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1932

In Review

Conceptual illustration of neuroscience and the law. Included are a man’s head, nerve cells, gavel, eye and brains, one of which is balanced on legal scales.
The Mind

The brain, the criminal and the courts

States of mind that the legal system cares about — memory, responsibility and mental maturity — have long been difficult to describe objectively, but neuroscientists are starting to detect patterns. Coming soon to a courtroom near you?

Photograph of an otter lying on its back. It is playing with two small rocks.
The Mind

The puzzle of play

The purpose of play — for children, monkeys, rats or meerkats — has proved surprisingly hard to pin down. Scientists continue to toss around ideas.

Conceptual art showing brain with two targeted areas being affected by ultrasound waves. Using the tools of sonogenetics, focused ultrasound beams can deliver drugs or gene therapy to targets in the brain with millimeter precision.
Technology

Sounding out the brain

Ultrasound isn’t just for images. Sonogenetics and other promising technologies let researchers use focused sound waves to control genes and entire cells deep in the tissues of living animals, without surgery.

Three pages of an old manuscript lavishly illustrated with plants and animal life. There is a lot of brown writing on the pages too.
Society

Can statistics help crack the mysterious Voynich manuscript?

The meaning of the cryptic text has eluded scholars for centuries. Their latest efforts include computational analyses seeking new insights into the medieval enigma.

Photograph of a group of vervet monkeys. They are clustered around and feeding from a box of pink-colored corn kernels. They are ignoring an equally full box of blue-colored kernels.
Living World

Cultural transmission makes animals flexible, but vulnerable

From monkeys washing potatoes to cockatoos raiding trash cans, socially spread behaviors allow creatures to adapt more rapidly to changing environments than conventional evolution would allow. But the traits are also more easily lost.

A photo shows a baby fitted with electronic sensors on its head meant to measure brain waves as part of a study on language.
The Mind

Out of the mouth of babes

Learning a language is child’s play, but linguists are still trying to understand how children do it so easily

Conceptual illustration shows a woman, head in hands, sitting on a chair. Images surrounding her depict a death she may have caused through negligence: an ambulance, bicycle on its side, damaged car, grave site and a cell phone opened to a texting app.
Health & Disease

The lasting anguish of moral injury

Psychologists are finding that moral code violations can leave an enduring mark — and may require new types of therapy

Photo of woman with shopping cart in front of many types of salad dressing on shelves in a supermarket. People are surprisingly loyal to brands. Figuring out the reasons has been challenging for researchers.
Society

The power of brands, conscious and unconscious

Economists explore the complex forces that shape what ends up in your shopping cart and how that might change in the online marketplace 

Photo shows multiple, booth-sized metal cages in a room together, each with a prisoner inside. They are able to talk and see each other but cannot move freely.
Society

The hidden damage of solitary confinement

Meant to punish or protect, social isolation in prison creates a ripple of unintended effects on the psyche

Photo shows a 2016 image of a woman who lives with chronic pain laughing with friends at her dining table while creating Zen tangle art.
The Mind

Living with chronic illness: Why some cope and others don’t

What helps some people diagnosed with cancer, heart disease or diabetes stay relatively happy and healthy, while others are devastated? Psychologist Vicki Helgeson explains the traits and mindsets that can make the difference.

A depiction of a synapse features two slender fibers that end in two cup-like structures facing each other, with many tiny dots in the space between the cups.
Health & Disease

Making and breaking connections in the brain

The links between nerve cells, called synapses, allow us to learn and adapt, and hold clues to conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and more

Drawing shows a figure of a girl on a raft heading downstream, surrounded by flowers and chaotic dots again that fade away from her. She is navigating rough waters.
The Mind

Under-diagnosed and under-treated, girls with ADHD face distinct risks

It took a long time to figure out how attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder presents in girls and women and the problems it can create. A pioneering study helped change that, but the condition is still often missed.

Photo shows a woman smiling while doing meditation with others. Staying cheerful can be protective against stress and some illnesses.
Health & Disease

Always look on the bright side of life

How a positive outlook may buffer us from stress and ward off health problems 

Photo shows a colony of ants on a white background. The workers are each painted individually with different colors of paint droplets. Larvae and a larger queen are also visible.
Living World

The mind of an anthill

Can we use the tools of psychology to understand how colonies of social insects make decisions?

A lioness attacks a zebra
Living World

Do wild animals get PTSD? Scientists probe its evolutionary roots

Many creatures show lasting changes in behavior and physiology after a traumatic experience

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The Mind

The baby brain: Learning in leaps and bounds

VIDEO: Learn how the baby brain changes from gestation to toddlerhood, and what parents, teachers and policymakers can do to ensure kids are set up for success

Photo shows a small boy by himself running down the nondescript hall of a shelter.
The Mind

Treating the growing trauma of family separation

War, disasters, trafficking and immigration are tearing millions of children from their parents all around the world. A psychologist explores how to help them recover.

Photograph of a man walking on a wooden jetty at the water, under cloudy skies. Despair-induced suicidal thoughts and actual attempts are recognized as distinct things by researchers, who are working to better understand the progression and so intervene more effectively.
The Mind

Short-circuiting the suicide cascade

Psychologists are seeking better ways to cut the link between dire thoughts and fatal action. Among their strategies: individualized plans for pulling back from the brink, and limiting access to deadly means, especially guns.

Image shows a married couple depicted in an oil painting by artist Jan Van Eyck painted in 1434. It is part of the National Gallery of London’s collection.
The Mind

Sex strategies of the evolutionary kind

For women, a short-term fling may involve a quest for good genes or just a good time. It’s a puzzle for the researchers looking at how people choose mates.

Illustration of a doughnut on a mousetrap
Society

In promoting health, when to tiptoe — and when to stomp?

Inform, incentivize, legislate: There’s a ladder of escalating approaches for changing citizens’ behavior — and nudges for every rung

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