Best Of 2019

What Neuroscience Tells Us About Transgender People

March 31, 2021

Is transgenderism a choice or a medical condition — and what does the neuroscience tell us? Some seem to believe that changing gender is a willful choice. In January 2019, the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 to allow then-President Donald Trump to curtail the military service of transgender individuals. President Joe Biden removed

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.

Happy Brain: Where Happiness Comes From, and Why

November 15, 2020

It’s one of those questions that probably spawned some of humanity’s greatest achievements — one that we’ve pursued for centuries and still don’t quite know how to word the answer to: What is happiness and where do we find it? Storytellers, philosophers, and psychologists have all tried to understand it, to find

Can Sleep Boost Your Creativity?

June 9, 2020

In art, literature, or science, it’s an elusive question: how do you create something new? How do you get past a block or solve a seemingly impossible problem? Well, putting it aside and sleeping on it just might help. “Sleeping on it” has led to many famous inventions and artistic creations.

Mind the Gap: Unlocking Your Own Creativity

June 2, 2020

For far too long, we’ve regarded creativity as something like sorcery — that we can conjure a new piano concerto or paint a mural through the dark arts — known only to a few. If you weren’t all that adept in your high school art class — and thought that one teacher or one fellow student’s critique was enough

The Power of Words (And What They Do For Your Brain)

May 17, 2020

It’s long been said that the pen is mightier than the sword — that the written word is a far more effective catalyst at impacting the world — shaping society and individual thought more significantly than any weapon ever has. Edward Bulwer-Lytton actually coined the phrase around 1837, sometime after

What Is Internet Gaming Disorder?

March 11, 2020

Decades before the Gamergate and its aftermath blew up the internet, video games had its fierce detractors — people who recognized the medium’s pervasive influence and immediately feared the worst — seeing it as a corrupting force on the people who played them. In the years since we moved

Know Your Brain: The Brainstem — Connecting the Lines

March 7, 2020

We often use the phrase “somewhere in the back of our mind” for thoughts we like to push aside — ones we’d rather not revisit, but know they’re there. You could almost argue that the brainstem fits this description almost literally — maintaining our alertness and regulating our sleep — the main reasons

Having Good Chemistry: How Being in Love Changes The Brain

February 13, 2020

Rarely do you find love ballads that mention the brain, the very organ that drives us to seek out romantic relationships in the first place, playing a major role in how we select romantic partners and are forever changed as a result of falling in love. Evidently, love affects our brain, and in some ways its thrill changes the structure

Know Your Brain: Oxytocin — The “Love Hormone”

February 11, 2020

Oxytocin is a hormone that functions in the brain as a neurotransmitter. We often think of it as the “hug hormone” or “love hormone,” the chemical signaling in the brain that draws couples to each other; in other words, the chemical that makes people miss each other. We may also know the disturbing stories

Fine-Tuning Your Instrument of Memory

September 3, 2019

If you’re like most people, you may find yourself struggling to recall the exact title of a favorite book, the name of a familiar actor on television, or your latest online banking password. As much as we’re afraid to face it, our memories begin to decline after our mid-20s — and the speed and accuracy at which they function will

Negotiation & Neuroscience: What to Take to Your Next Business Meeting

September 2, 2019

There’s a stalemate. You’re trying to negotiate a better deal for your company but are being stonewalled by a major client, who you believe is ripping your company off. You can’t walk away because they account for a significant percentage of your revenues. The client is disturbed because a constructive relationship

The Brain Under (Sexual) Assault

August 14, 2019

Nobody can tell you how it feels. Maybe you can’t even make sense of how it feels yourself. Your feelings — along with what feels like most of your organs — might be twisted in knots so bad you want to throw up. What is your brain doing right now after surviving being raped? Understanding that might be one of the first steps to

Music Therapy Can Sync Our Brains

August 3, 2019

Researchers Jorg Fachner and Dr. Clemens Maidhof of Anglia Ruskin University conducted the first music therapy study to use “hyperscanning” — a technique that allows researchers to monitor the activity in two separate brains simultaneously by controlling multiple scanners from a remote location. While the patient and therapist had

To Combat the Opioid Epidemic We Need Better Ways to Manage Pain

July 11, 2019

The rate of overdoses due to opioid addiction has become the leading cause of death for Americans under 55. A 2018 National Vital Statistics System report showed that the epidemic has killed more people than the Vietnam and Iraq wars combined. Some people are more susceptible to becoming addicted than others

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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.

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