Whenever I’ve felt blue, I know that one sure cure is to tackle my garden. Of course, living in California makes this a year-round option. No matter what type of problem had been bothering me, I always felt better after spending some time outdoors, even if that meant yanking weeds. Read more…
Kevin Corcoran and Gregory Quirk have demonstrated an interesting difference in the way learned and innate fears are managed by the brains of rats [1]. Learned fear is typically demonstrated using classically conditioned emotional responses. While a rat barpresses for food, a neutral stimulus such as a tone is presented Read more…
Once again, Antonio Damasio and his colleagues have found a creative way to illustrate the effects of specific brain damage, in this case the ventromedial prefrontal cortex or VMPC. Participants with damage to the VMPC due to aneurysm or tumor growth, healthy participants, and participants with brain damage in areas Read more…
Most biological psychologists are comfortable with the idea that at least some temperamental tendencies, later shaped by experience into personality, are present at birth and are largely determined by genetics. Now Mats Larsson of Orebro University in Sweden is claiming that the patterning of a person’s iris correlates with major personality Read more…
One of my least favorite factoids in the neurosciences is the fact that the human brain begins to lose weight after the age of 45 years. I have other parts of me where weight loss would be much more welcome. However, I optimistically enjoy data that suggest that we can Read more…