Author: The Nerve

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Cognitive Research-in-Brief Science Communication

Visions of Sound & The Synesthetic Spectrum

By Ava Nagy

When I was a kid, I had a violin instructor who could see sheet music come to life. To my astonishment, I had known her for three years before this information came up in conversation. I had been sitting in the eclectic, circular “music room,” in the back of her home, complaining about how difficult it was for me to sightread a piece of music for the first time. I remember I had asked her how she did it so easily, expecting to be met with one of her usual sayings – “practice makes perfect,” or one of its many variations – but this time she only smiled. 

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Creative Pharmacological Research-in-Brief

Neuro Rivals

By Samantha Robles Avalos

To civilians, he is referred to as Enphine. His real identity is Endorphin. He began working as a vigilante once he reached adulthood, chasing after submerging pain signals that were rising within his hometown. They were rather minuscule and annoying incisions to Enphine. After a year of doing the bare minimum, Enphine realized that he craved more excitement than his mundane work. So, he sought after the biggest corporation known to blood-kind, the Cortex Prime. “C Prime,” as Enphine likes to call it, controls and plans lower-grade to grade-S missions around the world. Months of mentored training, both physically and mentally, allowed Enphine to prove to the officials from C Prime that he is worth more than his verbal taunts that rise from his arrogant and playful personality. 

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Neuroethics Science Communication

Animism Through AI

By Maya Zubrinsky

Jean Piaget, a pioneering psychologist, posits that during the pre-operational stage of cognitive development, children attribute lifelike consciousness, emotions, and intentionality to inanimate objects. According to this same theory, around seven years old logical reasoning begins to supersede this form of imaginative thinking, suggesting that we typically outgrow the egocentric tendency to see nonhuman entities as being relational to ourselves from a young age. Yet, artificial intelligence (AI) has presented a psychological regression to this premature stage of development with the way individuals are willing to see and trust their virtual assistants as ones of our own kind. The film Her tried to visually conceptualize a phenomenon where humans might form intimate connections with technology back in 2013, but only in recent years have we seen the lengths to which that dystopia has become a reality. Beyond romantic relationships being formed with chatbots, the surge in seeking out AI for emotional connection and support is fundamentally reshaping how vulnerability, relationships, and therapy are evaluated by the face of humanity.

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Pharmacological Science Communication

MDMA: Street Drug Turned Medicinal?

By dhara Patel

MDMA, commonly referred to as ecstasy or molly, has dominated American club culture and continues to maintain a presence in modern rave and concert scenes despite its risks as a substance with high potential for addiction and abuse. Formally, 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a synthetically manufactured drug that stimulates the user’s nervous system while simultaneously inducing vivid hallucinations. Particularly appealing to younger audiences, MDMA produces a sense of increased energy and pleasure, along with emotional warmth and contentment; however, its use can simultaneously cause distorted sensations and time perceptions (NIDA, 2020). Additionally, researchers have noted that MDMA sold from street dealers is typically combined with other illicit drugs to amplify the effects people experience, adding to potential health risks. 

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Neurobiology Research-in-Brief

Love in Bloom: The Science of Butterflies

“A life without love is like a year without spring.”- Octavius Paler 

By Diya Dronavadhyala

As the short days on our snowy winter campus are replaced with cherry blossoms and sunny afternoons, it feels like love is wafting through the air. For some, spring represents a season of fresher produce, fruity drinks, and flowery pastries. For others, it represents a new season of hope and romance. In the wake of Valentine’s day, grocery aisles are brimming with candy hearts and chocolate. Our society, for better or worse, inextricably links love with food; as the saying goes, “the way to one’s heart is through their stomach,” and of course, every rom-com viewer will tell you to “trust your gut when it comes to love.” But are these proverbs rooted in any truth? In other words, how important is our gut in shaping our social interactions? From first-date stress to social bonding and affection, we can turn to neuroscience to examine whether the fluttering sensations we associate with love this season begin, at least in part, somewhere lower than the heart. 

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Research-in-Brief

Print Copies of the 2024-2025 Issue of The Nerve Journal Are on Sale Now!

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Categories
Cognitive Research-in-Brief

Monsters in the Mind: The Neuroscience of Serial Killers

By Julia Gendin

Bundy, Dahmer, Wuornos. Their stories were always ridiculously captivating to me! Reading about them makes me  wonder: what’s happening in their brains? Are serial killers simply born different, or are their behaviors shaped by their environments? 

Luckily, neuroscience can help answer these questions! By examining the lives and brains of specific killers, we can start to map the monstrous onto the biological.

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Cognitive Research-in-Brief

Debunking the Myth of the “Male” and “Female” Brain

By Amishi Patil

There is a popular myth that claims that men and women’s brains process information differently, which can lead to different decision making, thinking, learning, etc. In our daily lives, we often hear that men are more “logical” and women are more “emotional”. However, scientific research does not support the distinction between the “male” and “female” brain. This idea is a myth that society uses to perpetuate gender norms and stereotypes. 

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Cognitive Research-in-Brief

The Neurocognitive Damage of the Doomscroll

By Maya Zubrinsky

After an especially long day, you finally get home and begin to wind down. Naturally, without even thinking, you open TikTok. You swipe through an algorithm that feeds you exactly what you are craving— instant gratification. As short-form videos go by, so do minutes, and suddenly it's been an hour that you feel you have wasted. Yet, nothing is compelling you to stop. Why do we passively rot a brain that is capable of so much more? 

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Cognitive Research-in-Brief

Why We Love Being Scared: The Neuroscience Behind Fear

 

By Diya Dronavadhyala

With Halloween creeping closer and closer, it feels like everyone’s watching something spooky. From replaying classics like It and The Shining to streaming the latest releases like Wednesday on Netflix, scary season is in full bloom this October. Spines tingling, palms sweaty, we subject ourselves to late nights of caramel popcorn and horror movie marathons. But what intrinsic qualities make us humans so obsessed with being scared? What keeps us coming back to the jump scares and psychological thrills in Halloween media? To answer these questions, we can turn to neuroscience to understand the fundamentals of what makes us scared in the first place. 

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