Cognition

Two key features created the human mind

Milena Canning can see objects only if they are moving, hinting at the inner workings of our visual system

A new study reports that illusory stretching and shrinking reduces knee pain

Stephen Asma, professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, talks about his two latest books, The Evolution of Imagination and Why We Need Religion.

Colleen Ganley, assistant professor of developmental psychology, answers

We wander about the unknown terrains of life, complacent about what we know and oblivious to what we miss

Shutting down an overactive enzyme could become a general treatment, rather than one solely intended for the few who inherit a mutated Parkinson’s gene

How does experience, which is so intimately tied to our perception of time and space, arise from timeless, non-spatial ingredients?

Researchers are still trying to figure out why

Ghost mantises use their prey’s cognitive processes against them

Birds become good at avoiding danger by eavesdropping on the alarm calls of other birds—and the learning occurs without even seeing their peers or predators. Christopher Intagliata reports. 

Something weird happens to a skeptical science writer during a week of meditation, chanting and skygazing