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

    Study tracks booze’s buzz in the brain

    In both heavy and light drinkers, alcohol causes the release of morphinelike chemicals.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Drug gives rats booze-guzzling superpowers

    Rodents that consume alcohol along with a compound derived from an ancient herbal remedy get less drunk, recover faster and appear less prone to addiction.

  3. Life

    Staggered lessons may work better

    Training at irregular intervals improves learning in sea snails.

  4. Life

    He’s no rat, he’s my brother

    Rodents exhibit empathy by setting trapped friends free.

  5. Health & Medicine

    Weaker brain links found in psychopaths

    Decreased communication between emotional and executive centers may contribute to the mental disorder.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Coffee delivers jolt deep in the brain

    Caffeine strengthens electrical signals in a portion of the hippocampus, a study in rats finds.

  7. Health & Medicine

    Magic trick reveals unconscious knowledge

    People know more than they think when it comes to visual information, study shows.

  8. Health & Medicine

    Exceptional memory linked to bulked-up parts of brain

    People with total recall of their life’s events have enlargement in a region also associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Mirrors can alleviate arthritis

    Swapped-hand illusion produces drop in pain ratings, preliminary study shows.

  10. Humans

    Future wars may be fought by synapses

    Neuroscientists consider defense applications of recent insights into how the brain works.

  11. Health & Medicine

    First brain image of a dream created

    Feat opens the door to probing the stuff of nocturnal dramas.

  12. Health & Medicine

    Eye movements confirm hypnosis

    A true trance can't be faked, research suggests.