Presents the observations of a panel of research experts who have conducted research on music and the brain. States that the participants are Andrea Halpern, Larry Parsons, Ralph Spintge, and Sandra Trehub. After an introduction of each person, the participants characterized their principal findings. (CMK)

It has been argued that critical functions of the human amygdala are to modulate the moment-to-moment vigilance level and to enhance the processing and the consolidation of memories of emotionally arousing material. In this functional magnetic resonance study, pictures of human faces bearing fearful, angry, and happy expressions were presented to…

How "differences" between the two sides of the brain (or "laterality") relate to level of function are important components of theories of the origin and purpose of hemispheric asymmetry, although different measures show different relationships, and this heterogeneity makes discerning any underlying relationships a difficult…

This study explored asymmetries for movement, expression and perception of visual speech. Sixteen dextral models were videoed as they articulated: "bat," "cat," "fat," and "sat." Measurements revealed that the right side of the mouth was opened wider and for a longer period than the left. The asymmetry was accentuated at the beginning and ends of…

The relations among early cumulative medical risk, cumulative environmental risk, attentional control, and brain activation were assessed in 15-16-year-old adolescents who were born preterm. Functional magnetic resonance imaging found frontal, temporal, and parietal cortex activation during an attention task with greater activation of the left…

The phase-synchronization of Gamma-band oscillations has been postulated as a mechanism of "network binding" and implicated in various aspects of perception, memory, and cognition. The current study investigates a possible link between Gamma synchrony and individual differences in intelligence within the theory of fluid and crystallized…

One of the most fascinating and frustrating issues in the priority of discovery in science is over just who, for the first time, went on record in the public forum, either orally at a conference or through a published communication, proclaiming that the faculty of articulate human speech was located in the left, not the right, cortical hemisphere.…

This study explored whether an intervention involving Brain Gym exercises designed to increase academic achievement in the areas of math and reading/language arts would be successful. Three groups were used in the study: an initial treatment group, a delayed treatment group, and a control group. Each of the three groups was comprised of 20…

Geometry is required for many secondary school students, and is often learned, taught, and assessed more in a heuristic image-based manner, than as a formal axiomatic deductive system. Students are required to prove general theorems, but diagrams are usually used. It follows that understanding how students engage in perceiving and reasoning about…

Agrammatism is a frequent sequela of Broca's aphasia that manifests itself in omission and/or substitution of the grammatical morphemes in spontaneous and constrained speech. The hierarchical structure of syntactic trees has been proposed as an account for difficulty across grammatical morphemes (e.g., tense, agreement, and negation). Supporting…

In response to the solicitation of the National Institute on Drug Use (NIDA) (NIDA, 2006) for the "Development of a Virtual Reality Environment for Teaching about the Impact of Drug Abuse on the Brain," a virtual brain exhibit was developed by the joint venture of Entertainment Science, Inc. and Virtual Heroes, Inc.. This exhibit included a…

Autism is a brain development disorder that is characterized by impaired social interaction, communication, restricted and repetitive behavior which starts before a child is three years old. As a result of the outcome of set of signs such as restricted and repetitive behaviors, autism distinguishes itself from milder Autism Spectrum Disorders…

The maturation of the adolescent brain is focused on two tasks: developing autonomy and understanding self in context of the community. Therefore, parents and other adults must assure that young people have multiple opportunities to interact in supportive environments where they can develop the capacity to self-regulate and achieve autonomy.…

The ability to perform relational proposition-based reasoning was assessed in younger and older adults using the transitive inference task in which subjects learned a series of premise pairs (A greater than B, B greater than C, C greater than D, D greater than E, E greater than F) and were asked to make inference judgments (B?D, B?E, C?E).…

Background: For children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a reduction of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity by neurofeedback (NF) has been reported in several studies. But so far, unspecific training effects have not been adequately controlled for andor studies do not provide sufficient statistical power. To overcome…