Laura Sanders

Laura Sanders

Senior Writer, Neuroscience

Laura Sanders reports on neuroscience for Science News. She wrote Growth Curve, a blog about the science of raising kids, from 2013 to 2019 and continues to write about child development and parenting from time to time. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she studied the nerve cells that compel a fruit fly to perform a dazzling mating dance. Convinced that she was missing some exciting science somewhere, Laura turned her eye toward writing about brains in all shapes and forms. She holds undergraduate degrees in creative writing and biology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where she was a National Merit Scholar. Growth Curve, her 2012 series on consciousness and her 2013 article on the dearth of psychiatric drugs have received awards recognizing editorial excellence.

All Stories by Laura Sanders

  1. Neuroscience

    A study in mice hints at a new way to treat spinal cord injuries

    The finding suggests that a drug to ease swelling can speed recovery and stop cell death.

  2. Neuroscience

    A cell biologist is investigating the balance of brain flexibility, stability

    Andrea Gomez, a Berkeley molecular and cell biologist, applies her wide-ranging curiosity to brains’ mysteries ranging from synapses to psychedelics.

  3. Neuroscience

    Pregnancy overhauls the brain. Here’s what that looks like

    Neuroscientist Liz Chrastil’s brain scans before, during and after pregnancy are providing the first view of a mom-to-be’s structural brain changes.

  4. Neuroscience

    Alzheimer’s blood tests are getting better, but still have a ways to go

    Blood biomarker tests could help doctors know if a person's cognitive symptoms are due to Alzheimer's or something else.

  5. Neuroscience

    Psilocybin temporarily dissolves brain networks

    A high dose of the psychedelic drug briefly throws the brain off kilter. Other, longer-lasting changes could hint at psilocybin's therapeutic effects.

  6. Neuroscience

    ‘Do I Know You?’ explores face blindness and the science of the mind

    In her memoir, journalist Sadie Dingfelder draws on her own experiences to highlight the astonishing diversity of people’s inner lives.

  7. Neuroscience

    Biological puzzles abound in an up-close look at a human brain

    Mirror-image nerve cells, tight bonds between neuron pairs and surprising axon swirls abound in a bit of gray matter smaller than a grain of rice.

  8. Neuroscience

    The heart plays a hidden role in our mental health

    Deciphering the messages that the heart sends to the brain could lead to new anxiety treatments and even unlock the secrets of consciousness.

  9. Neuroscience

    Rat cells grew in mice brains, and helped sniff out cookies

    When implanted into mouse embryos, stem cells from rats grew into forebrains and structures that handle smells.

  10. Neuroscience

    Tiny treadmills show how fruit flies walk

    A method to force fruit flies to move shows the insects’ stepping behavior and holds clues to other animals’ brains and movement.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.