Most Popular in 2023: Top 10 Countdown

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Why is your gag reflex more sensitive at the dentist? How does the brain learn? How do people move to the beat?

Throughout 2023, BrainFacts responded to curious minds by answering these questions and more. Click on the links below to see our most popular content in 2023.

Top 10 Stories:

1. What Are Brain-Computer Interfaces? Linking Mind and Machine
   Brain-computer interfaces provide a link between a person’s mind and machine, allowing the brain’s electrical signals to be the language to use a machine.
2. The Risks of Even Mild COVID-19: 1 in 4 Showing Cognitive Deficits After Mild Case, Brazilian Study Finds
   Even younger people who had mild COVID-19 showed persistent cognitive impairments.
3. How Does the Brain Learn?
   Learning something new doesn’t generate new brain cells, but continued learning does forge stronger connections between neurons. Here’s how.
4. Why is My Gag Reflex More Sensitive at the Dentist?
   The gag reflex can be set off by direct contact with regions of your mouth and throat. But usually, our psychology directly triggers the reflex.
5. How Blue Light Affects Our Ability to Sleep
   Viewing our smartphone screens at night disrupts our brains’ natural processes that allow us to get ready for bed.
6. Yips and Twisties: What Makes Athletes Suddenly Lose Control of Their Bodies?
   Even though psychological stress often plays a role in yips and twisties, new research notes some cases may have origins in deeper brain regions.
7. How Do People Move to the Beat?
   Areas in our brain involved with movement are activated when we hear music, helping us anticipate musical patterns and compelling us to move to the beat.
8. Keeping the Brain Young with High Intensity Exercise
   The health benefits of exercise are well-established. Recent research makes a case for how high-intensity exercise repairs and boosts the brain and may even supercharge the fight against age-related neurodegenerative disease.
   
9. Synapse Formation and Myelination
   After neurons form and migrate, they develop connections with each other.
   
10. Thoughts in Headphones: Brain Wave Music
    Scientists and musicians have used brain wave recordings from EEG signals to create “brain wave music” that may help with concentration and relaxation.

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About the Author

Cyrenna Cooper

Cyrenna Cooper is the Web Communications Specialist for BrainFacts.org. She graduated from George Mason University in 2017 with a degree in Communications.