Brains & Things

But my experiences slowly flattened and blended together until it became obvious that there's a huge difference between not giving a fuck and not being able to give a fuck. Cognitively, you might know that different things are happening to you, but they don't feel very different.

Understanding how the brain responds to sweets may be our best hope for controlling obesity.

Rates of the disorder have increased markedly in the past decade, heightening concern that the diagnosis and its medication are overused among American children.

How we unknowingly reveal our socioeconomic status using nonverbal behaviors

Until I read Susan Cain's book Quiet I never consciously realized I was ashamed of being an introvert. It was one of life's "aha" moments. I personally don't need to believe introversion is a virtue but no longer seeing it as a flaw has been extremely helpful. Learn to acknowledge things you find difficult without piling on the self-criticism.

Explore some classic biases in everyday thinking—and how to avoid them.

A new study finds that urban minds don't pay as much attention to their surroundings unless they're highly engaging.

The serious flaws with our tendency to think of crowds as sentient beings rather than groups of individuals.

Some dilemmas produce vivid images in our head — and we're wired to respond emotionally to pictures. That can trigger unconscious biases that influence our judgment of right and wrong.

Linguists used to think the human brain had a specific region devoted to understanding language. But brain scans now indicate that regions controlling vision, movement, taste, smell and touch are all called into action when we think of a word, too.

One in five children in America live in poverty. In Suffolk County, which includes Boston, Revere, Chelsea, and Winthrop, the rate of childhood poverty is

If that headline makes you feel bad, an expert says it's because we're genetically wired to take offense

The first experiment to show the enhancing and distorting effect of recall.

When faced with a difficult decision, it is often suggested to "sleep on it" or take a break from thinking about the decision in order to gain clarity.

When low-fat foods are bad, why people eat tuna eyes and fried bat, America’s dysfunctional relationship with food and more…

A shrinking cortex region is linked to sleep disturbances and memory impairment

UCLA researchers have for the first time measured the activity of a brain region known to be involved in learning, memory and Alzheimer's disease during sleep. They discovered that this region, called the entorhinal cortex, behaves as if it's remembering something, even during anesthesia–induced sleep — a finding that counters conventional theories about sleep-time memory consolidation.