Kneading your stress away: how baking can calm your brain
Baking isn’t just a holiday tradition; research shows that cooking and baking can reduce stress and improve emotional well-being. Here’s what neuroscience can tell us about why it works.
Opinion
Literally stepping into another’s shoes: The body-swap illusion
From the moment you are born, you live in one body. This body grounds your perspective: you see, hear, and feel the world from this single point of view. Yet this also means you are stuck inside it. You can never truly know what it is like to be someone else. Or can you? With a few clever tricks, your brain can be persuaded that you have stepped into another body. This is the body-swap illusion.
But aren’t the Chatbots already embodied?
Chatbots may not have bodies, but they act through ours. As we prompt, respond, and adapt, they become part of our cognitive loop; just slower, but no less real. Maybe the real question isn’t if they’re intelligent, but if we’ve started thinking with them.
Dear AI chatbots, enough with the flattery
Were you called a genius, visionary, or brilliant by an LLM (large language model) based on the last idea you discussed with it? But deep down, you know that the idea was half-baked and needed major refinement? The over-the-top ego massage may lead to an egoistic society. Read further to know why and how to stop it.
Life’s Big Questions: What is love?
Love takes on many shapes and forms; it can move mountains, remain unrequited, or last a lifetime. It has the power to make us feel like the happiest person in the world, but also the saddest. Arguably the most powerful emotion of all, love can largely be explained by what happens in our brains. But can it really be reduced to biochemical signals?
Neuromarketing: Innovation or manipulation?
As you casually buy gifts for the holidays, a hidden force guides you towards certain stores and products. Unbeknownst to you, their appearance has been tailor-made to catch your attention. This is neuromarketing; utilizing the brain’s reactions to ads and products.
The case for youth and diversity in science
The most valuable resource a society can hope to import, collect, and sustain is not oil, gold, or diamonds but the brain of a young scientist. Policymakers who forget this should revisit the fable of the hen that laid golden eggs. If the hen is killed, no more golden eggs.
Taking the bait on social media
The Internet is packed with content aimed at grabbing your attention, because attention is the internet’s currency. You may have noticed that posts that provoke negative reactions often generate a lot of engagement on social media. I try to figure out why.
The future of the mind
What are the promises and risks of digitalization for our brains? To answer this question, The Future of the Mind symposium at the Donders Institute explored the intersection of behavioral and neuroscience, artificial intelligence, ethics, economy, philosophy, and law.
You’re not surrounded by idiots, but please, don’t be the idiot
The book Surrounded by Idiots tries to explain human behavior by dividing people into four color-coded categories, but completely lacks validity. You are not surrounded by idiots, and let’s now also make sure you are not being the idiot yourself.