Marijuana for Alzheimer's. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Research (USA) found that the main psychoactive substance in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and several other active compounds destroy beta-amyloid plaques on laboratory-grown neurons. Beta-amyloid is a toxic protein that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. The disease progresses due to cellular inflammation in the brain, which is also weakened by the psychoactive substances of marijuana. The main merit of the study is that it opens up new horizons in the study of the possible effects of marijuana.
Our brain memory is 10 times larger than we thought. We value our brains for their ability to store and process large amounts of information. But research by a group of American scientists from the University of California found that the real capabilities of the brain are ten times greater than previously believed. Scientists have proven that the human brain is capable of holding as much information as the world's Internet space can hold. To come to this conclusion, the scientists built a 3D model of the hippocampus of brain neurons (the hippocampus is a part of the limbic system of the brain involved in the consolidation of short-term memory into long-term memory), in which transitions and synapses are repeated twice in 10% of cases. Scientist Terry Sezhnowsky called it "a real bombshell" in the field of neuroscience. 
Painkillers exacerbate chronic pain. Recent studies have shown that just 5 days of morphine treatment in rats resulted in chronic pain that lasted for months. The opioid drugs affected the behavior of glial cells in the experimental animals: these cells are supposed to protect the nerves of the spinal cord and brain from damage, but after repeated use of morphine this does not happen, and increased sensitivity to pain appears. If the results of the study are similar in the case of humans, this would explain the dependence on strong painkillers: by helping on a superficial level, drugs prolong and increase pain in the long term. 
Sugar is like a drug. Our habits affect how our brains work in strange ways. For example, even such nervous system signals as “stop” and “go” change under the influence of sugar addiction. Like other drugs, sugar addiction affects how the brain controls electrical signals associated with either the pursuit of pleasure or the suppression of this desire. It turns out that sugar cravings are not just appetite and taste preferences, but the result of brain changes caused by powerful chemical effects. This is another study that proves that we underestimated the effect of sugar on our body. By the way, another scientific work last year looked at genetic memory damage caused by fructose. Most likely, the topic of our brain's dependence on sweets will become one of the most relevant in science in the near future. 
Happiness is in the genes? In one of the largest studies to date, examining the relationship of mood and human condition with genetics, scientists came to the conclusion that the roots of our psychological worldview lie in the genome. More than 190 researchers from 17 countries have analyzed the genome data of almost 300,000 people. The results showed themselves in a set of genetic variations associated with subjective feelings of well-being — that is, the thoughts and feelings we have about the level and quality of our lives, which psychologists define as a central component of happiness. Similarly, genetic variations have been found associated with depression and neurosis. The next question is how these variations interact with our environment, and whether depression can be detected by genetic testing before its clinical manifestation. 
Prevention of Alzheimer's disease: first steps. Last year's research has opened up new avenues for developing drugs to prevent Alzheimer's disease, and possibly other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Employees at Baylor College of Medicine, scientists at the Texas Children's Hospital and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are working together to find ways to prevent the accumulation of toxic proteins in the human brain - that is, to work ahead of time, and not destroy already formed tau proteins. This is a big breakthrough in the fight against Alzheimer's because most of the research so far has been focused on treating the advanced stages of the disease. 
How sleep apnea affects the brain. Sleep apnea is a sudden stoppage of breathing that can last 20-30 seconds, and sometimes longer. Sleep apnea is often associated with an increased risk of stroke, depression, and traffic accidents. Research has shown that restless nights with sleep apnea trigger a kind of chemical rollercoaster, throwing out the neurotransmitters GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and glutamate. As a result, sleep apnea sufferers are more sensitive to stress, have trouble concentrating and are prone to frequent emotional swings. 
Walk for happiness. Among the many studies examining the beneficial effects of walking on emotional condition man, we can single out one of the recent works. So, scientists say that walking improves mood, even when we do not expect and do not plan for such an effect. In the course of three experiments, in which more than a hundred people took part (who did not suspect that the process of walking was one of the objects of study), it was found that in just 12 minutes of walking, the cheerfulness, energy, attentiveness and self-confidence of the subjects increased, compared with the same time spent sitting. An important and pleasant conclusion: the fight against depression and a depressed state does not require financial investments and trips to a specialist. Sometimes it’s enough just to leave the house and go for a walk. 
Social networks and social opportunities. Most of the work in psychology related to social networks, study their influence on the emotional state of a person: for example, is Facebook a trigger for a good mood or provokes depression. In the past year, studies have emerged that focus on how Facebook manages our relationships. On the one hand, social media seems to be a great tool to expand our communication capabilities, surpassing the so-called Dunbar number - the number of permanent social connections that a person can maintain. But no: according to scientists, the Dunbar number is still in force, and our brain is able to control no more than 150 relationships (that is, to know and remember character traits and other characteristics of a person). So the expansion of social connections thanks to social networks is rather conditional - no matter how many “friends” you have, your brain is able to “make friends” only with a narrow circle. 
Sticker reminders are still the most effective. No new technology will replace the usual reminders for us, written on a piece of paper and fixed somewhere in plain sight, say scientists who have devoted an entire study to this topic. Today, our life is becoming richer and more intense, so such practical knowledge, confirmed by scientific experiments, are simply necessary. 
The brain is the most mysterious and mysterious human organ. Paradoxically, our understanding of his work and how it actually happens are diametrically opposed things. The following experiments and hypotheses will lift the veil over some of the secrets of the functioning of this "stronghold of thinking", which scientists have not been able to take to this day.
1. Fatigue is the peak of creativity
The work of the biological clock - the internal system of the body that determines the rhythm of its life - has a direct impact on everyday life person and his productivity in general. If you are a "lark", then it is most reasonable to do complex analytical work that requires serious mental effort in the morning or before noon. For night owls, in other words - "owls" - this is the second half of the day, smoothly turning into night.
On the other hand, for more creative work that requires activation of the right hemisphere, scientists advise to be taken when the body feels physical and mental exhaustion, and the brain is simply unable to understand the proof of Goldbach's ternary problem. It sounds crazy, but if you dig a little deeper, you can still find a rational grain in this hypothesis. Somehow, this explains why moments like "Eureka!" occur while riding public transport after a long day at work or, if the story is to be believed, in the bathroom. :)
With a lack of strength and energy, it is extremely difficult to filter the flow of information, analyze statistical data, and, most importantly, remember causal relationships. When it comes to creativity, the listed negative points take on a positive color, since this type of mental work involves the generation of new ideas and irrational thinking. In other words, a tired nervous system is more efficient when working on creative projects.
An article in the American popular science magazine Scientific American talks about why distraction plays an important role in the creative thinking process:
“The ability to distract is very often a source of non-standard solutions and original thoughts. At these moments, a person is less concentrated and can perceive a wider range of information. This "openness" allows you to evaluate alternative solutions to problems from a new angle, promotes the adoption and creation of completely new fresh ideas.
2. Effect of stress on brain size
Stress is one of the most powerful factors affecting the normal functioning of the human brain. Recently, scientists from Yale University (Yale University) proved that frequent experiences and depression literally reduce the size of the central part of the nervous system of the body.
The human brain cannot synchronize decision-making processes in relation to two separate problems. Trying to do two things at the same time only exhausts our cognitive abilities by switching from one problem to another.
If a person is focused on one thing, the main role is played by the prefrontal cortex, which controls all excitatory and depressing impulses.
“The anterior (Anterior part) prefrontal cortex of the brain is responsible for the formation of goals and intentions. For example, the desire “I want to eat that piece of cake” as an excitatory impulse travels through the neural network, reaches the posterior prefrontal cortex, and you are already enjoying the treat.
4. Short sleep increases mental alertness
It is well known what effect healthy sleep. The question is, what impact does napping have? As it turned out, short “blackouts” throughout the day have no less positive effect on mental activity.
Memory improvement
After the end of the experiment on memorizing 40 illustrated cards, one group of participants slept for 40 minutes, while the second was awake. As a result of subsequent testing, it turned out that the participants who had the chance to take a short nap remembered the flashcards much better:
“It’s hard to believe, but the sleepy group managed to resume 85% of the cards in memory, while the rest remembered only 55%.”
Obviously, short sleep helps our central computer to "crystallize" memories:
“The study shows that once formed memories in the hippocampus are very fragile and can be easily erased from memory, especially if space is needed for new information. A short nap appears to “push” newly learned data to the new cortex (neocortex), the place of long-term storage of memories, thus protecting them from being destroyed.”
Improving the learning process
In a study conducted by professors at The University of California, a group of students were given a rather difficult task that required them to learn a lot of new information. Two hours after the start of the experiment, half of the volunteers, just like in the case of the cards, slept for a short period of time.
At the end of the day, the sleepy participants not only completed the task better and learned the material better, but their “evening” productivity significantly exceeded the indicators obtained before the start of the study.
What happens during sleep?
Several recent studies have shown that during sleep, the activity of the right hemisphere is significantly increased, while the left is extremely quiet. :)
Such behavior is completely uncharacteristic of him, since in 95% of the world's population the left hemisphere is dominant. Andrey Medvedev, the author of this study, made a very amusing comparison:
"While we sleep, the right hemisphere is incessantly busy with the house."
5. Vision is the main "trump card" of the sensory system
Despite the fact that vision is one of the five components of the sensory system, the ability to perceive electromagnetic radiation of the visible spectrum in its importance significantly prevails over the others:
“Three days after studying any textual material, you will remember only 10% of what you read. A few relevant images can increase this figure by 55%.
Illustrations are much more effective than text, in part because reading alone does not bring the expected results. Our brain perceives words as tiny images. It takes more time and energy to understand the meaning of one sentence than to look at a colorful picture.”
In fact, relying so heavily on our visual system has several downsides. Here is one of them:
“Our brain is forced to constantly speculate, since it has no idea where exactly the visible objects are. A person lives in a three-dimensional space, while the light on the retina of his eye falls in a two-dimensional plane. Thus, we think out everything that we cannot see.”
The picture below shows which part of the brain is responsible for processing visual information and how it interacts with other areas of the brain.
6. Influence of personality type
The mental activity of extroverts increases significantly when a risky transaction "burns out" or manages to pull off some kind of adventure. On the one hand, this is just a genetic predisposition of sociable and impulsive people, and on the other hand, different levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain different types personality.
“When it became known that the risky transaction was successful, increased activity was traced in two areas of the brain of extraverts: the amygdala (Latin corpus amygdaloidum) and the nucleus accumbens (Latin nucleus accumbens).”
The nucleus accumbens is part of the dopaminergic system, which causes a feeling of pleasure and influences the processes of motivation and learning. Dopamine, produced in the brain of extroverts, pushes them to commit crazy acts and makes it possible to fully enjoy the events taking place around them. The amygdala, in turn, plays a key role in the formation of emotions and is responsible for processing excitatory and depressing impulses.
Other studies have shown that the biggest difference between introverts and extroverts lies in how the brain processes the different stimuli. For extroverts, this path is much shorter - excitatory factors move through the areas responsible for processing sensory information. For introverts, the trajectory of stimuli is much more complex - they pass through areas associated with the processes of memorization, planning and decision making.
7. The effect of "total failure"
Elliot Aronson, a professor of social psychology at Stanford University, has justified the existence of the so-called Pratfall Effect. Its essence is that by making mistakes, people like us more.
“The one who never makes a mistake is less sympathetic to others than the one who sometimes does stupid things. Perfection creates distance and an invisible aura of inaccessibility. That is why the winner is always the one who has at least some flaws.
Elliot Aronson did a wonderful experiment that confirmed his hypothesis. A group of participants were asked to listen to two audio recordings made during the interviews. On one of them, a man could be heard knocking over a cup of coffee. When the participants were asked which of the applicants they liked more, they all voted for the clumsy applicant.”
8. Meditation is a recharge for the brain
Meditation is good for more than just improving focus and staying calm throughout the day. Various psychophysical exercises have many positive effects.
calmness
The more we meditate, the calmer we become. This statement is somewhat controversial, but quite interesting. As it turned out, the reason for this is the destruction of the nerve endings of the brain. This is what the prefrontal cortex looks like before and after a 20-minute meditation:
During meditation, nerve connections are significantly weakened. At the same time, the connections between the areas of the brain responsible for reasoning and decision-making, bodily sensations and the center of fear, on the contrary, are strengthened. Therefore, experiencing stressful situations, we can evaluate them more rationally.
Creativity
Researchers at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, studying focused meditation and mindfulness meditation, found that participants who practiced the focused meditation style did not show much change in the areas of the brain that regulate creative thinking. Those who chose clear-mind meditation far outperformed the rest of the participants in subsequent testing.
Memory
Catherine Kerr, PhD, MGH (Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging) and research center Osher of Harvard Medical School, states that meditation enhances many mental capacity in particular - quick memorization of the material. The ability to completely disengage from all distractions allows meditators to concentrate to the utmost on the task at hand.
9. Exercise - reorganization and education of willpower
Of course, physical exercise is very beneficial for our body, but what about the work of the brain? There is exactly the same connection between training and mental activity as between training and positive emotions.
“Regular physical activity can lead to a significant improvement in a person’s cognitive abilities. As a result of the testing, it turned out that people who are actively involved in sports, unlike homebodies, have good memory, quickly make the right decisions, easily focus on the implementation of the task and are able to highlight cause-and-effect relationships.
If you have just started exercising, your brain will perceive this event as nothing more than stress. Palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, cramps, muscle pain, etc. - all these symptoms occur not only in gyms but also in more extreme life situations. If you have felt something like this before, these unpleasant memories will definitely pop up in your memory.
To protect against stress, during exercise, the brain produces the protein BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). This is why after exercising we feel at ease and eventually even happy. In addition, as a protective reaction in response to stress, the production of endorphins increases:
“Endorphins minimize discomfort during exercise, block pain, and promote feelings of euphoria.”
10. New information slows down time.
Have you ever dreamed that time didn't fly so fast? Probably repeatedly. Knowing how a person perceives time, it is possible to artificially slow down its course.
Absorbing great amount information coming from different senses, our brain structures the data in such a way that we can freely use them in the future.
“Since the information perceived by the brain is completely disordered, it must be reorganized and assimilated in a form that is understandable to us. Even though the process of processing data takes milliseconds, it takes a little longer for the brain to absorb new information. Thus, it seems to a person that time stretches for eternity.
More strangely, almost all areas of the nervous system are responsible for the perception of time.
When a person receives a lot of information, the brain needs a certain amount of time to process it, and the longer this process lasts, the more time slows down.
When we once again work on painfully familiar material, everything happens exactly the opposite - time flies almost imperceptibly, since there is no need to make special mental efforts.
Two breakthroughs in human brain research
In fact, the first breakthrough in the knowledge of the human brain was associated with the use of the method of long-term and short-term implanted electrodes for the diagnosis and treatment of patients. At the same time, scientists began to understand how an individual neuron works, how information is transmitted from neuron to neuron and along the nerve. Academician N.P. was the first to work in our country in conditions of direct contact with the human brain. Bekhtereva and her staff.
Thus, data were obtained on the life of individual areas of the brain, on the ratio of its most important sections - the cortex and subcortex - and many others. However, the brain consists of tens of billions of neurons, and with the help of electrodes, only tens can be observed, and even then, not those cells that are needed for research, but those that are next to the therapeutic electrode, often fall into the field of view of researchers.
Meanwhile, the world was undergoing a technological revolution. New computational capabilities have made it possible to bring the study of higher brain functions using electroencephalography and evoked potentials to a new level. New methods have also emerged that allow one to "look inside" the brain - magnetoencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography. All this created the foundation for a new breakthrough. It really happened in the mid-eighties.
At this time, scientific interest and the possibility of its satisfaction coincided. Apparently, therefore, the US Congress declared the nineties a decade of studying the human brain. This initiative quickly became international. Now all over the world, hundreds of the best laboratories are working on the study of the human brain.
I must say that at that time in our upper echelons of power there were many smart people who supported the state. Therefore, in our country they understood the need to study the human brain and offered me, on the basis of a team created and led by Academician Bekhtereva, to organize a scientific center for brain research - the Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The main activity of the institute is fundamental research organization of the human brain and its complex mental functions - speech, emotions, attention, memory. But not only. At the same time, scientists should search for methods of treating those patients in whom these important functions are impaired. The combination of fundamental research and practical work with patients was one of the basic principles of the institute, developed by its scientific director Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva.
It is unacceptable to experiment on humans. Therefore, most brain research is done on animals. However, there are phenomena that can only be studied in humans. For example, now a young employee of my laboratory is defending his dissertation on the processing of speech, its spelling and syntax in various brain structures. Agree that it is difficult to study on a rat. The institute is specifically focused on researching what cannot be studied in animals. We conduct psychophysiological research on volunteers using the so-called non-invasive technique, without "getting" inside the brain and without causing a person any particular inconvenience. This is how, for example, tomographic examinations or brain mapping using electroencephalography are carried out.
But it happens that an illness or an accident "sets an experiment" on the human brain - for example, the patient's speech or memory is impaired. In this situation, it is possible and necessary to examine those areas of the brain whose work is impaired. Or, on the contrary, a piece of the brain is lost or damaged in the patient, and scientists are given the opportunity to study what “duties” the brain cannot perform with such a violation.
But simply observing such patients is, to put it mildly, unethical, and our institute not only examines patients with various brain injuries, but also helps them, including with the help of the latest treatment methods developed at the institute. For this purpose, the institute has a clinic with 160 beds. Two tasks - research and treatment - are inextricably linked in the work of our employees.
We have excellent highly qualified doctors and nurses. It is impossible to do without it - after all, we are at the forefront of science and we need the highest qualifications in order to implement new methods. Almost every laboratory of the institute is closed to the departments of the clinic, and this is the key to the continuous emergence of new approaches. In addition to standard methods of treatment, we perform surgical treatment of epilepsy and parkinsonism, psychosurgical operations, treatment of brain tissue with magnetic stimulation, treatment of aphasia with the help of electrical stimulation, the famous "brain transplant", and much more. Seriously ill patients lie in the clinic, and sometimes it is possible to help them in cases that were considered hopeless. Of course, this is not always possible. In general, when you hear any unlimited guarantees in the treatment of people, this raises very serious doubts.
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Ecology of life. Finally, an answer was received to the always considered rhetorical question: Where is a man's conscience? It is located in the lateral frontal cortex of the brain, i.e. right above the eyebrows.
Scientists have found the difference between humans and animals
Finally, an answer was received to the question that was always considered rhetorical: where does a person have a conscience? It is located in the lateral frontal cortex of the brain, i.e. right above the eyebrows.
Scientists from Oxford found a conscience in a person, The main thing, in their opinion, is our difference from animals. This was reported on January 29 by the British media.
The area of the brain that prevents us from making bad decisions was discovered by Oxford scientists using brain scans of 25 men and women. They then compared brain scans of the volunteers with those of monkeys, one of our closest relatives. The lateral frontal cortex consists of 12 sections. 11 of them are the same in both humans and monkeys, but the 12th, lateral frontal pole, is absent in animals.
Roughly speaking, conscience is a small bundle of nervous tissue in the form of a ball and is located in the lateral frontal cortex of the brain.
"We found a region of the brain," explained Professor Matthew Rushworth, "that is exclusively human and that animals do not have."
As expected, the conscience of people different size. Some have a very small one, the size of a head of Brussels sprouts; others have more, with a tangerine.
This part of the brain is especially important in multitasking. For example, if a person decides to do something, then she will think about other options and imagine their consequences. According to an article in the journal Neuron, where Oxford scientists published the results of their study, it follows that this part of the brain also allows us to learn from the mistakes of others, accelerates the acquisition of new skills and abilities, and has many more useful functions. One of them is the choice between good and evil.
In the past year, scientists have studied the brain of humans and animals a lot. We chose the six most important, in our opinion, discoveries in this area.
1. The brain of men and women is arranged differently.
After carefully studying the brain scans of 428 representatives of the strong and 521 representatives of the weak halves of humanity aged 8 to 22 years, scientists from the University of Pennsylvania came to the conclusion that women's brains are different from men's. In women, connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain are more developed, while in men - between the front and back parts of it.
This insignificant, at first glance, difference explains the difference in the processes of thinking between the sexes. Since the left hemisphere of the brain is more associated with logical thinking, and the right with intuitive thinking, men are better at tasks related to perception and coordinated actions, and women are better at social activities and everything related to memory. This, by the way, makes them better suited to multitasking.
2. Extra pounds and addiction to pornography on the Internet negatively affect memory
Scientists from the Swedish University of Umeå found that obese people suffer from memory problems. They observed 20 fat women over 60 years old who were put on a diet. Along with the loss of extra pounds, memory also improved, the work of the brain areas responsible for identifying and comparing faces became more active, and the efficiency of the information extraction process increased.
At the University of Duisburg-Essen, they believe that the easiest way to turn into an absent-minded and forgetful person is to become addicted to pornography on the net.
All 28 participants in the experiment were heterosexual and had average age 26 years. They were shown many times on the computer screen pictures of both pornographic content and those that had nothing to do with sex. And many of them were repeated. Participants in the experiment pressed the "yes" button when they were shown those that they had already seen among the last four pictures, and "no" when they saw something new.
It turned out that most of the mistakes volunteers made when viewing pornographic images. Moreover, the difference compared to non-sexual shots was quite significant. On average, they answered correctly 67% of the time they saw pornography and 80% of the time they saw non-sexual content.
3. Blue light helps keep you alert and focused
Swedish researchers from Mid Sweden University compared the effects of blue light and caffeine on the human brain. It turned out that blue light has sufficient power to turn on certain biological functions in the human body. It has more positive effects than caffeine.
Blue light is better than coffee to keep you awake. In addition, it helps to keep the focus on high level and improves cognitive abilities such as memory and reaction.
4. The brain reacts differently to food
The way to the heart of a man, however, just like a woman, lies not through the stomach, but through the head, sure at the Institute of Clinical Psychology in Pisa This dependence is especially evident in the love of some people for sweets. For some, even an ordinary photograph of chocolate leads to wild delight, while others are absolutely indifferent to sweets. Both in the first and in the second, just like in all other people, the brain is responsible for likes and dislikes in food.
Italian scientists have proven that Human brains react differently to food. They fed the participants of the experiment with chocolate cakes and showed them sweets on the monitor screen while monitoring the activity of their brains. For some, the reaction was muted. The front part of their brain was, as it were, in a state of hibernation. In the sweet tooth, she showed increased activity.
Junk food is as addictive as heroin or cigarettes
. Experiments show that burgers, chips and other food from fast food restaurants makes our brain crave more and more sugar and salt.5. The ability to remember something that was not there has an explanation.
Susumi Tonagawa of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and assistants implanted a false memory in a mouse. This was done by manipulating individual neurons, i.e. optogenetics, a technique that allows you to control brain cells. Tonagawa changed the cells in the rodent hippocampus that are responsible for producing the protein rhodopsin. When cells with rhodopsin are irradiated with blue light, they seem to wake up and begin to work vigorously.
The mouse was placed in the chamber and allowed to examine it thoroughly. At the same time, the corresponding cells produced rhodopsin, that is, the process of memorization took place. On the second day, the same mouse was transferred to another cell. There she was given a mild electric shock so that she would remember the fright. At the same time, a blue light was turned on to turn on the memories of the first chamber. Thus, in the rodent's memory, fear began to be associated with the first chamber.
After that, the mouse was returned to the first chamber. She froze on the threshold and showed all the classic signs of fright, although she had no negative memories associated with her.
6. The brain works at astronomical speed.
Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have proved the fallacy of the common phrase: "Something I think slowly." Our brains work nearly 8 times faster than previously thought. In order to “fix” a visual image, it needs not 100 milliseconds, as previously thought, but only 13.
Participants in the experiment were asked to find pictures of picnics and smiling couples in a series of 6-12 pictures shown to them within 13-80 milliseconds. They coped with the task quite successfully.
Previously, it was believed that a person needs at least 100 milliseconds in order to distinguish between visual images.
published
Forgive my frivolous play on words, but you can’t call it otherwise: today’s festive post Dedicated to women scientists who have made significant advances in the sciences of the brain. Almost everyone has heard about women physicists and mathematicians, but in the 20th century, with the active development of neuroscience, many discoveries in Russian (and world) science became possible thanks to the research of women scientists. It is also important that they are the authors of popular science publications, so each of us can get acquainted with the results of their many years of work.
First of all, it is worth mentioning Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva (1924-2008).
This outstanding neurophysiologist, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and later of the Russian Academy of Sciences, became famous for her work in the field of brain activity. Natalya Bekhtereva is considered the founder of a scientific school of studying the physiology of a healthy and diseased brain; she developed her own theory of the brain organization of human mental activity. Her efforts organized the Institute of the Human Brain of the Russian Academy of Sciences (which, after the death of the founder, was named after her), where fundamental research is carried out on the organization of the brain and its mental functions: speech, emotions, attention, memory, creativity. In addition, Bekhtereva did not disown the study of paranormal phenomena (for which she was criticized), which indicates her scientific immediacy and courage. Her works are recognized both in Russia and abroad.
Familiarize yourself with the main provisions of N.P. Bekhtereva can be found in her fascinating popular science book "The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life".
Evgenia Davydovna Khomskaya(1929-2004) - Doctor of Psychology, neuropsychologist and psychophysiologist. In the middle of the 20th century, she was one of the first who began to study the psychosemantic characteristics of consciousness. Her work is related to the study of the functional asymmetry of the brain, the interhemispheric organization of mental processes, she studied individual differences from the standpoint of neuropsychology, introduced new approaches to psychological research methods, and also wrote the first Russian textbook on neuropsychology.
Not the easiest book to read, but still fascinating in its subject matter, is The Brain and Emotions. A Neuropsychological Study.
Tatyana Vasilievna Akhutina(born 1941) - Doctor of Psychology, specialist in neuropsychology, neuro- and psycholinguistics. The main works that brought her fame were related to research in the field of speech (in the neurolinguistic and neuropsychological aspects): Tatyana Akhutina developed her own model for generating speech. In addition, the scientist is engaged in child neuropsychology, the development of speech in children and methods for overcoming learning difficulties.
Parents may be interested in her following guide: Overcoming Learning Difficulties: A Neuropsychological Approach.
Tatyana Vladimirovna Chernigovskaya(b. 1947) is a leading specialist in the field of cognitive science - neurophysiology, neuropsychology, psycholinguistics, as well as the theory of consciousness. Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Education, Tatyana Chernigovskaya has many titles (including, for example, a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences) for research in the field of brain functioning, its ability to master the language, learn and perceive information from the outside world, and much more. Of particular value is its activity in the field of popularization of sciences, as well as the organization of education, taking into account the latest achievements in cognitive science.
You can read about the results of her long-term and versatile activities in her book "Cheshire smile of Schrödinger's cat. Language and consciousness"
Among the younger generation of women scientists, one should name Maria Vyacheslavovna Falikman(b. 1976), Doctor of Psychology, winner of several prestigious awards, author of more than a hundred publications in the field of cognitive science, general psychology and neuroscience. A special place in her work is occupied by research in the field of memory and attention.
Among her works, it is difficult to find something more or less accessible to ordinary amateurs, however, Maria Falikman is a regular author of video lectures on the popular science portal Postnauka.