The Human Brain

You're deep in dreamland when you hear an explosion so loud you wake up. But there's nothing outside or inside your house making the noise. What just happened?

By Sean Russell

One in three people consistently struggle through the autumn and winter months with a type of depression known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Here are some tips for dealing with it.

By Harriet Bowyer

Most people throughout the world are right-handed. So can they teach themselves to use their left hands, too and become ambidextrous?

By Patty Rasmussen

The Kobayashi Maru simulation puts future Starfleet commanders in a classic "no-win" scenario. It's so accurate, even the U.S. military uses the exercise to test the measure of a good leader.

By Mark Mancini

Whether you're a procrastinator or a workaholic, you can improve your time management. How? With a timer, scheduled breaks and some serious discipline.

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

Phrenology, the belief that you could determine personality from the shape of someone's skull, was so popular in the Victorian era that phrenology parlors sprang up all over Europe and America. But the trend was soon debunked.

By Jennifer Walker-Journey

Heuristics are rule-of-thumb strategies that help us shorten decision-making time and solve problems quickly and effortlessly.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

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

Erosion and weather can combine to make rock formations look like all kinds of things, from human faces to animals. They're called mimetoliths and we've taken a look at four of the most famous.

By Michelle Konstantinovsky

Your dreams have meaning, but dream interpretation is tough. So what does it mean when you dream about someone all the time? We talked to dream analysts who help explain.

By Dominique Michelle Astorino

Ever find yourself momentarily disoriented in a familiar place or encounter a friend who looks like a stranger? You could be experiencing jamais vu.

By Jennifer Walker-Journey

The Bionic Reading app has exploded in popularity. But can it really make you a speed reader?

By Sharise Cunningham

Newly minted parents do it. Night-shift workers do it. Men and women in the service do it, too. Could you trade a continuous stretch of sleep for a bunch of naps throughout the day, too?

By Danny Bonvissuto

Ever tried to get your child, spouse or friend to do something by telling them to do the opposite? That's reverse psychology. But how often does it work?

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

The same characteristics that help turn songs into earworms also help our brains store important bits of information. Why does the human brain love mad rhymes?

By Laurie L. Dove

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

We all know what it feels like to be burned out. But does that really mean that our brain is tired? And is it the same as when other muscles tire out?

By Carrie Whitney, Ph.D.

Most of us don't intuitively classify electroshocks as therapeutic, but this 1950s-era treatment has changed a lot since it was first introduced. When and why do mental health experts now turn to it?

By Kate Kershner

Do we have a tendency to walk clockwise around the block? Why do sports favor counterclockwise rotation? Does it have anything to do with handedness or driving habits?

By Laurie L. Dove

An extensive study looks at personal space in 42 countries, and how weather affects preferences.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

Although left-handed people were thought to be "sinister" or "unnatural" in previous eras, we now know that left-handedness is natural for 10 percent of the population. And it can have some advantages over right-handedness too.

By Alia Hoyt

A series of studies showed that including the word 'sorry' in a rejection actually made the rejected person feel worse.

By Alia Hoyt

We often think that if a drug has been studied by scientists and given a favorable outcome, then it must be safe and proven. But many kinds of biases can creep into a study, rendering it less than effective.

By Patrick J. Kiger

A new study shows that belief in perceiving patterns correlated strongly with belief in conspiracy theories and the supernatural.

By Alia Hoyt