What Makes Us Laugh & Why?
What does it take to be funny? The question is simple, but the answer is not, as attested to by legions of scientists trying to pinpoint the brain's "laugh zone" and decipher how wit works. Humor research remains a fast-growing area of inquiry, with neurologists mapping areas of the brain that oxygenate to register and respond to puns, slapstick and other forms of wit. The solution potentially car... posted on Jul 15 2007, 2,943 reads

BBC & The Science of Happiness
Defining the factors that contribute to happiness has always been something of a puzzle. According to psychologist Professor Ed Diener there is no one key to happiness but a set of ingredients that are vital. In his view family and friends play the most crucial role - the wider and deeper the relationships with those around you the happier you are. Some studies indicate that friendship has a decid... posted on Jul 13 2007, 3,151 reads

The Power of Naming Your Emotions
If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works. Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation's purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to "let them go." Psychologists have long believed that peo... posted on Jul 03 2007, 2,982 reads

Creating an Epidemic of Health
"It is possible to create an epidemic of health," said Jonas Salk. According to writers Tom Munnecke and Heather Wood Ion, "The convergence of the Internet, global communications, and medical technology have created an environment from which dramatic new advances in health care and enhancement may emerge. The contagion for this epidemic is healthy people. In any population, there will be some who ... posted on Jun 26 2007, 1,922 reads

Kids Practice Classroom Mindfulness
The lesson began with the striking of a Tibetan singing bowl to induce mindful awareness. With the sound of their new school bell, the fifth graders at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School here closed their eyes and focused on their breathing, as they tried to imagine “loving kindness” on the playground.“I was losing at baseball and I was about to throw a bat,” Alex Menton, 11, reported to hi... posted on Jun 24 2007, 2,512 reads

Your Personality Can Change
Personality can change. The once accepted idea that an individual's personality is set in stone is, well, changing. "You read about this twin research where these people who have been raised apart have remarkable similarities," said Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University. "The implication there is that it's all programmed in," that personality is permanently stamped into our genes. Say... posted on Jun 13 2007, 3,490 reads

Forgetfulness: A Tool of the Brain
A note to the forgetful: be thankful you don’t remember everything. It means your brain is working properly. According to a new study, the brain only chooses to remember memories it thinks are most relevant, and actively suppresses those that are similar but less used, helping to lessen the cognitive load and prevent confusion. "Whenever you’re engaging in remembering, the brain adapts. It’s... posted on Jun 09 2007, 2,567 reads

What Babies Know & We Don't
Babies might seem a bit dim in their first six months of life, but researchers are getting smarter about what babies know, and the results are surprising. Soon after birth, infants are keen and sophisticated generalists, capable of seeing details in the world that are visible to some other animals but invisible to adults, older children and even slightly older infants. Here are just a few of the m... posted on May 31 2007, 3,819 reads

Your Life (And How You Tell It)
Researchers have long been trying to work out the raw ingredients that account for personality, but they have largely ignored the first-person explanation — the life story that people themselves tell about who they are, and why. Yet in the past decade a handful of psychologists have argued that the quicksilver elements of personal narrative belong in any three-dimensional picture of personality.... posted on May 28 2007, 3,764 reads

Commuting to Inner Peace
Across the world commuters are spending more time and crossing greater distances than a decade ago. In the UK today the average commuting time is 45 minutes. This daily commute is seen by many as the most stressful part of their day. “I've found that the quality of my experience at work is largely being set by my state of mind during the journey from home to my desk," says one woman. And recent ... posted on May 19 2007, 3,553 reads