David Gamon, PhD
Facts by David Gamon (30)
A Little OCD In Me And Thee?
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) may not get as much attention as learning disorders such as dyslexia and…
A Tickle is All in the Timing
It's often been noted that no matter how hard you might try, you can't tickle yourself. Why not? Whether it's…
Billions and Billions
Nobody really knows how many brain cells anybody has, but typical estimates are around 200 billion. You've…
Brain Waves
Your brainwaves normally vary from a low vibrational state of about one Hz ('Hertz,' or vibrations per second)…
Butterflies In Your Brain
The idea behind chaos theory is that complex systems have an inherent element of unpredictability. The human…
Coffee: Beverage Of Sedition
Coffee is the most popular drink in the world, consumed regularly by about one-third of the global population.…
Did You Smell Something?
There's not a moment of our lives when smells -- or, more precisely, odor molecules -- aren't impacting our…
Do Blind People Dream?
Dreams are a universal feature of the human mind. Carl Jung even believed that visions in our dreams offer…
Hey Nose-Brain!
Sex, food, and smell are linked in our brain by ancient pathways governing appetite, odor detection, and…
How Much Coffee Will Kill You?
With the spread of Starbucks franchises all the way from Portland to Poughkeepsie, Americans are getting used…
Left Nostril Right Brain
A recent experiment performed by researchers at Philadelphia's Monell Chemical Senses Center, probably the…
Monkey See Monkey Do: Mirror Neurons May Lie At The Root Of Language
Self-awareness, the ability to infer the mental states of others, and language are considered uniquely human…
Neurogenesis
Until recently, any doctor would have told you that when you lose brain cells, you can never replace them.…
New Ideas About An Old Puzzle
There's a familiar way of talking about language as a 'tool,' but of course that's just a metaphor. Literal…
Respect Your Nose
Our language seems to indicate that we think of the world as divided up into things that 'smell' and things…
Synchronicity
There's something called synchronicity that we've probably all experienced at one time or another. Some people…
The Self-less Gene?
The dictionary defines altruism as 'an unselfish concern for the welfare of others.' That's the kind of…
The Strange Case Of Phineas Gage
Long before the advent of neuroscience, brain injuries have been used to deduce how the brain is organized…
There's A Lot More To Vision Than Meets The Eye
Have you ever heard of Anton's Syndrome? It's a bizarre medical disorder involving a dramatic mismatch between…
Vibrational Energy
Why is hearing such a rich and powerful sense? Maybe because it alone of all the senses has the power to fill…
We Live In Two Distinct Visual Worlds
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live on a planet where all the colors were different from what…
Welcome to1984
You've probably heard reports about a recently-developed technological device that may help quadriplegics…
What Are Stem Cells?
When an egg is fertilized by a sperm cell, it quickly becomes a single cell from which all cells of the…
What's Blindsight?
Some people become blind after suffering an injury to their primary visual cortex at the back of their brain.…
What's So Funny?
There's an oft-repeated scientific definition of laughter as one or more forcibly voiced, acoustically…
Which Came First? The Words or the Melody?
There's good evidence that we're born into the world with an innate understanding of music, and a natural…
Why Are Yawns Contagious?
Lots of animals yawn. It's a primitive reflex. Humans even begin to yawn before birth, starting about 11 weeks…
Why Tree Twig Twine Twists Tongues
Even though we call it a 'tongue twister,' it isn't really your tongue that has a hard time saying 'sixth sick…
Word Power of the Very Young
Before they turn 2, most children have a vocabulary of about 50 words. From 1st to 5th grades, according to…
Your Senses Make Sense of Energy
Your different sense receptors are designed to gather different kinds of sensory information about the world…