The Man Who Controls Computers With His Mind

In another groundbreaking study published last year, Jaimie Henderson and several colleagues, including biomedical engineer Francis Willett and Krishna Shenoy, an electrical engineer, reported an equally fascinating but completely different approach to communication via the neural interface. The scientists recorded the neurons firing in Dennis DeGray’s brain as he imagined himself writing words in a …

Review: ‘The Mind and the Moon’ by Daniel Bergner

Bergner is skilful at placing Caroline’s story in the context of modern psychiatric history. It’s hard to do justice to the larger story it tells, but probably the most shocking part is the utter randomness that characterizes much of modern psychodrug seeking and the utterly devastating side effects it can have. Bergner traces the history …

‘On the Edges’ Offers a Path to Elena Ferrante’s Mind

ON THE EDGESOn the Pleasures of Reading and Writingby Elena FerranteTranslated from Italian by Ann Goldstein.111 pages. European Versions. 20. A few years ago, Elena Ferrante accepted an invitation to give three public lectures in Bologna, Italy. The demand was as wide as the ocean: Ferrante was asked to talk about anything that might be …

2 In The Show, The Past Goes Back With Contemporary Blackness In Mind

Last weekend, I set out eagerly to see two new productions that prominently center Blackness: director Arin Arbus’s “Shakespeare”.Venetian merchant” and “Black No More,” a new musical with a creative team inspired by a 1931 satirical novel about race in America. “The Merchant of Venice,” a New Audience Theater production at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center …

Seeing the Mind as Medicine, Dr. Herbert Benson Dies At 86

Herbert Benson, a Harvard-trained cardiologist whose research demonstrating the power of the mind over the body helped bring meditation into the mainstream, died February 3 in a Boston hospital. He was 86 years old. His wife, Marilyn Benson, said the cause was heart disease and kidney failure. Dr. Benson did not set out to advocate …