Recent news from The Johns Hopkins University
This section contains regularly updated highlights of the news from around The Johns Hopkins
University. Links to the complete news reports from the nine schools,
the Applied Physics Laboratory and other centers and institutes are to
the left, as are links to help news media contact the Johns Hopkins
communications offices.
Fall is still days away but at coffee shops and grocery stores, it’s already peak autumn thanks to the arrival of a certain flavor that has come to signal the season’s unofficial start. Everyone knows, it’s pumpkin spice time.
But why?
Johns Hopkins University perception researchers can say a key to understanding why people love pumpkin spice is the smell of it. Those notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger trigger deeply rooted cozy memories of autumn.
September 20, 2021 Tags: brain science, Jason Fischer, Johns Hopkins University, olfactory, perception, pumpkin spice, scent
| Category: Business and Economics, Psychology
Any athlete who’s made it to the Olympics has speed or strength or whatever physical skills it takes to lead the world in their sport. But Johns Hopkins University scientists say those who ultimately bring home gold have also honed the mind of a medalist.
February 6, 2018 Tags: balance, brain, brain science, choking under pressure, Christopher Fetsch, figure skating, Johns Hopkins University, Kathleen Cullen, Olympics, Orientation, skiing, snowboarding, Vikram Chib
| Category: Engineering, Medicine and Nursing, Psychology, Uncategorized
When we try to stop a body movement at the last second, perhaps to keep ourselves from stepping on what we just realized was ice, we can’t always do it — and Johns Hopkins University neuroscientists have figured out why.
December 7, 2017 Tags: brain, brain science, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, inhibit movement, Johns Hopkins University, movement, neuroscience, stop, Susan M. Courtney
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
Even when people are hard at work, pictures of cookies, pizza and ice cream can distract them — and these junk food images are almost twice as distracting as health food pictures, concludes a new Johns Hopkins University study, which also found that after a few bites of candy, people found junk food no more interesting than kale.
October 26, 2017 Tags: brain, brain science, Corbin Cunningham, food, healthy food, high-calorie, high-fat, Howard Egeth, Johns Hopkins University, junk food
| Category: Psychology
When trying to be heard over noise, humans and animals raise their voices. It’s a split-second feat, from ear to brain to vocalization, and Johns Hopkins University researchers are the first to measure just how fast it happens in bats: 30 milliseconds. That’s 10 times faster than the blink of an eye, a record for audio-vocal response.
June 6, 2017 Tags: auditory, bats, brain, brain science, Cynthia F. Moss, hearing, Johns Hopkins University, Lombard effect, vocalization
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
Whether or not they aced it in high school, human beings are physics masters when it comes to understanding and predicting how objects in the world will behave. A Johns Hopkins University cognitive scientist has found the source of that intuition, the brain’s “physics engine.”
August 8, 2016 Tags: brain science, Jason Fischer, Johns Hopkins University, physics, physics engine, PNAS
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
Although math skills are considered notoriously hard to improve, Johns Hopkins University researchers boosted kindergarteners’ arithmetic performance simply by exercising their intuitive number sense with a quick computer game.
June 15, 2016 Tags: Approximate Number System, brain science, Education, Johns Hopkins University, kindergarteners, Lisa Feigenson, Math
| Category: Education/K-12, Psychology
People are intuitive physicists — knowing from birth how objects under the influence of gravity are likely to fall, topple or roll. In a new study, scientists have found the brain cells apparently responsible for this innate wisdom.
March 8, 2016 Tags: brain science, Charles E. Connor, gravity, Johns Hopkins University, neuroscience, object physics, Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
You’re at a crowded party, noisy with multiple conversations, music and clinking glasses. But when someone behind you says your name, you hear it and quickly turn in that direction. The same sort of thing happens with bats and Johns Hopkins University researchers have discovered how a bat’s brain determines what’s worth paying attention to. The findings, which have implications across animal systems, were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
February 23, 2016 Tags: attention, bats, brain science, Cynthia F. Moss, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology
The human brain is wired to pay attention to previously pleasing things — a finding that could help explain why it’s hard to break bad habits or stick to New Year’s resolutions.
February 11, 2016 Tags: addiction, brain science, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, dieting, dopamine, Johns Hopkins University, Susan M. Courtney
| Category: Psychology
More than a century ago Pavlov figured out that dogs fed after hearing a bell eventually began to salivate when they heard the ring. A Johns Hopkins University-led research team has now figured out a key aspect of why.
October 26, 2015 Tags: Alfredo Kirkwood, brain science, eligibility traces, Johns Hopkins University, learning, Neuron, neuroscience, Pavlov, reward-based learning, Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute
| Category: Natural Sciences, Psychology, Technology
You’re about to drive through an intersection when the light suddenly turns red. But you’re able to slam on the brakes, just in time.
Johns Hopkins University researchers, working with scientists at the National Institute on Aging, have revealed the precise nerve cells that allow the brain to make this type of split-second change of course. In the latest issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, the team shows that these feats of self control happen when neurons in the basal forebrain are silenced.
September 17, 2015 Tags: aging, Alzheimer's disease, brain science, Johns Hopkins University, Michela Gallagher, Nature Neuroscience, neuroscience, Parkinson's disease
| Category: Natural Sciences
Science news tips for reporters, including a story suggestion from Johns Hopkins Magazine on JHU and ET and another on mistletoe and cancer.
December 22, 2014 Tags: astrobiology, brain research, brain science, cancer, conditioning, exobiology, extraterrestrial life, mistletoe, Pavlov, Psychology, science news tips
| Category: Medicine and Nursing, Natural Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, Psychology
It’s something we just accept: the fact that the older we get, the more difficulty we seem to have remembering things. We can leave our cars in the same parking lot each morning, but unless we park in the same space each and every day, it’s a challenge eight hours later to recall whether we left the SUV in the second or fifth row. Or, we can be introduced to new colleagues at a meeting and will have forgotten their names before the handshake is over. We shrug and nervously reassure ourselves that our brains’ “hard drives” are just too full to handle the barrage of new information that comes in daily. According to a Johns Hopkins neuroscientist, however, the real trouble is that our aging brains are unable to process this information as “new” because the brain pathways leading to the hippocampus-the area of the brain that stores memories-become degraded over time. As a result, our brains cannot accurately “file” new information (like where we left the car that particular morning), and confusion results. A study on the subject appeared in the May 9 Early Online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
May 13, 2011 Tags: Alzheimer's disease, brain science, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, hippocampus, Johns Hopkins University, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, learning, memory, Michael Yassa, MRI, neuroscience, PNAS
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Homewood Campus News, Psychology
For centuries, philosophers have speculated about the links between beauty, human perception, creativity and pleasure. In recent years, scientists have learned a great deal about sensory systems and human response to the visual world, three-dimensional space, sound, touch, taste and smell. To further explore these ideas, the Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute will host a two-day public symposium titled, “The Science of the Arts: Perceptual Neuroscience and Aesthetics” on Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 20 and 21 at the American Visionary Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
October 12, 2010 Tags: aesthetics, American Visionary Arts Museum, architecture, ballet, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, brain science, dance, John Griffin, music, neuroscience, painting, Peabody Institute, Richard Huganir, sculpture, sensory systems, the arts, The Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute, Walters Art Museum
| Category: Academic Disciplines, Education/K-12, Engineering, Environment, Events Open to the Public, Medicine and Nursing, Natural Sciences, Psychology, Social Sciences, Technology
Writing this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by Barbara Landau, the Dick and Lydia Todd Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at the Johns Hopkins University, for the first time links genes to our ability to navigate the world.
February 2, 2010 Tags: Barbara Landau, brain science, Johns Hopkins University, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, navigation, sense of direction, Williams syndrome
| Category: Psychology
