Do animals smile? Do they feel emotions and if so how many kinds of feelings do they share with us? In this episode we also take a look at the probiotics in yogurt – how do they affect your thinking and do they might help protect you from stress. It turns out that these probiotics [...]
Have you watched the TV show Walking Dead or ever seen a movie about Zombies (perhaps Zombieland or Dawn of the Dead)? What is so fascinating about the undead? Why do many of us get a strange pleasure out of seeing a zombie get killed? In this episode I explore that strange part of ourselves which for some reason seems to enjoy watching the undead get really dead.
What part of your brain is lighting up when you’re singing? In this episode I take a look at a neat new study that involved having singers lie down in an MRI while their brains were scanned. Take a look at how your cerebellum, your parietal lobe your somato-sentory cortex and your amygdala are all involved in your ability to sing. I’ll also look at how mental rehearsal can positively affect how well you perform a task.
You’ve probably heard about these Brain Training games. Do they really help you to keep your mind sharp? Will they prevent cognitive decline or slow the effects of alzheimer’s disease? In this episode I review some recent studies on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of these popular games.
Everyone can picture one of those phrenology heads with personality traits drawn into different sections of the cranium. Was there anything to that? Well, not exactly. However, with the use of MRI scans researchers today may have located where certain personality traits lie in your brain. Travel with me into a 3D brain and let’s find out where your personality may lie.
There are many reasons why it is difficult to lose weight, but have you considered how supernormal stimuli might be one of them? In this episode I discuss some of the ideas in the books Waistland and Supernormal Stimuli by Dierdre Barrett. Is it possible that the old saying Everything in Moderation might just be wrong? And will Small Changes really help you to get in shape or are radical changes really the way to go?
In this video episode I show you 10 of what I consider to be the best psychology apps in the app store. There are a lot of apps out there and many are not so good, but in this episode I pick out what I consider to be credible therapy apps, excellent mobile mind mapping tools, relaxation apps, games based on Gestalt principles of psychology, and some of the best 3 dimensional ways to look at the brain.
How did you get to be heterosexual? Homosexual? Bisexual? Was it nature or nurture (or both?). Were you born with a sexual orientation or did it develop as you grew? What role did your parents play? In this episode I present the most recent scientific research on the topic of how we develop our sexual preference. You’ll find out whether heterosexual men have more testosterone than homosexual men, how most people know their sexual orientation when they are as young as 10 years old (blame your adrenal gland), how your third intersitial nucleus might be playing a role and finally, could it have something to do with the length of your fingers? Find out in this episode of The Psych Files.
How does music affect us emotionally? Why do minor chords so sad? In this episode of The Psych Files I explore ideas from Daniel Leviton‘s fascinating book, Your Brain on Music, especially those ideas concerned with what composers do to draw you into their music by first conforming to your musical expectations and then carefully confounding them in order to surprise and delight.
How can you use psychology to design a website so people are likely to buy products from you? Or design a website so people are likely to donate money to your cause? In this episode Dr Susan Weinschenk discusses some of these ideas from her book Neuro Web Design. Ever thought you could apply brain science to web design?
