Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: fMRI

fMRI stories: 11 news summaries

Reckless Teens Have More Mature Brains 

Study links risky behavior to a better crop of white matter

Sep 2, 09 12:22 PM CDT
(Newser) - Conventional wisdom says that teens who experiment with drugs, sex, and other risky behaviors do so because their brains—specifically the frontal-lobe areas responsible for decision making—are immature. But a new study turns that notion upside down, suggesting that risky teens have more mature brains than teens who play... More »

MORE ABOUT:
brain • frontal lobe • fMRI • neurons • teenager • risky behavior • risk-taking

(Newser) - If you have trouble remembering who Britney Spears is, there’s some good news and bad news. Good news: You have managed to forget Britney Spears. Bad news: You might be at risk for Alzheimer’s, according to a new study. A team of scientists recently found that people with... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Britney Spears • memory • study • celebrity • fMRI • brain scans • Alzheimer's Disease

Alcoholics Are Less Able to Read Your Face

Sensitivity is lower even when drinkers are sober for years: study

Aug 17, 09 4:32 PM CDT
(Newser) - Long-term alcoholics have a diminished ability to sense others’ emotions, even if they have been sober for years, the Chicago Tribune reports. A new study used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to look at the brain activity of abstinent alcoholics and non-alcoholics while they looked at pictures of faces that... More »

MORE ABOUT:
alcohol • alcoholism • alcohol abuse • neuroscience • empathy • fMRI • hippocampus • amygdala • expressions • emotional intelligence

Girls Bond,
Boys Compete:
Brain Study

Scans confirm gender split on one-on-one interaction

Jul 17, 09 4:24 PM CDT
(Newser) - Ever wonder why girls are so fixated on swapping friendship bracelets? They may just be wired that way, according to a new study. Using MRIs to look inside tweens' and teens' brains, researchers found that one-on-one interactions got girls’ synapses firing, Time reports. Boys focused less on other individuals than... More »

MORE ABOUT:
gender • study • psychology • neuroscience • girls • fMRI • teenager • tween • boys

(Newser) - Decoding part of the complex system used by the brain to store memories has allowed scientists to determine a person’s location by looking at brain scans, Wired reports. A study took images of the hippocampus—the part responsible for spatial relationship and short-term memories—as individuals navigated a virtual-reality... More »

MORE ABOUT:
memory • brain • fMRI • short-term memory • brain scans • hippocampus

Japanese Scientists Can Read Your Mind

They find a way
to extract images directly from the brain

Dec 12, 08 12:02 PM CST
(Newser) - The Thought Police could eventually exist in reality, if they can just figure out how to harness new technology developed by Japanese researchers, the Daily Yomuri reports. The team managed to re-create images that people were looking at—using only subjects' recorded brain activity. This is the first successful display... More »

MORE ABOUT:
brain • neuroscience • fMRI • neurons • scientific breakthroughs

 Bullies May Enjoy Inflicting Pain 

Brain scans show agressors feel reward watching others suffer

Nov 7, 08 12:33 PM CST
(Newser) - Bullies appear to enjoy seeing other people in pain, Reuters reports. Researchers in Chicago took brain scans of two sample groups of teens while showing them videos of one person hurting another. When showed violence, one group of teens, who were diagnosed with aggressive-conduct disorder and had recently attacked schoolmates,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
high school • violence • bullying • fMRI • scientific research • teenager • aggression

It's a Fine Line Between Love, Hate in the Brain

But hate appears to be a more calculating, rational emotion

Oct 29, 08 1:47 PM CDT
(Newser) - Areas of the brain involved in hatred are also activated by love, a study suggests. Researchers took images of brain activity when subjects looked at a photo of someone they despised, ABC News reports. While not identical, the pattern of brain activation those images triggered involved some of the same... More »

MORE ABOUT:
love • brain • neuroimaging • emotion • fMRI • scientific study

Why Girls Are Better at Language

Study finds brain wiring gives girls the edge

Mar 6, 08 11:12 AM CST
(Newser) - Study after study has found that girls have better language skills than boys, and scientists now think they've found a biological reason why, Scientific American reports. Researchers discovered that girls showed more activity in the language part of their brains, which deciphers abstract encoding, than boys. The boys had... More »

MORE ABOUT:
education • children • research • neuroscience • language • neurology • fMRI

Mind-Reading Edges Closer
to Reality

New computer can determine what
you're looking at

Mar 6, 08 3:30 AM CST
(Newser) - Mind-reading has taken a step toward possibility with a new computer that can decode brain activity to determine what a person is looking at with up to 90% accuracy, the Independent reports. With improvements, the technology could be able to reconstruct any image a person could conjure up—and someday,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
brain • research • mind • neuroscience • neurology • neuroimaging • fMRI

Study Finds
No Evidence
of ESP

But you knew we
were going to
say that, right?

Jan 14, 08 3:55 PM CST
(Newser) - You might have had a feeling, but ESP is not real—at least according to two Harvard researchers who used brain-scanning technology to investigate the existence of extrasensory perception. The brain registers familiar images differently than new ones, but researchers found no difference in activity when subjects processed images "... More »

MORE ABOUT:
extrasensory perception • parapsychology • fMRI

11 Stories


from our news partners