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Neuroscience news

Psychology & Psychiatry

No, your brain doesn't suddenly 'fully develop' at 25. Here's what the neuroscience actually shows

If you scroll through TikTok or Instagram long enough, you'll inevitably stumble across the line: "Your frontal lobe isn't fully developed yet." It's become neuroscience's go-to explanation for bad decisions, like ordering ...

Genetics

Why the human brain matures slower than its primate relatives

The human brain is a fascinating and complex organ that supports numerous sophisticated behaviors and abilities that are observed in no other animal species. For centuries, scientists have been trying to understand what is ...

HIV & AIDS

Brain chemistry can reactivate or suppress dormant HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are still fairly common and an estimated 40 million people worldwide are currently living with this condition. The HIV virus attacks the body's immune system and thus makes those ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Humans could have as many as 33 senses

Stuck in front of our screens all day, we often ignore our senses beyond sound and vision. And yet they are always at work. When we're more alert, we feel the rough and smooth surfaces of objects, the stiffness in our shoulders, ...

Neuroscience

To flexibly organize thought, the brain makes use of space

Our thoughts are specified by our knowledge and plans, yet our cognition can also be fast and flexible in handling new information. How does the well-controlled and yet highly nimble nature of cognition emerge from the brain's ...

Neuroscience

How age affects recovery from spinal cord injury

A study published in Neurology looks at how age may affect recovery for people with spinal cord injuries. "With population growth and improvements in medicine, the number of people diagnosed with spinal cord injury is increasing ...

Neuroscience

Why there's always room for dessert—an anatomist explains

You push back from the table after Christmas lunch, full from an excellent feast. You really couldn't manage another bite—except, perhaps, a little bit of pudding. Somehow, no matter how much you've eaten, there always ...

Oncology & Cancer

How brain tumor cells influence neurons and vice versa

Gliomas are cancers that originate directly in the brain, instead of spreading to the brain from other parts of the body. These cancers cannot be cured with conventional cancer treatments, as they spread into healthy brain ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Exploring why some people tend to persistently make bad choices

When people learn that surrounding visuals and sounds may signify specific choice outcomes, these cues can become guides for decision making. For people with compulsive disorders, addictions, or anxiety, the associations ...

Medications

Psychedelics alter far more neurons than expected

The most basic assumption about how psychedelic medicine works is at least partially flawed: Psychedelics are altering not just a few specific brain cells, but the vast majority of them, according to a new University of Michigan ...

Neuroscience

Walking shapes how people process sound, study suggests

Does walking influence how people process sensory information, like sounds, from the environment? In a new JNeurosci paper, researchers led by Liyu Cao, from Zhejiang University, and Barbara Händel, from University of Würzburg, ...

Neuroscience

Q&A: Expert discusses role in brain health, impact of Prop 14

Angel Martí, chair of Rice University's Department of Chemistry, is leading efforts to highlight chemistry's role in advancing brain health research. With Texas voters set to decide on Proposition 14 in November, which would ...

Neuroscience

Thinking outside the box to fabricate customized 3D neural chips

Cultured neural tissues have been widely used as a simplified experimental model for brain research. However, existing devices for growing and recording neural tissues, which are manufactured using semiconductor processes, ...

Neuroscience

Childhood concussions may trigger long-term brain changes

A new study in mice reports that concussions sustained early in life can cause subtle brain changes that re-emerge later in life. The findings, published in Experimental Neurology, may have significant implications for understanding ...