The Brain

A new study suggests that people who are highly empathic find listening to music more enjoyable. Read more

A new book outlines many ways to keep our cognitive skills strong and reduce the risk of dementia as we age. Read more

Researchers suggest that people with an advanced meditation practice might operate at a different level of awareness — and it shows in their brainwaves. Read more

Scientists are in hot pursuit of the "the connectome"—the map of the 86-billion-neuron, 100-trillion-synapse human brain that would allow your brainware to be recreated in digital form. Read more

A new study finds that rejection is less distressing to mindful people (and their brains). Read more

Scientists insist on talking about the brain while the rest of us talk about the mind. Sharon Begley sizes up the two sides of the mind/brain conversation. Read more

While most psychologists call mind wandering a detrimental “failure of executive control," a new study suggests that it's not always harmful. Read more

Why is it that we seem to get along with some people right off the bat? Is it just because you happen to like the same kind of music, or are there deeper reasons to find yourself on the same wavelength? Read more

Our brain is like a wild, raging electrical storm that wondrously enables us to make our way. Yet a lot of mindfulness literature makes it sound like a very simple machine. Two leading neuroscientists suggest better ways to think and talk about the brain and the mind. Read more

Some scientists are working on making the last stages of life a little healthier, others are trying to extend life, and still others are hoping to make death obsolete. Read more