Stories by Moheb Costandi

Electric Brain Stimulation Offers Binge-Eating Clue

A neural circuit seems to control compulsive food consumption

Is the Baby in Pain? Brain Scans Can Tell

Brain waves might soon determine whether an analgesic for infants is effective 

New Books about Amnesia, Empathy, ADHD and the Placebo Effect

Scientific American Mind weighs in on recent titles from neuroscience and psychology 

Brain's “Helper” Cells Turn Toxic in Injury and Disease

The Jekyll-and-Hyde behavior of astrocytes may point the way to treatments for degenerative diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer’s and MS

How Do Brain Cells Tell Us Where We’re Going? 

New findings provide a more complex profile of the brain’s “internal GPS”

New Books about Motivation, Memory, Happiness and More Relaxed Parenting

Scientific American Mind weighs in on recent titles from neuroscience and psychology 

Supercomputer Simulates Rat Brain Fragment

The Blue Brain Project publishes its first major result: a digital imitation of circuitry in a sand grain–size chunk of rat brain

Sex Divide Seen in Mechanism That Produces Persistent Pain

Male and female mice are found to regulate pain sensitivity differently, a result which could explain why some drug experiments have failed

MIND Reviews: Touching a Nerve

Books and recommendations from Scientific American MIND

Evidence-based Justice Acknowledges Our Corrupt Memories

The work of psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, who has spent decades exposing flaws in eyewitness testimony, is gaining fresh traction in the U.S. legal system

MIND Reviews: Pieces of Light

Books and recommendations from Scientific American MIND

Fall of Ancient Empire Linked to Crisis in Syria

Archaeologists are drawing comparisons between the fall of the Akkadian empire more than 4,000 years ago and the crises in contemporary Syria

MIND Reviews: The Ravenous Brain

Microbes Manipulate Your Mind

Bacteria in your gut may be influencing your thoughts and moods

The Ductile Helix: "Jumping Genes" May Influence Brain Activity

Mobile DNA elements called retrotransposons may be a source of genetic variation in nerve cells

The Mind-Body Problem

What does it feel like to have too many arms?

Where Are Old Memories Stored in the Brain?

A new study suggests that the location of a recollection in the brain varies based on how old that recollection is

Distorted Body Images: A Quick and Easy Way to Reduce Pain

As it turns out, size also matters when it comes to pain perception.

The Power of the Memory Molecule

Scientists show that it's possible to erase specific memories in the brain