Watching the news should make you more informed, but it also may be making you more likely to stereotype, says a University of Illinois researcher.

Attention modulates the activity of sensory areas by both increasing the activity in regions responding to attended stimuli and reducing activity in other regions. It is unclear, however, whether neural mechanisms of attention vary with perceptual requirements.

Real or perceived threats can trigger the well-known “fight or flight response” in humans and other animals. Adrenaline flows, and the stressed individual’s heart pumps faster, the muscles work harder, the brain sharpens and non-essential systems shut down. The whole organism responds in concert in order to survive.

If you see something, it’s because you’re looking at it, right? A recently published study examined this question and established that while people do tend to notice objects within their gaze, it is the assumptions they make about their environment that affects their perceptions. This study gives insight into how the brain and the eye work together to interpret everyday observations.

Despite the significance of taste to both human gratification and survival, a basic understanding of this primal sense is still unfolding.

An international team of scientists led by a University of Leicester researcher has carried out a scientific study into the realm of consciousness.

Chinese, Africans and Indians may differ in what odors they find yummy, but they all perceive pleasantness in the same way, according to the findings of neurobiologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

You’re whale watching in Alaska, longing for a margarita and a spot on a beach. You think to yourself, “How did I get here" I hate the cold. Never finished Moby Dick. And I get seasick!”

Would you drive a SUV called a Himmer" Phonetic symbolism refers to the notion that the sounds of words, apart from their assigned definition, convey meaning. A fascinating forthcoming paper from the October issue of the Journal of Consumer Research applies this theory to product names.