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perception

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A representation of a human head examining its experiences.
The Joy of Why

What Is the Nature of Consciousness?

By Steven Strogatz
May 31, 2023
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Consciousness, our experience of being in the world, is one of the mind’s greatest mysteries, but as the neuroscientist Anil Seth explains to Steven Strogatz, research is making progress in understanding this elusive phenomenon.

A person stares at a thought bubble.
cognition

Is It Real or Imagined? How Your Brain Tells the Difference.

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
May 24, 2023
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New experiments show that the brain distinguishes between perceived and imagined mental images by checking whether they cross a “reality threshold.”

An illustrated human figure with memories of a blue flower looks out at the world and is more attuned to seeing other blue flowers.
memory

Memories Help Brains Recognize New Events Worth Remembering

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
May 17, 2023
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Memories may affect how well the brain will learn about future events by shifting our perceptions of the world.

smell

How a Human Smell Receptor Works Is Finally Revealed

By Wynne Parry
May 1, 2023
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After decades of frustration, researchers have determined how an airborne scent molecule links to a human smell receptor.

Human figures in fetal positions float through a dim, twilit space.
neuroscience

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

By Marta Zaraska
February 28, 2023
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Feelings of loneliness prompt changes in the brain that further isolate people from social contact.

2022 in Review

The Year in Biology

By John Rennie
December 21, 2022
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Momentum for new ideas in Alzheimer’s research joined advances in neuroscience, developmental biology and origin-of-life studies to make 2022 a memorable year of biological insights.

Illustration in which a forest scene is mirrored in a person’s right eye while the left eye shows a clock.
neuroscience

How the Brain Distinguishes Memories From Perceptions

By Yasemin Saplakoglu
December 14, 2022
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The neural representations of a perceived image and the memory of it are almost the same. New work shows how and why they are different.

Artwork of human figure smelling a flower and the smell being categorized as a type of flower.
smell

Machine Learning Highlights a Hidden Order in Scents

By Allison Parshall
October 10, 2022
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Efforts to build a better digital “nose” suggest that our perception of scents reflects both the structure of aromatic molecules and the metabolic processes that make them.

a metallic face processes a butterfly on a robotic hand
artificial intelligence

Self-Taught AI Shows Similarities to How the Brain Works

By Anil Ananthaswamy
August 11, 2022
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Self-supervised learning allows a neural network to figure out for itself what matters. The process might be what makes our own brains so successful.


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