Departments

• Artificial Sweeteners Confound the Brain; May Lead to Diet Disaster
• Neuroscientists Take Important Step toward Mind Reading
• Wasps Reveal Clues about the Evolution of Intelligence
• The Cubicle Bully: Workplace Conflict Ruins Careers
• Improvising a Jazz Tune Puts the Brain in an Altered State
• Women Have a Better Memory for Faces and Words
• Smokers' Choice
• Loneliness May Lead to Serious Illness, including Cancer
• Moody Blood
• Did Language Evolve as a Learning Aid?
• Put the Kid on the Stand
• A Novel Chemical Target
• Quieting the Brain
• The Other Brain Cells: New Roles for Glia
• Autism and Antibodies

Letters to the Editor

• Ask the Brains: What are ideas? Does Confidence Affect Performance?

• Mind Reviews Books, Movies and More

• Is Animal Assisted Therapy Really the Cat's Meow?

• Character Attacks: How to Properly Apply the Ad Hominem

• SciAm Mind Calendar: June/July 2008

• Out of the Box

• Sliding Stripes

• Got an Original Idea? Not Likely

 

Features

The New Genetics of Mental Illness
Life's experiences add molecular switches to the genes that control our brain activity, affecting how susceptible we are to depression, anxiety and drug addiction
By Edmund S. Higgins

Unmasking Memory Genes
Molecules that expose our genes may also revive our recollections and our ability to learn
By Amir Levine

Your Inner Spam Filter
What makes you so smart? Might be your lizard brain
By Andrew W. McCollough and Edward K. Vogel

Spheres of Influence
Split-brain patients—whose two hemispheres are separated surgically—provide fascinating clues to how a unitary sense of consciousness emerges from the furious activity of billions of brain cells
By Michael S. Gazzaniga

How to Unleash Your Creativity
Experts discuss tips and tricks to let loose your inner ingenuity
By Mariette DiChristina

Addicted to Starvation: The Neurological Roots of Anorexia
Anorexia may represent a profound psychiatric disorder that spawns an addiction to deprivation
By Trisha Gura

Chronic Itching: Causes and Cures
How to get relief from the insatiable need to scratch
By Uwe Gieler and Bertram Walter

Bisexual Species: Unorthodox Sex in the Animal Kingdom
Homosexual behavior is common in nature, and it plays an important role in survival
By Emily V. Driscoll