Scientific American – May-June 2019, Volume 30, Number 3

N A big part of your thesis is that some traits of men- tal disorders can be advantageous or adaptive—a depressed mood, for inst ...

Evolutionary psychology I see very much as a subset of evolutionary medicine in general. And one of the most practically useful ...

Is Only-Child Syndrome Real? Children without siblings have long been thought of as spoiled and selfish. Are the claims true? By ...

NLY CHILDREN always want to get their way, can’t share and are generally selfish—or so the long-held prejudice goes. According t ...

to rely on themselves and were thus forced to become inventive and resourceful at an early age. But that is not all. MRI tests r ...

BEAUTIFUL MINDS When Does Intelligence Peak? Maybe that’s not even the right question W hen does cognitive functioning peak? As ...

“crystallized” intelligence (in- dexed by measures of vocabulary and general knowledge). But do- main-specific expertise—the dar ...

genius tends to peak early. Nevertheless, on the whole, these results should be considered good news for older adults. Unless yo ...

OBSERVATIONS The Emotional Toll of Grad School Mental health disorders and depression are far more likely for grad students than ...

Opinion dents, doctoral students do not leave their pro- gram with job security or even optimistic financial prospects. In fact, ...

swer is no. Granted, the issues surrounding graduate stu- dent mental health are much easier to describe than to solve. But if a ...

THE ARTFUL AMOEBA The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer’s Grows What separates a lethal prion from a dementia-associated amyloid ...

Opinion genes, but sometimes find their way into humans through consumption of contaminated brain or spi- nal cord tissue. In th ...

disease in which aggregating misfolded host pro- teins—a class referred to as amyloid—seem to prop- agate and wreak havoc either ...

Editor in Chief and Senior Vice President: Mariette DiChristina Managing Editor: Curtis Brainard Collections Editor: Andrea Gawr ...

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