neuroscience

Have a politically divided family? These tips help you talk across the dinner table

6:00am November 20, 2024

A 2022 survey found growing numbers of Republicans and Democrats think the other side is immoral and dishonest. Psychology and neuroscience research offers tools to help bridge that divide.

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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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A protein called Reelin keeps popping up in brains that resist aging and Alzheimer’s

5:00am July 29, 2024

by Jon Hamilton

Early in life, the protein Reelin helps assemble the brain. Later on, it appears to protect the organ from Alzheimer’s and other threats to memory and thinking.

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A scientist took a psychedelic drug — and watched his own brain 'fall apart'

5:00am July 18, 2024

by Jon Hamilton

Scientists scanned the brains of people who took psilocybin, including a member of the research team. The scans showed how the drug disrupts key networks, potentially enhancing brain plasticity.

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The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goes

5:00am June 26, 2024

by Jon Hamilton

The brain appears to rely on synchronized waves to wash out waste products, including toxins associated with Alzheimer's disease.

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From ‘romantasy’ to reality TV, why we love guilty pleasures so much

7:01am June 15, 2024

by Rachel Carlson

Neuroscientists say the pleasure response helps us survive as a species. So why do we feel embarrassed by some of the things we love the most?

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This new brain-mapping device could make neurosurgery safer

10:20pm June 13, 2024

by Jon Hamilton

A flexible film bristling with tiny sensors could make surgery safer for patients with a brain tumor or severe epilepsy.

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African ancestry genes may be linked to Black Americans' risk for some brain disorders

6:45am June 12, 2024

by Jon Hamilton

A new genomic analysis hints at why African Americans face a higher risk of Alzheimer’s and stroke, but a lower risk of Parkinson’s.

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Simone Elliot holds a childhood photo of she and her sister with their mother.

Sisters make peace with dark memories through art, science and each other

7:00am April 13, 2024

by Gabriel Spitzer

Two sisters found they had different recollections of a traumatic childhood experience and learned that human memory is a lot less reliable than we tend to think.

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Workers at the U.S. Embassy in Havana leave the building in September 2017. New research out of the National Institutes of Health finds no unusual pattern of damage in the brains of Havana syndrome patients.

In Havana syndrome patients, NIH scientists find no physical trace of harm

1:56pm March 18, 2024

by Jon Hamilton

The mysterious ailments that became known as Havana syndrome left no physical evidence of injury or disease, according to two government studies.