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Five insights into how the brain works
Person sitting at a table with blurry people in front and a screen hanging on the wall behind, which reads, "Experiential effects on brain development."

Martha J. Farah, the Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences, is director of the Center for Neuroscience & Society at Penn. (Pre-pandemic image: Courtesy Martha Farah) 

Five insights into how the brain works

As the Center for Neuroscience & Society celebrates 10 years, founding director Martha Farah reflects on the array of research from its faculty, on subjects from brain games to aggression.

Michele W. Berger

The brain’s amyloid buildup is not a powerful indicator of Alzheimer’s disease
Three stages of Alzheimers portrayed by three scans of neurons

The brain’s amyloid buildup is not a powerful indicator of Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers find fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET, which measures the brain’s glucose consumption as a marker of neural activity, is a better indicator of cognitive performance when compared to PET scans that detect amyloid proteins.

Penn Today Staff

When a fix for one vision problem causes another
A person sitting in front of a computer and a machine that tests vision.

The lab of neuroscientist Johannes Burge (above) focuses on how the human visual system processes the images that fall on the back of the eye. This line of work, closely related to a 100-year-old illusion called the Pulfrich effect, could have serious public safety and public health implications.

When a fix for one vision problem causes another

Aging diminishes the ability of the eyes to focus up close. New Penn research reports that monovision, a common prescription lens correction to mitigate this issue, can cause dramatic misperceptions of depth and 3D direction for objects in motion.

Michele W. Berger

Brain matter altered in U.S. personnel who developed neurological symptoms in Cuba
20 brain scans showing regions affected by neurological damage.

The colored regions in these images show differences on the group level—or averages—widespread throughout the brain, and particularly in the cerebellum, which is responsible for balance, coordination, and speech. (Image: JAMA Network)

Brain matter altered in U.S. personnel who developed neurological symptoms in Cuba

Images reveal key brain differences, particularly in the cerebellum, between impacted patients and healthy individuals, which may underlie clinical findings previously reported by the Penn team.

Penn Today Staff

Music ‘calms nerves before surgery’ as well as sedative

Music ‘calms nerves before surgery’ as well as sedative

A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine has found that relaxing music can reduce anxiety in patients prior to surgery as well as the sedative midazolam. Lead author Veena Graff said, “Music lights up the emotional area of the brain, the reward system and the pleasure pathways. It means patients can be in their own world, they can be comfortable and have full control.”

Everyone wants to Instagram the world’s most beautiful canyon. Should they?

Everyone wants to Instagram the world’s most beautiful canyon. Should they?

Anjan Chatterjee of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about the tourist appeal of photogenic sites like Antelope Canyon. “There is a beauty to the space, but it is also overwhelming in the sense that you feel small and insignificant, and almost associated with some anxiety. There’s something about being forced to look upward that seems to convey both elevation and a sense of your own smallness.”

Unraveling the brain’s reward circuits
Purple and pink illustration of a neuron synapse

The investigation explored the "reward neurons" in the brain. (Image: Amber Alhadeff)

Unraveling the brain’s reward circuits

Food, alcohol, and certain drugs all act to reduce the activity of hunger neurons and to release reward signals in the brain, but alcohol and drugs rely on a different pathway than does food.

Katherine Unger Baillie