Functions of the Frontal Lobe

It’s been a while since I’ve done a blog post purely dedicated to neuroscience, so this week I thought I’d write about a part of the brain that doesn’t always get much attention – the frontal lobe (also known as the frontal cortex). As the name suggests, the frontal lobe sits at the very front … Read more

Seeing faces

This week’s post is inspired by some conversations I had over Halloween which got me thinking. Why are faces everywhere at this time of year (think carved pumpkins and ghost masks), and what makes them scary? Last year I wrote about the science behind horror movies and why we find things creepy. But what is it … Read more

Childhood Amnesia

Have you ever wondered why you have so few memories of your early childhood? This phenomenon is called childhood or infantile amnesia, and is thought to occur up to around the age of 4 or 5 (Perner & Ruffman, 1995). It is our episodic memories which are affected by childhood amnesia – that is memories … Read more

Creativity

Creativity – why does it come naturally for some, but others struggle to use their imagination? What are the best ways to encourage creativity  and how do you be more creative? These are just some of the questions I’ve got about creativity, and I’d love to know how to beat the creative block. Read more … Read more

Why do we forget?

I realised earlier today that whilst I’ve written several posts about memory, for example this one, about the different types of memory, the link between smell and memory, whether our memory is trustworthy, and about those with perfect memory syndrome, I’ve never actually written a post about the opposite – forgetting. Why is it that … Read more

Why do we dream?

Have you ever stopped to wonder why we dream at night? From sweet dreams to recurring nightmares, our mind is rarely silent – regardless of whether we can really remember their content in the morning. Sometimes, we find our dreams are linked to things going on in our lives right now, worries about future events … Read more

Perfect Memory Syndrome

Can you imagine being able to remember every single day of your life? This is the case for people with highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) – an extremely rare condition which affects fewer than 100 people in the world. In contrast to the majority of us, who can probably recall some details about what we’ve been … Read more

Patient H.M.

Today’s blog post is about one of the most studied individuals in psychology and neuroscience. By studying him, scientists were able to massively expand their knowledge of how to human brain is structured, and how different abilities (or “functions”) are located in different cortical areas. H.M. was born in 1928, and was 10 when he first … Read more

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a neurological condition characterised by repeated seizures. Seizures are caused by electrical activity in the brain, although may appear differently from person to person (not all seizures involve convulsions, despite what you might think). As with many conditions there is not a single cause that can be identified as a precursor to epilepsy. … Read more

Déjà vu

I’m sure you’ve all experienced that feeling where you find yourself thinking that things you are currently experiencing have happened before. Déjà vu (meaning ‘already seen’) can feel kind of creepy, but why does it happen? Déjà vu has been reported to occur in about 60-80% of the healthy population (e.g. Adachi et al, 2003), … Read more