Brains

The learning algorithm that enables the runaway success of deep neural networks doesn’t work in biological brains, but researchers are finding alternatives that could.

By digging out signals hidden within the brain’s electrical chatter, scientists are getting new insights into sleep, aging and more.

While the study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was the most urgent priority, biologists also learned more about how brains process information, how to define individuality and why sleep deprivation kills.

Deep neural networks, often criticized as “black boxes,” are helping neuroscientists understand the organization of living brains.

New research links serotonin and dopamine not just to addiction and depression, but to the ability to control genes.

Research hints that the energy-generating organelles of cells may play a surprisingly pivotal role in mediating anxiety and depression.

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.

Neuroscientists could use brain waves to spur immune cells into action against the disease — but the process is almost too fantastic to believe.

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.