Laura Sanders

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.

All Stories by Laura Sanders

  1. Neuroscience

    Loneliness is bad for brains

    Social isolation shrinks nerve cells in the brains of mice, a new study shows.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Neuroscience

    How your brain is like a film editor

    A brain structure called the hippocampus may slice our continuous existence into discrete chunks that can be stored as memories.

  7. Neuroscience

    Survey raises worries about how screen time affects kids’ brains

    A large study of U.S. children ties lots of screen time to lower thinking skills, but the relationship between the two is still unclear.

  8. Neuroscience

    A paralyzed man makes great strides with spinal stimulation and rehab

    Researchers find success at restoring movement to paralyzed legs, giving hope to people with paraplegia.

  9. Neuroscience

    Over-the-hill cells may cause trouble in the aging brain

    Killing dormant cells in the brains of mice staved off memory trouble.

  10. Health & Medicine

    Marijuana use among pregnant women is rising, and so are concerns

    Pediatricians are urging caution as data show more pregnant women are using marijuana. More research is urgently needed on the drug’s effects during pregnancy.

  11. Neuroscience

    How obesity may harm memory and learning

    In obese mice, immune cells chomp nerve cell connections and harm brainpower.

  12. Neuroscience

    Newfound skull tunnels may speed immune cells’ trek to brain injuries

    Minuscule channels connect the skull to the brain’s outer membrane, studies in mice and people show.