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brains

Latest Articles

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.

Illustration of brain formed by bubbles.
Abstractions blog

Sleeping Brain Waves Draw a Healthy Bath for Neurons

By Elena Renken
December 16, 2019
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An organized tide of brain waves, blood and spinal fluid pulsing through a sleeping brain may flush away neural toxins that cause Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

Illustration
neuroscience

How Microbiomes Affect Fear

By Elena Renken
December 4, 2019
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New studies help to explain how microbes in the gut can shape a host’s fear responses.

Animation of one icon tracing a wave pattern over a brain, followed by another icon that erases the pattern.
neuroscience

Dueling Brain Waves Anchor or Erase Learning During Sleep

By Elena Renken
October 24, 2019
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While we sleep, one kind of slow brain wave helps to reinforce memories, but a competing wave weakens them.

An illustration of eyeballs connected to many hands painting the Mona Lisa.
mathematical biology

A Mathematical Model Unlocks the Secrets of Vision

By Kevin Hartnett
August 21, 2019
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Mathematicians and neuroscientists have created the first anatomically accurate model that explains how vision is possible.

Abstractions blog

Do Brains Operate at a Tipping Point? New Clues and Complications

By Charlie Wood
June 10, 2019
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New experimental results simultaneously advance and challenge the theory that the brain’s network of neurons balances on the knife-edge between two phases.

Art for "Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next"
neuroscience

Brains Speed Up Perception by Guessing What’s Next

By Jordana Cepelewicz
May 2, 2019
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Your expectations shape and quicken your perceptions. A new model that explains how that happens also suggests it’s time to update theories about sensory perception and decision making.

Art for "How the Brain Links Gestures, Perception and Meaning"
cognitive science

How the Brain Links Gestures, Perception and Meaning

By Raleigh McElvery
March 25, 2019
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Neuroscience has found that gestures are not merely important as tools of expression but as guides of cognition and perception.


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