Using language to communicate is something many take for granted. However, a significant proportion of the UK population find spoken or written communication more difficult due to sensory, neural or linguistic challenges such as hearing loss, brain injury or language barriers, and can face substantial disadvantages in many aspects of their lives. A new project, […]

Congratulations to Professor Tim Dalgleish from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit on his appointment as the inaugural Dawson Professor of Young People’s Mental Health within the Department of Psychology. The Dawson Professorship will be based in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge including a Fellowship at St Catharine’s College. This […]

For many years, researchers have thought that higher levels of education protect against cognitive decline in later years, including dementia. An international team including Prof Rik Henson (@rhens.bsky.social) at the MRC CBU have just reported a meta-analysis across 33 countries which showed that, while more education is indeed associated with better cognitive and brain health […]

Congratulations to Professor Camilla Nord from MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRCCBU), who has been awarded the BAP Senior Clinical Psychopharmacology Award in recognition of her excellence in psychopharmacology research. The award was presented at the British Association of Psychopharmacology (BAP) Summer Meeting in Manchester. Camilla said “I’m so grateful to the BAP for […]

In a new book for the general reader, The Animal and the Thinker, John Duncan examines the dialogue between two different sides of ourselves. On one side are our animal instincts, built on the sophisticated needs of human life through evolution, and following the broad principles of instinctive animal behaviour.  Discharging these instincts, Duncan argues, […]

Recent research from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (CamCAN; ‪www.cam-can.org‬) shows that, when pulse pressure – the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure – gets too high, it can damage the brain’s “wiring” (white matter), making it harder to think fast and solve puzzles. Treating blood pressure may therefore help maintain cognitive […]

MRC CBU researchers joined with experts from across the world to produce a consensus on and functional guide to the challenging but powerful combination of brain stimulation with neuroimaging using concurrent TMS-fMRI. Abstract Concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (TMS-fMRI) provides a step-change in the toolkit of neuroscience research. TMS enables […]