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

    Giving kids a spoonful of medicine: not what the doctor ordered

    It’s frustratingly easy to give your kid the wrong dose of medicine.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Babies are kinder after you dance with them

    Babies who grooved in sync with an adult were more likely to be little helpers later.

  3. Neuroscience

    Autism may carry a benefit: a buffer against Alzheimer’s

    Brain plasticity of people with autism may protect them from Alzheimer’s disease, scientists propose.

  4. Health & Medicine

    Kids’ me time may boost brainpower

    Unstructured play may give kids more opportunity to exercise their executive function, complex cognitive function that includes resisting impulses and paying attention.

  5. Neuroscience

    Alzheimer’s disease may come in distinct forms

    Mouse experiments, if confirmed in people, imply that Alzheimer’s disease treatment should be personalized.

  6. Neuroscience

    Busy brain hubs go awry in disorders, study suggests

    Schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders may occur when the brain’s most active hubs are damaged.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Your baby can watch movies for science

    Any parent with a computer can let their kid participate in child development studies through a new website called Lookit.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Pregnant women on the hook for calculating risks, benefits of fish

    New draft FDA guidelines on fish for pregnant or nursing women make women do the math for how to maximize omega-3 fatty acids and minimize mercury exposure.

  9. Neuroscience

    Sunbathing may boost endorphins in the body and brain

    UV light makes mice churn out a molecule that is a cousin of morphine and heroin, a finding that may explain why some people seek out sunshine.

  10. Neuroscience

    Stress hormone kicks brain cells into gear

    Norepinephrine, a stress hormone, wakes up cells called astroglia, possibly shifting brain into vigilant state.

  11. Neuroscience

    Visualization offers view of a nerve cell’s dispatch center

    To get a closer look at how messages move in the brain, researchers created a 3-D visualization that provides a clearer view of how nerve cells communicate.

  12. Neuroscience

    Brain signal reappears after ADHD symptoms fade

    In adults who no longer have ADHD, brain synchrony appears.