Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Neuroscience

A new study investigates booze in bars.

Loud Sounds Can Make Your Drink Seem Stronger

The scientific reason that clubbing and cocktails go hand in hand—but shouldn’t always

"Hey guys this sugar is great, but where can we find some morphine?"

Addict Ants Show That Insects Can Get Hooked on Drugs, Too

How researchers got a non-mammal hooked on drugs for the first time

The device can scan the brain while a person walks.

This Helmet Shows What’s Going On Inside a Person’s Brain

Researchers say it could help detect Alzheimer’s and even explain why some people have exceptional talents

A "neural dust" sensor

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Tiny “Neural Dust” Sensors Could One Day Control Prostheses or Treat Disease

These devices could last inside the human body indefinitely, monitoring and controlling nerve and muscle impulses

Could This Painless Brain Stimulation Help Treat Depression and Alzheimer’s?

UNC researchers have shown that transcranial alternating current stimulation can help improve memory

Not always your friend.

A Neuroscientist Tells You What’s Wrong With Your Brain

Dean Burnett’s new book, Idiot Brain, explains why your mind evolved to thwart you

New Research

New Brain Map Doubles Number of Known Regions

Neurologists have found 97 new areas in the brain and expect to add even more

Participants in "The Leading Strand" project share their prototypes with each other.

Art Meets Science

Here’s What Happens When Neuroscientists and Designers Team Up to Explain Scientific Research

A new interdisciplinary project results in a moving sculpture, an animated piece, a song that evolves and more

Are these cylinders round or square?

Cool Finds

Check Out the Best Illusions of 2016

Baffle your brain with these contest-winning mind-benders

New Research

What Happens in the Brain When Music Causes Chills?

The brains of people who get chills when the right song comes on are wired differently than others

New Research

This Tropical Fish Can Be Taught to Recognize Human Faces

New study trained fish to spit at human faces

Is there a benefit to being overworked?

Being Super Busy May* Be Good for Your Brain

*Does busyness boost cognition, or do people with better cognition tend to keep busy?

David Eagleman

Think Big

Neuroscientist David Eagleman on What Is Possible in the Cosmos

The author tackles where the human brain and astronomy intersect

How to Plug In Your Brain

If neuroscientists are right, you’ll soon be able to sharpen your focus and boost your memory by recharging your brain—with electricity

Halo says its headphones can strengthen muscle memory.

Can Headphones That Shock Your Brain Help You Run Faster and Jump Higher?

They’re called Halo Sport, and they send electrical charges into the brain that their inventors say can boost athletic performance

Trending Today

Popular Brain Game Maker Luminosity Faces a Fine for False Advertising

The science doesn’t back up the claims that playing memory and attention games can prevent mental decline

New Research

People’s Brain Chemistry May Reveal the Hour of Their Death

The tiny biological clocks ticking away inside the body stop when life ends, leaving a timestamp of sorts

In transcranial magnetic stimulation, a magnetic device placed near the skull delivers painless pulses to the brain.

Could Magnets Help Treat Drug Addiction?

A new study suggests transcranial magnetic simulation could reduce cravings in cocaine addicts

Male or female? Turns out there's no distinction.

New Research

There’s No Such Thing as a Male or Female Brain

When it comes to sex traits, brains are consistently inconsistent

Scientists reconfigured a magnetic resonance scanner to capture a woman and her baby.

Why I Captured This MRI of a Mother and Child

A venerable symbol of human love, as you’ve never seen it before

Page 15 of 21