Brain

Brain

Loneliness can breed disease

Everyone experiences loneliness from time to time. But when allowed to persist, loneliness can damage your health and steal years from your life.

Brain

Understanding Autism

Genetics appears to play some role in this disorder, which affects more than one percent of all Americans.

Brain

Getting a head start on autism

Early diagnosis followed by early treatment may reduce autism’s impact on kids — and help them to communicate better.

Brain

Autism unlocked

Experts are learning how to diagnose this brain disorder in infancy. That may be early enough to allow nerve cells in the brain to develop new connections — ones that form detours around autism-affected areas.

Brain

Mapping the brain’s highways

A new map may explain why some brain injuries are worse than others. Even relatively minor injuries that disrupt message superhighways may have a more devastating impact than some seemingly catastrophic injuries.

Brain

Why boys face higher autism risk

Boys develop autism at four times the rate seen in girls. Girls’ genes are better protected from the mutations linked to this brain disorder, data now suggest.

Brain

Video games can help some people read

People with dyslexia seem to get a boost from screen time.

Brain

When Cupid’s arrow strikes

Scientists have begun dissecting what it means to be in love. They are finding that much of what we feel can be explained by the effects of a few key chemicals — and not just on our hearts and brains, but on our whole bodies.

Brain

The weight of thought

Thinking heavy thoughts? Scientists have just put people on a balance and shown that the brain briefly gains blood — becoming a bit heavier — while concentrating.

Brain

Memory lessons from a forgetful brain

Scientists have just begun probing the preserved tissue from “H.M.” Even five years after he died, this man’s brain continues to offer lessons on how people make — or fail to make — memories.

Brain

Erasing memories

Electroconvulsive therapy is used to treat severe depression, but the electrical jolt it sends into the brain also may erase bad memories.

Brain

Inheriting fear

Scared of something and don’t know why? Maybe your parents or grandparents passed along their fear to you, a new mouse study suggests.