Your Brain on Thanks
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It may not have the cache of winter holidays or the Cash! Yay! of a birthday, but it is the best feel-good holiday of the year.
"pain"
Do Octopuses Feel Pain?
The past couple posts have described some pretty severe experiments on octopuses, including: showing how octopus arms can grow back after inflicted damage and how even severed octopus arms can react to stimuli.
The Evolution of a Scientific American Information Graphic: Clues to Dampening Pain
Every graphic is a new adventure. Some of our magazine articles involve abstract concepts that require lots of time and energy at the front-end, making decisions about what, exactly should be illustrated.
Have Pain? Are You Crazy? Rare Diseases Pt. 2
Its all in your head, patients with unexplained pain or unexpected symptoms often hear. My recent post on rare diseases and pediatric pain clearly resonated with a number of people, prompting my immersion in the medical literature and speaking with some experts and patients about these topics and about the difficulties patients with atypical symptoms [...]
The Color of Pain
Want to know an effective way to reduce pain from burns? Cover the affected red area, so you are unable to look at it. Ideally, use a blue bandage.
Emotional bees
Whether animals feel emotion, and are capable of suffering, is a question the answer to which has far-reaching implications. I recently read Victoria Braithwaite's `Do Fish Feel Pain?', a question that I didn't worry about much until reading this book, but now bothers me a lot more.
Out of Mind, Out of Sight: Suppressed Unwanted Memories Are Harder to See
I realized that I had somehow managed to forget a horrible account of my grandmother's deathbed. And I immediately wished that I could forget it for a second time.
Neuroscience in fiction: "Of a Sweet Slow Dance in the Wake of Temporary Dogs", by Adam-Troy Castro
The people of Enysbourg lead merry, fulfilled, blissful lives - nine days out of every ten. On each Tenth Day, the country is ablaze with destruction.
Neuroscience in Fiction: The Princess Bride
The novel is a wonderful read, but something that I hadn't expected is that the plot would revolve so much around the topic of pain, both psychological and physical.
Pain is an emotion
Our new column in Scientific American Mind is out today and it's about the illusory nature of pain, and how pain perception and severity varies with mood and circumstances.
![New Limb-Lengthening Tech May Reduce Complications for Sufferers of Crippling Deformities [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/74C39AAC-262E-41FD-95464881D1525B33_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
New Limb-Lengthening Tech May Reduce Complications for Sufferers of Crippling Deformities [Slide Show]
A move to lengthen limbs internally rather than via an external scaffold could reduce the effects of painful treatments, especially among younger patients
Phone Calls and Exercise Make Pain Treatments More Effective
Chronic pain affects at least a fifth of the U.S. population, yet many of these people remain in significant physical discomfort whether they receive treatment or not.
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: America's Greatest Health Risk of 2015?
Today, up to 25 percent of people in the U.S. are living with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), according to the American Liver Foundation.
Tis the season to be flossing: beware of dentistry illusions
Researchers recommend that dentists and other health practitioners receive training in illusion awareness (my words, not theirs), so that they may counteract these and related perceptual effects.