brain development

Alcohol, Schoolies and Setting Limits with Our Teens 

Research tells us clearly that teens and alcohol don't mix. (In fact, medical studies routinely suggest that humans and alcohol don't mix!) One in ten teens have a regrettable sexual experience related to alcohol consumption. One in five injure themselves while drunk. And the earlier our kids start drinking, the greater the risk of alcohol [...]

Five Reasons Why You Should Read Aloud to Your Kids – and Pick Their Favourite Book

shutterstock As parents know all too well, children love to re-read their favourite books over and over again. While this may feel painfully repetitive to adults, there is something in the text that is bringing children back time after time. Children benefit greatly from re-reading as they learn the rhyming or predictable pattern [...]

Sleep Makes Our Memories More Accessible, Study Shows

galleryhip Sleeping not only protects memories from being forgotten, it also makes them easier to access, according to new research from the University of Exeter and the Basque Centre for Cognition, Brain and Language. The findings suggest that after sleep we are more likely to recall facts which we could not remember while [...]

Resilience: The Magic Bullet

canstockphoto Resilience is the magic bullet that everyone wants to acquire – teachers want to help their children become resilient, politicians want to transform the country to make us resilient, corporates want their staff to be the best they can against all odds. Above all, parents want their children to be resilient and they, themselves, want to be resilient as they cope with the [...]

Seven Myths about Dyslexia Put to Rest

flickr As researchers who study dyslexia, we often read articles or overhear conversations that completely misunderstand what dyslexia is – or how it can be treated. Dyslexia is the term used to describe someone with reading difficulties – and it affects up to 10% of Australians. A reader with dyslexia may have difficulty in [...]

What Neuroscience’s Newest ‘Genius’ Discovered

Shutterstock You have fewer synapses in your brain now than a 2-year-old. That may sound like an insult, but it’s a scientific fact. We’re all born with heads full of lonely, isolated neurons. But as our baby brains are inundated with sensory information over the first two years of life, those neurons rapidly [...]

Australian Children Exposed to Toxic Mining Metals Do Worse at School

Children living closest to the mines had the lowest literacy and numeracy scores. Katherine Clark/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND Children in mining and smelting towns who are exposed high levels of lead, arsenic and cadmium are more than twice as likely to have developmental disorders than the national average. They also perform lower than neighbouring [...]

Why Each of Your Neurons Is a Beautiful and Unique Snowflake

Flickr/ Credit: Ann Larie Valentine You might expect that neighboring neurons would be closely related to one another, or that entire regions would arise from the same ancestral cells. But that’s not the case. Christopher Walsh from Boston Children's Hospital has now shown that in one region, the prefrontal cortex, any given neuron [...]

By |2015-10-12T16:46:56+11:00October 8th, 2015|Categories: Science & Research|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments

The Neuroscience of Being a Selfish Jerk

aastock/Shutterstock If we’re being honest, most of us have at least some selfish aims – to make money, to win a promotion at work, and so on. But importantly, we pursue these goals while at the same time conforming to basic rules of decency. For example, if somebody helps us out, we’ll reciprocate, [...]

In first, Scientists Use Sound Waves to Control Brain Cells

Georg Wiora Salk scientists have developed a new way to selectively activate brain, heart, muscle and other cells using ultrasonic waves. The new technique, dubbed sonogenetics, has some similarities to the burgeoning use of light to activate cells in order to better understand the brain. - Salk Institute Source: In first, scientists use sound [...]

Go to Top