Cognitive Science : From Neuroscience to Education

Researchers have discovered that infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech

The implication for personal habits and habit change is clear: Others get used to our habits.

What this means for habit change: When you start to change one of your habits, it will be disturbing to those around you. After all, they've come to expect certain behaviors from you and now they can no longer expect them. That will be upsetting to people who are close to you, even if they are expressing their support.

Your attempt to change a habit means that others will need to work at their lives too.

What is less well known is that our noisy Western way of life is harming each and every one of us, not only by damaging our hearing, but by boosting stress levels to the point where our general physical and psychological health is affected.

can boost stress hormones, blood pressure, arterial hypertension, and heart rates

all of us need, to some extent, to create a personal silence

human brain is specially tuned to remember things that are out of the ordinary

Only relevant information receives a 'memory boost' by the reward system, which includes the nucleus accumbens," he noted, so people are more inclined to remember incidents from which they might learn something new

People can reduce their sensitivity to pain by thickening their brain, according to a new study published in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal

central brain regions that regulate emotion and pain were significantly thicker in meditators compared to non-meditators

They rely on it to build their confidence, their belief in their training and their own capabilities

That includes breathing exercises – like yoga, but not, he says – and sessions both with the psychologist and alone. “Also some visualizing,” he adds. “I try to visualize every possible situation – with wind, with fog, with people around me. Sometimes it stresses me when people are around me, when they pass me very fast.”