Sleep and wake patterns determine the quality of life; the more attentive a person is to them, the better they feel. Unfortunately, it is not so easy to comply with it. According to sleephealth.org, in 2022, 70 percent of Americans complained of problems falling asleep. The situation is similar in other countries: surveys show that going to bed causes difficulties for every third adult.

Some 40 years after “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was first published in 1866, accounts of hallucinations similar to those described by Lewis Carroll began to appear in the medical literature. In 1904, William Spratling, one of the first American epileptologists, published case studies of several patients for whom “everything looked bigger” just before their seizures; three years later, in 1907, the great British neurologist William Gowers also reported epilepsy patients who perceived objects to look “twice their size” during the...

Study shows cognition in early-stage patients on lecanemab declines by 27% less than those on placebo

Occasionally, people who suffer intense turmoil and trauma undergo a profound change. They feel a new sense of wellbeing, purpose and appreciation of life. Their relationships become more authentic and intimate. They feel as if they’ve woken up and are living in a more intense way.

What determines how generous a person you are? Could it be how much money you have? How kind you are? Or maybe it comes down to your values. These all seem reasonable assumptions, but a new study from Berkeley University suggests something that feels as trivial as how well you’ve slept lately can also affect how willing you are to help other people on any given day. It found sleep deprivation leads to a reduction in generosity.

More and more companies are turning to neuromarketing. This controversial practice involves studying consumers’ brains, analyzing how and why we respond to certain stimuli, in order to influence our decisions. It’s based on the idea that 90% of the decisions we make are taken at a subconscious level. If a brand can speak directly to our ‘gut instinct’, bypassing reason, they will sell more products.

By transforming our sense of self and meaning, and enhancing our relationship with others and the wider world, awe can improve our mental and physical health.

A few months ago, I was infected by coronavirus and my first symptoms were bodily. But as the sore throat and cough receded, I was left feeling gloomy, lethargic and brain-foggy for about a week. An infection of my body had morphed into a short-lived experience of depressive and cognitive symptoms – there was no clear-cut distinction between my physical and mental health.

Video games can get a bad rep as being a time waste, but can they actually have positive effects on brain functioning?

According to a new study, long-term use of prescription steroids lowers the volume of white matter in the brain, potentially impacting memory recall and other functions.

New research has found that repeated concussions can thicken the structure of skull bones. Previous studies have shown damage to the brain following concussion, but have not looked at the brain’s protective covering.

A brain imaging study published in the journal Neuropsychologia has found evidence that experiences with other cultures might reverse racial ingroup biases in empathy. The findings revealed that White students who had spent extended time in China showed stronger neural responses to pain expressions on Asian faces compared to White faces.

Horizontal number lines are often the default option – but our brains may process numbers more quickly in a vertical arrangement.

We all know how important sleep is for our mental health. We have heard people saying that sleeplessness can cause severe damage to your mental health. But have we wondered how insomnia could affect the circuits of our minds? Researchers with a recent study explained how our brain would be replete with bundles of hyperreactive cells if we deprive ourselves of sleep. In other words, our noggins overheat when we don't take appropriate rest and sleep.

Although it was a small study on 10 patients, researchers at the University of Texas Health–Houston were able to achieve something long out of reach, locating the G-spot where brain stimulators can make a real difference for depression patients.

The translucent chip attached to the mouse’s leg looked nothing like a neuron. Dotted with a series of sensors and channels and smaller than a human finger, it looked—and flexed—like a Band-Aid. Yet when doused with dopamine, the chip worked its magic. The mouse’s leg began to twitch and stretch. Depending on the dose of dopamine, the chip controlled the limb like a marionette.

New research published in the journal Biological Psychology revealed that people who exercise more show increased brain activity when receiving an unexpected reward, specifically in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex. These findings may suggest that regular exercise alters the reward-circuit function, potentially reinforcing exercise behavior.

Self-supervised learning allows a neural network to figure out for itself what matters. The process might be what makes our own brains so successful.