Last update:

Neuroscience news

Neuroscience

Heart-brain connection: International study reveals role of vagus nerve in keeping the heart young

The secret to a healthier and "younger" heart lies in the vagus nerve. A recent study coordinated by the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa and published in Science Translational Medicine has shown that preserving ...

Neuroscience

Alzheimer's disease can be reversed in animal models to achieve full neurological recovery

For over a century, Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been considered irreversible. Consequently, research has focused on disease prevention or slowing, rather than recovery. Despite billions of dollars spent on decades of research, ...

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 ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Brain injuries linked with potential risk of suicide

Adults who experience a head injury face a substantially higher risk of attempting suicide compared to those without such injuries, according to the findings from a new UK-based study.

Psychology & Psychiatry

Surge in serotonin points to new treatment target for schizophrenia

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London has provided the first direct evidence that schizophrenia is associated with a greater release of serotonin in the ...

Neuroscience

We are hardwired to sing, and it's good for us, too

On the first Sunday after being named leader of the Catholic Church in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV stood on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and addressed the tens of thousands of people gathered. Invoking tradition, ...

Neuroscience

Protein abnormality illuminates communication struggles in autism

A DGIST research team identified that the mutation of the collybistin protein found in autistic patients weakens the brain's inhibitory synaptic function and leads to communication deficiencies. The results of this research ...

Neuroscience

Study probes 'covert consciousness'

Ricardo Iriart last saw his wife conscious four years ago. Every day since, he has visited Ángeles, often spending hours talking to her in hopes that she could hear him.

Genetics

How a gene shapes the architecture of the human brain

Researchers around the world are studying how the human brain achieves its extraordinary complexity. A team at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim and the German Primate Center—Leibniz Institute for Primate ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Hyperacusis: When everything sounds too loud

For most of us, the hum of a refrigerator, the clatter of plates or a nearby conversation are just background noise. But for some, these sounds are uncomfortable, distressing or even painful. Hyperacusis, or heightened sensitivity ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Model helps explain how context-dependent behavior occurs

How animals may modify their behavior depending on their context has been modeled mathematically by two RIKEN neuroscientists. Their simple but biologically plausible model could shed light on mental disorders such as autism ...

Neuroscience

X-ray imaging captures the brain's intricate connections

An international team of researchers led by the Francis Crick Institute, working with the Paul Scherrer Institute, has developed a new imaging protocol to capture mouse brain cell connections in precise detail. In work published ...