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Neuroscientists scanned Sting’s brain. Here’s what they learned.
The Washington Post: A book with the title “This Is Your Brain on Music” would, presumably, be of great interest to a musician like Sting. His gray matter has been on the stuff for a career that spans four decades. What the once and future Police frontman could not have anticipated is that by reading the book, authored by rocker-turned-McGill University neurologist Daniel Levitin, Sting would end up inside an fMRI machine. As coincidence would have it, in the wake of reading Levitin’s book, Sting was headed to a concert in Montreal. Also located in the city is Levitin’s lab, which Sting decided to visit.
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Tim Duncan, Natalie Portman and 76 other ‘unusual’ authors of psychological research
Minnpost: What do the Academy-Award-winning actor Colin Firth, the conservative radio host Michael Savage, the San Antonio Spurs basketball great Tim Duncan and eHarmony founder Neil Clark Warren have in common? They’ve all published papers or studies in psychology journals, according to an intriguing (and sometimes amusing) recent article in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science. Read the whole story: Minnpost
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Why We Fall Prey to Misinformation
Even when we know better, we often rely on inaccurate or misleading information to make future decisions. A review of scientific research explores the reasons why.
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Sleep Makes Relearning Faster and Longer-Lasting
Sleeping between study sessions may make it easier to recall what you studied and relearn what you forgot, with lasting results.
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Most Americans Think Their Opinion on Guns is Widely Shared
TIME: When it comes to how Americans view gun ownership, there is a curious contradiction: Almost everyone thinks the majority of the country agrees with them. In June, we ran a survey in partnership with social psychologists Sander van der Linden of Cambridge and Princeton Universities and Adam Pearson of Pomona College, in which readers were polled on their opinions about gun ownership and then asked to predict how other people felt about the issue. The more likely the 5,117 respondents were to agree with the statement “I think having a gun in the home increases one’s risk of death,” the more likely they were to think other Americans agreed as well, as the following graph demonstrates.
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A bit of cash can keep someone off the streets for 2 years or more
Science: If someone is about to become homeless, giving them a single cash infusion, averaging about $1000, may be enough to keep them off the streets for at least 2 years. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that programs that proactively assist those in need don’t just help the victims—they may benefit society as a whole. “I think this is a really important study, and it’s really well done,” says Beth Shinn, a community psychologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who specializes in homelessness but was not involved in the work. Read the whole story: Science
