In this excerpt from “Playful,” Cas Holman surveys the research that brought the neuroscience of play into the mainstream.

Life’s “in-between” stages pack unique cognitive benefits — if you know how to tap into them.

Neuroscientist Rachel Barr shares her favorite books on the brain and how they shaped her approach to the field.

“The sexual excitation system is the accelerator or the gas pedal, and it notices all the sex-related information in the environment.”

After the trauma of a high-risk medical procedure, Eric Markowitz discovered a kind of consciousness that lives not in thought — but in presence.