In the word birdbrained we describe something (or someone) foolish and short-sighted. This approach makes us value birds as primitive beings whose brains and the thoughts they generate are so elementary and superficial that they cannot compete with human beings. This is a well-established position, based on fundamental differences in the brain structure of mammals […]

Now presenting for you a beautiful three-dimensional model of two mouse brain neurons, created by labmate Julian Bartram. For those who are interested in this sphere, available explanations of the benefits of such reconstructions (other than that they are beautiful) and how to get such images in the lab. Researchers often photograph neural membranes to […]

The holiday season is over, and in the words of Sean Connery, the damage is done. But aside from the myriad ways in which alcohol harms brain function, what most of us perhaps find more interesting is the question of alcohol’s effect on subjective experience. What events does alcohol consumption produce in the brain that […]

Australian artist Concetta Antico describes her extraordinary visual experience as a mosaic of vibrant colors. “The little stones jump out at me with oranges, yellows, greens, blues and pinks (1) – this is how Concetta reflected on the kind of pebble path that most people perceive as gray in an interview with the BBC. Concetta’s […]

Whatever we look at, whatever we do, our perception of color is based on a mixture of three basic shades. The printer, by mixing three colored inks in different quantities, generates all the colors we see – these are the colors we see on everything from labels, stickers and images to products, books, films. So […]