Scientific News

Are most people honest?

You’re walking down the street and find a lost wallet. What do you do? Researchers decided to voluntarily create this situation in different cities throughout 40 countries. In addition to finding out that reactions varied between different populations, the goal was to see whether the psychological burden of seeing oneself as a thief had an influence on behavior. Can this burden outweigh economic benefits?

The research team composed of A. Cohn (University of Michigan), D. Tannenbaum (University of Utah), and C. Lukas Zünd and M.A. Maréchal (University of Zurich) wanted to test people’s honesty in a more realistic environment rather than a laboratory setting. Laboratory ...

Could an attention disorder and hyperactivity be the explanation behind Leonardo da Vinci’s genius?

While the Louvre Museum in Paris prepares to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, the genius of this artist who produced some of the greatest masterpieces of all time remains somewhat of a mystery. A recent study published in the journal Brain puts forth a new hypothesis to explain his incredible creativity and multitude of unfinished projects: did Leonardo da Vinci have an attention disorder and ADHD?

Painter, sculptor, musician, architect, geologist, mathematician, anatomist, botanist, philosopher… Reading this (non-exhaustive) list, one may wonder how this Florentine, revered by popes and kings alike, managed to excel in so many domains. Marco ...

Do sleep and mood affect working memory performance?

Remembering an email address long enough to write it down, following a conversation, or remembering the beginning of a sentence you’ve just read. Working memory makes these tasks possible. A recent study conducted by a team of psychologists has shed light on strong connections between working memory and sleep, mood, and age. What are the effects of these three factors on working memory?

A component of short term memory, working memory is used to store, temporarily maintain, and manipulate useful information for performing cognitive tasks, such as reasoning and comprehension. It plays a crucial role in many cognitive functions (language, action planning, etc.). Research has ...

Can wasps make deductions?

Michael is shorter than Daniel and Daniel is shorter than Jennifer, so Michael is shorter than Jennifer. From 4-5 years of age, children are able to reach this conclusion through something known as transitive inference. This logical reasoning has also been demonstrated in vertebrate animals (monkeys, rats, birds, and fish). For the first time, a study has shed light on this capacity for deduction in an invertebrate: the paper wasp. Here’s how...

As the authors of this research point out, animal species that show complex social behavior seem to be the most likely to develop transitive inference. In invertebrates, the skill has already been studied unsuccessfully in honeybees. ...

Can synthesized speech be generated from brain activity?

You're undoubtedly familiar with the late astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking. While his condition left him unable to speak, he could communicate through a device, using eye and facial movements to compose each word, letter by letter. New research is allowing faster speech synthesis technology to be developed that more closely simulates the natural flow of speech. So how does this “brain decoder” work?

Though we’re largely unaware of it, speaking requires very precise, multidimensional coordination and control of the vocal tract’s articulatory muscles, which extend from the glottis to lips. The process of speaking is based on a set of complex, simultaneous, and fluid movements ...

Does the brain have a Pokémon area?

A scientific study on Pokémon? You're not the only one to be skeptical of the idea. Project initiator Jesse Gomez also had trouble convincing his colleagues. According to the neuroanatomist, there may be an area of the brain specifically designed to recognize hundreds of Pokémon characters. See how this unusual research can teach us more about the way our visual cortex works.

Pokémon video games have known unwavering success since the late 90s, and they’re still very popular today. The study’s lead author, Jesse Gomez, is himself a big fan: “I played it nonstop starting around age 6 or 7. I kept playing throughout my childhood. What was unique about Pokémon is that ...

Can doing crosswords and sudoku help optimize our cognitive health?

Some of you readers undoubtedly love crosswords or sudoku, or even both! A recent study, the largest to date, has revealed the possible beneficial effects of these reflective activities on cognitive function in seniors. The research has led to the publication of two articles in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. So, is it time for everyone else to start puzzling over letter and number grids?

More than 19,000! That's the (rather impressive) number of participants enrolled in the study presented here. All of these over-50-year-old subjects registered with Protect, an online platform managed by the University of Exeter and King’s College in London. Each ...

Do our brains make us naturally selfish?

During a party, as you're chatting away with other guests, you suddenly turn around at the sound of your name. This is an all-to- familiar way of capturing your attention. Indeed, we are primarily interested in stimuli that relate to us personally, something known as the "self-referential bias." Based on this observation, researchers wanted to test if a similar phenomenon could be seen in the brain. It was a chance to discover whether our brain makes us naturally self-centered…

Tobias Egner, an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Duke University (United States) and one of the study’s co-authors, says that we tend to prefer external stimuli that are ...

Do we have an internal compass?

We all know that migratory birds and sea turtles have a geomagnetic sense that supports their sense of direction. This sensory modality has been studied in vertebrates and even in certain invertebrates (like bees and lobsters). It has long been believed that humans also possess a form of magnetoreception, but the ability has never been demonstrated scientifically. A recent study has just revealed that our brain may come with an internal compass...

For migratory animals, magnetoreception (their ability to detect Earth’s magnetic field) allows them to build a sort of “map” that helps them navigate. In the 1980s, researchers attempted to demonstrate this ability in humans. For ...

Can team sports combat depression?

Many of our posts have praised the virtues of regular physical activity on our cognitive health. This new research carried out at Washington University in Saint Louis highlights a potential link between participation in team sports and reducing symptoms of depression in young boys. But why would team sports have a positive impact on boys’ moods?

If you take a look at co-author Lisa Gorham’s web page (on Washington University's website), you’ll see that she’s a sports addict and captain of the cross-country and track teams. The learnings she's gathered from this experience clearly inspired her to conduct this research on adolescent mental health. Inspired by her coach’s ...

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