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Extraordinary Ability of Blind People to Hear Ultrafast Speech
New research presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego shows that blind people can understand speech at ultrafast rates, well beyond what a sighted person can comprehend. Using brain imaging, the researchers discovered how they were able to do this. The parts of the brain that process hearing get re-wired to the…
Read MoreSticks and Stones–Hurtful words damage the brain
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me… We all know how untrue that childhood incantation is. Words do hurt. Ridicule, distain, humiliation, taunting, all cause injury, and when it is delivered in childhood from a child’s peers, verbal abuse causes more than…
Read MoreMirror Image People—Why it Matters Which Side of Your Brain Does What
Most people salute the flag by respectfully placing their right hand over their heart, but not everyone does this. That’s because some people (1 in 10,000) are born with their heart on the wrong side. Not only their heart, but all their internal organs are swapped left for right: liver, stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, spleen,…
Read MoreMoney Buys Unhappiness, Proven in a New Study
“Tis the gift to be simple,” the Quakers sing. A century later Paul McCartney echoes the refrain, “Money can’t buy me love.” Catholic nuns and Buddhist monks take vows of poverty. “Simplify. Simplify.” Henry David Thoreau preaches. The belief that money erodes happiness is a persistent theme running through centuries of the world’s…
Read MoreFestering Brain Infection–Piercing the Illusion of Safety
She was young and wild, a bit of a rebel. The 22-year-old woman’s body art announced that message as subtly as a billboard on a highway. No stranger to illegal drugs, she had inhaled or injected the worst of them, including cocaine and heroin. But recently she had turned a corner. Last month she…
Read MoreKillers–Is Captivity Driving Killer Whales Mad?
Is Captivity Driving Killer Whales Mad?
Read MoreSleeplessness in PTSD—Don’t Get Your Blood Pressure Up
The horrible nightmares. An American soldier serving in Iraq reaches out for support in his recent website post. “Last night I dreamed I was flying in a Blackhawk to another FOB and blood was covering the seats and the floor of the bird. There was so much that I was scooping it…
Read MoreThe Mystery Mark of Cancer
Brain cancer can be one of the most deadly forms of the disease, but all cancers are the result of uncontrolled cell division. Could all cancers share a common failure in the way genetic material is processed? Mysterious spots have been discovered in the nucleus of cells that marks them as being cancerous and…
Read MoreDyslexic Neurons
According to French neuroscientist, Dr. Stanislas Dehaene, it is not surprising that some readers have difficulty reversing letters when they read, the particular neurons we must use for reading are designed to be “dyslexic”. In the natural environment this left/right scrambling of objects is an asset, but to read we humans must re-train a part…
Read MoreNew Hypothesis for Acupuncture: Interview with Prof. Geoffrey Burnstock
How can poking needles into the body soothe pain? At an international meeting in Fukuoka, Japan this summer, Professor Geoffrey Burnstock of the University College London presented a new hypothesis, which he discussed with me in the recorded interview I invite you to hear. The meeting was organized by Prof. Kazuhide Inoue, of…
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