Mind & Brain / Mental Health

#76: Environment Gets More Blame for Autism


A new study suggests that environment accounts for more than half of autism risk, while genes are responsible for about 40 percent. 01.05.2012

Maybe You Do Need a Hole in Your Head—to Let the Medicine In

To heal the brain, scientists are trying to poke through the shield that isolates it from the rest of the body. 11.15.2011

Of Mice and Men and Medicines

Drugs that alleviate symptoms of mental illness in mice often wind up producing human treatments. There is just one small problem: Rodent breakdowns look nothing like ours. 11.05.2011

Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul; Skin Is a Window to the Brain

A personalized source of stem cells could help find safer, more effective treatments for mental disorders. 10.25.2011

Vital Signs: Confusion That Comes and Goes

An old Vital Signs column helps solve the mystery of a man who slipped into and out of strange altered states. 08.03.2011

Are Toxins in Seafood Causing ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's?

What started as the discovery of an unknown disease in Guam has spread to a line of ominous findings about some of our most debilitating conditions and potential toxins lurking in bodies of water around the world. 07.22.2011

Vital Signs: Brain Got Your Tongue?

A 6-year-old girl cannot speak outside 
her home. Is she simply shy, or is some bigger problem keeping her from talking? 06.14.2011

The Metal Marvel That Has Mended Brains for 50 Years

Lithium—a simple metal and the oldest drug in psychiatry—might protect the brain against mental illness, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases. One problem: There’s no profit in it. 12.27.2010

The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010

Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. 12.16.2010

The Brain Is Ready for Its Close-Up

Neuroscientists know that the first step in understanding something is to get a good look at it. A new book showcases their finest attempts to image the brain, from Victorian drawings to state-of-the-art brainbows. 11.17.2010

The Insanity Virus

Schizophrenia has long been blamed on bad genes or even bad parents. Wrong, says a growing group of psychiatrists. The real culprit, they claim, is a virus that lives entwined in every person's DNA. 11.08.2010

How Did 9/11 and the Holocaust Affect Pregnant Women and Their Children?

Recent research suggests that terrifying experiences can leave lasting scars on the psyches of people who were fetuses at the time. 10.14.2010

The Brain: What Happens to a Linebacker's Neurons?

A blow to the head can change the neural architecture of the brain from elastic to brittle, with devastating consequences. 08.18.2010

The Brain: The Switches That Can Turn Mental Illness On and Off

The difference between one personality and another is not determined by genes alone. Love’s got something to do with it too. 06.16.2010

Vital Signs: There's Hyperactivity...and There's Hyperactivity

Most 3-year-olds are hyperactive sometimes. But some cases are a sign of something more serious going on. 04.01.2010

What Quirk of the Brain Turns People Into Compulsive Hoarders?

Hoarders cannot stop themselves from accumulating stuff—even if they live in fetid, rotting homes that ruin their lives. 03.30.2010

Treating Agony With Ecstasy

In the first FDA-approved trial evaluating the street drug's therapeutic applications, it proved phenomenally successful at treating PTSD. 01.13.2010

#61: Child Abuse Leaves Its Mark on Victim’s DNA

The brains of people who were abused as children and then commit suicide show DNA modifications that made them particularly sensitive to stress. 12.28.2009

How Autistic Artists See the World

Artworks created by autistic people reveal their fascinating visions. 12.15.2009

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

Why Does the Vaccine/Autism Controversy Live On?

Research has soundly disproved the alleged connection, yet fears about vaccines continue to be a major risk to public health. 05.06.2009

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

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

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

What Makes You Uniquely "You"?

Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman says your brain is one-of-a-kind in the history of the universe. 01.16.2009

#57: Schizophrenia Linked to Large Genetic Alterations

Some sufferers of the disease have entirely unique DNA duplications or deletions. 12.11.2008

When Sleep Turns Violent

A strange condition turns a mild-mannered husband into an aggressive assailant. 11.29.2008

Mom and Dad Are Fighting in Your Genes—and in Your Brain

Our brains may contain a battle of the sexes that can cause schizophrenia and autism. 11.10.2008

Curing the Wounds of Iraq with Virtual Therapy

Albert Rizzo uses virtual reality to free veterans of their PTSD—by letting them relive their trauma. 09.17.2008

Mind Control?

The CIA's experimentation with LSD led to disastrous results. 08.04.2008

Will Loneliness Spell Society's Doom?

A new book explores the negative effects of being alone: heart disease, cancer, gastrointestinal ailments, etc. 07.30.2008

The Science of Sniffing Out Liars

An interrogation expert spills his secrets. 07.28.2008

Can Schizophrenia Be Cured Before It Starts?

A new mix of therapy and medication may stave off psychosis among teens at risk. 07.22.2008

Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD?

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

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

How Much Do Chemicals Affect Our Health?

Philip Landrigan tracks how dangers like the WTC can cause problems like ADD. 04.25.2008

One Man's Quest to Heal the Brain

Michael Mason fights the devastating effects of brain injuries. 04.15.2008

The Borderline Whack-Jobs Who Pioneered Psychoanalysis

Some were fanatical prudes, while one was dubbed “the Pied Piper of carnality.” 03.05.2008

The Cuckoo Surgeon Who Did Ice-Pick Lobotomies

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

Instant Paralysis with an Instant Cure

Time to inject some mind vitamins. 11.28.2007

Schizophrenia: The Curse That's Almost a Blessing

The disease may be the twisted flipside of an evolutionary boost. 11.13.2007

Best News in 50 Years for Schizophrenics

An entirely different approach could provide safer and better medicines. 10.18.2007

The Good, the Bad, and the Tiny

The oddly oxymoronic effects of steroids on the human body 10.18.2007

Rip Van Winkle Disease

Adolescents sleep for weeks solid, sometimes bingeing or becoming hypersexual. 08.15.2007

Health Trends: Strain Bad for Brain

Another great reason to avoid chronic distress. 07.13.2007

Hormone Therapy: Sooner, Later, or Not at All?

Sorting out the cloudy issue that is estrogen replacement 06.11.2007

Video Games vs. the Aging Brain

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

Whatever Happened To... Primal Therapy?

1970s psychotherapy is alive and screaming in Venice, California. 05.09.2007

Autism: It’s Not Just in the Head

New treatments for a disease that may affect the whole body 03.22.2007

Dead Men Walking

What sort of future do brain-injured Iraq veterans face? 02.23.2007

Dead Men Walking

What sort of future do brain-injured Iraq veterans face? 02.23.2007

Vital Signs: Bugs Are Crawling In My Skin

Skin eruptions mystify both doctor and patient. 11.20.2006

Music for Pain

Music theory harmonizes with painkillers. 08.08.2006

Vital Signs: Why is Grandpa Falling?

A seemingly simple stumble provides clues to serious injury. 08.01.2006

Badly Behaved Tonsils

Are they the root of all mischief? 07.01.2006

The Violence Gene

Impulsive aggression can be inherited. 04.14.2006

Vital Signs: The Boy Who Stopped Talking

A toddler's behavior gives away his disease 04.02.2006

Dalai Lama Speaks Language of Science

Dalai Lama Speaks Language of Science 02.20.2006

Dead Resolutions

Why the brain can't break habits. 01.19.2006

Agony of Parkinson's Eased by Ecstasy?

Agony of Parkinson's Eased by Ecstasy? 11.22.2005

Autism Gene Located

08.06.2005

Your Brain on Video Games

Could they actually be good for you? 07.24.2005

Lights Out

Can contact sports lower your intelligence? 12.03.2004

Discover Data

11.25.2004

Hypnosis Works

The power of trance can no longer be disputed, a psychiatrist at Stanford University says. Now we just have to use it 11.25.2004

Vital Signs

An otherwise healthy woman suddenly develops a drunken stagger 10.01.2004

Ask Discover

08.02.2004

The Biology of . . . Migraines

A gun that shoots magnetic pulses puts an end to an age-old scourge 08.02.2004

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

Win Some, Lose More

08.02.2004

Vital Signs

What do you do when a live patient declares that he is, in fact, dead? 07.25.2004

Thinking Faster

Are the brain's emotional circuits hardwired for speed? 05.29.2004

Brides, Beware!

04.21.2004

Keith Black

Determined to enter the brain in a friendly way 04.21.2004

Neuroscience

01.02.2004

Crash-Test Babies

12.03.2003

Emerging Technology

A revolutionary idea that could convert critics of these virtual worlds 12.03.2003

Can We Trust Research Done with Lab Mice?

New studies show that animals used in critical experiments may be out of their minds 07.01.2003

Vital Signs

What's the connection between mental illness and cornea color? 06.01.2003

Fish Really

03.01.2003

Vital Signs

Why does this young woman's head pound when she puts on her shoes? 01.01.2003

What You can learn from drunk monkeys

A remarkable NIH study says you're just as likely to become an alcoholic from a bad childhood as from bad genes 07.01.2002

Fire in the Brain

Can programmable implants help epileptics detect the onset of seizures? 05.01.2002

Vital Signs

Uncovering a rare but age-old disease of pain and madness 04.01.2002

Neuroscience

Year In Science 01.13.2002

Medicine

Year In Science 01.13.2002

The Biology of . . . Schizophrenia

New research shows that the biological clock ticks for men too 10.01.2001

The Serotonin Surprise

"I think you have to accept that there's a structural change in your brain when you take drugs like Prozac." 07.01.2001

Can We Go to Mars Without Going Crazy?

Forget about the technical problems. What we really have to worry about is what seven astronauts will do to one another after being locked up in a tiny capsule for nine months 05.01.2001

Vital Signs

Headache, fever, and vomiting-a simple viral infection, right? 05.01.2001

Wild Dreams

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

Getting Stupid

New research indicates that teenagers who drink too much may lose as much as 10 percent of their brainpower— the difference between passing and failing in school . . . and in life 03.01.2001

Works in Progress

Can custom-made video games help kids with attention deficit disorder? 03.01.2001

Vital Signs

A wonderful vacation puts newlyweds in a tailspin 09.01.2000

Vital Signs

The patient's stitches were in place, but her wound would be slow to heal 07.01.2000

The Lullaby Cure

06.01.2000

The Pain Is in the Brain

The biggest headache for headache researchers has always been: Where does the pain come from? The answer might seem obvious, but it's nothing less than a revolutionary discovery 03.01.2000

Vital Signs

Why was my patient suddenly falling apart after decades of healthy living? 02.01.2000

The Shape of Madness

A maverick mathematician thinks he's found schizophrenia's hiding place. 01.01.2000

No Smarts in Mozart

11.01.1999

Mind Over Time

Now that we've finally figured out where our biological clocks are located, can we learn to control them? 07.01.1999

Mind Over Time

Now that we've finally figured out where our biological clocks are located, can we learn to control them? 07.01.1999

Vital Signs

What did Mr. Leonard's back have to do with his eyesight? 06.01.1999

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

Vital Signs:Locked in Place

Andrea's accident had imprisoned her mind in a lifeless body. But how was anyone to know? 05.01.1998

Vital Signs: A Passion for Painting

Suddenly, at 52, Mr. Carter changed. Now he cared only for art and scorned the world he knew 01.01.1998

The Year in Science: Genetics 1997

MY HEART I GOT FROM DADDY 01.01.1998

Gourmanditis

10.01.1997

Lobotomy's Back

In 1949 lobotomy was hailed as a medical miracle. But images of zombielike patients and surgeons with ice picks soon put an end to the practice. Now, however, the practitioners have refined their tools. 10.01.1997

It Kills Horses, Doesn't It?

Borna virus used to be an obscure veterinary problem in Saxony. But it's obscure no more. A couple of German virologists believe the bug may be sending people, in large numbers, to the psychiatric ward. 10.01.1997

Soccer Brains

08.01.1997

Sleep and Snake Oil

03.01.1997

Allen Encounters

02.01.1997

That Fine Madness

Great artists are more likely to suffer from manic depression than the rest of us. So claims the latest in a long line of explanations that link mental illness with genius. 10.01.1996

Tough Love

09.01.1996

Brain, Heal Thyself

08.01.1996

Seeing Things

07.01.1996

Firestorm

06.01.1996

Ego Boundaries, or the Fit of My Father's Shirt

A neuroscientist racks his brains to find where one person ends and another begins. 11.01.1995

Fetal Attraction

In theory, brain cells that have been killed by Parkinson's disease can be replaced with cells from the brains of aborted fetuses. Now that the necessary politics and the technology are in place, neurosurgeons are about to find out if that theory is correct. 07.01.1995

Magnetic Field Goal

A Penn State researcher has scored big with his maps of the human head's magnetic fields. These 3-D computer models could eliminate a vexing black hole at the center of some MRI scans. 06.01.1995

Kernel of Fear

How can just the smoke make a veteran relive all the horrors of combat in hallucinatory detail? The answer lies in the Amygdala, a tiny brain structure in which nerve pathways shackle innocent stimuli to memories of unbearable terror. 06.01.1995

The Tick of Time

04.01.1995

Divided Selves

To get to the bottom of schizophrenia, two scientific rivals are seeking help from some unusual twins--twins who are identical in all respects but one. 09.01.1992

A Torrid Affair

06.01.1992

How Big is Yours?

03.01.1992