Reference Terms
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Thought
Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires.
Thinking involves manipulation of information, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, reason and make decisions. Thinking is a higher cognitive function and the analysis of thinking processes is part of cognitive psychology.
The basic mechanics of the human brain reflect a process of pattern matching or rather recognition. In a "moment of reflection", new situations and new experiences are judged against recalled ones and judgments are made. In order to make these judgments, the intellect maintains present experience and sorts relevant past experience. It does this while keeping present and past experience distinct and separate. The intellect can mix, match, merge, sift, and sort concepts, perceptions, and experience. This process is called reasoning. Logic is the science of reasoning.
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Mind & Brain News
July 5, 2026
July 5, 2026 Researchers have identified the brain circuitry that links deep sleep with the release of growth hormone, revealing how the two regulate each other. The newly discovered feedback loop helps explain ...
July 3, 2026 Using alcohol to cope with stress when young may permanently alter the brain, making it harder to adapt to challenges and increasing the risk of returning to drinking later in life. Researchers also found signs of brain damage associated with early ...
July 3, 2026 Some brains appear to fight back against Alzheimer's by helping immature brain cells survive damage instead of succumbing to it. Understanding this natural resilience could point researchers toward entirely new ways to protect memory and slow ...
July 3, 2026 Scientists have discovered that a common type of stroke may have a very different cause than doctors once thought. Instead of fatty plaque clogging arteries, the strongest link was found with enlarged and damaged blood vessels deep within the brain. ...
July 1, 2026 A surprising discovery is overturning a long-held assumption about how the brain’s movement center works. Researchers found that two key cerebellar cell types—thought to be tightly linked—often ...
July 1, 2026 Could something as simple as vitamin C help support a healthier aging brain? In a study of more than 2,000 older adults in Japan, researchers found that people with lower vitamin C levels in their blood also tended to have less gray matter and ...
June 30, 2026 A common brain protein may be giving Alzheimer’s disease an unexpected way to spread, carrying toxic Tau proteins from damaged neurons into healthy ones. By blocking these harmful protein packages before they reach new cells, researchers believe ...
June 30, 2026 Creatine is best known as a muscle-building supplement, but scientists are now investigating whether it could also help treat depression by boosting the brain's energy supply. A new review examined five randomized clinical trials involving 238 ...
June 29, 2026 Fish oil supplements successfully delivered omega-3s to the brain, but a two-year study found no meaningful benefits for memory, cognition, or Alzheimer’s-related brain changes. The results ...
June 29, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a surprising clue that may help explain why multiple sclerosis (MS) progresses rapidly in some people but not others. In brain tissue from patients with severe MS, researchers found large numbers of “foamy” immune cells ...
June 28, 2026 Scientists at UCLA have linked long-term exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos with a sharply increased risk of Parkinson’s disease. People exposed to the chemical near their homes were more than ...
June 27, 2026 Teens who use cannabis may face a substantially greater risk of developing serious mental health conditions, including psychotic and bipolar disorders, according to a study of more than 463,000 ...
Latest Headlines
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July 2, 2026 Bumble bees astonished researchers by inventing a new way to reach a hidden reward, despite never being taught the trick. The discovery adds to growing evidence that these tiny insects are far ...
July 1, 2026 What if Sigmund Freud was onto something that modern neuroscience is only now beginning to explain? A new paper argues that today's leading theory of the brain—as a prediction machine constantly ...
June 28, 2026 The unconscious brain appears to be far more capable than scientists once believed. Researchers found that patients under general anesthesia could still process language at a sophisticated level, ...
June 27, 2026 Researchers have identified a vitamin B12–based compound that can cross the blood-brain barrier and home in on glioblastoma tumors. In animal studies, the compound accumulated preferentially in ...
June 26, 2026 A new study found that fructose and glucose may look the same on a nutrition label, but the brain treats them very differently. In mice, glucose strongly reduced activity in hunger-promoting brain ...
June 25, 2026 Vitamin B12 is needed in microscopic amounts, but a shortage can have major effects on health and energy. The vitamin was first linked to a lifesaving liver treatment for pernicious anemia nearly 100 ...
June 25, 2026 How does a single cell build a brain with billions of precisely organized neurons? Researchers suggest that brain cells use their lineage—their cellular family tree—as a kind of positional map. ...
June 25, 2026 Healthy older adults experienced measurable improvements in memory, physical performance, and stress after taking placebo pills for just three weeks. The most surprising finding was that the placebo ...
June 24, 2026 What if consciousness isn’t limited to brains like ours? Philosophers Eric Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober argue that consciousness could arise in many different forms of life, even in beings built ...
June 24, 2026 Scientists have discovered a tiny group of neurons in an ancient brain region that acts like a built-in focus filter, helping the brain ignore distractions and zero in on what matters most. When ...