Remember the dizzy feeling you got as a child after you jumped off the merry-go-round or spun around like a top? These feelings result from activation of the vestibular system, which detects our movements through space but is not a conscious sense like vision or hearing. Join David Dickman and Dora Angelaki from Baylor College of Medicine to explore the workings of the vestibular system and consider some of the integrated computations the brain performs using vestibular signals to guide our common behavior.
http://noba.to/ey5sb6fg
How we feel adds much of the flavor to life’s highest—and lowest—moments. Given how saturated human life is with feelings, and given how profoundly feelings affect us, it is not surprising that much theorizing and research has been devoted to uncovering how we can optimize our feelings, or, “emotion experiences,” as they are referred to in psychological research. Brett Ford and Iriss Mauss from UC Berkeley take a fascinating look at this topic in the newest Noba chapter – Emotion Experience and Well-Being.
http://noba.to/uk6dvwyf
The epigenome has been heralded as a key “missing piece” of the puzzle for understanding how development of psychological disorders may be influenced by the surrounding environment. Epigenetics in psychology provides a framework for understanding how the expression of genes is influenced by experiences and the environment to produce individual differences in behavior, cognition, personality, and mental health. Take a deeper dive into the epigenetic aspects of mental health and review some of the challenges in epigenetic approaches in psychology in the latest addition to the Noba catalogue - Epigenetics in Psychology: Toward an Understanding of the Dynamic Interaction among Genes, Environment, and the Brain
http://noba.to/37p5cb8v
Adolescence is a time of intense growth and change - physically, cognitively, and socially. And anyone living with a teen may claim that there is no way to know what is going on. But psychological science has insights that any parent should appreciate. For clues to some of the whys and hows of the teenage years take a closer look at Noba's newest chapter - Adolescent Development, by Duke University's Jennifer Lansford.
http://noba.to/btay62sn
Has the milk gone bad? Did that last canape taste a little off? For many of us this the extent to which we put our delicate senses of smell and taste to test. But these are truly survival skills. With our huge dietary range we rely on taste and smell to find healthy foods and keep us from harm. But how does it work and what happens if those senses become damaged? The newest Noba chapter - Taste & Smell, by Linda Bartoshuk and Derek Smith - has the answers to those questions and more. Happy reading and bon appetite!
http://noba.to/k92myz65
Brain imaging research is offering new understanding of the social brain and hope for future treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Take a closer look at ASD with Yale's Kevin Pelphrey in one of Noba's newest chapters "Autism: Insights from the Study of the Social Brain."
Would you like to flourish more in the New Year? Build on some of your most important strengths - Gratitude, Forgiveness, and Humility. Do a self-assessment by reading Robert Emmons Noba chapter "Positive Psychology" and dial up your personal well-being in 2014!
It is impossible to imagine life without emotion. Emotions play many important roles in people’s lives and have been the topic of scientific inquiry in psychology for well over a century. In the newest Noba chapter, David Matsumoto and Hyisung Hwang of San Francisco State describe those roles and look critically at three areas: the intrapersonal, the interpersonal, and the social and cultural functions of emotions. Take a close look and learn about how emotions provide meaning to us individually, to the groups we're a part of and to society as a whole.
Have you ever done something that didn’t make sense? Well, who hasn't, right? The psychodynamic perspective on personality can give us all a little insight on our personalities in terms of unconscious psychological processes.
Adelphi University's Robert Bornstein has authored an excellent new chapter on Noba that explores the Psychodynamic Perspective from Freud's time up to the most recent empirical findings. Treat yourself to a good read!
It's holiday time. Most people can't help but feel especially emotional this time of year. Our brains will be extra busy processing responses to the special holiday stimuli (crowded shopping malls, office parties, family gatherings, gift exchanges, etc.). What are the processes in the brain that make our range of emotions possible? The answers are found in Affective Neuroscience, the focus of the newest chapter to join the Noba collection.
Authors Eddie and Cindy Harmon-Jones reveal the neural systems that process complex human emotions like desire, enjoyment, grief and love. Affective neuroscience has made it possible for us to understand much more about not just emotions but also motivational and behavioral processes. Check out this fascinating chapter and get a closer look at what's really happening inside your head as you bravely navigate the holidays.
