Maybe not this exact second, but soon, just from having read the word, you might yawn. It is so contagious that it can be triggered by text alone, by the mere idea of one. It occurs across species: you can make a dog yawn by yawning at it, and chimpanzees catch yawns from strangers on a screen. Yet for all its universality, neuroscience cannot fully agree on why we do it. Yawning begins in the womb, survives into old age, and resists conscious suppression. It is one of the oldest things our...

We have all woken up at some point in a state of distress, confusion, or fear, which usually culminates in a ‘what did I just dream’ reflection. Whether we remember one or every detail about it, often the ridiculous and far-fetched nature of our dreams can have a profound effect on our thoughts after waking. While it is a common occurrence to wake up either relieved or frustrated about our passiveness during the dream scenario, it is more infrequent that we wake up knowing we did have...

The bidirectional pathway between the gut microbiome and the central nervous system (CNS) is becoming a major topic of conversation in health literature, given that disruption to this pathway leads to health concerns within both neurological and gastrointestinal (GI) diseases. In fact, healthcare professionals are now in the midst of finding an answer to the question: Does rebalancing of the gut microbiome work as a management option for related disease? The gut, or inside of the intestines,...