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. Health & Medicine

    The debate over spanking is short on science, high on emotion

    Spanking to discipline a child sparks heated debate that reflects deep divides in our society. Studies generally show negative effects of spanking, but there are many caveats.

  2. Neuroscience

    Dyslexic brain may solve some math problems in a roundabout way

    Children with dyslexia rely heavily on right brain to do addition problems.

  3. Health & Medicine

    Not all the ‘baby friendly’ rules are rooted in science

    The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative has a noble goal of encouraging breastfeeding, but some of its recommendations may be based on shaky science.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Sleep drunkenness might be common

    A new survey shows that about 15 percent of people sometimes wake up disoriented and confused, a condition called sleep drunkenness.

  5. Neuroscience

    Our brains sort words as we sleep

    Even after nodding off, a person’s brain correctly sorts words into categories, adding to the achievements of the sleeping brain.

  6. Health & Medicine

    The (almost non-existent) science of potty training

    When it comes to toilet training your child, science will offer you almost no help whatsoever.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Autism treatment for babies shows promise in small study

    A small study finds that changing how parents interact with infants may reduce autism symptoms.

  8. Neuroscience

    Children’s brains shaped by music training

    After two years of an enrichment program, children’s brains showed more sophisticated response to spoken syllables.

  9. Health & Medicine

    A hungry brain slurps up a kid’s energy

    Compared with other animals, human children take their time growing up. A new study suggests that’s because kids’ brains burn a lot of energy, perhaps diverting resources from their growing bodies.

  10. Neuroscience

    Pulses to the brain bring memory gains

    The ability to associate faces with words is boosted when an outer part of the brain is stimulated, a study shows.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Babies may be good at remembering, and forgetting

    Studies in kids suggest that young children can form memories but can’t recall them later, offering new clues to how memory-storing systems form in young brains.

  12. Neuroscience

    Laser light rewrites memories in mice

    Mouse experiment demonstrates that good memories can be transformed into bad ones, and vice versa.