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brains

A video that shows washes of light moving across a model of a human brain.
neuroscience

Brain Chemical Helps Signal to Neurons When to Start a Movement

By Allison Whitten
March 22, 2022
Read Later

Dopamine, a neurochemical often associated with reward behavior, also seems to help organize precisely when the brain initiates movements. It’s the latest revelation about the power of neuromodulators.

Photo of genetically engineered zebra fish larva with fluorescent markings in its brain.
memory

Scientists Watch a Memory Form in a Living Brain

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
March 3, 2022
Read Later

While watching a fearful memory take shape in the brain of a living fish, neuroscientists see an unexpected level of rewiring occur in the synaptic connections.

neural networks

AI Overcomes Stumbling Block on Brain-Inspired Hardware

By Allison Whitten
February 17, 2022
Read Later

Algorithms that use the brain’s communication signal can now work on analog neuromorphic chips, which closely mimic our energy-efficient brains.

neuroscience

New Map of Meaning in the Brain Changes Ideas About Memory

By Jordana Cepelewicz
February 8, 2022
Read Later

Researchers have mapped hundreds of semantic categories to the tiny bits of the cortex that represent them in our thoughts and perceptions. What they discovered might change our view of memory.

Illustration of a person remembering the orientation of an arrow, but also a range of other orientations it might have had.
neuroscience

Neural Noise Shows the Uncertainty of Our Memories

By Veronique Greenwood
January 18, 2022
Read Later

The electrical chatter of our working memories reflects our uncertainty about their contents.

2021 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 21, 2021
Read Later

The detailed understanding of brains and multicellular bodies reached new heights this year, while the genomes of the COVID-19 virus and various organisms yielded more surprises.

artificial intelligence

AI Researchers Fight Noise by Turning to Biology

By Allison Whitten
December 7, 2021
Read Later

Tiny amounts of artificial noise can fool neural networks, but not humans. Some researchers are looking to neuroscience for a fix.

3D model of several pyramidal neurons in cortical layer 5 of mammalian brain.
neuroscience

New Brain Maps Can Predict Behaviors

By Monique Brouillette
December 6, 2021
Read Later

Rapid advances in large-scale connectomics are beginning to spotlight the importance of individual variations in the neural circuitry. They also highlight the limitations of “wiring diagrams” alone.

Illustration of tangled branches that can also look like the folds in a brain.
neuroscience

To Be Energy-Efficient, Brains Predict Their Perceptions

By Anil Ananthaswamy
November 15, 2021
Read Later

Results from neural networks support the idea that brains are “prediction machines” — and that they work that way to conserve energy.


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