Flies, Too, Drink to Get Over It

Staff / Truthdig Mar 16, 2012 While studying the relationship between stress and alcohol in fruit flies, a group of neuroscientists found that sexually frustrated male flies were more likely to prefer food spiked with alcohol than their carnally satisfied peers, suggesting that humans aren't the only species to self-medicate. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Culture or Neurons?

By Susan Okie Mar 9, 2012 What accounts for our species' self-consciousness and awareness of our mortality, for our impulses to create art, to cling to our memories of childhood, to believe in a deity? Two new books suggest distinct approaches to such elemental questions.What accounts for our species' self-consciousness and awareness of our mortality, for our impulses to create art, to cling to our memories of childhood, to believe in a deity? Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Scientists List Their Favorite Discoveries of 2011

Staff / Truthdig Dec 31, 2011 Increasingly chaotic weather, potentially habitable planets and closing in on the elusive Higgs boson are just a few of the developments observed and discoveries made by the scientific community in 2011. The editors at LiveScience asked university scientists to describe what they think were the most important advances of the year. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Obama Still of Two Minds on Gay Rights

Staff / Truthdig Dec 9, 2011 While the Obama administration has spoken up for gay rights, it has yet to support gay marriage; Kevin Spacey has been heckling noisy audience members in his role as Richard III; meanwhile, LA and Occupy L have come to a similar consensus about corporate personhood: It needs to go! These discoveries and more after the jump . Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Facebook May Morph Your Brain

Staff / Truthdig Oct 19, 2011 Here we have the latest news in the blossoming social networking subdiscipline of neurology, about which we are not entirely kidding, as a team of researchers from University College London has found a possible link between the size of their subjects' flocks of Facebook friends and the size of certain parts of their brains. (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

On Art and Lying

Staff / Truthdig Jun 8, 2011 It's been noted before, by the likes of Marlon Brando and others, that art might be a socially sanctioned form of lying -- or confabulating, as neuroscientists might call it. Could this be true? Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Middle-Age Obesity Linked to Dementia Among Elderly

Staff / Truthdig May 3, 2011 A study published in the journal Neurology reports that people who are obese in middle age are almost four times more likely than those of normal weight to develop diseases that lead to dementia in later life. (more) Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Beauty and the Brain

Staff / Truthdig Nov 30, 2010 How's this for a mental image? In an effort to make our synapses sexier to the general public, one enterprising neuroscience aficionado and Ph.D.-to-be cooked up a book of pretty pictures of the human brain as rendered from past to present. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Multitasking Our Way to Distraction

Staff / Truthdig Jun 7, 2010 What do we stand to gain from all our gadgetry in this, our wired (not to mention wireless) era? Improved manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination? The ability to soundly defeat pixelated alien hordes via video games? Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Important News: Hormone Spray Makes Men Go All Cuddly

Staff / Truthdig Apr 30, 2010 It's an age-old complaint, at least judging by the highly scientific content found in women's magazines: Men just aren't snuggly enough and, what's more, they don't empathize enough either. Hmph! But a hormone-laced nasal spray might change all that for the better. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Where Neuroscience Meets Literature

Staff / Truthdig Apr 1, 2010 How about a little cognitive psychology with your English literature? Professors who normally spend their time thinking about Virginia Woolf's characters and story structures are taking a page from scientific texts to add a new dimension to their exploration of fiction. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

Junk Food Is the New Crack

Staff / Truthdig Mar 29, 2010 Those who have ever suspected, after apparently taking leave of their reason in the face of their favorite junk food, that their guilt-inducing pleasure contained some highly addictive substance may not be too far off the mark, according to a new study. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )