Scientific American Mind Magazine

April 2008

FEATURES

Mind Control by Cell Phone
Electromagnetic signals from cell phones can change your brainwaves and behavior. But don't break out the aluminum foil head shield just yet.
By R. Douglas Fields

Buried Prejudice: The Bigot in Your Brain
Deep within our subconscious, all of us harbor biases that we consciously abhor. And the worst part is: we act on them
By Siri Carpenter

Feature The Aging Brain: Is It Less Connected?
Age-related cognitive decline may be caused by a breakdown in connections between different brain systems.
By Donald Pfaff and Nicholas D. Schiff

Feature Infected with Insanity: Could Microbes Cause Mental Illness?
Viruses or bacteria may be at the root of schizophrenia and other disorders
By Melinda Wenner

Feature How Stereotyping Yourself Contributes to Your Success (or Failure)
People's performance on intellectual and athletic tasks is shaped by awareness of stereotypes about the groups to which they belong. New research explains why— and how we can break free from the expectations of others
By S. Alexander Haslam, Jessica Salvatore, Thomas Kessler and Stephen D. Reicher

The Orgasmic Mind: The Neurological Roots of Sexual Pleasure
Achieving sexual climax requires a complex conspiracy of sensory and psychological signals—and the eventual silencing of critical brain areas
By Martin Portner

New Weapons Against Cocaine Addiction
Drug therapies show promise in the battle against addictive stimulants
By Peter Sergo

Imagined Ugliness
Some people are convinced that they are hideously deformed because of an obscure or nonexistent physical "flaw"
By Susanne Rytina

Subconscious Sight
People with "blindsight" can correctly deduce the visual features of objects they cannot see. Such visual intuition can even exceed what is possible with normal vision
By Susana Martinez-Conde

A Face in the Crowd
Is our remarkable ability to recognize human faces hardwired in the brain or a result of lots of practice?
By Nina Bublitz