Understanding Brain Science and Cognitive Psychology The human brain is an amazing and powerful tool. It allows us to learn, see, remember, hear, perceive, understand and create language. Sometimes, the human brain also fails us. Cognitive psychologists study how people acquire, perceive, process and store information.

The brain is a complex organ that controls thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger and every process that regulates our body. Together, the brain and spinal cord that extends from it make up the central nervous system, or CNS.

Neural pathways, comprised of neurons connected by dendrites, are created in the brain based on our habits and behaviors. The number of dendrites increases with the frequency a behavior is performed.

Prefrontal Cortex – The term prefrontal cortex refers to the very front part of the brain located behind the forehead and above the eyes. It appears to play a critical role in the regulation of emotion and behavior by anticipating the consequences of our actions and inhibiting behaviors.

The brain itself does not feel pain because there are no nociceptors located in brain tissue itself. This feature explains why neurosurgeons can operate on brain tissue without causing a patient discomfort, and, in some cases, can even perform surgery while the patient is awake.

While intelligence is difficult to quantify in any organism, many studies suggest that dolphins are second only to us humans in smarts. Using brain size as a barometer, dolphins come in second only to humans in brain-to-body size ratio. However, dolphins also excel intelligence-based tests.

The La Plata dolphin has an EQ of approximately 1.67; the Ganges river dolphin of 1.55; the orca of 2.57; the bottlenose dolphin of 4.14; and the tucuxi dolphin of 4.56; In comparison to other animals, elephants have an EQ ranging from 1.13 to 2.36; chimpanzees of approximately 2.49; dogs of 1.17; cats of 1.00; and …

Dolphins are evil. Actually, dolphins are vicious gang rapists who kill their own babies, along with the babies of other species, and occasionally try to have sex with human swimmers. They have even been known to use young sharks as volleyballs.

Dolphins at swim-with attractions have been known to seriously hurt humans by butting them. Even contact with dolphins outside of the water can result in bite injuries, as the many incidents of children being bitten during feeding interactions demonstrate.

Footage from a new BBC documentary series, “Spy in the Pod,” reveals what appears to be dolphins getting high off of pufferfish. The dolphins were filmed gently playing with the puffer, passing it between each other for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, unlike the fish they had caught as prey which were swiftly torn apart.

Despite what dolphinaria may have you believe, dolphins are apex ocean predators, capable of even killing sharks, and should be treated as such. Dolphins can be aggressive to people, other dolphins, or even self-harm. While the majority of dolphins in the U.S. are bred in captivity, they are not domesticated animals.

Dolphin meat is consumed in a small number of countries world-wide, which include Japan and Peru (where it is referred to as chancho marino, or “sea pork”). Cooked dolphin meat has a flavor very similar to beef liver. Dolphin meat is high in mercury, and may pose a health danger to humans when consumed.

STIs in animals Atlantic bottlenose dolphins can get genital warts, baboons suffer from herpes and syphilis is common in rabbits.

It is one of nature’s cruellest stories. A helpless newborn is threatened or killed by members of its own species. It’s called infanticide and it occurs in many species, from lions to monkeys. It has rarely been observed in dolphins, but it does happen, despite their cuddly reputation.

It still contains PCBs. They pose a particular challenge to the survival of marine mammals like porpoises, whales, and dolphins. The Europe-based researchers found that PCBs accumulate in the fat tissue of cetaceans and stay with them throughout their lives.

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Killer whales (or orcas) are large, powerful apex predators. In the wild, there have been no fatal recorded attacks on humans. In captivity, there have been several non-fatal and fatal attacks on humans since the 1970s.

There are a few theories about why orcas don’t attack humans in the wild, but they generally come down to the idea that orcas are fussy eaters and only tend to sample what their mothers teach them is safe. Since humans would never have qualified as a reliable food source, our species was never sampled.

Drowning of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau at odds with wild killer whale behavior, biologist says. Billed as Shamu, Tilikum, a 12,000-pound (5,440-kilogram) male killer whale, reportedly grabbed Brancheau by the upper arm and pulled the trainer underwater.