Date: January 11, 2014

"'Think about a fish tank,' says Dr. Nedergaard. 'If you have a tank and no filter, the fish will eventually die. So, how do the brain cells get rid of their waste? Where is their filter?'"

— Konnikova, Maria (b. 1984)

Date: January 11, 2014

"If the main function of sleep is to take out our neural trash, that insight could eventually enable a new understanding of both neurodegenerative diseases and regular, age-related cognitive decline."

— Konnikova, Maria (b. 1984)

Date: January 11, 2014

"One day, scientists might be able to successfully mimic the expansion of the interstitial space that does the mental janitorial work so that we can achieve maximally efficient round-the-clock brain trash pickup."

— Konnikova, Maria (b. 1984)

Date: July 31, 2014

"It summons a mental flood."

— Garner, Dwight (b. 1965)

Date: July 31, 2014

"He prints a few descriptive sentences of a couple walking together from Wharton's 'House of Mirth,' and mentally X-rays them."

— Garner, Dwight (b. 1965)

Date: March, 2014

"my good mother, // her mind     a trail of crumbs / in a woods flocked with birds."

— Seibles, Tim (b. 1955)

Date: March, 2014

"Culture: a kind of knife: / cuts one way     opens / your brain to a certain / breed of light     shaves / consciousness to its // purpose, its cross."

— Seibles, Tim (b. 1955)

Date: March, 2014

"Memory, / a jar of flies. Spin off the lid."

— Seibles, Tim (b. 1955)

Date: March, 2014

"O, bold, / bare legs of women / upon which my soul beads / like sweat."

— Seibles, Tim (b. 1955)

Date: September 12, 2014

"He explains that there are two warring parts of the brain: a hot part demanding immediate gratification (the limbic system), and a cool, goal-oriented part (the prefrontal cortex)."

— Druckerman, Pamela (b. 1970)