Laura Sanders
Senior Writer, Neuroscience
Laura Sanders reports on neuroscience for Science News. She wrote Growth Curve, a blog about the science of raising kids, from 2013 to 2019 and continues to write about child development and parenting from time to time. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she studied the nerve cells that compel a fruit fly to perform a dazzling mating dance. Convinced that she was missing some exciting science somewhere, Laura turned her eye toward writing about brains in all shapes and forms. She holds undergraduate degrees in creative writing and biology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where she was a National Merit Scholar. Growth Curve, her 2012 series on consciousness and her 2013 article on the dearth of psychiatric drugs have received awards recognizing editorial excellence.
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All Stories by Laura Sanders
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Neuroscience
The uterus may play a role in memory
In lab tests, rats that underwent hysterectomies had worse spatial memories.
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Neuroscience
Zaps to a certain spot in the brain may ease depression
When implanted electrodes stimulated a brain region just behind the eyes, people’s spirits were raised immediately.
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Neuroscience
Brain implants let paralyzed people use tablets to send texts and stream music
People with paralysis could control commercially available tablets with their brain activity, researchers show.
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Health & Medicine
Don’t spank your kids. Do time-outs and positive talk instead, pediatricians say
A pediatrician group recommends against spanking children — ever — and points instead to positive reinforcement and time-outs to cool off.
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Health & Medicine
Small doses of peanut protein can turn allergies around
After a year of careful peanut protein exposure, most kids in a clinical trial could tolerate the equivalent of two large peanuts.
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Neuroscience
Marijuana may change the decision-making part of teen brains
A marijuana-like drug given to male rats during adolescence changed the structure of their brains.
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Neuroscience
A lack of sleep can induce anxiety
Pulling an all-nighter induced anxiety in healthy people, a recent study finds.
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Neuroscience
Loneliness is bad for brains
Social isolation shrinks nerve cells in the brains of mice, a new study shows.
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Neuroscience
Young people’s memories improved when they stopped using marijuana
After just a week of not using pot, teens’ and young adults’ abilities to remember lists of words got better, a small study finds.
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Neuroscience
Messing with fruit flies’ gut bacteria turns them into speed walkers
Without the right gut microbes, fruit flies walk faster and take shorter rests, results that highlight a new connection between the gut and brain.
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Neuroscience
To unravel autism’s mysteries, one neuroscientist looks at the developing brain
Autism researcher Kevin Pelphrey focuses on understanding signs of the disorder in the developing brain, which could shed light on the condition.
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Neuroscience
People who have a good sense of smell are also good navigators
A sense of smell and a sense of direction are tangled in the brain, a new study finds.