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It's rare to get any good news associated with reports of Alzheimer's disease, but neuroscientists have just released word that one drug is dramatically reducing symptoms. It seems to do this by dissolving a protein that builds up in the brain — and it manages to create major improvements within days. More »
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You probably know that Frank Herbert's Dune teaches that "fear is the mind-killer." But what else can you learn from Dune about the power of using your mind and avoiding negative thoughts? Psychologist Maria Konnikova delves into the real-life neuroscience that Paul Atreides taps into. More »
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There's only one place in the world where you can view row after row of brains afflicted by mad cow disease, Alzheimer's, and alcoholism. It's Lima's Museo de Cerebros, home to the largest collection of gray matter that can be viewed by the public. More »
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Puffer fish, or fugu, is well-known for being a dish that stands a good chance of killing the person it's served to. But people still eat it — partly because some people like living life on the edge, but mostly because all people like getting high. Find out how the puffer fish helps them get there. More »
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Sherlock Holmes isn't what you'd call a traditional psychologist. In fact, he isn't even real (despite the letters that to this day arrive at 221B Baker Street). But his insights into the human mind do more to teach us about how we do think and how we should think than many a more conventional source. More »
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Artist Alasdair Hopwood and the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College are creating an archive of memories — false memories. And one of your false memories could be in there. It's easy enough to acquire one. More »
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You probably think of your nervous system as a kind of computer network, or some kind of electrical system that passes nerve impulses around. But in reality, the miraculous journey of a signal thorough your nervous system is a story that involves cell biology, chemistry and physics. Your brain contains 30 billion neurons, and each of them is a staggering achievement. More »
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You're used to relying on your brain. Whatever else happens, your personal lump of gray matter will take in the world, and respond to it in a fluid and predictable way. But actually, whatever your brain does is made up of many successive mental steps — and if just one of those steps fails, you'll find yourself behaving very differently. More »
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Stress, deadlines, or caffeine can give people a few sleepless nights, but there are some people for whom insomnia is chronic, complete, and fatal. Find out about a rare, but scary, condition known as fatal familial insomnia. More »
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When I was in elementary school, I was obsessed with the Visible Human Project. The idea that a person could be frozen solid and subsequently sliced from head-to-toe, one-third of a millimeter at a time (a process known as cryosectioning) was almost too incredible for my adolescent brain to handle. More »
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Navigating the uncertain terrain of the dating world can be tough for just about anyone, but it is often especially challenging for people with autism spectrum disorders, who typically suffer from impaired social skills that can make establishing strong interpersonal connections difficult. More »
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Hypnosis, and the many things it can do, has been studied for a long time. Many scientists have assumed that people can be hypnotized, but have struggled to figure out who is hypnotized, who is pretending, and who just wants to believe. It looks like now they've managed to distinguish between the three. More »
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Synesthesia is a concept that has always fascinated people. People have long since claimed to process colors as sounds, or to associate colors with music or words. More »
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An interesting paper on the cultural dimensions of epilepsy among the Guaraní people of South America has recently come to our attention. More »
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Scientists have trained monkeys to meditate with marshmallows. This is a gift from both the comedy and the alliteration gods, but it's also a valuable medical technique. More »
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Scientists have found out that memory comes in little packets, and they have found that out by making mice believe that they've been teleported. More »
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Stephen Fry and the panelists on the BBC show QI are struck by the strange motions of the inverted face of Albert Einstein demonstrating the Hollow Face Illusion, and a little side-variation of the illusion. More »
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A simple optical illusion, called the motion quartet, reveals impressive things about how the brain works in general, and the particular link ups of individual brains. Find out whether your cerebral hemispheres are firmly linked! More »
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Every day, we look for ways to be happy. We do terrible things, or seek great achievement, or search for true love, or sometimes take on deep spiritual quests. Because happiness can be found within — literally. Your body provides itself with many chemicals that make you happy for no good reason. Take a look at all the ways that you live better through brain chemistry. More »
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Nobody knows what the future will bring, but most of us think about the future all the time. Will we succeed in our goals? Will we fail? Will the world fall apart? Is the Singularity coming soon? More »
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In a post about the science of sleep twitching, a reader brought up an unknown (to me) phenomenon: Pee shivers. Apparently these are experienced by a relatively large portion of the male population, and today we shall take a look at why. More »
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The feeling of jerking awake just as sleep begins to overtake us is familiar to most readers. So too is seeing someone in a deep sleep eerily (or adorably) twitching their hands or feet. What is it that makes people do this while they are supposed to be resting? More »
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The 1974 movie The Terminal Man is one of those quiet, slow-moving masterpieces of early 1970s science fiction... and then you get to a totally horrific, violent scene like this one, where the main character's brain implant finally goes wrong. More »
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If you suffer frequent migraines, you probably already know that tinted lenses are your friend - but now we have scientific proof. Precision tinted lenses have been known for years to provide relief for migraine sufferers and people hit with certain reading difficulties, and now we have the fMRI scans to prove it.

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There are grizzled heroes and sleek assassins in movies who don't have metaphorical blind spots. They do have literal ones, though. Because of the way the eye is constructed, every human being does. More »
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Autism takes a heavy toll on families — autistic teens are more likely to be bullied, and families with autistic kids are likelier to have lower incomes. But now at last, we're starting to learn more about what causes autism. More »
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Neurologist Jacopo Annese's brain donors already include a woman who played one of the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz, and a woman who can't feel fear. But he wants the brain of Donald Trump as well. More »
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Ever wonder if what you smell is what everyone else smells? Science does, too. And the answer could be no. More »
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A paralysed woman was still able to control a computer cursor with her thoughts 1000 days after having a tiny electronic device implanted in her brain, say researchers who devised the system. The achievement demonstrates the longevity of brain-machine implants. More »
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When cell phones first came out, when they started replacing land lines and oh-so-technologically-advanced car phones, a lot of rumors started spreading about their safety. Some people thought they would slowly poison people. More »
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Scientists must never be afraid to ask any question and to seek any truth, no matter how silly it might seem. Case in point: a 2003 paper from the journal Mad Med Hypotheses, in which four brave souls from the Medical School in Hanover, Germany ponder "the function of groaning and hyperventilation during sexual intercourse" and how this leads to the "intensification of sexual experience by altering brain metabolism through hypocapnia." Yeah, I think we've found a solid contender for the most important scientific paper ever. More »
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We've seen parents-to-be in sappy movies putting headphones or speakers up to the pregnant woman's stomach. Sometimes they're trying to make the fetus listen to some grandparent's voice. Sometimes they're trying to make some kind of crazy-smart super baby. But can a fetus stuck behind thick walls of flesh hear any of it? And if it can, would it hear anything more than muted noise? More »
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The hero in Memento had a certain condition that prevented him from making new memories. He couldn't remember the start of a conversation by the end of the conversation. He couldn't remember who a person was, if that person had introduced themselves to him a few minutes before. When he learned a new fact, or phone number, he had to repeat it obsessively until he could write it down. More »
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As people get older, their driving skills tend to diminish. Failing eyesight and heavy medication are often blamed for this phenomenon, but there might be a neurological reason...and it could help us better understand depression and schizophrenia. More »
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Animals are faster than us, stronger than us, and now dogs, at least, are gaining the ability to understand speech. Want to keep the human race from being eaten alive? Reassert your dominance with hypnosis. More »
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Chronesthesia is known as 'mental time travel,' and it allows us to think about the past or the future. Although vital to everyday life, it's seldom been studied. What parts of the brain light up when you get nostalgic? More »
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Chili peppers are served at the same temperature every other ingredient in a curry. Why, then, do we universally describe them as tasting hot? Mass synesthesia? Or something else? More »
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Many of our greatest crime-fighting techniques have their roots in the theories of scientist Carleton Simon, who invented the retinal scanner. But he also had some ludicrious theories about the brains of criminals, as Neurophilosophy's Mo Costandi explains. More »
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An infamous concept in psychology is the 'Other Race Effect.' People are able to differentiate between faces of their own race better than between the faces of other races. A new study probes the mechanics of the phenomenon. More »
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We all know what bodies look like from the outside. This cortical homunculus is how your brain sees your body from the inside. More »
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