Neuroscience

  1. Science & Society

    In ‘Get the Picture,’ science helps explore the meaning of art

    Journalist Bianca Bosker infiltrates the secretive art world to understand the science and psychology of why art matters to the human experience.

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  2. Neuroscience

    Chickadees use memory ‘bar codes’ to find their hidden food stashes

    Unique subsets of neurons in a chickadee’s memory center light up for each distinct cache, hinting at how episodic memories are encoded in the brain.

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  3. Neuroscience

    Here’s how magnetic fields shape desert ants’ brains

    Exposure to a tweaked magnetic field scrambled desert ants’ efforts to learn where home is — and affected neuron connections in a key part of the brain.

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  4. Neuroscience

    Dogs know words for their favorite toys

    The brain activity of dogs that were expecting one toy but were shown another suggests canines create mental concepts of everyday objects.

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  5. Neuroscience

    Ancient viruses helped speedy nerves evolve

    A retrovirus embedded in the DNA of some vertebrates helps turn on production of a protein needed to insulate nerve cells, aiding speedy thoughts.

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  6. Artificial Intelligence

    How do babies learn words? An AI experiment may hold clues

    Using relatively little data, audio and video taken from a baby’s perspective, an AI program learned the names of objects the baby encountered.

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  7. Neuroscience

    A new device let a man sense temperature with his prosthetic hand

    A device that can be integrated into prosthetic hands capitalizes on phantom sensations to enable users to sense hot and cold.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Under very rare conditions, Alzheimer’s disease may be transmitted

    Alzheimer’s isn’t contagious. But contaminated growth hormone injections caused early-onset Alzheimer’s in some recipients, a new study suggests.

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  9. Neuroscience

    Handwriting may boost brain connections more than typing does

    Students asked to write words showed greater connectivity across the brain than when they typed them, suggesting writing may be a better boost for memory.

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  10. Neuroscience

    Electrical brain implants may help patients with severe brain injuries

    After deep brain stimulation, five patients with severe brain injuries improved their scores on a test of cognitive function.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    A brain-monitoring device may one day take the guesswork out of anesthesia

    The automated device pairing brain activity and dosing kept two macaques sedated for 125 minutes, raising hopes of precision anesthesia for people.

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  12. Neuroscience

    Brain scans give clues to how teens handle pandemic stress

    A study that followed hundreds of teenagers during the COVID-19 pandemic may explain why some people succumb to stress while others are more resilient.

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