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Nutrition, companionship reduce pain in mice with sickle cell disease

Researchers have found that an enriched diet and companionship can reduce pain in mice with sickle cell disease by increasing serotonin. They also discovered that duloxetine, an antidepressant that boosts serotonin levels, could be an alternative to op…

Why do psychiatric drugs help some, but not others? Study offers clues

New research shows that a key protein in the brain called AKT may function differently in males than females. The study also offers a closer look at where, precisely, in the brain things may go wrong with it, marking an important step toward more targe…

Scientists solve long-standing mystery by a whisker

Neuroscientists have experimented on mice to identify the brain region that functions beyond sensory encoding and motor encoding, potentially opening up new directions to studying the cellular and circuit mechanisms of sensory-motor transformations. Th…

Turning on the switch for plasticity in the human brain

Scientists describe how glutamate signals are transmitted across synapses to turn on the switch for synapatic plasticity, the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time in response to increases or decreases in their activity.

How the brain is programmed for computer programming?

Expert computer programmers show higher proficiency in certain behavioral and attention skills than their novice peers. To identify the responsible brain regions, scientists used fMRI to analyze the brain activities of 30 programmers of different skill…

Can large fluid-filled spaces in the brain help identify those at risk of dementia?

People with enlarged fluid-filled spaces in the brain around small blood vessels may be more likely to develop cognitive problems and dementia over time than people without these enlarged spaces, according to a new study.

Scientists jump-start two people’s brains after coma

In 2016, a team reported that a 25-year-old man recovering from a coma had made remarkable progress following a treatment to jump-start his brain using ultrasound. Now, researchers report that two more patients with severe brain injuries have also made…

Brain activity during speaking varies between simple and complex grammatical forms

Some languages require less neural activity than others. But these are not necessarily the ones we would imagine. Researchers have shown that languages that are often considered ‘easy’ actually require an enormous amount of work from our brains.

Unlocking PTSD: New study reveals why trauma-focused psychotherapy treatment works

Trauma-focused psychotherapy is the best-known treatment for PTSD. But how does it work? A researcher may have found the answer by exploring how different parts of the brain talk to one another.

Malaria tricks the brain’s defense system

Malaria is one of the most common causes of death in children in Africa. When the parasite builds up in the blood vessels of the brain, it develops into one of the most dangerous forms of the disease, cerebral malaria. Though it wasn’t certain if the p…