ChatGPT’s arrival in teenagers’ daily lives is reshaping how they learn and raising questions about their cognitive development. Since November 2022, teenagers and young adults have discovered a new conversation partner, an inexhaustible, responsive, educational, and sometimes even comforting digital presence: ChatGPT. Whether at home, in class, on public transport, in the library, or in…
Rather than interrupting thought, sleep may reshape it and help new ideas emerge. Why do some ideas only emerge after a break, as if inactivity were the brain’s hidden engine? This question, though far from new, touches on one of the most subtle and profound mechanisms of human cognition. For decades, neuroscience has explored the…
Long opposed, psychoanalysis and neuroscience address different objects. Yet their dialogue remains possible. Far from the dogmatic standoffs and mutual rejections often seen between opposing camps of purists, there are real bridges and opportunities for fruitful cooperation between neuroscience and psychoanalysis. A key condition for this dialogue is the redefinition of what should have always…
Write without moving, speak without a voice… science is reaching a major milestone. Thanks to brain–computer interfaces, thoughts are gradually becoming a readable form of language. Every year, thousands of individuals lose the use of their limbs due to stroke, spinal cord injury, or neurodegenerative disease. When both speech and movement fall silent, communication becomes…
Why do top players see what others miss? In chess, expertise isn’t just talent—it’s a different way the brain is organized. In 2004, in a quiet room in Iceland, a 13-year-old boy sat across from Garry Kasparov, then the world’s top-ranked chess player. The Russian grandmaster, undefeated for over two decades, now faced a calm-eyed…
Absurd images, memory palaces, strange associations… Memory techniques reveal something surprising: to remember, the brain needs imagination. What if our memory wasn’t as limited as we believe? Remembering every name, every face, or even the smallest details of a book read years ago isn’t a fantasy reserved for geniuses. In a world where we increasingly…
What if the brain does not operate solely under classical physical laws? The “quantum brain” hypothesis explores whether controversial quantum processes could play a role in consciousness. Have you ever experienced a sudden intuition, a creative spark that seems to emerge from nowhere? That inexplicable sense of “knowing” something without being able to articulate why?…
Between structured logic and creative intuition, two forms of intelligence emerge. One optimizes, the other transforms. A child solving equations faster than an adult can read them, a teenager captivated by quantum physics before mastering algebra, or a musician able to improvise a Baroque fugue after a single listen, all seem cut from the same…
Under the harsh glare of stage lights, nothing is left to chance. Even memory becomes an instrument of precision. Imagine yourself standing on a stage, illuminated by dozens of spotlights, facing an audience hanging on your every word, keenly attuned to even the slightest misstep. And yet, each line, each phrase flows effortlessly from your…
Major error or foundational insight? Phrenology failed, yet paved the way for modern brain localization. During a time when science was still struggling to unravel the brain’s mysteries, an idea both audacious and alluring began to take root. What if the shape of an individual’s skull could reveal their character and intelligence? In the late…