Brain/Neuroscience
Hair loss? Stem cells offer promising cure
It's been theorised for years, but now human stem cells have resulted in hair growth for the very first time ...
Can actual ‘young blood’ rejuvenate tissue and reverse aging?
Two mice perch side by side, nibbling a food pellet. As one turns to the left, it becomes clear that ...
New findings on fragile X syndrome may explain why some drugs prove ineffectual
Scientists have gained new insight into fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability, by studying the ...
Genetic variants altering key brain structures identified
In the animal kingdom, humans are known for our big brains. But not all brains are created equal, and now ...
Do fatty and sugary foods affect the brain and make you want to eat more?
Obviously, overeating unhealthy foods can lead to overweight. But looking beyond direct effects on expanding waistlines, our lab studies how ...
Recalling old and new fear memories use different brain pathways
People with anxiety disorders, such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), often experience prolonged and exaggerated fearfulness. Now, an animal ...
Are we locked into our biological clocks? Night shift workers want to know
What are the risks of altering our biological clocks with long term rotating shift work? Can the biolgical clock be ...
Aging dogs can help us understand Alzheimer’s disease
Every 67 seconds someone in the United States is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and new estimates suggest that it may be ...
Mapping out the human brain with crowdsourced intelligence and online gaming
In 2005, Sebastian Seung suffered the academic equivalent of an existential crisis. More than a decade earlier, with a Ph.D ...
Are monkeys intelligent enough to exhibit human-like self recognition?
The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror has been touted as a hallmark of higher cognition — present in ...
Conflicting views on GMOs: How do we know what to believe?
How do we know who or what to believe, seeing that GMO advocates and opponents make very contrasting claims and ...
The myth of three and other common neuromyths debunked
When the movie Lucy was released in the summer of 2014, it was quickly followed by a flurry of attention ...
Viruses that make us smarter? Not really
News reports about viral gene fragments in the human genome making us smarter exagerate claims made by the research study ...
Apple juice may help ward off Alzheimer’s disease
Emerging evidence suggests nutrition plays a more critical role in neurodegeneration than originally thought. As little as two glasses of ...
“Green” neuroscience scientists say time to revise research protocols
Ann Lam delicately places a laboratory slide holding a slice of brain from a living human onto a small platform ...
Anti-corporatism envelops local food movement
If your idea of a locavore is a slow-foodie-body-inscribed-lefty type who’s disdainful of big corporations and ready to Occupy, you ...
Does neuroscience need to revise how it looks at the brain?
How much of our brain do we actually need? A number of stories have appeared in the news in recent ...
Why we see faces in inanimate objects
Most people are obsessed with faces. We see faces everywhere, even in things that are most definitely not faces. The most ...
Can your dog really understand what you’re saying?
Sometimes it may seem like your dog doesn’t want to listen. But in our study, however, we’ve found that he ...
How did humans learn to speak? Ask the birds
Songbirds stutter, babble when young, become mute if parts of their brains are damaged, learn how to sing from their ...
What will the future of brain science bring?
The more scientists learn about the brain, the more questions arise and the more challenging the quest to understand human ...
Who controls your actions: you or your brain?
Imagine that Brian promises to drive you to the airport but never shows up, and you miss your flight. When ...
Alcohol in moderation good for you? Accepted wisdom may not be wise and other myth-busting alcohol truisms
A few simple mutations seem to protect some people against alcohol abuse. But mostly the relationship between genes and alcohol's ...
Bee-gate: European IUCN task force mired in corruption scandal over neonics ban plot
The European-based IUCN Taskforce on Systemic Pesticides consists of activist scientists that exploit the weaknesses in the peer review process, ...
Genetic information: How much to share, how much to keep private in age of Big Data
Genetics and computational biology are evolving so quickly that it’s impossible to predict the medical answers that they’ll reveal in ...
Tired? Biological clock out of whack? Blame genes and epigenetics
We spend a third of our life asleep, so getting it right is important. Researchers probing our daily biological clock—our ...
Dangers of exaggerating premature scientific findings
In 2011, Petroc Sumner of Cardiff University and his colleagues published a brain imaging study with a provocative result: Healthy men ...
