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

    Whistled language uses both sides of the brain

    Unlike spoken words, language made of whistles processed by both sides of the brain.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Study finds early signs of bookishness in a child’s brain

    Children from book-friendly homes show higher brain activity when they hear a story, but there’s more to learn about how reading affects growing brains.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Football games come with more head hits than practices do

    As football intensifies from practice to games, the number of impacts increases, a new study finds.

  4. Neuroscience

    Hints of how the brain “sees” dreams emerge

    Nerve cells that make sense of visual input keep chugging away during REM sleep, suggesting that these cells may help a sleeper “see” dreams.

  5. Neuroscience

    Hints of how the brain “sees” dreams emerge

    Nerve cells that make sense of visual input keep chugging away during REM sleep, suggesting that these cells may help a sleeper “see” dreams.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Fish oil may counter schizophrenia

    Three months of omega-3 fatty acids protects against psychosis for years, a small study suggests.

  7. Neuroscience

    Brain scans hint at reasons for stress-eating

    Moderate stress changes brain behavior in ways that may lead to poor food choices.

  8. Neuroscience

    Astrocytes help speed up brain’s messages

    Astrocytes may help speed nerve cells’ electrical messages.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Antibiotics early in life may have lingering effects

    A study in mice show long-lasting effects from courses of antibiotics early in life.

  10. Neuroscience

    New view of mouse brain provides up-close look at nerve cells’ habitat

    Detailed reconstruction of a tiny fleck of mouse brain reveals neural complexity.

  11. Neuroscience

    Age affects brain’s response to anesthesia

    Anesthesia has different effects on young and old brains.

  12. Science & Society

    Autism’s journey from shadows to light

    Science writer Steve Silberman considers autism in the modern era of neurodiversity - a movement to respect neurological differences as natural human variation - framing the relatively progressive autistic experience of today against the the conditions oppressed past.