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

    A schizophrenia drug turns on protein factories in cells

    Haloperidol reshapes neurons, which might explain how the medicine works.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Babies tune in to happy sounds

    High pitched, cutesy voices prove irresistible to infants.

  3. Neuroscience

    Hormone hampers effects of marijuana

    Study of pot-blocking brain chemical in rodents could lead to new treatments for cannabis addiction.

  4. Neuroscience

    Year in Review: Obama unveils brain initiative

    In April, the president announced an ambitious plan to reveal the human brain’s secrets.

  5. Neuroscience

    Bad memories fade with a short jolt

    Research illustrates the vulnerability of the brain’s information storage.

  6. Humans

    Year in Review: Language learning starts before birth

    Babies seem familiar with vowels and words heard while in the womb.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Your youngest kid is three inches taller than you think

    Mothers fall prey to the “baby illusion” and consistently underestimate the height of their youngest kid.

  8. Health & Medicine

    For babies, walking opens a whole new world

    Walking and talking are linked as babies develop, anecdote and data show.

  9. Neuroscience

    Brain chip enables injured rats to control movements

    Prosthesis bypasses damaged area to connect distant neurons.

  10. Health & Medicine

    TV linked with brain changes in kids

    A new study of Japanese children gives more reasons not to park kids in front of the tube.

  11. Neuroscience

    Fear can be inherited

    Parents’ and even grandparents’ experiences echo in offspring, a study of mice finds.

  12. Neuroscience

    Global neuro lab

    With more than 50 million users, the brain-training website Lumosity is giving scientists access to an enormous collection of cognitive performance data. Mining the dataset could be the first step toward a new kind of neuroscience.