Brain & Cognition

In this intriguing post philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel and Blake Myers examine the theory that knowledge is justified true belief.

Researchers have discovered that infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech.

The more difficult the decision we face, the more likely we are not to act, according to new research by UCL scientists that examines the neural pathways involved in 'status quo bias' in the human brain.

Be true to yourself, and better romantic relationships will follow, research suggests.

The brains of psychopaths appear to be wired to keep seeking a reward at any cost, new research from Vanderbilt University finds. The research uncovers the role of the brain's reward system in psychopathy and opens a new area of study for understanding what drives these individuals.

A scientist's girlfriend is killed in a car crash. She is decapitated and he keeps her head alive while he hunts for a new body. Shown here in its entirety.

The hippocampus, a part of the brain essential for memory, has long been known to "replay" recently experienced events. Previously, replay was believed to be a simple process of reviewing recent experiences in order to help consolidate them into long-term memory. However, University of Minnesota Medical School researcher A. David Redish, Ph.D., along with his colleagues Anoopum Gupta and David S. Touretzky, Ph.D., from the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University, and Matthijs van der Meer, Ph.D., also at the University of Minnesota, have discovered that the replay function of the hippocampus is actually a much more complex, cognitive process.

New evidence suggests that researchers can tell which memory of a past event a person is recalling from the pattern of their brain activity alone.

The human brain processes predictable sensory input in a particularly efficient manner.

Reading this story requires you to willfully pay attention to the sentences and to tune out nearby conversations, the radio and other distractions. But if a fire alarm sounded, your attention would be involuntarily snatched away from the story to the blaring sound.

Common wisdom tells us that for a successful relationship partners shouldn't go to bed angry. But new research from a psychologist at Harvard University suggests that brain activity—specifically in the region called the lateral prefrontal cortex—is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner.

I'm going to be dissin' on Kant. If you loathe that sort of thing, maybe you'll enjoy reviewing the results of last year's poll by Brian Leiter, according to which Kant is the third most important philosopher of all time -- which should remind you that Kant's reputation is plenty safe from the likes of me.

A one-page, 27-item questionnaire that is available free online is a valid and effective tool to help primary care doctors screen patients for four common psychiatric illnesses, a study led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers concludes.

Doctors treat millions of children with Ritalin every year to improve their ability to focus on tasks, but scientists now report that Ritalin also directly enhances the speed of learning.

Are we over estimating remembering and underestimating learning? Current research by Nate Kornell, an assistant professor of psychology at Williams College, and Robert A. Bjork of the University of California, Los Angeles address this question and was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.