Stories by R. Douglas Fields

Functional brain imaging has revealed that some blind people's brains rewire themselves, giving them extraordinary auditory comprehension

Thinking about cash impairs the ability to savor experiences

How do people learn complex new skills, such as juggling and reading?

Glia are nervous system caretakers whose nurturing can go too far. Taming them holds promise for alleviating pain that current medications cannot ease

Cannabis can kill or rescue neurons—children are at risk, whereas adults may benefit

A neuroscientist reveals how telling people about his surprising dysfunction led to other discoveries about the brain.

Using a mobile phone just before bed may cause insomnia

Electromagnetic signals from cell phones can change your brainwaves and behavior. But don't break out the aluminum foil head shield just yet.

The neural cost of high-altitude mountaineering

Although scientists have long regarded the brain's white matter as passive infrastructure, new work shows that it actively affects learning and mental illness

Cells get all the glory, but the spaces surrounding them are important, too

How newborn neurons soon join the existing tightly knit networks of brain cells

An astonishingly sensitive detector of electric fields helps sharks zero in on prey

Could a little-known cranial nerve be the route by which human pheromones turn us on?

In which a mystery is solved through a chance encounter

New experiments are settling a century-long debate between two camps over how neurons communicate. The surprise: both sides are right

Long-term memories, particularly bad ones, could be dissolved if certain drugs are administered at just the right moment during recall

Some moments become lasting recollections while others just evaporate. The reason may involve the same processes that shape our brains to begin with