Stories by Simon Makin

"Brainprints" Can Identify an Individual out of a Crowd with 99 Percent Accuracy

Each person’s mind exhibits a distinct pattern that could be used as a distinguishing feature

What Really Causes Autism

A range of mutations—common, rare, inherited and spontaneous—in more than 70 different genes are now linked to the disorder

Breakthrough Prize for Illuminating the Brain's Secret Code

A revolutionary technique that switches brain circuits on and off has taken neuroscience by storm and is now undergoing a new round of innovation

Does Schizophrenia Exist on an Autism-Like Spectrum?

New research suggests hallucinations can occur in relatively healthy people

"Brainprints" Pick Out an Individual from the Crowd

Researchers identify people by the way their brains are wired

Baby Chicks' Mental Number Line Looks Like Ours

Like humans, animals seem to have an innate preference for small numbers on the left and larger numbers on the right

Subliminal Messages Influence Our Experience of Pain

The brain can learn to associate certain images with more or less pain, even if the images never reach our awareness

Feeling Awe May Be Good for Our Health

That thunderstruck feeling is linked to lower inflammation

A Red Flag for a Neurodegenerative Disease That May Be Transmissible

Animal experiments show how a just-discovered prion triggers a rare Parkinson’s-like disease

Do Brain Training Games Work?

Despite the hype, when science meets commerce, objectivity is often the loser

The Brain Cells behind a Sense of Direction

Goal-direction cells add to Nobel Prize–winning discoveries to reveal our internal navigation system

Save One File to Remember the Contents of Another

Committing information to your computer’s memory frees up your mental space to learn something new

Thought-Controlled Genes Could Someday Help Us Heal

Scientists combined a brain–computer interface with an optogenetic switch to create the first-ever brain–gene interface

Depression Tweaks the Brain's Disappointment Circuit

An unusual chemical balancing act helps explain why people with depression attend more closely to negative information

Massive Study Reveals Schizophrenia's Genetic Roots

The largest-ever genetic study of mental illness reveals a complex set of factors

Acting Classes Could Help Kids with Autism

Kids with autism may learn valuable social skills in drama-based therapies

Does Marijuana Harm the Brain?

Fish Flourish on Common Antianxiety Drug

Pharmaceutical pollutants in water seem to improve survival among hatchlings of at least one species

Blind Mice Cured by Running

Exercise combined with visual stimulation helps to quickly restore vision in unused eyes

Music Lessons Combat Poverty's Effect on the Brain

Music lessons may help close the socioeconomic gap in reading ability