March/ April 201 9
WHAT’S Volume^30 • No.^2
INSIDE
FEATURES
11.
There Is No Such Thing as Conscious Thought
Philosopher Peter Carruthers insists that con-
scious thought, judgment and volition are illu-
sions. They arise from processes of which we
are forever unaware
15.
The Brain’s Autopilot Mechanism
Steers Consciousness
Freud’s notion of a dark, libidinous unconscious
is obsolete. A new theory holds that the
brain produces a continuous stream of
unconscious predictions
21.
The Hippies Were Right: It’s All about Vibrations,
Man!
A new theory of consciousness
24.
Harsh Nazi Parenting Guidelines May
Still Affect German Children of Today
The Nazi regime urged German mothers to ignore
their toddlers’ emotional needs—the better to
raise hardened soldiers and followers. Attachment
researchers say that the harmful effects of that
teaching may be affecting later generations
29.
The Neuroscience of Creativity:
Q&A with Anna Abraham
The latest state of the field of the neuroscience
of creativityOPINION
34.
Don’t Make Me One
with Everything
The mystical doctrine
of oneness has creepy
implications
36.
Can Intelligence Buy
You Happiness?
New research suggests
that higher IQ leads to
greater well-being by
enabling one to acquire
the financial and
educational means
necessary to live a
better life
39.
In the Nature-Nurture
War, Nature Wins
Environmental influences
are important, too, but
they are largely
unsystematic, unstable
and idiosyncratic
41.
Is Smart Technology
Making Us Dumb?
Yes and no: there are
reasonable arguments
on both sides of the
questionNEWS
4.
How Dad’s Stresses
Get Passed Along to
Offspring
Mouse studies show
tiny intercellular pods
convey to sperm a
legacy of a father’s
hard knocks in life
6.
Deep-Brain Recordings
May Show Where
Unhappiness Lives
New recordings of elec-
trical activity in the brain
help reveal the underpin-
nings of bad moods
8.
Bad First Impressions
Are Not Set in Stone
People are more willing
to change their mind
about people they
initially deem “nasty”
versus those they
deem “nice”
9.
Alzheimer’s Attack
on the Brain May Vary
with Race
A new study finds Afri-
can-Americans with
dementia have less
buildup of certain toxic
proteins in their brains
than do whites
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