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neurons

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Photo of the freshwater sponge Spongilla.
evolution

Sponge Genes Hint at the Origins of Neurons and Other Cells

By Viviane Callier
November 4, 2021
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A new study of gene expression in sponges reveals the complex diversity of their cells as well as some possibly ancient connections between the nervous, immune and digestive systems.

An illustration that shows words and music from an opera singer going into a listener’s brain.
neuroscience

The Brain Processes Speech in Parallel With Other Sounds

By Jordana Cepelewicz
October 21, 2021
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Scientists thought that the brain’s hearing centers might just process speech along with other sounds. But new work suggests that speech gets some special treatment very early on.

an artistic representation of a brain in a dish on a blue table with enlarged neurons and a neural network, against a red background with a signal of neural bursts
neural networks

Neuron Bursts Can Mimic Famous AI Learning Strategy

By Allison Whitten
October 18, 2021
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A new model of learning centers on bursts of neural activity that act as teaching signals — approximating backpropagation, the algorithm behind learning in AI.

Photo of rat climbing through a lattice of thin rods.
neuroscience

How Animals Map 3D Spaces Surprises Brain Researchers

By Jordana Cepelewicz
October 14, 2021
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When animals move through 3D spaces, the neat system of grid cell activity they use for navigating on flat surfaces gets more disorderly. That has implications for some ideas about memory and other processes.

Illustration of a neuron lit up with electrical signals.
neurons

How Computationally Complex Is a Single Neuron?

By Allison Whitten
September 2, 2021
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Computational neuroscientists taught an artificial neural network to imitate a biological neuron. The result offers a new way to think about the complexity of single brain cells.

An illustration of a network of neurons, each one equipped with its own stopwatch.
neuroscience

Neurons Unexpectedly Encode Information in the Timing of Their Firing

By Elena Renken
July 7, 2021
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A temporal pattern of activity observed in human brains may explain how we can learn so quickly.

False-colored electron micrograph of an ovarian cell, showing cross-sections of mitochondria.
cell biology

‘Social’ Mitochondria, Whispering Between Cells, Influence Health

By Katarina Zimmer
July 6, 2021
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Mitochondria appear to communicate and cooperate with one another, both within and between cells. Biologists are only just beginning to understand how and why.

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

Can Machines Control Our Brains?

By R. Douglas Fields
May 17, 2021
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Advances in brain-computer interface technology are impressive, but we’re not close to anything resembling mind control.

Animation of a neuron that periodically alters its responses to stimuli when it is reset into a new state by another input.
neural networks

Artificial Neural Nets Finally Yield Clues to How Brains Learn

By Anil Ananthaswamy
February 18, 2021
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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.


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