A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Recovering pokie machine addict Sharon Hollamby. ABC: Ka-Ching! Pokie Nation Science backs up Ms Hollamby's feeling of being "hypnotised" or "hijacked" by pokie machines. Like Pavlov's dog, who learned to salivate at the sound of a bell, pokie machine players learn to associate reward with the sound of the machines, gambling researcher Dr [...]
Research has suggested that too much stress can lead to depression and dementia, Photo: Rex Features Too much stress in your life can ultimately lead to depression and dementia, scientists have warned. A major review of published research suggests that chronic stress and anxiety can damage areas of the brain involved in emotional [...]
https://youtu.be/o1huW9RMgkM Marketing has discovered neuroscience and the shiny new product has plenty of style but very little substance. “Neuromarketing” is lighting up the eyes of advertising executives and lightening the wallets of public relations companies. It promises to target the unconscious desires of consumers, which are supposedly revealed by measuring the brain. The more [...]
One of the world’s largest drug makers is testing whether an anti-inflammatory drug can help people with depression. Photo: APSTOCK One of the world’s largest drug makers is testing a radical new approach to treating depression — by dialling down inflammation in the body, rather than tinkering with chemicals in the brain. If it works, it’s [...]
Flickr/Renata Vaz I recently conducted a parenting night at Trinity Grammar School in Kew, Melbourne about Boys and Gaming. More than 450 parents turned up to find answers to the challenge of getting their boys off their devices. A parent shared with me the following: “My son is actually scaring me. I can’t even [...]
iStockphoto A new study out today in the journal Nature Communications shows that cells normally associated with protecting the brain from infection and injury also play an important role in rewiring the connections between nerve cells. While this discovery sheds new light on the mechanics of neuroplasticity, it could also help explain diseases like autism [...]
A team of European researchers has found evidence that suggests that human consciousness is a state where the neural network that makes up the brain operates at an optimal degree of connectedness. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the team describes their study of the human brain using volunteers undergoing fMRI [...]
Preparation of an EEG recording. It is used for a Microstate analysis in order to depict processes in the brain temporally and spatially. Credit: University of Bern / Adrian Moser A soccer fan needs more time to associate a positive word with an opposing club than with his own team. And supporters of [...]
Credit: Amanda Summerlin A path-breaking new study on how we seek similarity in relationships, co-authored by researchers at Wellesley College and the University of Kansas, upends the idea that "opposites attract," instead suggesting we're drawn to people who are like-minded. The study could lead to a fundamental change in understanding relationship formation—and it [...]
Tom Wolfe: his 1996 predictions foreshadowed dubious media stories of neural circuits for infidelity and political orientation. Photograph: Jim Cooper/AP Perhaps Wolfe’s most astute observation was cultural: how the collapse of Freud and Marx had pushed people into using the language of cognitive science for explanations of human behaviour. He also noticed that [...]
