The Human Brain

With an ever-increasing number of studies finding a direct connection between sleep deprivation and weight gain, it's difficult to deny the cause-and-effect relationship.

By Julia Layton

Even if you're very ticklish, you probably are incapable of tickling yourself. Learn why.

This new form of sound therapy takes advantage of the fact that a different frequency in each ear yields a third frequency that can allegedly calm you down or improve your focus. Does it really work? Our writer tried it out.

By Alia Hoyt

We see faces in clouds, on buildings - heck, in grilled cheese sandwiches. But why is that? And how is this a help to our survival?

By Dave Roos

You've just touched a hot stove -- and probably felt an immediate sharp pain, then a dull ache. How do we sense pain, and why does it eventually go away?

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.

That man dressed in animal skins and running around Jerusalem trying to baptize people isn't alone. Tourists in Jerusalem sometimes suffer from a strange conviction that they are Biblical figures. Are they mentally ill or is there more to it?

By Katie Lambert

Collective hysteria can spread when a fear exists of exposure to a disease, combined with a contained environment. Learn more about collective hysteria works.

By Jacob Silverman & Austin Henderson

You might think that not being able to feel pain would be a blessing. No tears, no painkillers, no lingering aches. But really, not being able to feel pain is dangerous.

By Katie Lambert

Religion is one of the three things you're never supposed to talk about if you don't want your dinner party to turn into a food fight. But what about looking at religion through the lens of science instead of faith? Is there a connection between our gray matters and pray matters?

By Molly Edmonds

Sleepwalking is an intriguing phenomenon. How can a person be unconscious but still coordinate his or her limbs? And how do we know when we're really awake?

By Katie Lambert

Once scientists discovered that some members of the great ape family could recognize their reflections in mirrors, academics began to wonder whether these animals were actually conscious of themselves. That debate continues today.

By Jessika Toothman & Sascha Bos

We'd like to think we're pretty clever, but when you correct for body mass, dolphin brains aren't far off from our own. What cognitive skills do dolphins possess, and could they really be our intellectual equals?

By Jessika Toothman

Computers can handle far more calculations per second than the human brain, and can store and retrieve information very reliably. Should we be jealous of these hunks of silicon and metal on our desks?

By Jonathan Strickland

If you've ever dashed into the grocery store to pick up a tube of toothpaste, you've likely been stopped in your tracks by the sheer number of options available. So why does having more options make it so much harder to make the right choice?

By Tom Scheve

Despite our best intentions, sometimes we just make bad choices. Is it possible to fight your own worst instincts? Only if you can spot these flaws in your decision making process.

By Tom Scheve

In the past, applying electricity to the brain was a painful measure of last resort. Now with lower power and electrodes surgically planted deep within the brain, it could be the answer to many debilitating diseases.

By Isaac Perry Clements

If you could control your dreams, what would you do? Grow wings and fly, travel to ancient Rome, dine with Marilyn Monroe, open opera season at the Met? It could be possible.

By Katie Lambert & Sascha Bos

One of the top-prescribed sleeping pills may cause you to shuffle out of bed and sleepwalk to the fridge. Could Ambien be making you sleepy and hungry?

By Cristen Conger

Memory is your only personal record of the past and of who you are as an individual. What if you woke up one morning and your memory was gone?

By Cristen Conger

It doesn't exactly seem like something the human body would do, let a large portion of itself go to complete waste. Is it true that most of your brain is on permanent hiatus?

By Patrick J. Kiger & Austin Henderson

The trials of being a lefty are numerous. You jostle for elbow room at the table, use scissors that feel funny in the hand and are teased for writing oddly. But do beleaguered lefties get the last laugh in sports?

By Robert Lamb

Three weeks of hard work. Is that all it takes to kick your smoking habit, taste for junk food or serial inability to stop hitting the snooze button? Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it?

By Julia Layton

Whether brain death is a result of cardiac arrest and lack of oxygen to the brain, or of a gunshot wound to the head, the diagnosis is the same. Learn what the term "brain dead" actually means.

By Leslie C. Olson

Every animal you can think of -- mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians -- all have brains. But the human brain is unique. It gives us the power to think, plan, speak and imagine.

By Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. & Robynne Boyd

The term IQ typically refers to a score on a test that measures someone's cognitive ability. What does this test constitute exactly? And does it accurately measure intelligence?

By Alia Hoyt