New book encourages readers to embrace uncertainty in order to improve decision-making, mental health, and more

Life is uncer­tain. We nev­er know what will hap­pen, and many things are unknow­able. This can make us feel stressed or wor­ried, since the unknown is asso­ci­at­ed with dan­ger. But as jour­nal­ist Mag­gie Jack­son argues in her new book, Uncer­tain: The Wis­dom and Won­der of Being Unsure, there are many ben­e­fits to allow­ing our­selves to…

Read More

Could I be wrong? Exploring cognitive bias, curiosity, intellectual humility, and lifelong learning

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing eight time­ly sci­en­tif­ic and indus­try news plus a few fun teasers to appre­ci­ate our unique human brains. #1. Could I be wrong? Explor­ing research on cog­ni­tive bias, curios­i­ty, intel­lec­tu­al humil­i­ty, and life­long learn­ing “None of us thinks that our beliefs and atti­tudes are incor­rect; if we…

Read More

Could I be wrong? Exploring research on cognitive bias, curiosity, intellectual humility, and lifelong learning

A few years ago, I asked a sam­ple of adults to think about all of the dis­agree­ments that they have with oth­er peo­ple, from minor dis­agree­ments about rel­a­tive­ly unim­por­tant issues to major dis­agree­ments about impor­tant mat­ters. Then, I asked them to esti­mate the per­cent­age of dis­agree­ments they have with oth­er peo­ple in which they are…

Read More

A Love affair Across Generations: A Lamarckian Reincarnation?

Eric Jensen alert­ed me to a research study pub­lished in the Feb­ru­ary 4th Jour­nal of Neu­ro­science — Trans­gen­er­a­tional Res­cue of a Genet­ic Defect in Long-Term Poten­ti­a­tion and Mem­o­ry For­ma­tion by Juve­nile Enrich­ment. We both had the same ini­tial WOW! feel­ing that we had expe­ri­enced when we first read about the dis­cov­ery of mir­ror neu­rons a…

Read More

Neuroscience Core Concepts: What is “It” in Use It or Lose It?

We all have heard “Use It or Lose It”. Now, what is “It”? how does “it” work? why is “it” our best (and too often unrec­og­nized) friend? The Soci­ety for Neu­ro­science (SfN) has just released a user-friend­­ly pub­li­ca­tion titled Neu­ro­science Core Con­cepts, aimed at help­ing edu­ca­tors and the gen­er­al pub­lic learn more about the brain. Description:…

Read More