Mind, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 2, 2009

Foot-in-Mouth: Why We Do It

Scientists have figured out one surprising reason why we make social gaffes we desperately wish to avoid: Ironically, the very act of trying to avoid saying or doing something can sometimes cause it to happen. When these things do happen we sort of smile and look the other way, said...

Jun 10, 2011

3-D Images Reveal What Happens as Brain Loses Consciousness

New 3-D images reveal for the first time what happens inside the brain when a person loses consciousness, suggesting the mysterious sleeplike state occurs as electrical activity deep in the brain dims and connections between certain neurons suddenly break down. We have produced what I think is the first video...

Nov 8, 2011

Hypnosis May Be Altered State Of Consciousness

The true nature of hypnosis has eluded scientists. It's clear people can be hypnotized, but it's not clear how this happens. New research offers a clue. By recording the eye movements of a hypnotized woman, and comparing them with those of nonhypnotized people, researchers say they have found evidence that...

Nov 14, 2012

The Unconscious Brain Can Do Math, Read

People can process short sentences and solve equations before they're aware of the words and numbers in front of their eyes, finds new research that suggests we might not actually need full consciousness to perform rule-based tasks like reading and arithmetic. In a series of experiments at the Hebrew University...

Nov 26, 2012

What Happens to the Brain in a Coma

What is going on inside the heads of individuals in a coma has been steeped in mystery. Now, a new study finds coma patients have dramatically reorganized brain networks, a finding that could shed light on the mystery of consciousness. Compared with healthy patients in the study, high-traffic hubs of...

Jan 30, 2013

The Brain Retroactively Edits Conscious Experience

The brain apparently edits a person's conscious experience retroactively. Up to a half-second after an object disappears from view, the brain can edit the experience to retain that object, a new study from France shows. The finding may partly explain the weird feeling of being able to recall something you...

Apr 18, 2013

Babies Have Consciousness, Study Finds

Infants have a conscious experience of the world at as early as 5 months of age, new research finds. New parents may raise an eyebrow at the idea that their baby might not be a conscious being, but scientists have, until now, not been able to clearly show that infants...

May 31, 2013

Will We Ever Understand Consciousness? Scientists & Philosophers Debate

NEW YORK — As you read this sentence, the millions of neurons in your brain are frantically whispering to each other, resulting in the experience of conscious awareness. The nature of consciousness has intrigued philosophers and scientists for thousands of years. But can modern neuroscience ever hope to crack this...

Jun 27, 2013

Could Quantum Brain Effects Explain Consciousness?

Updated on Monday, July 1, at 9:25 a.m. ET. NEW YORK — The idea that consciousness arises from quantum mechanical phenomena in the brain is intriguing, yet lacks evidence, scientists say. Physicist Roger Penrose, of the University of Oxford, and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, of the University of Arizona, propose that...

Jul 2, 2013

Why Self-Consciousness Peaks in Teenage Years

Some of the more awkward growth spurts that mark adolescence occur in the brain, and a new study suggests certain developmental changes might make teens ultra-sensitive to the gaze of other people. Teens are famous for their self-consciousness and suspicion that everyone is watching them. In the new study, compared...

Aug 14, 2013

New 'Consciousness Meter' Could Aid Brain-Injury Treatments

A new technique that can determine a person's level of consciousness could benefit patients who have suffered brain damage. These patients range from those who are fully aware but are unable to respond — known as locked-in syndrome — to those in a vegetative state, oblivious to the world. The...

Sep 19, 2013

Strange New State of Consciousness Could Exist, Researcher Says

With anesthetics properly given, very few patients wake up during surgery. However, new findings point to the possibility of a state of mind in which a patient is neither fully conscious nor unconscious, experts say. This possible third state of consciousness, may be a state in which patients can respond...

Oct 24, 2013

The Key to Consciousness: Efficient Information Flow?

The moment a person slips from conscious thought into unconsciousness has long been a mystery. Now researchers have pinpointed exactly what goes on in the brain as people become unconscious after taking anesthesia. It turns out that there probably aren't individual neurons, or brain cells, responsible for consciousness. This data...

Jun 9, 2014

How the Brain Awakens from Unconsciousness Becomes Clearer

Exactly what happens when people wake up from anesthesia or a coma has long baffled scientists, but now new research on rats suggests the path the brain takes to regain consciousness may be even more sophisticated than thought. It is commonly assumed that waking from anesthesia is a simple thing:...

Jun 27, 2014

Detecting Brain Activity in Coma Patients Can Be Scary for Families (Op-Ed)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. It’s often argued that technological innovation in medicine is key to improving healthcare, and there is no doubt that brain-scan technology such as fMRI is at the forefront of...