In a new article in Current Biology, Andy Calder from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, together with researchers at The Vision Centre, University of Sydney reveal that, when in doubt about the direction of another person’s gaze, we are more likely to think that the person is staring at us, even when they aren’t. [...]
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CBU Open Day – Saturday June 22nd 10am-4pm
CBU Open Day – Saturday June 22nd 10am-4pm As part of the MRC Centenary celebrations ...
Emily Holmes wins Humboldt Foundation award
Emily Holmes, senior scientist at the CBU, has recently been awarded €45,000 as a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. The award is given in recognition of Emily’s past accomplishments in research and teaching. We are delighted to congratulate Emily on this award.
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Training the emotional brain
A study conducted by researchers at the MRC CBU, led by Susanne Schweizer, which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience (20 March) has investigated the possibility of improving individuals’ affective control capacity, which refers to the ability to keep focusing on the current task despite emotional distraction. The study showed that emotional working memory [...]
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PhD student gains research fellowship
Nadja Tschentscher, a 3rd-year PhD student at the CBU, has just received a Research Fellowship in Science from Girton College, University of Cambridge. This will allow her to carry out post-doctoral research at the CBU for 3 years after her PhD. Focusing on EEG/MEG methodology, Nadja will investigate brain oscillations and network connectivity in mental [...]
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Memory strategy may help depressed people remember the good times
New research highlights a memory strategy that may help people who suffer from depression in recalling positive day-to-day experiences. The study is published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Previous research has shown that being able to call up concrete, detailed memories that are positive or self-affirming can help [...]
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What’s been bugging Rik Henson? And is state-trace analysis the answer?
What precisely constitutes a “difference” in brain activity? The answer has implications for cognitive neuroscientists who use neuroimaging to test theories about whether different brain regions support different cognitive functions. In a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, Bernhard Staresina and colleagues introduce a new method called “state-trace analysis”, [...]
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Cambridge Science Festival – Science evening at CBU
An entertaining and educational evening of demonstrations and lectures at the CBSU was held on Wednesday 13th March. Our annual science open evening titled “A window on the brain” is given as part of the Cambridge Science Festival and features lectures from three of our leading scientists highlighting our varied research, plus the chance to [...]
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CBU’s Tom Manly features in Zombielab at the Science Museum
London’s Science Museum (http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk) is this week holding a Zombie Festival, Zombielab – an event in which science and the ill tempered recently deceased finally clash. The CBU’s Tom Manly recently took part with the festival audience showing how the principles that allow inference on cognition from behaviour in people can equally be applied to [...]
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January 2013: Unit student wins EPS Frith Prize
Dr Aidan Horner, a former PhD student of the CBU, was recently awarded the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) Frith Prize for 2013, which is given for outstanding PhD research. Aidan, now at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL, said: “I am honored and humbled. I have always admired the EPS, a society that sparked my [...]
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January 2013: Listen up! CBU researchers at the Science Museum in London
January 2013: Listen up! CBU researchers at the Science Museum in London What’s the difference between a bear and a pear? Knowing which one is hiding at the bottom of your fruit bowl is clearly important in everyday life! Being able to hear the small acoustic differences between spoken words is just as important. Listeners [...]
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