Neuroscience2860 articles archived since 1845

Brain Researchers Can Detect Who We Are Thinking About

FMRI scans of volunteers' media prefrontal cortexes revealed unique brain activity patterns associated with individual characters or personalities as subjects thought about them

Split-Brain Patients Reveal Brain's Flexibility

MIND Reviews: The Brain Supremacy

Books and recommendations from Scientific American MIND

Placebos Work Better for Nice People

Agreeable personalities produce more of the brain's natural painkillers

Grotesque Mummy Head Reveals Advanced Medieval Science

Doctors in medieval Europe weren't as idle as it may seem, as a new analysis of the oldest-known preserved human dissection in Europe reveals

What’s Wrong with the Brain Activity Map Proposal

With the president suggesting a multibillion-dollar neuroscience effort, a leading neuroscientist explains the deep conceptual problems with plans to record all the brain's neurons

Cold-Comfortable Mice Point to New Analgesics

Genetically engineered mice that can't feel cold are a step toward drugs that dull pain without numbness. Karen Hopkin reports

Studying Languages Can Grow the Brain

Researchers have found that people who study languages tend to show significant growth in certain areas of the brain. Christie Nicholson reports

Step Inside the Real World of Compulsive Hoarders

Recent research has changed the way clinicians treat hoarding as well as refuted popular assumptions about people with excessive clutter

Proteins Behind Mad-Cow Disease Also Help Brain Develop

When not misfolded, prions lend a hand in formation neuronal connections

Synthetic Marijuana Harms Kidneys of 16 Users, CDC Reports

Hallucinations, heart problems and seizures also tied to illegal drug

Touching the Light: Rats Get Fitted with Star Trek VISORs

A brain prosthesis gives the rodents a sixth sense—an ability to "see" in the infrared

Be Mine Forever: Oxytocin May Help Build Long-Lasting Love

The hormone oxytocin increases empathy and communication, key to sustaining a relationship between mates

Software Revives Dead Tongues

A computer algorithm works almost as well as a trained linguist in reconstructing how dead "protolanguages" would have sounded

Effects of Stress Can Persist for Generations

How your grandpa's rough life might make you more anxious

Researchers Take a Closer Look at the Most Common and Powerful Triggers of Depression

Certain painful experiences are more likely to precede depressive episodes than others. And some forms of loss can trigger depression more quickly than previously realized

New Eyewear Could Help People with Red-Green Color Blindness

Glasses based on a new color vision theory are already being used medically to enhance vasculature and bruising beneath skin. Now they are being tested to aid those with color blindness, although the lenses inhibit the perception of yellows and blues...

The Brilliance of the Dog Mind

New science reveals the multiple intelligences of mankind’s best friend

Humans Can Feel Terror Even If They Lack Brain's "Fear Center"

A growing body of work shows that the brain has different systems and mechanisms to respond to certain kinds of threats and physiological changes in the body

We Are What We Smell

A recent study finds that we can instill our emotions in others through chemical signals delivered by scent. Christie Nicholson reports