While there’s no compulsive shopping gene, there are several theories about why people are more susceptible to addictive and obsessional behaviors. It might have a genetic basis, but Annie Gurton thinks the reality is addictions are more likely to have an environmental cause.

As our understanding of the way the brain works deepens, such technology will shine even more light onto many cognitive abilities and phenomena, including our seemingly-immutable sense of self.

The ultra-connectivity of our modern society is causing a wholesale shift in the way we retain information in our heads. Where most of history up until this point has been a process of wielding tools to remember things for us (everything from scratches on papyrus to the PC), we’re now entering an age where we don’t really have to remember anything.