Do you remember the part in The Princess Bride when Miracle Max pronounces Westley to be “only mostly dead,” instead of entirely dead? “Mostly dead,” he continues, “means slightly alive.” It’s a little unexpected , because we usually think of “dead” and “alive” as mutually exclusive. But just as Westley can be “slightly alive” even [...]

1. On Sleep: Why You Need It So Badly, and How You Can Get Some!
2. Not Sleeping? Then You Might Not Be Remembering, Either
3. Now I Like Sleeping Even More

Virtual reality programs try to make you feel like you’re there (wherever there is) by imitating the sights and sounds of an experience as accurately as possible. But what about your other senses, like smell? Many people believe that smell holds a particularly vivid connection to memory and experience. You’ve probably felt it–you go into [...]

1. Saluting our Soldiers Series: Part 1 – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
2. The Pain Goes On: PTSD in Earthquake and Tsunami Survivors
3. The Brain and Smell, Revisited

Today I got an email from the Alzheimer’s Association, with an offer for a downloadable paper titled “Generation Alzheimer’s: The Defining Disease of the Baby Boomers.” It’s a sobering look at how the aging of the baby boomers (the first of whom turned 65 earlier this month) will come with an extraordinarily high price in [...]

1. Unlocking Alzheimer’s in the Mountains of Colombia
2. New Early Detection Method for Alzheimer’s Disease
3. Easy-to-Follow Presentation on Alzheimer’s

Sometimes I wonder how anyone living hundreds of years ago survived into adulthood. My daughter wouldn’t have–she has had a couple of terrible illnesses that in an earlier era would have been untreatable. It wouldn’t take much: things as simple as an ear infection, a deep cut, or even being very near-sighted would have been [...]

1. Sleep-Deprived? Your Neurons May Be Napping–Even When You’re Awake
2. Your Brain On Jazz
3. Live Blogging the SharpBrains Summit: “Past, Present, and Future of Applied Neuroplasticity”

I’m always looking for another justification for going on vacation and leaving work behind. Fortunately, Jonah Lehrer, a fabulous science writer, has just given me another one: while away from the office in body and mind I’m more likely to solve difficult work-related problems. As Lehrer explains: “[P]erceptions of distance (and the distance can be [...]

1. Pick Paint Colors Carefully – It May Affect Your Cognition and Creativity
2. Take a Vacation – You and Your Brain Might Need It!
3. Stress Is Very Bad For Your Health- Whether You’re a Human or a Baboon

This year, I have a lot of New Year’s resolutions. And that could be a problem, because I don’t have a great track record of sticking to my resolutions–especially if they involve stopping a bad habit (like drinking three diet Cokes a day or procrastinating all kinds of things). I always think my resolution sounds [...]

1. Daily TED Talk – Michael Merzenich on Re-wiring the Brain
2. When Toddlers Have Talents Far Beyond Their Years
3. Seniors Use of the Web Grew 55% in the Past Five Years

According to scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, eye movement can teach you a lot more about politics than you might guess. These scientists studied how liberals and conservatives respond to “gaze cues,” and found dramatic differences. The short version: the liberals generally followed the cues, the conservatives did not. Read about the study here. [...]

1. Our Brain Awareness Q&A Session on Movement, Exercise, and the Brain with Dr. G
2. Physical Pain and Emotional Pain
3. A Brain that Keeps on Teaching: H.M.’s Story

I usually think of of physical pain and emotional pain as fairly separate phenomena. Physical pain is caused by certain things (like a wound), and cured by certain things (like a pain medication). Emotional pain is usually caused by a totally different set of things (like a bad breakup) and cured by different things (like [...]

1. When PMS Strikes- Do You Blame Your Hormones or Your Head?
2. Dog Owners Excel in Physical and Cognitive Fitness
3. The Brain and Emotional Control

There’s a lot of debate around the similarities and differences between humans and Neanderthals. Were Neanderthals truly a different species from humans, or a different type of the same species? Were they adaptive, cultural innovators like humans, or were they just the dumb cavemen often depicted? Their brains were big like ours… but did they [...]

1. Stress Is Very Bad For Your Health- Whether You’re a Human or a Baboon
2. From Chihuahuas to Great Danes: Are Dog Brains the Same?
3. Men’s Brains vs. Women’s Brains: Social Implications of Neuroimaging (Part 1 of 2)

There are quite a few videos out there of little kids doing things at an extremely advanced level, given their age. Like this one, where a girl who’s not yet two years shows she knows the world map better than most adults, from Zimbabwe to Ecuador. (It’s pretty amazing.) Or there’s this video, showing a [...]

1. The Surprising Talents of the Middle Aged Mind
2. Kids, TV, Video Games, and Attention
3. Man Regains Speech after 19 Years