A new research paper published today in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that men and women's brains connectivity is very different which, according to the authors, gives a "potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks and women at others," matching some commonly-held…
Sudoku or crosswords are decent mental exercises, but only in certain parts of the brain. Orgasms, however, work the whole damn thing over according to scientists.
Ever since Carl Jung first started giving people their personality types, there's been a divide between the introvert and extrovert camps. It's possible to bridge that gap, though. Here's how to coexist with different personality types.
Do you find yourself surrounded by uggos on a near-constant basis? Do you ever despair that the world is just crawling with ugly goblin-people whom you can’t bear to look at without retching? It’s okay — Karl Lagerfeld probably feels the exact same way, which is why he’s never seen without his ugly-dimming…
Although it always becomes tempting around this time of the year to watch a marathon of Angel on Instant Netflix do really cool lazy indoor things that only the coolest lazy people do, you could do your brain a real service by getting out there and doing some wintry frolicking, according to The New York Times'…
The long-term effects of alcohol abuse have always been linked to white matter reduction in the brain, which carries side effects that include flat affect and memory problems, but a new study has now determined that the healing process during recovery is separated along gendered lines.
As advanced as we've gotten with our scientific and technological skills, it seems as we can still be brought down by the simplest of errors. That's what happened recently at the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, where they experienced a freezer malfunction that has defrosted 150 brains.
As we all know, everything delicious is terrible for you. That is especially true of sweets, which are so tasty but also can cause nasty things like diabetes. Still, most of us are able to convince ourselves that eating sugar probably won't kill us. Sure, but you know what will happen if we keep stuffing our faces with …
Mother Nature has already given us so many things to be terrified of in this world—flesh eating bacteria, tsunamis, Tan Mom, to name just a few. Tapeworms certainly deserve a place on the list too. Who among us did not become obsessed with the idea that we might have one slithering around inside our intestines when we…
We love our dogs so much and are so close to them that we often feel like we know exactly what they're thinking. We can read each tiny reaction in their face, each wag of their tail as a signal of not only what they want but of how they feel about us. Now new research at Emory University promises to give the first…
It's hard to believe, but there was a time, less than a decade ago, when Facebook didn't even exist. There was no way to immediately tell everyone you've ever met that you just ate some delicious ribs or that your kid is finally used the big girl potty. (Finally! We all breathed such a sigh of relief on that one.) But…
We like to think of babies as being totally blank slates, open to all experiences and loving everyone and everything equally. Well, that's sort of true, but it turns out their brains can actually begin to tell the difference between races much earlier than you might think. A new study found that by the time they're…
You know how some people clam up and freeze and poop their pants and start crying when presented with a math problem (especially us ladies, amirite?)? Turns out, "math anxiety" is a totally legit thing, neurologically speaking—and a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy as well.
For so long, we've thought that racism was a product of our culture and of ignorance. We assumed it would take decades, or even centuries, more of hard work and education to undo. But silly us, maybe all we really need to do is take a pill. Seriously?
We all joke about being addicted to dessert or salt or various other vices, but in the case of ice cream, one new study has shown that it actually does share some characteristics with drugs. It sets off the pleasure centers of our brain in the same way, but it's also now clear that when you eat a lot of ice cream, you…
That's kind of what a new study makes it sound like, at least. Here's how Forbes puts it:
If you are one of those lucky people who doesn't feel like a light-headed piece of crap when you fast, you might not be opposed to skipping meals a few times a week. The rest of you will probably not be as excited by this possibility. But what if fasting at regular intervals could help protect your brain against…
Have you ever tried to love someone as hard as you could for five minutes? It sounds like a strange thing to attempt, but that's exactly what the people in a study at the Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging were asked to do while they sat in an fMRI machine. They scanned people of varying ages,…
Child abuse is a dark and depressing reality in American life, but until now, it's never been clear just how widespread a problem it was. A new study, led by Dr. John Leventhal of Yale University, offers the first comprehensive estimate of serious injuries caused by child abuse in the U.S., and the results are pretty…
You know how women can't read a map or park a car, because their poor ladybrains just can't handle complex spatial tasks? Turns out, that may be partly because everyone's always telling them their poor ladybrains can't handle complex spatial tasks.
We've long known that alcohol kills brain cells and that long term alcohol abuse can interfere with mental health. Now, new research has found that while heavy drinking affects both men and women's ability to produce an important mood-controlling neurotransmitter, it affects ladybrains three times faster than it…
A new study suggests a link between blood sugar and food cravings — but in some obese people, this link may be broken.
According to a new study, parts of the amygdala (which handles many aspects of emotion regulation) become immediately active when someone sees an animal. Scientists say the presence of these dedicated animal-spotting areas "may reflect the importance that animals held throughout our evolutionary past." I will need to do…
In news that can only be called depressing, a new study suggests that depressed women have an elevated risk of stroke. And women who take antidepressants apparently have an even higher risk.
Do you participate in such normal-people activities as having sex and "being startled?" If so, your brain is about to explode.
Everybody freak out: a new study shows sleep deprivation could screw up your brain before you even feel tired.
Women are diagnosed with anxiety disorders twice as often as men. There are lots of possible explanations for this, one of the most popular being that women are more likely to seek help. But here's a new and intriguing one: could parents be inadvertently teaching their daughters to worry?
A new psychological study has identified the scientific-sounding "George Clooney Effect," which leads us ladies to seek out older, more physically attractive partners as our financial independence increases. Surprised?
Got a lot of friends? Thank your amygdala! A new study may shed light on how this brain structure, often associated with fear, may regulate our social lives as well.
When the DSM-5 goes live in 2012, five personality disorders likely won't make the cut. After the jump, find out which mental illnesses are going the way of the dodo.
