How I Tricked My Brain Into Liking Running

It’s common knowledge in my household that Monday at 5:55 a.m. is the worst time of the week. That’s because Monday is a running day, and I hate running. I have always hated running. In elementary school, I dreaded the mile run test and was always in the back with my fellow gym class rejects….

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How Exercise Strengthens Your Brain

Growing up in the Netherlands, Henriette van Praag had always been active, playing sports and riding her bike to school every day. Then, in the late-1990s, while working as a staff scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, she discovered that exercise can spur the growth of new brain cells in…

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Working With Your Hands Is Good for Your Brain

The human hand is a marvel of nature. No other creature on Earth, not even our closest primate relatives, has hands structured quite like ours, capable of such precise grasping and manipulation. But we’re doing less intricate hands-on work than we used to. A lot of modern life involves simple movements, such as tapping screens…

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Ice Skating and the Brain

How do champion skaters accomplish their extraordinary jumps and spins? Brain science is uncovering clues. By Pam Belluck Pam Belluck is a neuroscience reporter and figure skating fan. March 27, 2024 The recent World Figure Skating Championships produced exciting results, including a 19-year-old American landing a quadruple axel and a 40-year-old pairs skater who became…

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New Havana Syndrome Studies Find No Evidence of Brain Injuries

New studies by the National Institutes of Health failed to find evidence of brain injury in scans or blood markers of the diplomats and spies who suffered symptoms of Havana syndrome, bolstering the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies about the strange health incidents. Spy agencies have concluded that the debilitating symptoms associated with Havana syndrome,…

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How Love and Romance Affect Your Brain

New love can consume our thoughts, supercharge our emotions and, on occasion, cause us to act out of character. “People pine for love, they live for love, they kill for love and they die for love,” said Helen Fisher, a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. “It’s one of the most…

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