You may have noticed that Neuroscience seems to be a hot topic these days in the popular press. Neurochemistry is a hot topic across the spectrum of human interest. Whether you’re worried about how to deal with depression, anxiety, weight-loss, cigarette smoking, impending Alzheimer’s, the effects of the modern environment on your children’s brains, or how to attract a mate… the neuroscience industry appears to be working on an answer.

Spending as little as ten minutes talking to others may help improve your memory and intellect. Sound like an infomercial created by teenagers? No, no- it’s real research! Turns out social interaction can provide the same mental-boosting benefits as reading or doing a daily crossword puzzle.

Much of my academic career prior to coming to the vaunted Labs of eHarmony.com was spent trying to determine whether taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was a good or a bad thing for post-menopausal women, specifically whether HRT may diminish the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Over the course of 12 years I had been convinced that HRT did great things, then thought it may possibly even be harmful, then I was simply confused. Now comes an unexpected finding suggesting a positive role for HRT.

eHarmony Labs Scientific Advisor, Dr. John Cacioppo, has been publishing some extremely important papers that have done much to identify the causes and consequences of loneliness. Now Dr. Cacioppo has worked with a group of researchers to show that people with chronically high levels of loneliness show alterations in their pattern of gene expression. This is the first time that a social epidemiological risk factor has been linked to genome wide transcriptional activity.

Research conducted by the University of Southampton in England has produced some fairly compelling evidence that combinations of six artificial food colorings appear to cause noticeable increases in hyperactivity and decreases in attention span. The good news is that three of these food additives are currently NOT approved for use in the United States. The bad news… well, the other three may be lurking in your fridge and pantry.

Scientists have found a way to make mice forget that they were taught to be afraid of something. Irrelevant rodent science? Or are we on the brink of a brave, new world?

NewScientist says maybe you shouldn’t eat your Wheaties(TM). Are you gonna believe that?!?

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In case you haven’t heard, researchers at the University of Washington have published a new article in Journal of Pediatrics regarding the effects of television viewing and language development in children under 2 years old. For every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs (such as “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby”), infants eight to sixteen months knew six to eight fewer words than children who didn’t watch. I’m a big fan of science leading the way for parents (and relationships), but sometimes a word of caution is in order. What this study does not show is whether these effects are lasting. The researchers did not find these effects in infants 17- 24 months of age no matter what they watched.

What it is about music that seems to be so inextricably linked to romance. After all what couple doesn’t quickly identify “their song?” Who doesn’t know a few songs that when heard fan some sensual feeling, from the animalistic to the purely sentimental?

Think your insomnia just leaves your tired? A new study in the Journal of SLEEP finds that chronic insomnia (the kind that lasts for several weeks or more) may have both short and long term consequences- like depression and anxiety- if left untreated.

Growing up on a dairy farm isn’t as glamorous as most people think. In between the 5 AM alarm clocks and the backbreaking work there is a need to stay in touch with the cycles of life with the observational rigor of a scientist.

The sense of smell is one of our earliest evolved traits. Conceptually, you can think of smell as being one step up the ladder from pain. Like our sense of pain, our sense of smell evolved to help us avoid danger, only from a slightly greater distance (i.e., if pain tells you that fire hurts, smell tells you that something is on fire!)

I was very excited today to see that researchers had found further proof that exercising can stimulate the growth of new brain cells in rats, as well as make them happier. This is great, because any day now, I’m going to get to the gym! So, knowing that I can make myself brainier as well as happier and skinnier is just, err… icing on the cake (so to speak).