Video: Dan Buettner on How to Live to Be 100+

Researcher Dan Buettner talks about some of the world’s identified “blue zones”–areas of the world in which people live to be over 100 and remain mentally and physically healthier than the rest of us even into very old age.

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Posted May 18, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies

Learning, Thinking, Feeling: People vs. Animals

Ask a group of people what the difference between animals and humans are, and they will probably come up with as many answers as there are individuals in the group. But my guess is that many of them will come up with some variation of this: that it’s our amazing brains–our ability to learn, to [...]

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Posted March 23, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies

Personal Hero: Temple Grandin

People have been talking about Temple Grandin quite a bit lately, partly because HBO recently released an original movie about her life and achievements starring Claire Danes. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it. (If you don’t have HBO, you can make a note to check it out when it’s released [...]

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Posted February 25, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Odds and Ends

Daily TED Talk – Helen Fisher on the Brain and Love

All week I’ve been posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. This is the last TED talk I’ll post for now- I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed them and learned from watching them. We’ll be sure to check the videos for TED 2010, which just concluded, and post any interesting neuroscience-related ones we find. Since [...]

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Posted February 14, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends

Daily TED Talk – Christopher DeCharms Looks Inside the Brain

This week I’m posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. In this talk from TED 2008, Christopher DeCharms discusses an innovative way to use MRI technology to look at brain activity in real time, which can help people learn to control chronic pain without drugs or surgery. Enjoy!

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Posted February 13, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies

Daily TED Talk – Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight

This week I’m posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. In this talk from TED 2008, brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor tells an incredible story about studying her own stroke and long recovery process from the inside out. Enjoy!

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Posted February 12, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends

Daily TED Talk – Vilayanur Ramachandran on Your Mind

This week I’m posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. In this talk from TED 2007, Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between your gray matter and your mind, using three fascinating delusions as examples. Enjoy!

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Posted February 11, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies

Daily TED Talk – Gregory Petsko on the Coming Neurological Epidemic

This week I’m posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. In this eye-opening 4 minute talk from TED 2008, biochemist Gregory Petsko argues that between now and 2050, we’ll see an epidemic of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, as the world’s population ages.

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Posted February 10, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends

Daily TED Talk – Michael Merzenich on Re-wiring the Brain

This week something really neat is happening in Long Beach, California. It’s the annual TED Conference- a meeting of some of the world’s great minds of science, technology, design, and entertainment. While not all of us are able to attend the very exclusive TED Conference, we can all benefit from the wonderful videos they post [...]

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Posted February 9, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Brain exercise, Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies