It's back to school time, a great time to make a new commitment to one of the most marvelous creations in the world-your brain. Neuroscientists know that the human brain craves learning, and starts to dull when we're not learning enough.

Using one of our programs is often the ideal way to meet that commitment. To make it easier for you, we're offering 30% off any of our programs this week. Just use coupon code BTS30 when ordering!

As always, please feel free to reach out to our Support Community with any questions or comments about Posit Science.

Warm regards,

Jeff Zimman
Co-Founder

Want to Live Longer? Turn off the TV
A pair of recent studies found that watching too much TV can knock years off your life. Australian scientists reported that every hour spent watching television can shorten your life by up to 22 minutes, while Harvard researchers observed that people who watch a lot of television are at a higher risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. But why is life expectancy lower in TV watchers? Find out.

Tired of Making Decisions
Recent research demonstrates that making decisions makes us tired—not physically, but mentally. Making a decision requires significant mental work, and the more choices a person has to make the more likely that decision fatigue will set in. The result: when faced with another decision, the person acts more impulsively or does nothing at all. How might this affect judges, CEOs, the poor, and the rest of us? Learn more.

Tanning Changes the Brain, Not Just the Skin
Scientists recently took a look inside the brains of people who frequent tanning salons. They found that the brain sees tanning as a reward, in a way that’s on par with how the brain reacts to drugs, alcohol, or sugar. The UV light seems to be the addictive factor, since filtering it out significantly lessens the brain rewards. Researchers suggest that this is why people continue to tan despite warnings that UV rays cause wrinkles, skin cancer, and premature aging. Learn more.

Control Your Bicycle with Your Brain
Have you ever dreamed of changing bicycle gears or braking your car using only your mind? Soon, you may be able to. A new system uses EEG (electroencephalography) to record the electrical activity on your scalp and translates it, via computer, to trigger an action, like braking your car. Learn more.

Stutterers’ Brains are “Profoundly Reorganized”
New research from Germany has found that the brains of adults who stutter are organized differently than the brains of non-stutterers. Most notably, the brain area responsible for integrating auditory and motor responses is located in a completely different part of the brain. Even on tasks that don’t involve speech, the researchers saw differences in processing areas. Learn more.

Making Computer Chips More Like Your Brain
IBM has just created a new computer chip that tries to emulate the human brain so it can learn and adapt in real time. Project leader Dharmendra Modha notes that while computers are good at calculations, they’re not good at things that the brain does easily—like recognizing faces or sensing a dangerous situation. He predicts the new chip, called SyNAPSE, can help computers behave a bit more like humans while retaining their calculating competency. Read an interview with Modha to find out more.

Children of Depressed Mothers Have Bigger Amygdalas
MRI scans from a group of 10-year-olds who have depressed mothers reveal that the children have enlarged amygdalas—the brain structure linked closely to emotional response. Earlier studies have shown that children raised in orphanages have larger amygdalas, too. Why might that be the case, and what does it mean for those children? Learn more.

Book of the Month
The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry (2011)
Jon Ronson
Do you worry you might be a psychopath? If so, then you’re almost certainly not one. This is just one of the interesting findings Jon Ronson presents in his new book, which looks at psychopathy from a variety of angles. With training from one of the world’s leading experts on the topic, Ronson seeks out psychopaths of different stripes—from a terrorist to a prominent CEO—to see what makes them tick. Despite the disturbing topic, Ronson manages to make the reader laugh, cringe, and learn all at once. Buy from Amazon >>