Going Mental
Today's Big Idea: Love & Sex on the Brain
What does love look like in the brain? What exactly happens to your mind during sex? And what goes on in a brain-on-porn?
The revolution in brain imaging allows us to look at -- and begin to answer -- these questions in entirely new ways. Biological anthropologist Helen Fischer discusses the three brain systems for love: sex drive, romantic love, and attachment. They're less distinct than you'd imagine, says Fischer.
And in response to the passing of Amendment One in North Carolina and President Obama's recent comments supporting same-sex marriage, Big Think blogger Kayt Sukel investigates, "Is what I experience when I feel love qualitatively different from what a man experiences? Or what a lesbian may experience?"
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Braingasm: How Porn "Shuts Down" Women's Brains
What really goes on in a brain-on-porn? A recent study conducted at the University of Groningen Medical Center came to a surprising conclusion.
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This Is Your Brain During Orgasm
If you ever want to make even the most cosmopolitan of your friends speechless, telling them you have volunteered to travel to Newark, New Jersey, so you can masturbate to orgasm in an fMRI is a great way to start. Once they overcome the shock, chances are they will start to ask questions. Most I was able to answer.
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Casual Sex Doesn’t Exist
In a study that asked 515 people why they went into a hookup, 50 percent of women and 52 percent of men reported that they hoped to trigger a longer relationship. -
Is Love Different Across Sex and Orientation?
Is what I experience when I feel love qualitatively different from what a man experiences? Or what a lesbian may experience? If I consider Semir Zeki’s hypothesis that literature and art across the ages show a common substrate for love in the mind, I might suggest that descriptions of sex by male and female authors and artists are sometimes different.
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Meet the Urban Datasexual
Dominic Basulto
Digital Thinker, Electric Artists
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Braingasm: How Porn "Shuts Down" Women's Brains
Megan Erickson
Associate Editor, Big Think
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A Marriage Ruined by Monogamy
Pamela Haag
Essayist
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Killing Creativity: Why Kids Draw Pictures of Monsters & Adults Don't
Sam McNerney
Science writer
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563 - Pop by Lat and Pop by Long
Frank Jacobs
Author, Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities
Latest
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This lecture on "diagnostic inflation" or the over-diagnosis or mental disorder by Allen J. Frances, the chair of the DSM-IV task force, is important. Watch it. Frances lays out absolutely staggering levels and rates of change in the recent diagnosis of mental disorder and argues that ... Read More
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What's the Latest Development? According to a recent wave of books on developments in neuroscience, just about everything we thought we knew about ourselves is wrong. From the actions and reactions of chemicals in our brains to the decisions we tell ourselves are made rationally, the influence ... Read More
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Phoney-baloney outrage. Black-hat, white-hat exaggeration. Every day, I get emails some activist organization or other, suggesting that the nation hangs by a thread, about to drop into a bottomless pit of slimy hells unless I sign a petition or contribute at least $25 to someone's campaign for a ... Read More
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In response to the passing of Amendment One in North Carolina and President Obama's recent comments supporting same-sex marriage, I've included a short excerpt about sexual orientation and the brain from my book, Dirty Minds: How Our Brains Influence Love, Sex, and Relationships: Is what I ... Read More
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Numerous studies have shown us how important sleep can be. Not only does it revitalize our bodies, it also gives the brain time to sort through all the information it has received throughout our hectic day. Sleep deprivation, and a lack of quality sleep, can lead to weight problems, high blood ... Read More
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What’s the Big Idea? “Sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets,” said Andy Warhol. It seems America agrees: adult entertainment is an estimated $10 billion dollar industry in the U.S., though the ethics of capturing and manufacturing sexual desire on ... Read More
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On the one day that we think the most about mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, and all other motherly types, it seems appropriate to ask what is the greatest Mother’s Day portrait ever? The first suspect that lines up in the mind is probably James McNeill Whistler’s 1871 painting Arrangement in ... Read More
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For a mental health break, this weekend I wanted to write about something extremely cool: 3D printing, an emerging technological trend that's been covered by, among others, the Telegraph, the Economist, PC World, as well as right here at Big Think's IdeaFeed. As opposed to traditional ... Read More
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Warren W. Littlefield embarked on a journey of rediscovery 13 years after he was fired as the President of Entertainment at NBC. With the help of friends like Jerry Seinfeld, Kelsey Grammer, Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Edwards and Debra Messing, he penned Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must ... Read More
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There are approximately 105,000 people currently on the waiting list for solid organ transplant in the United States. 18 of those people die every day. These deaths are due entirely to the fact that there are far more people on the waiting list than there are available organs. Kidney transplant ... Read More
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In the spring of 2000, when I first started studying Yemen as an undergraduate during a semester abroad at the American University of Cairo, I found myself seduced by Yemen's deep history and rich theology. Later, when I was finally able to spend a significant amount of time in the country as a ... Read More
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Philistines are people who have something to be embarrassed about but nevertheless do not feel embarrassed. In common usage a philistine ought to feel embarrassed primarily because he lacks “culture”: cultivated taste in prestigious leisure activities. This usage proves self-defeating in societies ... Read More
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Brain Teasers
How Neuroscience Is Shrinking Our Concept of Consciousness
The vast empire over which human reason once ruled has been made a fiefdom by current neurological research. The brain is as vulnerable to outside influence as any other organ.
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positive psychology
Why We Tend to Look on the Bright Side
A clever experiment designed by Harvard researchers suggests that we mostly imagine, and recall, positive visions of the future. Though negative forecasts occasionally help us correct our course.
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belief
Why Religious Thinking Inspires Self-Control
New research suggests that everyone--even atheists--exhibit better self-control when they are thinking about spiritual or religious matters. But why does everyone seem to obey God?
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Creative Processes
A Meeting of Mind: Neuroscience, Art & the Creative Process
By hosting an interdisciplinary public conversation over the relationship between neuroscience and artistic endeavors, Nobel laureate Eric Kandel seeks a fuller understanding of human behavior.
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Nature vs. Nurture
Why People Bully (Like Mitt Romney Did)
Accusations have come forward that Mitt Romney was a high-school bully, behavior consistent with his pranksterish past. But what makes some kids pick on others in the first place?
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Rethinking the Workplace
For Better Health, Build Your Work around Your Play
Switching between the different hours of your work and social life can cause you to put on weight, says new research. What if working hours were more accommodating to our social lives?