Psychology

Neuroscientists have identified the location in the brain's visual cortex responsible for generating a common perceptual illusion: seeing shapes and surfaces that don't really exist when viewing a fragmented background. Read More

A team of Vanderbilt researchers has provided important validation of maps of the brain at rest that may offer insights into changes in the brain that occur in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Read More

What exactly pushed Christopher Columbus to embark on a voyage across the Atlantic, or Edward Jenner to test his theory for an early smallpox vaccine on a child, or Henry Ford to bet that automobiles could replace horses? David Zald, professor of psychology, studies risk-taking and is quoted. Read More

Young children—even toddlers—are spending more and more time with digital technology. What will it mean for their development? Georgene Troseth, associate professor of psychology, has studied how toddlers interact with screens and is quoted. Read More

Through a set of experiments, Gordon Logan, Nashville musician Jerry Kimbrough and Matthew Crump (now of Brooklyn College-CUNY) have illustrated that guitarists – and players of other related instruments like mandolin, banjo and bass – tend to acquire their skills differently than most other musicians. Read More

A new study demonstrates how the brain follows Ben Franklin’s famous dictum, “Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.” Read More

When it comes to using a star to endorse a product, new Vanderbilt research finds the less people know about the celebrity’s personal opinions, the better. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered that the pulvinar, a mysterious structure buried in the center of our brains, determines how we see the world — and whether we see at all. Read More

A new brain imaging study that has found an individual’s willingness to work hard to earn money is strongly influenced by the chemistry in three specific areas of the brain. Read More

Neuroscientists from Vanderbilt and Harvard have proposed the first neurobiological model for third-party punishment, outlining potential cognitive and brain processes that evolutionary pressures could have re-purposed to make this behavior possible. Read More

A brain-mapping study has found that people's ability to make decisions in novel situations decreases with age and is associated with a reduction in the integrity of two specific white-matter pathways. Read More

Vanderbilt University has emerged as one of the nation’s leading academic centers in neuroscience. Read More

Autism experts from Vanderbilt University are available for interviews on World Autism Awareness Day, designated by the United Nations as April 2. Read More

Sohee Park's schizophrenia research may lead to a greater understanding of the benefit of movement therapies such as yoga and dance for the 2.2 million people in the United States who suffer from this mental disorder. Read More

Jonathan Metzl, director of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society, explains the science behind how the brain weighs decisions and forms political beliefs on the "Melissa Harris-Perry" show. Read More

Shyness may be caused by deficits in the brain. Read More

Vanderbilt psychologist David Schlundt weighs in on the issue of whether or not cutting calories is bound to lead to binge eating and explains why we need to "personalize" our diets. Read More

Sohee Park’s research explores the impaired and enhanced abilities of the schizophrenic brain Sohee Park (John Russell/Vanderbilt) The “rubber hand illusion” is not a new scientific method, but Sohee Park has used it to make some groundbreaking discoveries about schizophrenia. RHI, which was discovered in 1998, is… Read More

A network of scientists who study how the brain acquires visual expertise has received a five-year renewal of support from the National Science Foundation. Read More

Greg Barz (Vanderbilt) Greg Barz, associate professor of ethnomusicology, has co-edited a volume of essays, The Culture of AIDS in Africa: Hope and Healing Through Music and the Arts, published by Oxford University Press. Anne Davis, instructor in law, has been named managing attorney of the Southern Environmental Law… Read More