Doughnuts and decision making

The next time you find yourself in line at the bakery, you’ll find your brain has already been quietly gathering evidence toward your baked good of choice, and that choice happens a little faster than you realise.

A world appears

Michael Pollan’s new book “A World Appears” tells the story of humanity’s philosophical, artistic and scientific quest to solve the mystery of consciousness.

Shining a light on short-term memory

We often treat short-term memory like a light switch which is either on or off but that understanding how “fuzzy memories” work can improve our recall and decision‑making.

Forever Jung

Where Freud reduced the human psyche to repressed drives, Jung expanded it into something vast and mythic. Indeed, his concepts of the collective unconscious, archetypes and individuation were an audacious attempt to map what it means to be human in an age before biological neuroscience.

AI can power neuroscience

A panel of neuroscience experts discussed the fusion of neuroscience, AI and pharmacology at a recent panel discussion facilitated by Monash University.

How genetics differentiates male and female brains

As well as the obvious physical differences between men and women, a growing body of scientific evidence shows hundreds of genes act differently in the brains of the two sexes, and may be linked to brain disorders such as Alheizmer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Inside the minds of power

Deeper collaboration between psychologists, political scientists and policymakers could combine strategic empathy with empirical research to create more accurate models of leadership behaviour.

In praise of boredom

Boredom isn’t a problem to escape with another scroll on our phones but a precious opportunity to create the mental space we need to wrestle with life’s deeper questions of meaning, imagination and purpose.

Common knowledge

Steven Pinker’s new book explores the paradoxes of human behaviour by trying to understand the ways we try to get into each other’s heads and the harmonies, hypocrisies, and outrages that result.

A dopamine detox?

Modern life constantly stimulates our brains, flooding them with dopamine and leaving us desensitised to real life, so can we ‘detox’ by putting our phones down, or is more radical action required?

The neuroscience of staying sharp

The sustained excellence of these athletes is not just due to talent or grit – it’s biology in action as staying at the top of their game reflects a trainable convergence of brain, body and mindset.

What happens when we change our minds?

The science of how we change our minds is an exciting field of research and could help us make better decisions as both individuals and a society.