Great literature can transport us to times and places outside our own existence. As we turn each page, the characters and plots become more and more real to us. This experience of being immersed in a good book is more than entertaining; it also may enhance our real lives as social beings. A number of […]

As anyone who has heard “their song” can attest, the right music has the power to make you move. Now healthcare providers are trying to harness this power to help patients with a neurological motor disorder, Parkinson’s disease (PD). Over the past three decades, researchers have begun to uncover the neural basis of music’s effect […]

As summer fades, you can almost hear the collective sigh of children marching back into the confines of the classroom. Hopefully, their summer vacations included healthy doses of nature. Time outdoors has noted benefits to our mental health. But kids would do well to continue communing with nature when they start hitting the books as […]

Our society’s rapid pace of life and addiction to digital technology have created a stress epidemic in the 21st century. But there may be another major contributing factor: chronic nature deprivation. Our connection to nature has become very tenuous. More than half the world’s population currently lives in cities, a number that is predicted to […]

Dialogues Between Neuroscience and Society Panel on Music and the Brain.  Pictured from left to right:  Charles Limb, Pat Metheny and Richard Huganir. The 2018 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA started on a spectacular note this November, featuring the legendary jazz guitarist Pat Metheny in the public lecture Dialogues Between Neuroscience […]

Seven service members, all diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from combat, sat at the psychotherapy group table, creating symbols of themselves out of clay on a fabric placemat to keep their workspace clean. During the verbal processing part of the group, each participant described what he made; symbols that ranged from flat hearts to […]

“Kiss your brain!” It’s a common refrain from teachers at the Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL) afterschool program when a scholar gives a great answer or pushes himself to new conclusions. After last week, scholars who kiss their hand and touch their forehead in response likely have a whole new appreciation for why their […]

How does the brain process sensory information? What gives humans the unique ability to create and respond to art? Can architecture effect healing, creativity and learning? These are questions at the heart of the Science of the Arts, a program hosted by the Brain Science Institute that brought together researchers and artists in a series […]

The International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab) held its first overseas convening as part of the International Life Science Summer Summit in Hebei Province, China, earlier this month. Organized by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) with the Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute, the three-day convening focused on brain health from a variety […]

Anjan Chatterjee is the Frank A. and Gwladys H. Elliott Professor and Chair of Neurology at Pennsylvania Hospital. He is a member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Center for Neuroscience and Society at the University of Pennsylvania. His clinical practice focuses on patients with cognitive disorders, and his research addresses questions about […]