Mind & Brain / Memory, Emotions, & Decisions

The Brain: Stop Paying Attention: Zoning Out Is a Crucial Mental State

Researchers say a wandering mind may be important to setting goals, making discoveries, and living a balanced life. 06.15.2009

How to See Inside a Brain in Motion

A new mobile EEG system now lets researchers probe the brain function while people move around naturally. 06.05.2009

Can a Single Neuron Tell Halle Berry From Grandma Esther?

A new theory says the brain stores complex pieces of information in "sparse-coding networks." 05.15.2009

Looking at Stress—and God—in the Human Brain

DISCOVER reporter David Ewing Duncan uses fMRI to try to track his thoughts on some big questions. 04.24.2009

Tapping the Brain’s Defenses to Fight Alzheimer’s

A natural brain protein and insulin, of all things, may lead to effective treatments. 04.17.2009

Are Smart Drugs the Answer to Bad Moods—and a Bad Economy?

Today’s mind-altering chemicals can improve your memory, alertness, and mood. Just wait until you see what tomorrow’s crop can do. 04.02.2009

Music, Melody, and the Strange Pull They Exert Over Our Minds

Cognitive scientist Matthew Schulkind knows "earworms" inside and out—especially those spawned by the Wiggles. 03.26.2009

Which Brain Games Will Help Your Brain the Most?

Hint: You can play some of the best games right here on DISCOVERmagazine.com. 03.24.2009

How Can You Tell If Your IM Buddy Is Really a Machine?

Hint: Ask it about Sarah Palin. 03.23.2009

The New Theory About Why Animals Sleep: to Maintain the Immune System

New study shows that mammals that sleep more have more immune cells and fewer parasites. 03.22.2009

The Pugnacious Paper That Aims to Turn Neuroscience on Its Head

fMRI has revolutionized our understanding of the brain. But some researchers say it's actually a big misunderstanding. 03.18.2009

Can a DVD Teach Kids with Autism to Understand Emotions?

Makers of an animated series say it can offer hope—and big functional improvements. 03.04.2009

We All Live in Darwin's World

“Survival of the fittest” is helping us understand not only the origin of species but also love, politics, and even the cosmos. 02.11.2009

How Google Is Making Us Smarter

Humans are "natural-born cyborgs," and the Internet is our giant "extended mind." 01.15.2009

#86: You, Too, Have a Photographic Memory

When put to the test, your brain remembers images with astonishing accuracy. 12.07.2008

#91: Humans Have 5 Universal Facial Muscles—and 10 Optional Ones

For the first time, psychologists mapped muscle variation in the face. 12.05.2008

He Found the Innate Humanity in the Human Brain

“Noam Chomsky’s position in the history of ideas is comparable to that of Darwin or Descartes.” 12.01.2008

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Elections

Humans have a record of screwing up democracy, but we aren't the only species getting in on the act. 11.03.2008

Why Darwin Would Have Loved Botox

All those wrinkle-causing winces, smirks, and sneers may have been the product of evolution. 10.15.2008

The "Monkey Whisperer" Learns the Secrets of Primate Economics

Laurie Santos penetrates the world of monkeys... and finds they're more like humans than we think. 10.13.2008

Could an Inner Zombie Be Controlling Your Brain?

Scientists have found evidence that the self-aware part of our brains isn't always in charge. 09.08.2008

Oldsters' New Fountain of Youth: Video Games

Some specially tailored games seem to help preserve mental fitness. 08.27.2008

The Truth About Traffic

A look at the science behind gridlock, from Pompeii to L.A. 07.31.2008

How Your Brain Can Control Time

The three methods your mind uses to reverse, speed, and even slow the minutes. 07.12.2008

How Terrorism Paranoia Killed 1,600 Americans in 2002

Widespread fear after 9/11 pushed people from (safe) planes to (dangerous) cars. 06.30.2008

MTV for Geeks

A new show on Nova offers easily digestible chunks of science. 06.17.2008

The Cure for Procrastination: Discipline

Procrastination works fine—in a world where the future is perfectly predictable. 06.04.2008

Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD?

Researchers are again using mind-bending drugs as a means of treating mental disorders. 05.16.2008

Chimps Agree: A Bird in Hand Is Worth Two in the Bush

Chimpanzees are downright conservative when it comes to trading for better food. 05.14.2008

Why Bogart's Kiss Is Your Kiss, His Soda Your Soda

Mirror neurons help explain how we connect to each others' emotions. 05.05.2008

Conquering Your Fears, One Synapse at a Time

Proteins in the brain may be the key to un-learning fear—or retaining memory. 04.28.2008

A Dose of Human Kindness, Now in Chemical Form

Can the hormone oxytocin drive us to be more generous? 04.04.2008

The Cuckoo Surgeon Who Did Ice-Pick Lobotomies

At his peak, Walter Freeman hacked at dozens of brains each day. 02.19.2008

Your Brain on Music, Magnets, and Meth

No one has seen oddities of the mind quite like Oliver Sacks has. 01.01.2008

How Not To Be Racist

A rosy outlook on life makes some people immune to racial prejudice. 10.25.2007

Is It Possible to Erase a Single Memory?

Researchers take one step toward Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 07.31.2007

Health Trends: Strain Bad for Brain

Another great reason to avoid chronic distress. 07.13.2007

What’s So Friggin' Funny?

Nothing—laughter is simply how we connect. 07.10.2007

New Pseudoscience Patina, Same Snake Oil

The Secret's self-help message is just common knowledge. 06.20.2007

This Is Your Brain on Ecstasy

MDMA really is like love in a pill. 06.18.2007

The Dark Side of Reality TV

Who are the real subjects of these twisted psych experiments? 05.23.2007

Video Games vs. the Aging Brain

How a mental gym can tone your mind and stave off memory loss. 05.21.2007

Eyes May Really Be the Window to the Soul

Squiggles of color could indicate a tender heart 05.17.2007

Is Morality Innate and Universal?

A hardwired moral code leaves a lot of room for interpretation. 05.10.2007

The Lucifer Effect

Think you’re above doing evil? Think again. 05.01.2007

Jaron's World: Sex, Drugs, and the Internet

Does anonymity breed nastiness in the online world? 03.14.2007

Jaron's World: The Meaning of Metaphor

A new theory may illuminate the nature of meaning. 02.26.2007

Save Your Shopping Relationship

Can overpriced items create bad blood between you and a store? 12.14.2006

Jaron's World: Digital Maoism Revisited

Is the connected generation too easily abandoning the individual for the wisdom of the crowd? 11.21.2006

The God Experiments

Five researchers take science where it's never gone before. 11.20.2006

Raw Data: Do Magic Mushrooms Make You Mystical?

Apparently, yes. Most volunteers say psilocybin experiences are spiritually significant. 10.13.2006

Why We Sleep

Does sleep allow us to cull out and delete the throngs of ordinary, unimportant memories from each day? 10.10.2006

Can New Neurons Teach an Old Mouse?

We've got much more to learn about learning. 06.26.2006

The Woman Who Never Forgets

Does AJ have the world's best memory? 06.25.2006

Drowsy Drosophila

Do arthropods dream of eclectic sweets? 06.08.2006

Blinded By Science: What Were We Thinking?

All along it has been the unconscious mind churning away brilliantly and undetectably that has raised us above the din 05.29.2006

The Violence Gene

Impulsive aggression can be inherited. 04.14.2006

Perfect Memory

Some people really do remember everything. 04.04.2006

How to Win the World Memory Championship

Some contestants can recall the order of a deck of cards after looking at it for 60 seconds. Learn their tricks. 04.02.2006

The Year in Science: Psychology

Why stupid people die young, and a diet based on memory alteration. 01.08.2006

Why Do People Behave Nicely?

No one may ever know unless social psychologists shake off their fascination with jerks 12.01.2005

Do Emotions Cloud Common Sense?

Do Emotions Cloud Common Sense? 11.22.2005

What's In Your Brain?

What's In Your Brain? 10.24.2005

Ask Discover

02.06.2005

Fearless Mothers

11.30.2004

The Psychology of . . . Hoarding

What lies beneath the pathological desire to stockpile tons of stuff? 10.01.2004

Are Recovered Memories Real?

A growing body of evidence indicates that memory is deeply unreliable and that life-shattering events cannot be buried for years and then winched out of the deep waters of the subconscious 08.02.2004

Dog-Faced Humans

07.25.2004

Whose Life Would You Save?

Scientists say morality may be hardwired into our brains by evolution 04.21.2004

NeuroQuest

Why your brain doesn't always make the right decision 02.05.2004

NeuroQuest

What are your hidden prejudices? 10.01.2003

Discover Dialogue: Anthropologist Scott Atran

It's not a new phenomenon, and natural selection may play a role in producing it 10.01.2003

NeuroQuest

How your brain weighs the odds of disaster 09.01.2003

Discover Dialogue: Pharmacologist Susan Greenfield

Happy people are not ambitious; they do not build civilizations' 09.01.2003

Physical Chemistry

Is it your smile? Your laugh? Or your armpits? The frustrating science of finding pheromones. 07.01.2003

Emerging Technology

How to assume a 3-D online identity that lets you put on a happy—or angry—face 07.01.2003

Emotions and the Brain

If evolution comes down to survival of the fittest, then why do we joke around so much? New brain research suggests that the urge to laugh is the lubricant that makes humans higher social beings 04.01.2003

Memory's Machine

04.01.2003

Emotions and the Brain: Fear

Recent research shows that when something bad happens to you, part of your brain begins thinking independently, storing its own memories so it can save you next time. That worked fine a million years ago 03.01.2003

The Biology of . . . Disgust

Warning: This article could make you sick to your stomach 12.01.2002

Wired for a Touch

12.01.2002

Infant Recall

08.01.2002

The Price of Envy

07.01.2002

Why We Want Their Bodies Back

As humans have evolved, they've learned there are good reasons not to bury an empty coffin 02.01.2002

The Mind Is Faster Than the Eye

The brain will make up memories for the sake of a good story. 10.01.2001

Our Empathic Brain

09.01.2001

Works in Progress

Can the Department of Defense build a better polygraph to catch a mole? 07.01.2001

Wild Dreams

Sigmund Freud may have been right after all— dreams are an open door to your unconscious mind. 04.01.2001

I Know I've Seen That Face

A protein in the brain helps us recognize faces. 11.01.2000

Smart Pills

How About a Little Viagra for Your Memory? 06.01.2000

Robot Watch

04.01.2000

Code of Denial

Doctors have a dispassionate language for talking to really sick patients. But it doesn't work with people they love. 10.01.1999

Liar, Liar, Face on Fire

The real truth is written all over your face. 07.01.1999

Stress and Your Brain

War, rape, sexual abuse, and other severe trauma--even a car accident--could make part of your brain disappear 03.01.1999

Real Men Don't Eat Deer

You are what you eat, the saying goes. But what you don't eat says a lot too. 06.01.1997

When Memories Lie

01.01.1997

Gunslinging in America

Does a gun make you safer or increase your likelihood of violent death? 05.01.1996

A Face of One's Own

As any newborn baby knows, no two faces are alike. Now, finally, a computer knows this, too. 12.01.1995

Flights of Memory

05.01.1994

Forgiveness Math

Evolution, in our dog-eat-dog world, should have made short work of unselfish behavior. 05.01.1993

Back Talk

07.01.1992

Lost Souls

04.01.1992



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