brain

Why don't we remember being babies? Brain scans reveal new clues

4:06pm March 20, 2025

Why can't we remember when we were babies? Scientists who scanned infants' brains found that they do make memories. The findings suggest these memories may still exist, but are inaccessible to us.

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Scientists are engineering a sense of touch for people who are paralyzed

5:37pm March 10, 2025

by Jon Hamilton

A man living with paralysis felt his index finger for the first time in three years, thanks to technology that reconnected his brain and body.

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From fruit fly to this guy: a map of one tiny brain may show how larger ones work

5:23pm October 02, 2024

by Jon Hamilton

The first full map of an adult fruit fly’s brain shows 50 million connections between neurons. Researchers are using the map to learn how all brains work.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. , who is running as a third party candidate for president, made news this week for his deposition from 2012 that "a worm ... got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died."

RFK Jr. is not alone. More than a billion people have parasitic worms

3:35pm May 09, 2024

by Gabrielle Emanuel

Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke about a time when, as he put it, "A worm ... got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died." Here's a global perspective on these worms.

An Alzheimer's patient receives a lecanemab infusion treatment.

Health & Safety

'The beginning of better ways to treat Alzheimer’s disease' comes to the Triad

3:34pm March 15, 2024

by David Ford

On Thursday, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist became the first health system in the region to treat an Alzheimer's disease patient with the new medication lecanemab, according to the Winston-Salem-based health system.

Science

Hidden Brain host Shankar Vedantam previews 'Healing 2.0' and shares what's on his mind

7:00am November 03, 2023

by David Ford

This weekend begins a new five-part series on NPR’s Hidden Brain. The weekly podcast and radio program explores many of the unconscious patterns that drive our behavior.

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Scientists have engineered an albino squid that provides a window into the inner workings of the brain.

Health & Safety

How scientists engineered a see-through squid with its brain in plain view

12:13pm August 28, 2023

by Jon Hamilton

A see-through squid is giving scientists an unprecedented view of the brain and other organs in a living animal.

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To study emotions in animals, scientists need to look beneath feelings to the brain states that produce certain behaviors.

In jumpy flies and fiery mice, scientists see the roots of human emotions

5:11am April 06, 2022

by Jon Hamilton

Scientists are trying to understand PTSD and other human disorders by studying emotion-related brain circuits in animals, which research suggests may have a lot in common with the human brain.

Grief is tied to all sorts of different brain functions, says researcher and author Mary-Frances O'Connor. That can range from being able to recall memories to taking the perspective of another person, to even things like regulating our heart rate and the

How your brain copes with grief, and why it takes time to heal

2:55pm December 20, 2021

by Berly McCoy

Grieving is a form of learning, says a scientist who studies the brain's response to loss. When someone you love dies, you have to learn new rules for navigating the world and your brain has to adapt.

Researchers are studying athletes and military personnel to learn more about how a concussion can affect the brain's ability to understand sound.

After a concussion, the brain may no longer make sense of sounds

12:33pm November 05, 2021

by Jon Hamilton

A concussion can make it difficult to converse in a noisy room. Scientists say that's because the injury has impaired the brain's ability to process sounds.