Neuroscience
- Neuroscience
COVID-19 gave new urgency to the science of restoring smell
With newfound pressure from the pandemic, olfactory training and a host of other newer treatments are now getting a lot more attention.
- Neuroscience
Sleep deprivation may make people less generous
Helping each other is inherently human. Yet new research shows that sleep deprivation may dampen people’s desire to donate money.
By Sujata Gupta - Neuroscience
An hour after pigs’ deaths, an artificial system restored cellular life
Sensors, pumps and artificial fluid staved off tissue damage in pigs after cardiac arrest. The system may one day preserve organs for transplantation.
- Neuroscience
Spinal stimulation gives some people with paralysis more freedom
Methods that stimulate the spine with electrodes promise to improve the lives of people with spinal cord injuries, in ways that go well beyond walking.
- Neuroscience
Herminia Pasantes discovered how taurine helps brain cells regulate their size
Mexican scientist Herminia Pasantes spent decades studying how nerve cells regulate their size and why it’s so vital.
- Health & Medicine
How scientists are shifting their search for links between diet and dementia
Studies of food’s impact on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are hampered by complexity. Scientists hope new research approaches prove more fruitful.
- Neuroscience
Glial cells may take on big jobs in unexpected parts of the body
Scientists are finding mysterious glia in the heart, spleen and lungs and wonder what they’re doing there.
- Neuroscience
Headbutts hurt the brain, even for a musk ox
Though musk oxen are built to bash, a study of the headbutters turned up signs of brain damage. But that may not be catastrophic for the bovids.
- Science & Society
COVID-19 has killed a million Americans. Our minds can’t comprehend that number
We intuitively compare large, approximate quantities but cannot grasp such a big, abstract number as a million U.S. COVID-19 deaths.
By Sujata Gupta - Animals
Baby marmosets may practice their first distinctive cries in the womb
Ultrasounds tracking fetal mouth movements in baby marmosets pinpoint the early development of the motor skills needed for vocalization.
By Anna Gibbs - Neuroscience
A very specific kind of brain cell dies off in people with Parkinson’s
Of out 10 kinds of dopamine-making nerve cells, only one type is extra vulnerable in Parkinson’s disease.
- Neuroscience
Mom’s voice holds a special place in kids’ brains. That changes for teens
Unfamiliar voices hold special appeal for teens, a sign of a shift from a focus on mostly family to wider networks, brain scans suggest.