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Brain

Alexander Niculescu and his colleagues at Indiana University have found a way to identify, with more than 90 percent accuracy, patients who will have suicidal thoughts in the next year.

Innovative Spirit Health Care

A Blood Test and App May Help Identify Patients at Risk of Suicide

With blood biomarkers and a questionnaire, researchers at Indiana University claim they can pinpoint patients who will have suicidal thoughts within a year

Innovative Spirit Health Care

Six Children’s Books That Use Psychological Techniques to Help Kids

The sleep-inducing “The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep” has become a mega bestseller. But it’s not the only story to lean on psychology

Most kids, even those with autism, don’t need to see this guy’s smile to tell he is happy.

New Research

Kids With Autism Can Read Emotions Through Body Language

A new study challenges the misconception that kids with the disorder lack empathy

Even if they make a list, neurotic people may need to check it twice.

New Research

Being Neurotic Makes It Harder for You to Remember Things

Brain scans suggest that certain personality types are wired to have better memories

New Research

Your Pupils May Expand When You Daydream

But researchers aren’t totally sure why or how the two are connected

Scientists Connect Monkey Brains and Boost Their Thinking Power

Researchers at Duke University have enhanced the mind power of monkeys and rats by linking their brains together

Brain-to-brain interfaces may soon be a therapeutic technique.

New Research

Linking Multiple Minds Could Help Damaged Brains Heal

Monkeys and rats hooked up as “brainets” may lead to innovative treatments for Parkinson’s, paralysis and more

Ask Smithsonian

Ask Smithsonian: What Makes Us a Righty or a Lefty?

Scientists are interested in studying why some of us are non-right-handers because it might offer insight into how the brain develops

An original Tetris arcade game

New Research

Playing Tetris Could Stop Traumatic Memories from Becoming Flashbacks

The visually stimulating game seems to lessen the blow of disturbing events when they are recalled

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to legalize marriage equality nationwide on June 26.

Can Science Help People Unlearn Their Unconscious Biases?

Social events, sleep training and even meditation may offer ways for people to erase biases they probably didn’t know they held

For the first time, Florian Engert and his team mapped every firing neuron in a living animal.

How a Transparent Fish May Help Decode the Brain

An outspoken Harvard neuroscientist is tackling the wondrous challenge of understanding the workings of the brain

This illustration shows how the STIMband fits on a patient's head.

Could This Head Gear Help Treat Parkinson’s Disease?

Students at Johns Hopkins University have created an at-home brain-stimulating device to ease Parkinson’s symptoms

People Get Seasonal Depression in the Summer, Too

Millions suffer from SAD in summer as well as winter, and evidence hints that birth season plays a role in who develops the disorder

These 15th-century female musicians are clearly in grave medical danger.

Cool Finds

Some 19th-Century Physicians Thought Music Could Infect the Brain

When it comes to music in the brain, medicine has come a long way

New Research

Kangaroos Are Lefties, and That Can Teach Us About Human Handedness

The discovery strengthens the case that upright posture drove the evolution of dominant hands in humans

The rolled electronic mesh is injected through a glass needle into a water-based solution.

New Research

A Flexible Circuit Has Been Injected Into Living Brains

Tested on mice, the rolled mesh fits inside a syringe and unfurls to monitor brain activity

The nose knows.

New Research

Mouse Noses Can Bypass the Brain to Make Females Blind to Males

Hormones direct the nose to signal when potential mates are about—and when to erase their scent

Ask Smithsonian: What Happens When You Get a Concussion?

It’s scary what we don’t know about the lasting effects after a knock to the noggin

Make New Memories But Keep the Old, With a Little Help From Electrodes

Matthew Walker thinks there may be a way to simulate deep sleep—vital for memory—by sending a low current to a person’s brain

New Research

Researchers are Trying to Harness the Power of Music for Unconscious Patients

Plumbing the depths of the unconscious brain has thus far uncovered more mysteries than answers

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