Description: When I first started teaching introductory psychology a few decades ago I used to tell students that they had most of the largest number of brain neurons they would ever have at the time they were born. After their birth the number of brain cells dropped due to things like attrition and pruning (neurons… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Physiology
What is Your Brain For? Maybe NOT for Thinking!
Description: When you experience a flair of stress or anxiety what is your first thought? I suspect it is some version of “What is going on in my world that is stressful or challenging”. Especially these days with a raging pandemic, that is not a bad first thought as it can lead to problem focused… Read more »
The Psychology of Covid-19: Your Behavioral-Immune System
Description: You are wearing a mask when you need to right? Its has become clear that mask wearing is perhaps the most important thing we can do to limit exposure to Covid-19 until a vaccine become readily available. What is also clear is that there are many factors involved in determining when people feel more… Read more »
Your Brain on Dissociation
Description: What does dissociation involve? At its “simplest” level, it an involve a sort of out of body experience sometimes described as being out of the pilot chair of your body or consciousness and watching things happening to you from a third-party perspective. More complex forms of dissociation include amnesia (often related to trauma), identity… Read more »
Psychology and Covid-19: The Loss of Touch
Description: OK, what is the point of staying two arms lengths (one bicycle length) away from each other in these days of Coivd-19? Well, so we do not pass the virus but in effect, so we do not touch, even via a few drops at a short distance. While we are self-isolating, we can stay… Read more »
Do You Know Enough About the Vagus Nerve?
Description: Do you know what the Vagus nerve is and what it does? Well, to begin with, it is not a single nerve cell but rather a complex nerve network with connections throughout the body. In terms of what it does, we are still working on that one, but it could be loosely described as… Read more »
Yoga, Pilates and Stress: Selling to Neuroscientists
Description: Have you heard the exercise is good for reducing stress? How about Yoga? How about Pilates? How about deep breathing? Of course, you have, but do they REALLY lower stress levels and if they do HOW do they do that? How would a neuroscientist approach these questions? Well, he or she would likely NOT… Read more »
Left-handedness: A Good Way to Look at NatureNurture
Description: There are fewer left-handed people than right-handed people in the world, right? Yes, that is true, but the proportions vary from place to place and maybe from time to time. So, how does handedness play out from an evolutionary perspective? It is often difficult to think through how the interaction of nature (genetics) and… Read more »
London Taxi Drivers, “The Knowledge” and Phrenology
Description: If you want to drive for Uber (well drive for yourself through the Uber App) the process to get started will take a couple of weeks (mostly made up of waiting for a background check to be processed). Compare that to what it takes to become a London Taxi driver. To do that you… Read more »
Mortality Following Bereavement: What Are the Causal Factors?
Description: You have no doubt heard a story or two about an elderly couple where, when one of them dies, the surviving partner also passes away fairly soon after. Can you recall if an explanation as to why this occurred was offered? Some version of a broken heart perhaps? Or maybe that the surviving partner… Read more »
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