Michele W. Berger

Brain stimulation restores memory during lapses

A team of neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania has shown for the first time that electrical stimulation delivered when memory is predicted to fail can improve memory function in the human brain. That same stimulation generally becomes disruptive when electrical pulses arrive during periods of effective memory function.

Michele W. Berger

Penn Researchers Look to Cuba for Sustainability and Agroecology in Practice

On many farms in the Cuban countryside, yellow flowers bookend certain crops, placed in such a way to concentrate insects there rather than on the produce growing in the rows between. Equipment-toting oxen and tractors are equally common sights, and combined with a self-sustaining water system, minimize the need to transport fuel across great distances.

Michele W. Berger, Ali Sundermier

What Makes Creative People Creative?

In a small conference room in the basement of a hotel, four comedians, two psychologists, a cartoonist and a seven-time New Yorker caption contest winner sit around a U-shaped table.

Michele W. Berger

Understanding how the brain recognizes actions in the visual world

Humans can recognize an action like biting regardless of whether they see a man eating a sandwich or a dog gnawing on a bone. But what in the brain helps to explain the innate similarities of the two, and does this reasoning change depending on the visual cues?

Michele W. Berger