The truth is, the human brain is somewhat limited when it comes to processing visual images.

Not everything we see with our eyes actually registers with our brains. There is simply too much visual information to completely process every second; therefore, our brain processes just a fraction of what we see. [...] Continue Reading Seeing Is Believing – or is it?

Yes, you read that correctly. A recent press release from Northeastern University in Boston revealed a project to chart how happy Americans are based on their twitter posts.

We had to share this; it is such an excellent result of mixing social media and neuroscience.

Like the press release mentions, using Twitter as a way to capture the feeling of a moment in time is raw, real, and possible. It is a researcher’s goldmine, and it can help answer a lot of different questions, including the happiness quotient of Americans.

(Shameless plug: you should follow us on twitter: exploringmind. And while you’re at it, like us on facebook, too. We will be posting exclusive content, as well as contests, news, and general science research, etc.)
[...] Continue Reading Happiness Scale Measured By…Twitter?!

Pretty much everyone has heard about the Butterfly Effect. (We do not mean that Ashton Kutcher movie! You can go to IMDB for that, but first, stay here and read this.)

In sum: the butterfly effect states that a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in the jungles of Asia can eventually start a tornado in Texas.

It’s a concept that has been used by people willing others to realize the unforeseen consequences of their actions. (Smoky the Bear may have summarized it best – if you leave a smoldering match near a campsite, you can start a forest fire.) [...] Continue Reading If a butterfly flaps its wings, will your brain’s activity increase?

Clay Shirky is a firm believer in changing how society works by using new technologies to enable global cooperation. In other words, he believes social media can and will change the world.

This TED talk is from June 2009, but it is perhaps more relevant today than when it was originally posted. [...] Continue Reading From the TED Talks: On Social Media…

Please excuse any errors as I wrote this in a rush and was distracted by social media…

In a fun article published in the magazine Fast Company, journalist Adam Penenberg submitted to being a human guinea pig for neuroeconomist Paul Zak’s social networking experiment.

And the result was more than interesting. [...] Continue Reading Your Brain on Social Networking…

One piece of advice that all dieters receive is simply this: don’t skip breakfast. The idea is that skipping breakfast will make you crave junk food, and bypass eating the healthy stuff.

Well, new research presented at the Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego explains why this may be the case. And it has everything to do with the activation of ghrelin, the “hunger hormone.” [...] Continue Reading Cravings, the “Hunger” Hormone, and Breakfast…

Courage is loosely defined as the ability to confront fear, pain, risk, intimidation, or uncertainty.

There are also moments that call for acts of courageousness, like the firefighter who runs into a burning building to check for trapped people, or a teenager with moral courage, who chooses not to go along with a group of friends who are planning to rob a convenience store.

Basically, some of us have it, and the rest of us wish we had more (see picture). [...] Continue Reading Your Brain on Courage

The research on the effect of just minimal exposure to nature is astounding. Nature exposure can elevate your mood and even help with ADHD.

Find out exactly what type of nature exposure can lift your mood and self esteem in just five minutes a day… [...] Continue Reading 5 Minutes of Green Per Day Keeps the Blues Away…

In a kind of spooky experiment, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences reveal that our decisions are made seconds before we become aware of them.

In the study, participants could freely decide if they wanted to press a button with their right or left hand.

The only condition was that they had to remember when they made the decision to either use their right hand or left hand.

Using fMRI, researchers would scan the brains of the participants while all of this was going on in order to find out if they could in fact predict which hand the participants would use BEFORE they were consciously aware of the decision. [...] Continue Reading Brain Scans Can Reveal Your Decisions 7 Seconds Before You “Decide”

Have you ever eaten something every day for a long period of time, and then one day decided you never wanted to have that food again?

Or, perhaps you’ve had a song stuck in your head on repeat for so many days in a row that you swear that you never want to hear that song ever again?

Or, maybe you’ve tried numerous healthy eating plans in an effort to lose weight, but fell off the wagon after a few days because you couldn’t stomach eating the same diet meals day after day?

We have all experienced this feeling, but there is an actual technical term for it, called satiation. [...] Continue Reading Eliminate Boredom with “Variety Recall”