Knowing Neurons

It's almost 1 a.m. Your test is in seven hours, and you've read the same three pages so many times that the words have started to blur. But it feels like you're absorbing the information. Each sentence goes down a little more smoothly than the last, and somewhere around the second cup of coffee, you get that warm flicker of "okay, I've got this." You close the laptop and fall asleep, relieved. Then the test comes, and the material that felt so solid at midnight has turned to fog.

Have you ever caught the scent of a perfume and suddenly found yourself thinking of a particular person, place, or moment from years ago? Or heard a familiar song that instantly brought back memories you thought had long faded? Many of us have experienced these unexpected moments of recall. Emotional experiences often leave traces that feel remarkably enduring, resurfacing unexpectedly and with surprising intensity.

The muscle-building supplement creatine has stolen the cognitive health spotlight in the wake of several research studies boasting claims of better memory, increased focus, and overall enhanced cognitive performance. Easy solutions for optimizing cognition have become more desirable than ever, especially on social media where advertisements for new health foods, vitamins, and supplements continuously flood users' feeds.

In the early 20th century, pioneering neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield made a groundbreaking discovery. While in the operating room, Penfield stimulated various regions of the motor cortex of his conscious patients and mapped out a representation of the human body (Penfield & Boldrey, 1937). This representation, famously known as the homunculus model, was a model for adjacent brain areas called the somatosensory and motor cortices.

The idea that octopuses might be aliens emerged from the theory of panspermia (Steele et al., 2018), according to which life on Earth is not entirely of terrestrial origin, and microorganisms may have been "brought" here from space via comets or meteorites. The panspermia theory proposes that these extraterrestrial microorganisms then enabled the rapid and coordinated evolution of animal life during the Cambrian Explosion, whereas animal evolution until that point had been more gradual.

The idea that thoughts should be private was once a given. Even the most authoritarian regimes could only punish what was spoken or done, not what was felt. That boundary is eroding. Mental privacy is not merely a civil liberty. It is the foundation of psychological development, of selfhood, of free will. To strip it away in the name of productivity or safety is to enact a quiet form of cognitive colonization.

Cancer is a complex disease where some cells in the body multiply uncontrollably, forming tumors detrimental to bodily functions. Fortunately, more people survive cancer every day. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), the overall 5-year survival rate for all types of cancer combined is about 70%. The mortality rate for breast cancer, the most common cancer in women, has dropped by 44% since 1989.

By Jasmin Desruisseau, Natalia Medina, Arushi Mishra, and Athul Byju It was a quiet evening when I noticed how my fourteen-year-old sister anxiously paced around the house. Her phone was locked away as a temporary measure to improve her slipping grades. This had left her restless and irritable, echoing intense withdrawal symptoms I recently read about in health class regarding addiction.

By Ishitha Teluguntla In the middle of a conversation, someone asks a seemingly simple question, “Are you okay?” For a brief moment, there is hesitation. The answer could be honest and reflect the stress, exhaustion, or emotional strain you’re feeling, but instead, the response is automatic: “I’m fine.” This interaction is so common that it often goes unquestioned. Across ages and environments, people routinely choose to conceal their internal struggles, even when those struggles feel significant.

By Gareth Strangemore-Jones and Dhruv Mehrotra They can mine your data, model your behaviour, nudge your choices, even read your  thoughts, but they cannot yet be held accountable. In the twenty-first century, what was once considered the most private, unassailable  aspect of human existence, the mind, is being drawn into the marketplace. Cognitive sovereignty is the right to own your own mind.