May 22 2012

letting your mind wander could actually be the solution

I have hit a bit of a…snag…in my research.  Things were going along swimmingly until, well, they weren’t.  Don’t want to dwell on that here, just to say that I have been spending a ton of time nosing through published work trying to figure out how I should proceed.  I look like this guy a lot here lately.

Then, today, I stumbled upon this piece at Nature News, written by Matt Kaplan, that reports on research soon to be published by Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler in Psychological Science.  Their work struck me with is simple brilliance: inspiration will come when you allow your mind to wander.   Continue reading →

May 10 2012

tasty treats….just can’t get enough

As my wife can attest to, this little cup of heaven is one thing I can’t pass up. Even after two helpings on Thanksgiving, I will devour Blue Bell ice cream. Done and done.

But why keep eating when I’ve already satisfied my body’s nutritional needs? Recent research from the lab of Dr. Palmiero Monteleone at University of Naples SUN in Italy, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, shows that this pleasure eating stimulates reward systems in your brain to keep you coming back for more.

Continue reading →

May 8 2012

lazy or not? it’s all in your head

I, like most any gentleman in his late twenties, is content with lying around on the couch with a cold beer and a game on TV.  However, being in grad school, I find that such moments of respite are increasingly harder to come by.  This whole Ph.D. thing takes a lot of work.  Still, to graduate, I will do what I must.

What I didn’t know is that my attitude towards hard work may not be my choice, but could simply be how my brain works.  A brain imaging study performed by Michael Treadway in the lab of David Zald at Vanderbilt, published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience, has discovered that your willingness to work hard is actually regulated by the chemistry in your brain. Continue reading →

May 3 2012

ooooh that smell…can’t you smell that smell

One of my favorite things in the world is coming home after having a brisket cooking all day long.  Really, it’s the same with any savory treat that cooks all day.  The smell is amazing and the food’s never ready soon enough.  Truly mouth-watering.

New research led by Dr Rene A de Wijk of the Top Institute Food and Nutrition in the Netherlands suggests that aromas may have an even more profound effect.  The study, published in March in the journal Flavour, explains how the aroma of your food affects how big of a bite you take. Continue reading →