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

    How antibodies attack the brain and muddle memory

    Human antibodies that target key brain proteins cause memory trouble when delivered into mice’s brains.

  2. Neuroscience

    Strange brains offer a glimpse into the mind

    A close look at unusual brains offers a way to understand how the human mind is constructed, two new books argue.

  3. Neuroscience

    Football and hockey players aren’t doomed to suffer brain damage

    A comprehensive look at the brains and behavior of retired professional football players and retired hockey players finds no signs of early dementia.

  4. Neuroscience

    Soccer headers may hurt women’s brains more than men’s

    Women sustain more damage from heading soccer balls than men, a brain scan study suggests.

  5. Neuroscience

    Anxiety in monkeys is linked to hereditary brain traits

    A key brain connection may be behind childhood anxiety, brain scans of monkeys suggest.

  6. Health & Medicine

    40 years after the first IVF baby, a look back at the birth of a new era

    Like many scientific breakthroughs, IVF took persistence and luck in the lab.

  7. Neuroscience

    Pregnancy depression is on the rise, a survey suggests

    Women today may be at greater risk of depression during pregnancy than previous generations.

  8. Neuroscience

    Vaginal microbes in mice transfer stress to their pups

    During birth, microbes from a stressed mouse mother can carry some aspects of stress to her offspring.

  9. Health & Medicine

    No matter their size, newborn stomachs need frequent filling

    Studies on newborn stomach size help explain why the tiny humans need to eat so frequently.

  10. Neuroscience

    Nerve cells that help control hunger have been ID’d in mice

    A mysterious bump on the human brain may be able to dial appetite up or down.

  11. Neuroscience

    Watch the brain jiggle with each heartbeat

    A new twist on MRI can reveal how the brain wiggles.

  12. Neuroscience

    Splitting families may end, but migrant kids’ trauma needs to be studied

    The long-term effects of separating children from their parents at the U.S. border need to be studied, scientists say.