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brains

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neuroscience

Bats Use the Same Brain Cells to Map Physical and Social Worlds

By Jake Buehler
October 31, 2023
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New research in social bats raises the intriguing possibility that evolution can reprogram the brain’s “place cells,” which are typically associated with location, to encode all kinds of environmental information.

Astrocytes from the brain of a mouse are stained in neon colors that emphasize their stretched, starlike shape.
neuroscience

These Cells Spark Electricity in the Brain. They’re Not Neurons.

By Laura Dattaro
October 18, 2023
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For decades, researchers have debated whether brain cells called astrocytes can signal like neurons. Researchers recently published the best evidence yet that some astrocytes are part of the electrical conversation.

Quantized Columns

The Hidden Brain Connections Between Our Hands and Tongues

By R. Douglas Fields
August 28, 2023
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Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary relationships.

Illustration of a giant human head, with small openings cut into the front and back. Light shines out of these openings and tiny people on ladders peer into them.
consciousness

What a Contest of Consciousness Theories Really Proved

By Elizabeth Finkel
August 24, 2023
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A five-year “adversarial collaboration” of consciousness theorists led to a stagy showdown in front of an audience. It crowned no winners — but it can still claim progress.

Illustration of a brain surrounded by castle walls that keep out blood vessels.
explainers

How the Brain Protects Itself From Blood-Borne Threats

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
June 20, 2023
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To buffer the brain against menaces in the blood, a dynamic, multi-tiered system of protection is built into the brain’s blood vessels.

A representation of a human head examining its experiences.
The Joy of Why

What Is the Nature of Consciousness?

By Steven Strogatz
May 31, 2023
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Consciousness, our experience of being in the world, is one of the mind’s greatest mysteries, but as the neuroscientist Anil Seth explains to Steven Strogatz, research is making progress in understanding this elusive phenomenon.

machine learning

Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans

By Steve Nadis
May 22, 2023
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Researchers uncover striking parallels in the ways that humans and machine learning models acquire language skills.

Quantized Columns

Why the Brain’s Connections to the Body Are Crisscrossed

By R. Douglas Fields
April 19, 2023
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In all bilaterally symmetrical animals, from humans down to simple worms, nerves cross from one side of the body to the opposite side of the brain. Geometry may explain why.

Human figures in fetal positions float through a dim, twilit space.
neuroscience

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

By Marta Zaraska
February 28, 2023
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Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact.


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