Evolution Archives - Knowing Neurons

Mariella Careaga February 13, 2023 Amygdala, Emotion, Evolution, fMRI, Love, PET, Prefrontal Cortex, Reward, Reward pathway, Valentine’s Day

This Is Your Brain In Love

By Mariella Careaga Just like any other emotion, love has more to do with the brain than you might think. Among all emotions, love seems to have a special place… Read More

Evolution of Cognition

Caitlin Goodpaster September 20, 2022October 27, 2022 Book Review, Communication, computational neuroscience, Consciousness, development of language, Evolution, individual, Knowledge, microorganisms, module minds, warning

Book Review: Journey of the Mind: How Thinking Emerged from Chaos

By Caitlin Goodpaster For the past two hundred thousand years, humans have dominated planet Earth. From the time we were roaming the African savanna, members of Homo sapiens have mastered… Read More

Cognition

Caitlin Goodpaster January 25, 2022January 25, 2022 Curiosity, Evolution, Exploration, New Science, Novelty, Optogenetics, Subthalamic, Threat, Zona incerta

The Neurobiology of Curiosity

Have you ever heard the saying, “curiosity killed the cat”? While this may be true, curiosity also protects the cat. Curiosity is a highly adaptive characteristic of many animals, from… Read More

A Close Up Look Infographics

Gil Torten December 21, 2021December 21, 2021 animal vision, Evolution, Light, Sight, Vision

A Close Up Look 11 – Pupils

In this new installment of our infographic series, A Close Up Look, KN Illustrator Gil Torten takes us on a journey through the different pupil shapes found in nature and… Read More

Brain Development Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders

Lauren Granata December 14, 2021September 14, 2022 Acoustics, cry, Development, Evolution, Genetics, infants, Postpartum, Psychiatric Disorders, Ultrasonic Vocalizations

The Why of the Cry

When you hear a baby relentlessly crying on an airplane, even through your noise-cancelling headphones, you can do nothing but sigh in defeat. With all hope of an in-flight nap… Read More

Brain Books by Knowing Neurons. The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman. Illustrated by McCall Sarrett & Jooyeun Lee.

Brain Books Big Ideas Consciousness Evolution of Cognition Sensation and Perception

Joel Frohlich December 6, 2019December 7, 2019 Brain Books, Cognition, Color, Consciousness, Evolution, Evolutionary Game Theory, Hallucination, hard problem of consciousness, Illusion, Interface Theory of Perception, mathematics, Motion, Necker Cube, Occam's Razor, Orientation, Perception, Physicalism, Psychology, Quantum mechanics

Book Review and Author Interview: The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman

A full interview with Donald Hoffman follows this book review Does the moon still exist when you’re not looking at it? In a provocative new book titled The Case Against… Read More

An artistic take on the "monkey-to-man" cartoon, depicting the final result as a larger human near fast food with a red warning sign around it. Illustrated by McCall Sarrett.

Big Ideas Brain Basics Brain Development Culture

Marco Travaglio November 27, 2019June 3, 2021 Attention, Brain Fat, Cortex, dementia, depression, DHA, Diet, Dopamine, Dorsal Attention Network, EPA, Evolution, Fat, Fish Oil, Frontoparietal Network, Genetics, Monounsaturated Fat, Neurological Disorder, Neurotransmitters, Omega-3, Omega-6, Polyunsaturated Fat, serotonin, supplements

Brain, Healthy Fats, and the Importance of Fitting Into Your Genes

Our brains are extremely rich in fat. Indeed, about two thirds of the human brain is composed of fat, 35% of which consists of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids. What are… Read More

Language Evolution of Cognition Neuro News

Caitlin Aamodt November 16, 2018April 18, 2019 Evolution, FoxP2, Genetics, Human, language

Study Sheds New Light on FOXP2 in the Evolution of Language

Language is a uniquely human trait, and how it evolved is one of the greatest unanswered questions in neuroscience. Spoken and written language facilitate much of what makes up human… Read More

Brain Books Big Ideas Consciousness Philosophy

Gabrielle Torre May 16, 2018May 17, 2018 Antonio Damasio, Bacteria, Consciousness, Culture, Emotion, Evolution, homeostasis, reason, valence

The Strange Order of Things: Book Review

[dropcap]H[/dropcap]ow do emotions construct human culture? Is culture uniquely human at all? Hard questions, but some tackled nonetheless by renowned neuroscientist Antonio Damasio in his latest book, The Strange… Read More

Big Ideas Consciousness Philosophy

Joel Frohlich February 21, 2018February 21, 2018 Anesthesia, Brain, Cerebellum, Cerebral Cortex, complexity, Conscious, Consciousness, Cortex, Death, Evolution, Giulio Tononi, Human, Information, Integrated Information Theory, Lesions, Life, Neurons, Neurophilosophy, philosophy, Qualia, Seizure, Sleep, Solipsism, Systems, Thomas Nagel, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulaion, Zombies

Consciousness: The Final Frontier

When I walk through my kitchen, I smell fresh food and feel warmth radiating off of it. These internal, subjective experiences are called qualia. I assume that my refrigerator, my… Read More

Big Ideas Neuro SciFi

DanielToker January 3, 2018December 29, 2017 Astrobiology, Cognitive, Cognitive Astrobiology, Diana Reiss, ET, Evolution, Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Intelligence, Jellyfish, NASA, Psychology, SETI, Space, Spaceflight

Cognitive Astrobiology

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o here’s a cool combination of fields: neuroscience and astrobiology. Let’s call it “cognitive astrobiology.”… Read More

Big Ideas Artificial Intelligence Learning and Memory Neuro SciFi Philosophy

Joel Frohlich May 17, 2017October 29, 2017 2001: A Space Odyssey, AI, Arthur C. Clarke, Artificial Intelligence, Deep Blue, DeepFace, Douglas Hofstadter, Evolution, Facebook, Garry Kasparov, Godel Escher Bach, HAL 9000, Hebb's rule, neural network, Stanley Kubrick, Technology, Turing Test

The Ultimate Thought Experiment Part II: 2001: A Space Odyssey

In our previous post, we considered the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in the context of a thought experiment: a thinking tool used by scientists and… Read More