AS AUGUST BEGINS ITS slow fade into September in Alaska’s tundra, Arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) retreat into underground burrows to hibernate through the freezing winter. The squirrels’ metabolism slows to near-zero; their hearts beat and their lungs inflate only once per minute; and their body temperature drops as low as 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Their brains, […] The post Lessons From a Long Sleep appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

During his decades as Massachusetts General Hospital’s Chief of Psychiatry, Jerry Rosenbaum observed that patients suffering from a range of mental illnesses would sometimes get stuck in a state of rumination, or unceasing cycles of unpleasant, self-deprecating thoughts. While they had what were thought to be discrete conditions—depression, anxiety, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder—Rosenbaum wondered if the […] The post Where Psychedelic Research Goes Next appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

One Sunday morning in January 2018, Eric McLaughlin was putting on his shoes while helping his son get ready for hockey practice. Suddenly, he felt he’d been “turned off,” McLaughlin says, and when his wife asked him what was wrong, he found he couldn’t speak. At the skating rink, the attacks of paralysis continued and […] The post The Road to Functional Neurological Disorder appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

IN THE 1980s, A young psychology professor in California was looking for a new way to approach an old riddle: why some people enjoy good health while others fall ill and die prematurely. Beyond the physical circumstances that set one life apart from another, wouldn’t mental factors play a part as well? Centuries of speculation had […] The post The Personality Game appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

A BROKEN HEART MAY EVOKE IMAGES OF FAINTING HEROINES, but “broken-heart syndrome” is a real—and dangerous—medical phenomenon. Every year an estimated 7,000 to 14,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with the condition, which damages the heart and can be triggered by tragedy. A growing body of research ties it to the way the […] The post Broken Hearted appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

KATIE HART HAS BEEN sick most of her life, but it took more than three decades for her to find out what was behind her debilitating fatigue, persistent headaches, muscle pain and dizziness. During her adolescence, medical tests didn’t point to any clear answers, and her symptoms were dismissed as hypochondria. It wasn’t until 15 years […] The post Energy Crisis appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

IT IS POSSIBLE TO WATCH A MEMORY forming in the brain. Researcher Sheena Josselyn at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, for instance, looks through an ultralight “mini endoscope” attached to a lens in the brain of a mouse. The animal’s brain cells have been tagged with substances that make them light up when […] The post Living Memory appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

IN THE FACE OF SEVERE TRAUMA, why do some people die without any explainable physical cause? That is a frequent topic in the field of survival psychology, a relatively new subspecialty that explores the behavior of people in life-threatening situations. Psychologist John Leach is conducting research in this emerging field as a visiting senior research […] The post The Neuroscience of Giving Up appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

SLEEP IS A TIME-TESTED CURE. It repairs damaged tissues, allows critical immune function to take place and encodes the day’s memories more deeply in the brain. But good sleep often deteriorates with age, and can also be thrown off by a number of medical conditions. Improve the quality of sleep, and you have healthier people. […] The post Bumps in the Night appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more

HENRY MOLAISON, FAMOUS IN THE ANNALS OF PSYCHOLOGY, underwent surgery in 1953 that removed a large part of his hippocampus, which curtailed his ability to form new memories. An unusual appetite was one of his many notable characteristics. Presented with a plate of food, Molaison would tuck in even if he had finished a full […] The post How Poor Diet Shapes the Brain appeared first on Proto Magazine ..read more