"Two new books argue that the human brain's haphazard evolution has left us at the prey of irrational behaviors and self-defeating instincts."

'Prof. Keysers continued, "What this means is that whether we see a movie or read a story, the same thing happens: we activate our bodily representations of what it feels like to be disgusted– and that is why reading a book and viewing a movie can both make us feel as if we literally feel what the protagonist is going through."'

"According to this perspective, schizophrenia is a by-product of our rapidly evolving brains. Because we are operating at near-capacity levels, any reduction in our ability to produce and process brain energy can be debilitating. "

"The bottom line: Exercisers learn faster, remember more, think clearer and bounce back more easily from brain injuries such as a stroke. They are also less prone to depression and age-related cognitive decline. "

New imaging technologies reveal the intricate architecture of the brain, creating a blueprint of its connectivity.

Welcome to the thirty-seventh edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we try to uncover the neuropathology of Asperger’s syndrome, correlate sleep disturbances with chronic fatigue syndrome, link OCD to specific neuroanatomy, and discuss several brain fitness techniques.

DARPA has a five year program called Systems Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics or SyNAPSE for short. I already previously mentioned this project that the US military is undertaking in another blog post. Neuromorphic is basically the creation of digital neurons on a microchip that mimic the functioning of real neurons.

First, Keith Barry shows us how our brains can fool our bodies -- in a trick that works via podcast too. Then he involves the audience in some jaw-dropping (and even a bit dangerous) feats of brain magic.

Why do we crave love so much, even to the point that we would die for it? To learn more about our very real, very physical need for romantic love, Helen Fisher and her research team took MRIs of people in love -- and people who had just been dumped.