Harvard University

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 [...]

Harvard Study: Where Does Happiness Really Come From?

“…It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Research proves this advice is scientifically sound. In a recent study from Harvard University, “Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off” researchers looked at the connection between giving and happiness. Their paper clearly establishes a link between spending money on others versus [...]

Optimism associated with lower risk of heart failure

Optimistic older adults who see the glass as half full appear to have a reduced risk of developing heart failure. Researchers from the University of Michigan and Harvard University found that optimism—an expectation that good things will happen—among people age 50 and older significantly reduced their risk of heart failure. Compared to the least optimistic [...]

Want to Be Happier? Keep Your Focus

Nearly half the time we're awake, our thoughts drift to topics unrelated to whatever we're doing. We think about the fight we had with our spouse when we're driving or replay events from a friend's wild party while brushing our teeth in the morning. We text incessantly while watching TV and phone mom during laundry-folding [...]

Wandering mind not a happy mind

People spend 46.9 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, and this mind-wandering typically makes them unhappy. So says a study that used an iPhone Web app to gather 250,000 data points on subjects’ thoughts, feelings, and actions as they went about their lives. The research, by psychologists Matthew [...]

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