Science

It’s A Jungle In There: How Competition and Cooperation Shape the Mind

February 9, 2021

Cognitive psychologist and Penn State professor David A. Rosenbaum says we’ve got an “inner battlefield” happening in our minds — meaning loads of thoughts and ideas are constantly duking it out for survival, and these battles do as much to shape our personalities as external forces.

The Heart and the Brain: Our Heartbeat at Its Best Performance

February 5, 2021

Developments within the field of neurobiology and neuropsychology have shown that the brain is the center of wisdom, insight, cognition, and emotion. However, if one were to look back over the last millennia, the heart has traditionally stood as the symbol and driver of such feelings — especially of love.

Signs Of A Brain Injury After A Car Accident

February 4, 2021

Before learning about the most common symptoms, it can be worth knowing about the cost of brain injuries and their implications. If you’re involved in a vehicle accident, your entire way of life may change. You may require lifetime care and medical treatment, and you might experience financial hardship due to not being able to work.

How Does Your Brain Make Long-Term Memories?

February 2, 2021

On a day in late August 1953, a young man later known to medical history as patient H.M. underwent an experimental procedure. The operation, an effort to control the debilitating seizures he suffered, meant the removal of parts of his brain, among them was part of a mechanism known as the hippocampus. The surgery was

The Divided Brain: An Interview with Dr. Iain McGilchrist

February 1, 2021

How many times have you been told, “Oh you’re such a left-brain person,” meaning you think logically, are good with numbers, very analytical, and so on? And upon hearing that summation, you long for the right brain’s creative, intuitive, artistic complements. Why can’t they be part of the equation, you wonder.

The Odor of Your Dreams

January 30, 2021

I woke up last week convinced that I could smell coffee. My husband, the coffee drinker in our household, was away for business and my 20-month-old son hasn’t yet discovered the substance so it seemed odd that there would be the familiar comforting aroma in the air. Within seconds of my waking up

Money & Memory: How Our Brains Evaluate Financial Risk and Reward

January 28, 2021

How does the human brain and memory evaluate risks, rewards, and probabilities, whether we gamble or invest? Let’s look at a few examples. On August 18, 1913, the ball on the Monte Carlo Casino’s roulette table landed on black 26 times in a row. The infamous Monte Carlo Fallacy was

Can Inherited Trauma Shape Your Health?

January 27, 2021

They are sometimes called “memorial candle” children. They are the second generation of holocaust survivors; with the names of their ancestors, they are living reconstructions of the life before. They are resilient and hard-working, but also more prone to develop anxiety disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder. And so are

If Our DNA Doesn’t Make Humans Different From Chimps — What Does?

January 25, 2021

When we imagine the course of human evolution — the roughly three-million year period from the moment when Lucy began to walk upright through grasses of the Awash River Valley to modern times, it’s hard to determine the moment at which we became human, or at least as human as we might recognize ourselves. After all, there’s only

Save Me From Myself: Why People Feed The Need To Hoard

January 24, 2021

“It’s no one’s business but my own,” she states matter-of-factly. “It’s my stuff, I don’t know why everyone is so concerned. I keep food in case something happens, and a little mold never hurt anyone,” she says, amused. “It’s just like penicillin.” Julia is like most hoarders — blind to the conditions they live in. “If I wanted to throw

The Brain as Mediator: Exploring the Neuroscience of Conflict

January 22, 2021

In summer 2014, nearly 25,000 employees of Market Basket, a New England supermarket chain, walked off the job in support of their fired boss, billionaire Arthur T. Demoulas. Even customers, in support of the workers, stopped shopping at the chain. The two new CEOs first fired eight strike leaders, and then offered a series of ultimatums.

Expand Your Wits and Horizon (with Neuroplasticity)

January 20, 2021

Here’s a small experiment for you: In a notebook or on a piece of paper, jot down a memory of a time when you were happy. Include details — what you were doing, what you were seeing, and how you felt. Don’t forget the sensory details — what did it smell like around you? What were the sounds

Being SAD: Living with Seasonal Affective Disorder

January 19, 2021

Since she was a child, “Francine,” a 35-year-old lawyer, knew that she craved sunshine but she never knew why. She was a fair-skinned, blue-eyed blonde who realized that sun exposure could be dangerous and promote melanomas. But there was never enough light in the winter for her, and it made her feel

Meeting the Challenges of Adult ADHD

January 17, 2021

Who doesn’t have attention problems these days? We jump from Facebook to Twitter to headline news and back to the work we were supposed to be doing. We’re distracted with worries about our kids, our parents, germs, terrorism, politics, and money. But there are some people who struggle more than the rest of us.

Adventures of an Outlier Explorer: An Interview With Dr. William A. Tiller

January 16, 2021

His scientific pedigree is nearly perfect: a Ph.D. in engineering physics; advisory physicist at Westinghouse Research Laboratories; chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University; and a Guggenheim Fellowship to conduct research into the emerging science of crystallization

About Us

A magazine dedicated to the brain.

We believe that neuroscience is the next great scientific frontier, and that advances in understanding the nature of the brain, consciousness, behavior, and health will transform human life in this century.

Education and Training

Newsletter Signup

Subscribe to our newsletter below and never miss the news.