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

Stress is just around every corner for most of us these days. Reducing it requires you to learn the various types of stress, their different causes and how to deal with them.

By Betty Burrows

While most psychologists believe that brainwashing is possible under the right conditions, some see it as improbable or at least as a less severe form of influence than the media portrays it to be. So how does someone get brainwashed?

By Julia Layton & Alia Hoyt

Learn the physiological processes that trigger a coma, how an actual coma differs from television depictions and how often people awaken after months or even years of being in a coma.

By Stephanie Watson

Alcoholism can be difficult to spot. Learn the difference between heavy drinking and alcoholism, how alcohol affects the body, what factors may lead to alcoholism and what treatments are available for this addiction.

By Stephanie Watson

Dreams combine verbal, visual and emotional stimuli into mystifying storylines. Should we bother to interpret them? Are they random brain impulses, or do they offer insight into our waking lives?

By Lee Ann Obringer & Yves Jeffcoat

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

Your co-worker just yawned in a meeting, and now everyone on his side of the table is yawning, too. Learn about what might've caused him to do it in the first place and why you're likely to yawn right along with them.

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

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

The term IQ typically refers to a score on a test that measures someone's cognitive ability. What does this test constitute exactly? Find out if IQ tests can accurately measure someone's intelligence.

We've all heard of a "sixth sense" and extra-sensory perception. So how many ways can we actually sense the world around us?

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

Every animal sleeps -- some more than others -- but why they do it is a mystery to scientists. Is sleep more than just beauty rest? Could skimping on it kill you? And how much do you really need?

By Marshall Brain