Neuroscience

  1. Health & Medicine

    Plastic shards permeate human brains

    A study of microplastics and nanoplastics in brains shows an astonishing increase over time.

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  2. Health & Medicine

    Welcome to The Deep End, a new podcast about brain implants and depression

    This new six-part podcast follows the lives of people with severe depression who volunteered for deep brain stimulation.

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  3. Neuroscience

    Scratching an itch is so good, and so bad

    The motion kicks off inflammation but may also combat harmful bacteria 

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  4. Neuroscience

    How people suppress memories may be key to PTSD recovery

    People who recovered from PTSD changed the way their brains handle intrusive thoughts, a study of survivors of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks shows.

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  5. Neuroscience

    The unique neural wiring of the human hippocampus may maximize memory

    Living tissue from the memory centers of people’s brains reveals sparse nerve cell connections that provide strong, reliable signaling between cells.

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  6. Neuroscience

    The message-sending part of neurons may be blobby, not smooth

    Axons can be shaped like strings of pearls, research in mice and people show. How that shape may influence brain signaling is not yet clear.

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  7. Anthropology

    Humans have linked emotions to the same body parts for 3,000 years

    3,000-year-old clay tablets show that some associations between emotion and parts of the body have remained the same for millennia.

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  8. Neuroscience

    Electronic ‘tattoos’ offer an alternative to electrodes for brain monitoring

    A standard EEG test requires electrodes that come with pitfalls. A spray-on ink, capable of carrying electrical signals, avoids some of those.

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  9. Neuroscience

    Like brain cells, kidney cells can form memories

    Scientists found memory’s molecular machinery at work in cells outside the nervous system.

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  10. Neuroscience

    Some people don’t have a mind’s eye. Scientists want to know why

    The senses of sight and sound are usually mingled in the brain, but not for people with aphantasia.

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  11. Neuroscience

    Your brain can perceive subtle odor changes in a single sniff

    The speed at which our brain can tell smells apart is on par with color perception, a new sniff device shows.

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  12. Neuroscience

    Hair pulling prompts one of the fastest known pain signals

    The ouch of hair pulling is transmitted with the help of a protein used to sense light touches. These details could lead to new treatments.

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