Meditation is popular, but what exactly are we talking about and how does it work? In this article, student Nidarshana Ganesan addresses the ‘trendy’ practice of meditation, and puts forward its benefits as supported by neuropsychology.
People with multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease may experience visual complaints. Although these complaints do not always come forward during an assessment of visual functions, they are extremely bothersome in daily life. How can we ensure that these complaints are recognized and acknowledged in clinical practice?
Have you ever considered including your research participants in the process of doing scientific research? Josephien Jansen, PhD student in Clinical Neuropsychology, does so and in this blog post she explains why collaborating with experience experts is a fruitful endeavor.
Most people know that electroencephalography (EEG) measures brain activity. But probably few know that the first measurement of the human EEG came from an attempt to scientifically test telepathy, and even fewer that one of the first EEG devices from Groningen inspired the founding of a Dutch company. This blog post provides interesting historical insights into the measurement technique of EEG and it’s relation to Psychology in Groningen.
Cyclists are vulnerable, and particularly older cyclists have an increased risk of crashing. Therefore, Frank Westerhuis and his colleagues from the traffic psychology group investigated countermeasures to increase cyclists’ safety. This blog post reveals whether they were succesful in achieving this by using illusionary objects next to the cycle path.
Who hasn’t wanted to look inside someone’s head, especially when that person is acting strangely? A look into the brain can indeed be revealing, both from a medical and neuropsychological point of view, but also from an educational one. This is literally the case with ’P-0255’. But P-0255 is not an old personnel number as a colleague suspected, nor is it a neuroimaging scan; it is the number of a specimen from the University Museum’s pathological brain collection that shows a particular form of traumatic brain injury: a coup contre-coup.
Learning helps us cope with changes in our surroundings, and also find the best neighborhood ice cream parlor. Yet, it usually becomes harder as we get older. Thankfully, scientific findings show that it doesn’t always have to be that way.
The opening hours of the university library in Groningen extend to 23:59h during exam weeks. But is it wise revising your exam materials late at night? Sophia Wilhelm puts this to doubt, and bases this on neuroscientific evidence.
Many think that believing in monism and not in any kind of metaphysical soul means believing in no mind at all. I am clearing up this misconception and argue that if the brain is the mind (just on a different level), psychology becomes the indirect study of the brain and neuroscience becomes the indirect study of the mind.
Behavioural geneticists have shown that individual differences are partly driven by variation in DNA. Important discussions about this work include the innovation in methods, whether it possible and wise to use these findings in everyday life, and the ethical boundaries when applying these findings. We review these questions in this post.