My wife was recently telling some mutual friends an amusing anecdote about the time she was changing our then-baby son’s nappy in the toilet of a busy café, only for him to urinate all over the groin region of her trousers, meaning she had to return to the crowded eating area displaying a deeply suspicious stain. Big laughs all round.

Back in the 1970s, the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget discovered that, if you ask young children to explain the mechanics of vision as they understand them, their answers tend to reveal the exact same misconception: that the eyes emit some sort of immaterial substance into the environment and capture the sights of objects much like a projector.

You are what you think. Understanding this is essential to start thinking in more useful ways. Why do two heads think better than one and four heads think better than two? It’s because we’re all limited by our own experiences and biases. How can we overcome this?

Dreaming experiments involved real-time conversations between sleepers and scientists

Many people experience a tingly feeling called autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) when they watch whispery videos. For some, the effect is wearing off

Are you just born smart or is intelligence something that can be gained through some kind of secret? How have the smartest people in the world achieve

A tiny population of neurons known to be important to appetite appear to also have a significant role in depression that results from unpredictable, chronic stress, scientists say. These AgRP neurons reside exclusively in the bottom portion of the hypothalamus called the arcuate nucleus, or ARC, and are known to be important to energy homeostasis in the body as well prompting us to pick up a fork when we are hungry and see food.

A groundbreaking new study has shown that traumatic or stressful events in childhood may lead to tiny changes in key brain structures that can now be identified decades later.

A single large dose of cannabidiol (CBD) does not alter brain activity in several reward-related brain regions, according to a new double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The findings appear in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

A new study has found a brain pressure disorder called idiopathic intracranial hypertension is on the rise, and the increase corresponds with rising obesity rates.

Noninvasive electrical zaps, tuned specifically to individual brain-activity patterns, appear to reduce checking, hoarding and other compulsions for up to three months

Yale researchers have devised a way to peer into the brains of two people simultaneously while are engaged in discussion. What they found will not surprise anyone who has found themselves arguing about politics or social issues.

A new neuroimaging study offers a first look at what happens in the brain when we try to stop thinking about one thing in order to make room for new ideas. The findings offer clues on how to be more productive when studying and working. They could also lead to new therapies for trauma and anxiety disorders.

Their development, published on December 18th in Scientific Reports, gives researchers more confidence in using the technique to untangle the human brain’s wiring and to better understand the changes in this wiring that accompany neurological or mental disorders such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease.

MIT neuroscientists have found reading computer code does not rely on the regions of the brain involved in language processing. Instead, it activates the “multiple demand network,” which is also recruited for complex cognitive tasks such as solving math problems or crossword puzzles.

A deficiency in vitamin D on the mother’s side could explain why autism spectrum disorder is three times more common in boys.

New research suggests mindfulness-based cognitive therapy protects remitted depressed patients from relapse by reducing tendencies toward self-blame. The findings were published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

With technology advancing at light-speed these days, the U.S. Army is getting in on the sci-fi action by funding a far-out project to promote neuroscience research with their sights set on creating a mindreading system for soldiers to communicate with each other on the battlefield.

The long read: Jake Haendel spent months trapped in his body, silent and unmoving but fully conscious. Most people never emerge from ‘locked-in syndrome’, but as a doctor told him, everything about his case is bizarre

In stressful times, this surprising lesson from neuroscience may help to lessen your anxieties.