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brains

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Yarn models of a deep learning network and a brain.
neuroscience

Deep Neural Networks Help to Explain Living Brains

By Anil Ananthaswamy
October 28, 2020
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Deep neural networks, often criticized as “black boxes,” are helping neuroscientists understand the organization of living brains.

Illustration of red spools with strands of DNA as the thread, with a blue brain in the background.
Quantized Columns

The Epigenetic Secrets Behind Dopamine, Drug Addiction and Depression

By R. Douglas Fields
October 27, 2020
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New research links serotonin and dopamine not just to addiction and depression, but to the ability to control genes.

Illustration of anxious woman surrounded by mitochondria.
physiology

Mitochondria May Hold Keys to Anxiety and Mental Health

By Elizabeth Landau
August 10, 2020
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Research hints that the energy-generating organelles of cells may play a surprisingly pivotal role in mediating anxiety and depression.

Illustration of a flying albatross, a swimming basking shark and the Lévy walk paths they take.
behavior

Random Search Wired Into Animals May Help Them Hunt

By Liam Drew
June 11, 2020
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The nervous systems of foraging and predatory animals may prompt them to move along a special kind of random path called a Lévy walk to find food efficiently when no clues are available.

Animated illustration of flashing, moving wavelengths and strobing lights surrounding a pair of eyes.
Quantized Columns

Spreading the Word on a Possible Alzheimer’s Treatment

By R. Douglas Fields
May 27, 2020
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Neuroscientists could use brain waves to spur immune cells into action against the disease — but the process is almost too fantastic to believe.

An artist’s conception of how sensory signals from the eye are map onto the brain in a slightly distorted way.
Quantized Columns

The Brain Reshapes Our Malleable Senses to Fit the World

By Richard Masland
March 24, 2020
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How does experience alter our perceptions? This adapted book excerpt from We Know It When We See It describes how the brain’s visual system rewires itself to make the best use of its neural resources.

Two arrows that are intertwined for most of their length but then point in different directions.
Abstractions blog

In Brain Waves, Scientists See Neurons Juggle Possible Futures

By Jordana Cepelewicz
February 24, 2020
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Faced with a decision, the brain weighs its options by bundling them into rapidly alternating cycles of brain waves.

Micrograph of a section of brain organoid tissue.
neuroscience

An Ethical Future for Brain Organoids Takes Shape

By Jordana Cepelewicz
January 23, 2020
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Collaborations in progress between ethicists and biologists seek to head off challenges raised by lab-grown “organoids” as they become increasingly similar to human brain tissue.

Micrograph of a cortical neuron, showing its many dendrites.
neuroscience

Hidden Computational Power Found in the Arms of Neurons

By Jordana Cepelewicz
January 14, 2020
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The dendritic arms of some human neurons can perform logic operations that once seemed to require whole neural networks.


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