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neuroscience

An illustration of a human brain against “pink noise” static.
neuroscience

Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Hold Clues to Persistent Mysteries

By Elizabeth Landau
February 8, 2021
Read Later

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

Portrait photo of Catherine Dulac of Harvard University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Q&A

Catherine Dulac Finds Brain Circuitry Behind Sex-Specific Behaviors

By Claudia Dreifus
December 14, 2020
Read Later

Catherine Dulac is overturning preconceptions about “male” and “female” instincts and opening new avenues to treating postpartum depression.

Fluorescent cross-section of a mouse’s brain.
Abstractions blog

Brain Cell DNA Refolds Itself to Aid Memory Recall

By Elena Renken
November 2, 2020
Read Later

Researchers see structural changes in genetic material that allow memories to strengthen when remembered.

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
Read Later

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
Read Later

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

Looping video of illustrated clocks stretching in different directions.
Abstractions blog

Reasons Revealed for the Brain’s Elastic Sense of Time

By Jordana Cepelewicz
September 24, 2020
Read Later

New research finds that the subjective experience of time is linked to learning, thwarted expectations and neural fatigue.

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
Read Later

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.

Illustration of an extremely tired person, surrounded by empty coffee cups.
sleep

Why Sleep Deprivation Kills

By Veronique Greenwood
June 4, 2020
Read Later

Going without sleep for too long kills animals but scientists haven’t known why. Newly published work suggests that the answer lies in an unexpected part of the body.

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
Read Later

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


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