Have you ever woken from a dream, emotionally laden with anxiety, fear, or a sense of unpreparedness? Typically, these kinds of dreams are associated with content like losing one’s voice, teeth falling out, or being chased by a threatening being. But one question I’ve always been interested in is

Depression is like waking up to a rainy, dreary morning, every single day. Activities that previously lightened the mood lose their joy. Instead, every social interaction and memory is filtered through a negative lens. This aspect of depression, called negative affective bias, leads to sadness and

Finding ways to reduce the invasiveness of brain implants could greatly expand their potential applications. A new device tested in mice that sits on the brain’s surface—but can still read activity deep within—could lead to safer and more effective ways to read neural activity. There are already a

Psychedelics made their mark this year—not as counterculture party drugs, but as a new paradigm in mental health therapy. In June, Australia became the first country to greenlight MDMA, popularly known as molly or ecstasy, and psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, to treat

This year gave rise to an incredible mix of brain implants that can record, decode, and alter brain activity. It sounds like déjà vu—brain-machine interfaces also lived rent free in my head in last year’s roundup, but for good reason. Neuroscientists are building increasingly sophisticated and