-
Magazine
In the June 8 SN: Measles roars back, collapsars spin gold, a new kind of dementia, the Southern Ocean's secrets, Denisovans lived on top of the world, and more.
Search Content
-
News
Women have a new weapon against postpartum depression, but it’s costly
03/22/2019 - 14:32 Neuroscience, Mental HealthApproval of the first and only treatment in the United States specifically targeting postpartum depression offers hope for millions of women each year who suffer from the debilitating mental health disorder after giving birth.
The new drug brexanolone — marketed under the name Zulresso and approved on March 19 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — is expected to become available to...
-
News
A new ketamine-based antidepressant raises hope — and questions
03/21/2019 - 07:00 Health, NeuroscienceWith great fanfare, a new antidepressant entered the U.S. market in March, the first fundamentally new medicine for depression in decades. Based on the anesthetic ketamine, the drug — called Spravato — is intended to help people with severe depression quickly, taking effect within hours or days instead of the weeks that typical antidepressants take. But for all the hubbub, big questions have...
-
News
People can sense Earth’s magnetic field, brain waves suggest
03/18/2019 - 13:05 Neuroscience, BiophysicsA new analysis of people’s brain waves when surrounded by different magnetic fields suggests that people have a “sixth sense” for magnetism.
Birds, fish and some other creatures can sense Earth’s magnetic field and use it for navigation (SN: 6/14/14, p. 10). Scientists have long wondered whether humans, too, boast this kind of magnetoreception. Now, by exposing people to an Earth-...
-
News
Flickers and buzzes sweep mouse brains of Alzheimer’s plaques
03/14/2019 - 11:00 Health, NeuroscienceFast clicking sounds can boost brainpower in mice with signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Like flickering lights, these external sounds spur a type of brain wave that seemed to sweep disease-related plaques from mice’s brains, researchers report in the March 14 Cell.It’s too early to say whether the same sorts of flickers and clicks could help people with Alzheimer’s. If so, the treatment would...
-
News in Brief
FDA has approved the first ketamine-based antidepressant
03/06/2019 - 16:02 Health, NeuroscienceDoctors have a new weapon in the fight against particularly pernicious depression: a drug based on the powerful anesthetic ketamine.
The drug — called Spravato and developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. — was approved on March 5 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for severely depressed people who haven’t responded to two courses of other treatments. The first...
-
News
Ripples race in the brain as memories are recalled
03/05/2019 - 07:00 Health, NeuroscienceFast waves of activity ripple in the brain a half second before a person calls up a memory. The finding, published in the March 1 Science, hint that these brain waves might be a key part of a person’s ability to remember.
The results come from a study of 14 people with epilepsy who had electrodes placed on their brains as part of their treatment. Those electrodes also allowed scientists...
-
News
How singing mice belt out duets
02/28/2019 - 14:00 NeuroscienceIn the understory of Central American cloud forests, musical mice trill songs to one another. Now a study of the charismatic creatures reveals how their brains orchestrate these rapid-fire duets.
The results, published in the March 1 Science, show that the brains of singing mice split up the musical work. One brain system directs the patterns of notes that make up songs, while another...
-
News in Brief
Watching hours of TV is tied to verbal memory decline in older people
02/28/2019 - 09:00 Health, NeurosciencePeople often fret about television time for children. A new study examines the habit at the other end of life.
The more television older people watched, the worse they recalled a list of words, researchers report online February 28 in Scientific Reports. But the study describes only a correlation; it can’t say that lots of TV time actually causes the memory slips.
Researchers...
-
Feature
With its burning grip, shingles can do lasting damage
02/26/2019 - 09:00 Health, Clinical Trials, Neuroscience, Immune ScienceAt age 37, Hope Hartman developed a painful, burning rash in her right ear, in the part “you would clean with a Q-tip,” the Denver resident says. The pain got so bad she went to a local emergency room, where the staff was flummoxed. Hartman was admitted to the hospital, where she started to lose sensation on the right side of her face.
During that 2013 health crisis, Hartman’s husband,...
-
News in Brief
Brain cells combine place and taste to make food maps
02/18/2019 - 13:00 NeuroscienceSometimes a really good meal can make an evening unforgettable. A new study of rats, published online February 18 in the Journal of Neuroscience, may help explain why. A select group of nerve cells in rats’ brains holds information about both flavors and places, becoming active when the right taste hits the tongue when the rat is in a certain location. These double-duty cells could help...