Scientific American Special - Secrets of The Mind - USA (2022-Winter)

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UNCONSCIOUS MIND

74 The Intention Machine

A new generation of brain-machine interfaces can deduce

what a person wants. By Richard A. Andersen

82 Infectious Dreams

How the COVID-19 pandemic is changing

our sleeping lives. By Tore Nielsen

88 Sleep Learning Gets Real

Experimental techniques demonstrate how to strengthen

memories when our brains are off-line.

By Ken A. Paller and Delphine Oudiette

94 Answering Queries in Real Time

while Dreaming

Researchers demonstrate that during REM sleep,

people can hear—and respond to—simple questions

such as “What is eight minus six?” By Diana Kwon

96 Can Science Illuminate Our Inner

Dark Matter?

Neither introspection nor brain scans can reveal

our deepest thoughts. By John Horgan

ALTERED REALITY

102 A Disorder of Mind and Brain

A mysterious condition once known as hysteria is

challenging the divide between psychiatry and neurology.

By Diana Kwon

110 The Undiscovered Illness

Hundreds of thousands of people experience mania

without ever getting depressed. Why does psychiatry

insist on calling them bipolar? By Simon Makin

116 Could COVID Delirium

Bring On Dementia?

Delirium is very common on COVID wards. Researchers

are testing whether these temporary bouts of confusion

could bring on permanent cognitive decline.

By Carrie Arnold

122 A Psychedelic Renaissance

Psilocybin and MDMA represent a first wave of therapies

for psychiatric disorders that help patients by changing

the way they view reality. By Danielle Schlosser and

Thomas R. Insel

DEPARTMENTS

1 FROM THE EDITOR

Mind from Matter

124 END NOTE

Does Consciousness Pervade the Universe?

Philosopher Philip Goff answers questions about

“panpsychism.” By Gareth Cook

unconscious mind 72

altered reality 100

Articles in this special issue are updated or adapted from previous issues of Scientific American and Nature and from ScientificAmerican.com.
Copyright © 2022 Scientific American, a division of Springer Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved. Scientific American Special (ISSN 1936-1513), Volume 31, Number 1, Winter 2022,
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