Neuroscience in Everyday Life

How the Brain Gives Rise to Thoughts, Emotion, Behaviors, and Relationships

Marwa Azab Ph.D.

We Crave Interacting With People the Same Way We Crave Food

An fMRI study suggests that people who are forced to be socially isolated crave interactions with people in the same way a hungry person craves food.

The Hidden Power of Pandemics: Mortality Motivation

Different cultures and religions disagree on how many times we live, but they all agree that we die once. Instead of YOLO (you only live once), I prefer YODO (you only die once).

Meaning and Purpose in Life (Not Goals) Protect the Brain

People with strong sense of meaning in life have more efficient brains and are less likely to have suicidal ideation or develop anxiety, depression, dementia or heart attacks.

Why Don't We Take Black People's Pain Seriously?

Even medical students and residents endorsed beliefs such as "Blacks have thicker skin than Whites," and underestimated and under-treated pain in Blacks.

Poverty Shrinks the Brain

Poverty is related to a thinning of the cortex and less efficient brain organization.

You Are Genetically Similar to Your Friend

A friend is "functional kin" — someone we may have subconsciously selected to be similar in some genes to enhance liking, yet dissimilar in other genes to complement genetic vulnerabilities.

Red Versus Blue Brain: Neuropolitics

Conservatives may be more likely to have a larger amygdala and the size of the amygdala has been related to sensitivity to threat and fear.

What After Surviving COVID-19? Brain Fog, Fatigue, and Pain

Positivity over recovered cases ought to be tempered by emerging studies of long-term effects of COVID-19. Studies suggest neurological long-term complications beyond recovery.

The Brain Under the Influence of Power

The brain under the influence of power in individualist societies seems to de-individuate the powerless and allow the powerful to practice full individuation.

Racism and the Brain

Neuroimaging studies suggest that the brain code that signals “threat” is automatically activated to a greater degree by encountering black people.

Parenting During COVID-19: Hands-On Recommendations

During times of confinement to our homes, every person becomes a mirror for everyone else in their family.

10 Necessary Cognitive Changes During a Pandemic

The human brain has an enormous ability to imagine. Anxiety and worry are byproducts of this imaginary system. Worry is a creative story that is based on some true occurrences.

Can Social Brains Obey Social Distancing?

What is absolutely needed is physical distancing—not social distancing—at the first suspicion of a pandemic.

10 Things the Brain Does in Response to Pandemic

One way to distract ourselves from a colossal problem is to create other solvable ones.

Is Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) Real?

Studies have noted several differences in the biology of women who suffer from PMDD and those who do not—most notably, differences in emotion regulation networks in the brain.

Can You Get High From Your Anti-Diarrhea Medication?

According to the National Poison Data System, there were 13 deaths between 2016-2017 as a result of the misuse of the anti-diarrhea medication loperamide.

Winter Brain: Why Do We Feel Sad and Tired in Winter?

Winter blues are a result of complicated biochemical changes in the brain that cause changes in our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors depending on the season.

Your Gut Might Influence Whether or Not You Get Alzheimer's Disease

Patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease appear to have a less diverse gut microbiome compared to age- and sex-matched controls.

Parents' Anxiety Affects How They Talk to Their Children

Anxious mothers might not maximally benefit from parenting because of their excessive uncontrollable worries. They often miss out on the present.

A Non-Medicinal Treatment for ADHD and Why It Works

Among other benefits, exercise increases chemicals known as brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), which are crucially involved in learning and memory.

Is Midlife Stress the Cause of Dementia in Aging Women?

Stress prevention and management during mid-life may significantly reduce women's risk of dementia and related disorders.

Gut Bacteria Can Influence Your Mood, Thoughts, and Brain

Patients with psychiatric disorders such as depression have different populations of gut microbes compared to healthy individuals.

Doughnuts or Broccoli?: Why Dieters Fail and How to Succeed

There are differences in the brains of people who reject tasty unhealthy foods and those who succumb. But you can change that.

Love Is a Healthy Addiction Needed for Long Relationships

Romantic love is a key ingredient in healthy marriages. When It is achieved, it creates an addictive need that sustains a connection for decades.

Can Religion Help with Depression?

The brains of those at high risk for depression become more similar to low-risk brains when they strongly value religious beliefs.

Do Women Age Slower Than Men?

The data suggests that throughout the adult life span, normal female brains are more youthful than men's. In this study, female brains were on average 4 years younger than men's.

Can Stress Kill You? What Doesn't Kill You, Kills You Slowly

There are stressful situations that promote strength. The criteria: Stress you can tolerate, manage successfully, and have control over. Anything short of that can cause damage.

Is Stress Bad or Good for Memory?

High levels of glucocorticoids that accompany chronic stress activate forgetting circuits, inhibit the birth of new neurons, and eventually kill hippocampal cells.

The Pain of Worry: The Anxious Brain

Anxiety compels the sufferer to keep running from an invisible monster to an unknown destination.

The Brain on Fire: Depression and Inflammation

When inflammation is prolonged by stressors and vulnerabilities, the adaptive sickness behavior can become depression.

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