Sep 17, 2024
This week's "Doctors Take the Mic" delves into the impact of hate speech on the brain, highlighting its detrimental effects on empathy and cognitive functions. Repeated exposure to hate speech can decrease brain activity in areas responsible for perspective-taking, like the right temporal parietal junction, and increase...
Sep 15, 2024
In 2020, the University of Cambridge published a study on the psychological profile of individuals predisposed to extremist views and behaviors. The research, led by Dr. Leor Zmigrod, examines how certain cognitive and personality traits predict susceptibility to extreme social, political, and religious ideologies. The...
Sep 13, 2024
Dr. Gloria Wu reflects on her experience at the Democratic National Convention and explores how politics affects the brain. She references a study by Christine Knutson from Social Neuroscience that used functional MRI (fMRI) to examine how people’s brains respond to images of politicians and related words. Unlike...
Sep 9, 2024
Dr. Helen E. Fisher, a renowned biological anthropologist, passed away recently at age 79. Fisher's groundbreaking research explored the neural basis of love, utilizing MRI scans to study the brain activity of individuals experiencing new infatuations. Her work revealed that the ventral tegmental area of...
Sep 7, 2024
Mary Ruth Ziegler, a prominent abortion rights scholar, highlights Kamala Harris's potential to be one of the most pro-abortion rights candidates ever nominated, suggesting that her unapologetic approach could influence future political strategies on reproductive rights. Professor Ziegler teaches at University of...