Does Brain Training Work or is it a Waste of Time? This is What Research Shows
Brain training is a hot topic. It’s a million-dollar business and its popularity is still increasing. We have been interested in increasing people’s intelligence since …
Neuropsychology
The Brain’s Reward System: Is Dopamine the Only ‘Feel Good’ Chemical?
Much evidence has associated dopamine with the brain’s reward system. For this reason, dopamine has been called the “feel good” or pleasure chemical. Stimulation of …
Study: Smiling Makes You More Attractive
A study by Golle, Mast & Lobmaier (2013) shows how emotional expressions of happiness influence the judgment of attractiveness.
Left-Brain vs. Right-Brain Personalities: Fact or Fiction?
A new study by Nielsen and colleagues (2013) examined this by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The authors obtained data from fMRI reports of 1011 individuals …
Manual Experience With an Object Shapes Its Meaning
The sensorimotor-based theories posit that the brain becomes activated in the same brain regions when people perceive and interact with an object, and when they …
How Your Mood Influences Your Cognitive Functioning
A literature review by Mitchell & Phillips (2007) examined how positive and negative moods influence people’s cognitive functioning, or more specifically, executive functions.
The Impact of Serotonin on Social Behaviors
The impact of the neurotransmitter serotonin on the brain functioning is extensive, and the treatment of a number of psychological disorders involves serotonin in some …
The Effects of Glutamate in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are some of the most frequent psychological disorders, and the processes involved in fear conditioning seem to be the same across species, i.e. the …
How Money Affects the Brain’s Reward System (Why Money is Addictive)
A study by Elliott and colleagues (2003), published in The Journal of Neuroscience, used a functional magnetic resonance imaging technique (fMRI) to identify the brain areas that …