November, 2018

Building the Thermometer for Mental Health

Millions of people suffer from serious mental illness, but very few receive consistent coordinated care. Our article focuses on the use of smartphone technology to better understand your state of mind and treat depression, schizophrenia, and other disorders. Read More...

October, 2018

Naltrexone: A History and Future Directions

Trying to kick drug addiction without medicines is said to be like relying on willpower to overcome diabetes or asthma. Enter naltrexone, which has been around since 1984 and reduces the cravings for drugs and alcohol by fine-tuning the brain’s chemical reward system. Read More...

October, 2018

Lauren Slater’s Blue Dreams: The Science and the Story of the Drugs that Changed Our Minds

By: Moran Cerf, Ph.D.

Thirty years since her first book, Lauren Slater explores the discovery, invention, science, and people behind today's drugs, from the earliest,Thorazine and Lithium, to Ecstasy, "magic mushrooms," and through today's most cutting-edge memory drugs and neural implants. Read More...

September, 2018

A Novel Therapy for Huntington’s Disease

By: Albert La Spada, M.D., Ph.D.

(Listen to Q&A with Albert La Spada, M.D., Ph.D.)

Our author believes that a new strategy tied to turning off targeted genes could have profound implications for therapy development for Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Read More...

September, 2018

Helen Thomson’s Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains

By: Richard Restak, M.D.

Unthinkable’s author, a British neuroscientist, tracked down nine people with rare brain disorders to tell their stories. Read More...

August, 2018

The Brain’s Waste-Removal System

By: Helene Benveniste, M.D., Ph.D.

(Listen to Q&A with Helene Benveniste, M.D., Ph.D.)

For decades, the brain’s waste-removal system remained a mystery to scientists. A few years ago, a team of researchers—with the help of our author—finally found the answer.

July, 2018

Remembering What We Learn

By: Henry L. (Roddy) Roediger, III, Ph.D., and Kathleen B. McDermott, Ph.D.

(Listen to Q&A with Henry L. (Roddy) Roediger, III, Ph.D.) 

Our authors provide examples of retrieval practice and individual differences in long-term retention and explore quick and slow learners.

June, 2018

Fire in the Smoke: Battling Brain Tumors

By: Michael Lim, M.D.

For patients with the most common primary brain tumor in adults, immunotherapy is still struggling to overcome this lethal malignancy.

May, 2018

The Skinny on Brains: Size Matters

By: Jon H. Kaas, Ph.D.

(Listen to Q&A with Jon H. Kaas, Ph.D.) 
We are rapidly learning the ways in which brains vary in mammals, and how these differences set up apart.

April, 2018

The Evolution of Human Capabilities and Abilities

By: Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Ph.D.

As our author writes about the development of the human brain, “what distinguishes humans from other species is not how small or large, dense or scarce our cortical neurons are, but simply how many of them we have to do the job of navigating through life.” Read More...

March, 2018

The Dazzling Promise of Ketamine

By:  Ronald S. Duman, Ph.D.

(Listen to Q&A with Ronald S. Duman, Ph.D.) 
Our author, a leading researcher in the field of antidepressants, says that the rediscovery of a promising, yet problematic drug called ketamine is the most significant breakthrough for treating depression in half a century. Will ketamine inspire the next generation of antidepressants?

March, 2018

Howard I. Kushner’s On the Other Hand: Left Hand, Right Brain, Mental Disorder, and History

By: Lesley Rogers, D.Phil., D.Sc.

After a distinguished career as a professor at Emory University and San Diego State University, this left-handed author—whose mother was also a southpaw—examines left-handedness in the context of studies that have contested the classifications and meanings of disability, forcing researchers to re-examine their assumptions and attitudes about disability while challenging public policies aimed at them. Read More...

February, 2018

Alabama to Beijing... and Back: The Search for a Pain Gene

By: Stephen Waxman, M.D., Ph.D.

(Listen to Q&A with Stephen Waxman, M.D., Ph.D.)
Our author has adapted a chapter from his forthcoming book, Chasing Men on Fire: The Story of the Search for a Pain Gene, to provide the fascinating tale of how he and his research team discovered a gene for pain. Read More...

January, 2018

Know Thyself: Well-Being and Subjective Experience

By: Joseph LeDoux, Ph.D., Richard Brown, Ph.D., Daniel S. Pine, M.D, and Stefan G. Hofmann, Ph.D.

(Listen to Q&A with Joseph LeDoux, Ph.D.)
The study of subjective experience represents a significant challenge to cognitive scientists, but one that is beginning to be increasingly addressed. Read More...