Laura Sanders
Senior Writer, Neuroscience
Laura Sanders reports on neuroscience for Science News. She wrote Growth Curve, a blog about the science of raising kids, from 2013 to 2019 and continues to write about child development and parenting from time to time. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she studied the nerve cells that compel a fruit fly to perform a dazzling mating dance. Convinced that she was missing some exciting science somewhere, Laura turned her eye toward writing about brains in all shapes and forms. She holds undergraduate degrees in creative writing and biology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where she was a National Merit Scholar. Growth Curve, her 2012 series on consciousness and her 2013 article on the dearth of psychiatric drugs have received awards recognizing editorial excellence.
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All Stories by Laura Sanders
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Neuroscience
Hair pulling prompts one of the fastest known pain signals
The ouch of hair pulling is transmitted with the help of a protein used to sense light touches. These details could lead to new treatments.
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Neuroscience
Semaglutide saps mice’s motivation to run
Mice given semaglutide, the key ingredient in drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, lost weight, but they also voluntarily ran less on a wheel.
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Neuroscience
Scientists have traced all 54.5 million connections in a fruit fly’s brain
By tracing every single connection between nerve cells in a single fruit fly’s brain, scientists have created the “connectome,” a tool that could help reveal how brains work.
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Neuroscience
A study in mice hints at a new way to treat spinal cord injuries
The finding suggests that a drug to ease swelling can speed recovery and stop cell death.
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Neuroscience
A cell biologist is investigating the balance of brain flexibility, stability
Andrea Gomez, a Berkeley molecular and cell biologist, applies her wide-ranging curiosity to brains’ mysteries ranging from synapses to psychedelics.
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Neuroscience
Pregnancy overhauls the brain. Here’s what that looks like
Neuroscientist Liz Chrastil’s brain scans before, during and after pregnancy are providing the first view of a mom-to-be’s structural brain changes.
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Neuroscience
Alzheimer’s blood tests are getting better, but still have a ways to go
Blood biomarker tests could help doctors know if a person's cognitive symptoms are due to Alzheimer's or something else.
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Neuroscience
Psilocybin temporarily dissolves brain networks
A high dose of the psychedelic drug briefly throws the brain off kilter. Other, longer-lasting changes could hint at psilocybin's therapeutic effects.
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Neuroscience
‘Do I Know You?’ explores face blindness and the science of the mind
In her memoir, journalist Sadie Dingfelder draws on her own experiences to highlight the astonishing diversity of people’s inner lives.
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Neuroscience
Biological puzzles abound in an up-close look at a human brain
Mirror-image nerve cells, tight bonds between neuron pairs and surprising axon swirls abound in a bit of gray matter smaller than a grain of rice.
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Neuroscience
The heart plays a hidden role in our mental health
Deciphering the messages that the heart sends to the brain could lead to new anxiety treatments and even unlock the secrets of consciousness.
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Neuroscience
Rat cells grew in mice brains, and helped sniff out cookies
When implanted into mouse embryos, stem cells from rats grew into forebrains and structures that handle smells.