Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Mice may ‘catch’ each other’s pain — and pain relief

Healthy mice mirror a companion’s pain or morphine-induced relief. Disrupting certain connections in the brain turns off such empathetic behaviors.

Neuroscience

Lonely brains crave people like hungry brains crave food

After hours of isolation, dopamine-producing cells in the brain fire up in response to pictures of humans, showing our social side runs deep.

Neuroscience

Psilocybin may help treat depression, a small study finds

Researchers found that a compound in psychedelic mushrooms eased depression symptoms, but larger studies are needed.

Health & Medicine

Protecting the brain from infection may start with a gut reaction

In mice, immune cells in the meninges are trained to battle infections in the gut before migrating to the brain.

Neuroscience

FDA advisory panel declines to support a controversial Alzheimer’s treatment

The fate of an Alzheimer’s drug, developed by pharmaceutical company Biogen, remains up in the air.

Animals

A fish’s fins may be as sensitive to touch as fingertips

Newfound parallels between fins and fingers suggest that touch-sensing limbs evolved early, setting the stage for a shared way to sense surroundings.

Anthropology

These human nerve cell tendrils turned to glass nearly 2,000 years ago

Part of a young man’s brain was preserved in A.D. 79 by hot ash from Mount Vesuvius’ eruption.

Life

Ogre-faced spiders catch insects out of the air using sound instead of sight

A new study finds that ogre-faced spiders can hear a surprisingly wide range of sounds.

Neuroscience

Your dog’s brain doesn’t care about your face

Comparing brain scans of people and pups shows that faces hold no special meaning to the brains of dogs, a new study suggests.

Neuroscience

Tiny, magnetically controlled robots coax nerve cells to grow connections

Research using microrobots and nerve cells from rats could point to new treatments for people with nerve injuries.

Neuroscience

A mother mouse’s gut microbes help wire her pup’s brain

The pups of mice lacking gut microbes, and the compounds they make, have altered nerve cells in part of the brain and a lowered sensitivity to touch.

Neuroscience

Newly discovered cells in mice can sense four of the five tastes

Some cells in mice can sense bitter, sweet, sour and umami. Without the cells, some flavor signals don’t get to the ultimate tastemaker — the brain.