Neuroscience

More Stories in Neuroscience

  1. A photo of a big blue octopus hovering in the water with several of its tentacles curled up around its body.
    Animals

    Scientists have now recorded brain waves from freely moving octopuses

    The data reveal some unexpected patterns, though it’s too early to know how octopus brains control the animals’ behavior, a new study finds.

    By Nora Bradford
  2. A photo of a small brown mouse running across a gray floor.
    Neuroscience

    In mice, anxiety isn’t all in the head. It can start in the heart

    Scientists used optogenetics to raise the heartbeat of a mouse, making it anxious. The finding could offer a new angle for studying anxiety disorders.

    By Bethany Brookshire
  3. A diagram showing every nerve cell in a larval fruit fly brain, in all the colors of the rainbow, on a white backdrop
    Neuroscience

    Scientists have mapped an insect brain in greater detail than ever before

    Researchers have built a nerve cell “connectivity map” of a larval fruit fly brain. It’s the most complex whole brain wiring diagram yet made.

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  4. An illustration of a body created with light blue lines to simulate electricity.
    Life

    ‘We Are Electric’ delivers the shocking story of bioelectricity

    Sally Adee’s new book spotlights the underexplored science of the body’s electricity and investigates how bioelectricity could advance medicine.

    By Meghan Rosen
  5. An illustration of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria, represented as orange circles, infecting brain cells.
    Neuroscience

    How meningitis-causing bacteria invade the brain

    Microbes behind bacterial meningitis hijack pain-sensing nerve cells in the brain’s outer layers, disabling a key immune response, a mouse study shows.

    By Jackie Rocheleau
  6. A photo of a woman sitting on a couch and holding a baby while she talks on the phone and types one handed on a laptop.
    Neuroscience

    ‘Mommy brain’ doesn’t capture how the brain transforms during pregnancy

    During the transition to motherhood, there's more going on than “momnesia,” neuroscientists argue. The brain changes to prep for the job of caregiving

    By Aimee Cunningham
  7. A microscope image of a nerve cell with colors highlighting special receptors.
    Health & Medicine

    Psychedelics may improve mental health by getting inside nerve cells

    Psychedelics can get inside neurons, causing them to grow. This might underlie the drugs’ potential in combatting mental health disorders.

    By McKenzie Prillaman
  8. An illustration of a nerve cell with extensions branching out to create connections called synapses.
    Neuroscience

    Adult mouse brains are teeming with ‘silent synapses’

    Nerve cell connections thought to be involved mainly in development could explain how the brain keeps making new memories while holding onto old ones.

    By Claudia López Lloreda
  9. A white rat inside a clear case with a one red dot on its tail and three colored dots in a straight line on its head
    Neuroscience

    Rats can bop their heads to the beat

    Rats’ rhythmic response to human music doesn’t mean they like to dance, but it may shed light on how brains evolved to perceive rhythm.

    By Deborah Balthazar