Want to Hold On to a Memory? Make a Fist
Getting a grip — literally — by clenching your right fist before remembering information and your left when you want to remember it can boost your recall, according to the latest study.
Szalavitz's latest book is Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential — and Endangered. It is co-written with Dr. Bruce Perry, a leading expert in the neuroscience of child trauma and recovery.
Maia Szalavitz
Maia Szalavitz is a neuroscience journalist obsessed with addiction, love, evidence-based living, empathy and pretty much everything related to brain and behavior. She is the co-author of Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential — and Endangered (Morrow, 2010) and The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog (Basic, 2006), both with Dr. Bruce D. Perry. Her 2006 book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids (Riverhead, 2006) is the first book-length exposé of the “tough love” business. Szalavitz has been published in TIME Magazine, the New York Times, Elle, Scientific American Mind, the Washington Post, New Scientist and Psychology Today, among many others. She has been awarded the American Psychological Associations Division 50 Award for Contributions to the Addictions and the Media Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Articles from Contributor
Babies’ Brains: When Does Consciousness Emerge?
Finding the point at which babies’ reactions change from being purely reflexive to reflecting more intention is leading researches to focus on the first glimmers of conscious thought in infants as young as 5 months old.
Depressive Thinking Can Be Contagious
We don’t think of emotional states as passing from one person to another, but a new study suggests some depressive thoughts can go viral.
Q&A: Criminologist Adrian Raine on The Biology of Violence
Violent behavior is a complex product of biology and upbringing, and when that violence involves murder and destruction to the extent that erupted at the Boston Marathon, the questions about what drives such aggression become all …
Your Brain on Math
Among the 100 million or so nerve cells in the brain, it turns out there is a group dedicated to making sense of numbers.
Can Tylenol Dissolve Feelings of Dread?
Thinking about death, fearing the unknown and worrying about the future aren’t traditionally considered sources of physical pain, but they may be susceptible to the same pain-killing treatments.
How Terror Hijacks the Brain
Beer’s Taste Alone Can Trigger Desire for Drink
The latest research shows that even the taste of beer is sufficient to activate the brain‘s pleasure circuits.
A New Way to Curb Drinking? Planting False (Bad) Memories of a Bender
Researchers are exploring the possibility that convincing drinkers they had a bad experience with liquor — even if they didn’t — could lead them to drink less.
How Childhood Hunger Can Change Adult Personality
The effects of going hungry in childhood may be more lasting than previously thought.
Google Searches Reveal Seasonal Trends in Mental Illnesses
It’s easy to appreciate the seasonality of winter blues, but web searches show that other disorders may ebb and flow with the weather as well.
Size Does Matter: Study Shows Women Judge Male Attractiveness by Penis Size
Call it sexist or sensationalist, but now science suggests it’s so: women find men with bigger penises more attractive.
Majority of Americans Support Legalization of Marijuana
Public support for legalizing marijuana has never been higher, but the latest studies show recreational use is linked with prescription drug misuse.
