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neuroscience

Photo of crows.
cognitive science

Animals Count and Use Zero. How Far Does Their Number Sense Go?

By Jordana Cepelewicz
August 9, 2021
Read Later

Crows recently demonstrated an understanding of the concept of zero. It’s only the latest evidence of animals’ talents for numerical abstraction — which may still differ from our own grasp of numbers.

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
Read Later

A temporal pattern of activity observed in human brains may explain how we can learn so quickly.

An array of blocky orange objects of all different shapes, with a single blue blob in one of the rows and columns.
artificial intelligence

Same or Different? The Question Flummoxes Neural Networks.

By John Pavlus
June 23, 2021
Read Later

For all their triumphs, AI systems can’t seem to generalize the concepts of “same” and “different.” Without that, researchers worry, the quest to create truly intelligent machines may be hopeless.

neuroscience

Secret Workings of Smell Receptors Revealed for First Time

By Jordana Cepelewicz
June 21, 2021
Read Later

Researchers have finally seen how some smell receptors bind to odor molecules. The work yields new insights into one of the most mysterious and versatile senses.

Video of a hydra moving against a dark background.
sleep

Sleep Evolved Before Brains. Hydras Are Living Proof.

By Veronique Greenwood
May 18, 2021
Read Later

Studies of sleep are usually neurological. But some of nature’s simplest animals suggest that sleep evolved for metabolic reasons, long before brains even existed.

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
Read Later

Advances in brain-computer interface technology are impressive, but we’re not close to anything resembling mind control.

An illustration of a brain bordered by a network of lymphatic vessels. A door at the back of the brain lets light in.
immunology

A Backdoor Lets the Immune System Monitor the Brain

By Elena Renken
April 28, 2021
Read Later

A newfound hub of immune system activity at the back of the brain solves a century-old puzzle.

A drawing of a mouse, with lines representing sensory data rotating 90 degrees to become lines of memory data.
neuroscience

The Brain ‘Rotates’ Memories to Save Them From New Sensations

By Jordana Cepelewicz
April 15, 2021
Read Later

Some populations of neurons simultaneously process sensations and memories. New work shows how the brain rotates those representations to prevent interference.

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
Read Later

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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