Neuroscience
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
