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Where OCD Leads My Mind
by Artemis Christoforatos art by Luciana Piro I am eating almonds when I realize that this bowl has been touched before. If the bowl has been touched, it has been contaminated. Did the hand I am using to eat, my clean hand, touch the bowl, or just the almonds? If my hand has touched the bowl, then it has been contaminated. Did it touch my lips in the process of putting the almond to my mouth? If my hand has touched my lips, then my lips are contaminated. Did my tongue t
Dec 5, 2025
Tackling CTE Head-On
by Sydney Cho art by Runjia (Joy) Wei The roaring crowd falls silent as the star football player is helped to the sideline, struggling to stand after a violent collision. Although his helmet absorbed the initial impact, his unsteady footsteps and blank stare reveal something critical: a concussion. A concussion occurs when a sudden impact or jolt causes the brain to move rapidly within the skull, leading to chemical changes and potential brain cell damage [1] . Common sympto
Dec 5, 2025
The Brain Wasn't Built in a Day
by Andrea Mojsoska art by Anna Siegel When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or, do as the Romans designed . For a building’s design to be considered successful, Roman architect Vitruvius argued that it must satisfy the three principles of firmitas, utilitas, and venustas : strength, utility, and beauty [1] . These three notions are nested in Rome’s ruins, echoing the city’s eternal legacy. Yet even for those lacking Vitruvius’ technical knowledge, the way in which we perceive a
Dec 5, 2025
A Tale of Two Hemispheres
by Riya Raina art by Jennifer (Ruiqi) Wang A participant sits in a lab, staring at a small “+” in the center of a screen. A picture of a key flashes just to the left of that point. It disappears almost immediately. When the participant is asked to say what they saw, they can’t name it. But when asked to reach behind a screen with their left hand and pick the matching object, they grab a key right away. When asked to draw what they saw with their left hand, they sketch a key
Dec 5, 2025
To Whom It May Concern In the Year 2100...
by Sindhu Vemulapalli art by Kristen Chun & Kai Yara Dear Future Generations, When I think about the world you will inherit, I worry. The rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and thickening air pollution are just some of the known environmental consequences of climate change. Often overlooked, however, are climate change’s negative implications on brain health. Specifically, climate change has led to a disorder known as climate anxiety—a term referring to persiste
Dec 5, 2025
The Self Does Not Tremor
by John Pierre Alkhoury art by Noelle Biehle How do you define your identity? As a college student, you may still be exploring what that exactly means to you. Is it the sum of all your lived experiences? Is it a series of beliefs you apply to everything you encounter? Is it something physical? Or you may be asking, how does identity shape your purpose? These philosophical questions have undoubtedly crept into your life at one point or another. However, they become more comp
Dec 5, 2025
I See Disney Cartoons
by Nick Thomas art by Qingyang Meng “ Art thou not fatal vision, sensible / To feeling as to sight? or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain?” - Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 1 In the early 1990s, patient Nancy S. visited neuroscientist Dr. V.S. Ramachandran regarding her unusual visual issues. As Dr. Ramachandran sat opposite of her, he gradually began to enter her left visual field. As he did so, he was slow
Dec 5, 2025
Wired for Worry: The Gendered Brain in a Gendered World
by Noa Yaniv art by Anjali Jawa I met the amygdala on a sunny Monday afternoon at a crowded Joe’s Coffee. Small, almond-shaped, and a bit on edge (noticeably buzzing with nerves), it immediately knew the topic I was going to bring up, blurting out: “Listen, I’m just trying to keep women safe. Honestly, I might be overdoing it.” The amygdala is a key brain structure that detects threats and helps regulate fear and emotional responses, essentially acting as an alarm system fo
Dec 5, 2025
Neuroscience, Deployed: An Intellectual Arms Race
by Tressel Holton art by Vivian Yang “The arms race is a race between nuclear weapons and ourselves.” - Martin Amis, in his 1987 book Einstein’s Monsters The history of warfare has been accompanied by several arms races, by which nations or other militarized groups challenge each other to develop the most devastating weaponry possible. Arms races drive innovation, epitomizing the relationship between war and the scientific community. Perhaps the most infamous example is the
Dec 5, 2025
The Crisis Line
by Fanjie (Sadie) Shang art by Vivian Vig The light from my laptop cuts through the darkness of my London bedroom at 2:47 a.m. I hear the beep of a message from an anonymous texter: “I want to end everything right now. I can't deal with this anymore.” The gravity of what these 14 words imply feels like a 40-pound weight on my chest, making me breathe heavily with urgency and desperation. Somewhere in the U.K., someone is drowning in what feels like an eternal wave of hope
Dec 5, 2025