Learning a New Skill After 40: What Happens in the Brain
There is a moment that many people past their fortieth birthday know well. They watch someone younger pick up a new software tool, a musical instrument, or a language with …
How Trauma Gets Stored in the Body and Brain
There is a phrase that has moved from the therapy room into broader cultural conversation over the past decade, and while its migration has not always preserved its precision, the …
ADHD in Adults: What Is Really Happening in the Brain
There is a version of ADHD that most people picture when they hear the term: a young boy, unable to sit still in class, bouncing between tasks, talking over everyone, …
How Emotions Affect Memory Formation and Recall
Ask someone to describe their first day of school, their wedding, or the moment they heard genuinely terrible news, and the details tend to arrive with a vividness and specificity …
Working Memory vs. Long-Term Memory: How to Strengthen Both
Memory is one of those words that people use with considerable confidence until someone asks them to define it precisely, at which point it becomes clear that the word is …
Spaced Repetition: The Most Effective Way to Lock In What You Learn
There is a particular kind of frustration familiar to anyone who has ever studied seriously for something. You spend hours with the material. You feel like you know it. You …
The Attention Crisis: Why Focus Is Harder Than It Used to Be
Ask anyone over forty whether their ability to concentrate has changed in the past decade and the answer comes back with a consistency that is striking. Something is different. Reading …
Time Blocking for Brain Performance: A Neuroscience-Backed Approach
Most productivity advice treats the brain as a relatively uniform resource that can be pointed at tasks and expected to perform consistently throughout the day, provided the person is disciplined …
The Link Between REM Sleep and Memory Consolidation
If you have ever slept on a difficult problem and woken with the solution sitting neatly in your mind, you have experienced the work of REM sleep firsthand, even if …
Sleep Disorders and Cognitive Decline: The Early Warning Signs
There is a tendency to treat sleep disorders as quality-of-life inconveniences, problems that make you tired and irritable and perhaps difficult to live with, but fundamentally separate from the more …