Language

The discoveries that the brain has defined systems that track an animal’s whereabouts so it knows where it is (and where it was) as it makes its way about the world were honored on Oct.

A signature science program of the Obama administration’s second term—one intended to develop technologies and a base of knowledge to solve long-standing mysteries of how the brain works—has finally reached cruising altitude.

Chaser, a Border Collie from South Carolina, knows the names of over 1,000 different objects. Does anyone find themselves looking at their tail-wagging friend and wondering, "Well, what do you know?" When it comes to whether dogs can understand words, Chaser—the subject of not one, but two scientific publications—can attest that the answer is: Yes.

This question was not proposed by a mad scientist bent on world doggie domination. The idea to see whether dogs follow life-sized videos is actually entirely sensible.

If it's good for the heart, it could also be good for the neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, cells that make up the main items on the brain's parts list.

Kids who could keep a beat had superior skills related to reading and language than did those whose rhythm strayed. Cynthia Graber reports

 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—What happens in the brains of people who see Jesus in a piece of toast? What are the physics of slipping on a banana peel?

Editor's note: This is the first installment in a series about emerging neurotechnologies. Join a pilot class of 12 PhD students at MIT as we explore how neuroscience is revolutionizing our understanding of the brain.

Plato once noted that “creativity is a divine madness, a gift from gods." Romantic notions of the link between mental illness and creativity still appear prominently in popular culture.

Animals can be deceived, but do animals feel wonderment, awe, or sense that they have experienced the impossible?

Every so often, we face a job we dread because it seems exceedingly dull. As a child, I felt that way about household chores—scrubbing a toilet, sweeping a floor, wiping a countertop, weeding.

Just when it seems there's a mobile app for just about everything, psychologists have shown there's room for one more: they are using smartphones to help them better understand the dynamics of moral and immoral behavior out in the community.