Neuroscience

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.

Neuroscience

New guidance on brain death could ease debate over when life ends

Brain death can be a tricky concept. Clarity from an international group of doctors may help identify when the brain has stopped working for good.

Neuroscience

Boosting a liver protein may mimic the brain benefits of exercise

Finding that liver-made proteins influence the brain may advance the quest for an “exercise pill” that can deliver the benefits of physical activity.

Health & Medicine

Strokes and mental state changes hint at how COVID-19 harms the brain

In a group of people severely ill from the coronavirus, strokes, psychosis, depression and other brain-related changes come as complications.