymmetry in our closest living relatives, the great apes. Using endocasts (imprints of the brain on cranial bones), scientists now challenge the long-held notion…
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Drawing. Seeing.
Drawing an object and naming it engages the brain in similar ways, according to research recently published in JNeurosci. The finding demonstrates the importance of the visual processing system for producing drawings of an object. In a study by Fan et al., healthy adults performed two tasks while the researchers recorded brain activity using functional…
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