Why Binge Drinking May Wire the Brain for Alcohol Dependence
After surviving a series of benders, neural circuits get locked into a firing pattern that compels alcohol seeking
Stories by R. Douglas Fields
Burying Political Hatchets to Fight Alzheimer's Disease
Congress members from both sides of the aisle are calling for a national strategy to confront the dementia “tsunami” but let’s be real about what to expect
Why Nobody Intervened in the July 4 Metro Murder
Criticism of witnesses’ inaction reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the neuroscience of how the brain responds to sudden threats
Testing Males and Females in Every Medical Experiment Is a Bad Idea
Requiring medical researchers to test males and females in every experiment sounds reasonable, but it is a bad idea
How to Erase Bad Memories
I’ll never forget it. They strapped electrodes to my wrist, cranked up a black dial on a frightening electronic device encrusted with switches and knobs, and shocked me repeatedly with jolts of electricity...
Creativity, Madness and Drugs
San Diego—Would we have Poe’s Raven today if the tormented author had taken lithium to suppress his bipolar illness? Not likely, considering the high frequency of psychiatric illnesses among writers and artists, concluded psychiatrist Kay Jamison of Johns Hopkins Medical School speaking last week at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego...
Brain Stimulation Can Control Compliance with Social Norms
Human beings are utterly dependent on a complex social structure for their survival. Since all behavior is controlled by the brain, human beings may have evolved specialized neural circuits that are responsible for compliance with society’s rules. A new study has identified such a region in the human brain, and researchers can increase or decrease [...]..
School Work Prevents Senile Dementia
Cognitive decline is among the most dreaded consequences of old age and disease. Few things undermine a person's ability, opportunities, and independence more than loss of mental function...
Human Brain Cells Make Mice Smart
Study shows that intelligence derives from brain cells other than neurons A team of neuroscientists has grafted human brain cells into the brains of mice and found that the rodents’ rate of learning and memory far surpassed that of ordinary mice...
Stimulating the Brain with Microscopic Magnets
An attractive new method of deep-brain stimulation could solve that therapy's trickiest problems
Why Does a Southern Drawl Sound Uneducated to Some?
Studies have shown that whether you are from the North or South, a Southern twang pegs the speaker as comparatively dimwitted, but also likely to be a nicer person than folks who speak like a Yankee...
The Power of Music: Mind Control by Rhythmic Sound
New Orleans, October 16, 2012 - You walk into a bar and music is thumping. All heads are bobbing and feet tapping in synchrony. Somehow the rhythmic sound grabs control of the brains of everyone in the room forcing them to operate simultaneously and perform the same behaviors in synchrony...
Green Fireworks Environmentally Safe, That is
The Fourth of July fireworks display in my family always has a bit of a nerdy side to it. Cries of "Strontium Nitrate!" punctuate the brilliant red burst of a skyrocket.
Drilling for Oil in Eden: Initiative to Save Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador Is Uncertain
Quito, Ecuador— The most biologically diverse habitat in the western hemisphere, the Yasuní rainforest in Ecuador, is under threat. The diversity of species in the Yasuní Park is unmatched by any other park in the world...
Raising the Dead: New Species of Life Resurrected from Ancient Andean Tomb
Ecuadorian scientists have revived a new species of yeast from pre-Incan tomb, illuminating prehistoric life
Amping Up Brain Function: Transcranial Stimulation Shows Promise in Speeding Up Learning
Electrical stimulation of the brain is found to accelerate learning in military and civilian subjects, although researchers are wary of drawing larger conclusions about the mechanism
Surety Bond: Breast-Feeding May Increase Children's IQ
When it comes to brain development, the missing ingredient in bottle-feeding is a bond with the mother, not the chemicals in the milk
Preliminary Human Experiments to Test Safety of Nerve Cell Transplants for Spinal Cord Paralysis
The new approach, currently being studied by the FDA for phase I trials, avoids the problems of immunological rejection and the controversy around the use of embryonic stem cells
Can Politicians be Trusted with Science?
I recently had the privilege of being asked to participate in a project called "Story Collider." The goal is to revive the art and joy of storytelling, but in this case the story tellers are scientists and the audience is the general public...
