HALF BAKED
Can casual marijuana use damage the brains of young adults? A new study says yes—but its participants suggest otherwise.
Maia Szalavitz writes about the intersection between mind, brain and society for publications like Time online, the New York Times, Elle and MSN Health. She is co-author, most recently of Lost Boy, the first memoir by a young man raised in Mormon fundamentalist polygamy, Brent Jeffs. She is Senior Fellow at Stats.org, a media watchdog organization.
Addiction experts are campaigning to block the sale of the ultra-pure pain pill Zohydro. But the campaign may be more of an advertisement for the new drug than a way to stop it.
It may be the Supreme Court’s buzzword du jour, but empathy’s emotional conclusion—trust—is the underpinning of our economy. Post-crash and post-Madoff, how will America restore this complicated neurological function?
As the prophet’s nephew on a radical polygamist compound, Brent Jeffs lived in a world of sexual terror, familial confusion, and religious brainwashing. Then he escaped—and his demons followed him.
A groundbreaking study suggests people with autism-spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s do not lack empathy—rather they feel others’ emotions too intensely to cope.