Mindframe

  Previously, we’ve talked about how enlarged pupils can signify attention or arousal. If someone’s pupils dilate when you talk to them, conventional wisdom went, that means they’re very interested in what you have to say. It’s been speculated that this is why restaurants go in for mood lighting: the low light helps create the illusion that your dining companion is riveted, and thus increases the odds you’ll stay long enough to linger over that slice of cheesecake or extra glass of wine. However, it’s not so simple as looking into your date’s eyeball and reading their mind. In a 2017 study , researchers from the University of Amsterdam and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf found that enlarged pupils can also be a sign of indecision. Here’s how they support this conclusion: in a recent study, 27 subjects sat in a dark room in front of a computer screen, which displayed a series of problems. In each sequence, the participant had to make a judgement about dots ...

      No two human brains are exactly alike. Or at least, that’s what neuroscientists have generally assumed. After all, consider the highly specific combination of genetic intermixing that makes up your DNA. Consider neuroplasticity—how easily the brain can wire itself based on past experiences. Learning how to navigate a complicated city, mastering the violin, even keeping your arm in a cast for two weeks all leave an indelible mark on your gray matter. Now consider the tremendous variation in experiences, even among siblings of approximately the same age, growing up in the same family.   However, short of scanning every single brain out there, how can we reasonably conclude that brains truly follow the snowflake model of uniqueness?   Five researchers at the University of Zurich recently took up the task: Seyed Abolfazl Valizadeh, Franziskus Liem, Susan Mérillat, Jürgen Hänggi, and Lutz Jäncke. They chronicled their results in the desc...

  Parrots: at times, they seem almost suspiciously smart. It’s not just about the talking and the mimicry; the Harvard Gazette reports that an adult parrot can routinely outperform a human four-year-old in a variety of cognition tests, including judging the relative volume of liquids. (Pour equal amounts of juice into a tall thin cup and a short stout one and your average preschooler will opt for the taller cup, while your average parrot won’t be fooled.)   How can a creature with a brain so noticeably different than our own seem to think so clearly? And why is parrot or crow intelligence (or, for that matter, octopus intelligence) so unsettling, compared to say, chimpanzee intelligence? What is it about a smart bird that seems a little spooky?   Science has yet to address the latter questions, but as to that first point, it appears that a breakthrough has been made. University of Alberta neuroscientists Cristián Gutiérrez-Ibáñez, Andrew N. Iwaniuk and D...

    “You are what you buy,” our consumer culture seems to tell us. But how fixed and immutable are our buying preferences? How subject are they to chemical manipulation? This may sound like the premise for a paranoid and on-the-nose thriller about capitalism but it’s also the question raised by a recentcollaboration between Caltech, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Western Ontario, and ZRT Laboratory. And the results of that study suggest the answer is: very.   Researchers assembled 243 men between the ages of 18 and 55. Half were randomly dosed with testosterone, while the other half were given a placebo. 4 hours later, when the testosterone in their blood had nearly peaked, they were given several tasks. First, the subjects were presented with a 10-point scale, featuring a brand with high social status on one end, and a brand with low status—but otherwise equal quality—on the other. The men were asked to move a ...