Science News

The breadth of scientific research done into how the brain responds to magnetic fields shows that our body's most advanced organ is highly dynamic, sometimes reacting wonderfully, sometimes tragically, to magnetic fields. "Scientists have found that brains subjected to regular transcranial electromagnetic stimulation for only five days showed an increase in stem cells in the hippocampus." This is the part of the brain that governs memory so electromagnetic stimulation might one day treat Alzheimer's disease.

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found a direct link between the number of friends a person has on Facebook and the size of certain brain regions, raising the possibility that using online social networks...

Philosophers have long spoken of aesthetic appreciation as though it were a distinct faculty of the mind. On a certain level, it seems reasonable that we do not look at a burrito the same way we look at a Vermeer painting. But neuroimaging devices show that our approval or disapproval of something is processed by the same part of the brain. "The most reasonable evolutionary hypothesis is that the aesthetic system of the brain evolved first for the appraisal of objects of biological importance, including food sources and suitable mates, and was later co-opted for artworks such as paintings and music."

Researchers were recently surprised to find that brains missing a corpus callosum, which links the two hemispheres of the brain, were able to communicate information between the two halves quite effectively. Is the brain capable of using electromagnetic waves to transfer information between hemispheres? Johnjoe McFadden of the School of Biomedical and Life Sciences at the University of Surrey thinks so. He has recently proposed an electromagnetic consciousness theory of the brain.

One reason optimists retain a positive outlook on life despite all evidence to the contrary has been discovered, say researchers.

The brain learns through changes in the strength of its synapses -- the connections between neurons -- in response to stimuli.