Neuroscience

There are plenty of theories, but nobody really knows for sure

Back-and-forth motions may tweak the sensory organs that control our balance and spatial orientation

A newly identified circuit connecting the cerebellum to the brain’s reward centers in mice could help scientists understand autism and addiction

The Mona Lisa effect is the illusion that the subject of a painting follows you with her gaze, despite where you stand. But da Vinci's famous painting doesn't have that quality. Christopher Intagliata reports.

Scientific American assistant news editor, Tanya Lewis, and collections editor, Andrea Gawrylewski, take a deeper look at two short articles from the Advances news section of the December issue, on counterfeit whiskeys and the effect of real ecstasy...on octopuses.

Bariatric procedures are revealing new insights into the dialogue between bowel and brain

Ghrelin, the hormone that makes you hungry, also makes food, and food smells, irresistibly appealing. Karen Hopkin reports. 

A particular set of brain neurons may be behind registering itch and inducing us to scratch.

Freud’s notion of a dark, libidinous unconscious is obsolete. A new theory holds that the brain produces a continuous stream of unconscious predictions

A machine learning algorithm uses EEG traces to find a patient’s odds of waking

Enormous genomic analysis yields tantalizing insights into mechanisms behind conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

The exceedingly strange story of learning, memory and the “Arc” gene