Neuroscience

Animals

A gene defect may make rabbits do handstands instead of hop

Mutations in a gene typically found throughout the nervous system rob rabbits of their ability to hop. Instead, the animals walk on their front paws.

Health & Medicine

50 years ago, researchers treated chronic pain with electricity

In 1971, doctors eased chronic pain by sending electrical impulses to the spinal cord. Fifty years later, improved techniques help paralyzed people walk.

Neuroscience

Catnip repels insects. Scientists may have finally found out how

The plant deters mosquitoes and fruit flies by triggering a chemical receptor that, in other animals, senses pain and itch.

Neuroscience

Three visions of the future, inspired by neuroscience’s past and present

Three fantastical tales of where neuroscience might take us are based on the progress made by brain researchers in the last 100 years.

Neuroscience

Famous brain sketches come to life again as embroideries

A needlework project pays tribute to the iconic drawings of Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal.

Neuroscience

Mice may ‘catch’ each other’s pain — and pain relief

Healthy mice mirror a companion’s pain or morphine-induced relief. Disrupting certain connections in the brain turns off such empathetic behaviors.

Neuroscience

Lonely brains crave people like hungry brains crave food

After hours of isolation, dopamine-producing cells in the brain fire up in response to pictures of humans, showing our social side runs deep.

Neuroscience

Psilocybin may help treat depression, a small study finds

Researchers found that a compound in psychedelic mushrooms eased depression symptoms, but larger studies are needed.

Health & Medicine

Protecting the brain from infection may start with a gut reaction

In mice, immune cells in the meninges are trained to battle infections in the gut before migrating to the brain.

Neuroscience

FDA advisory panel declines to support a controversial Alzheimer’s treatment

The fate of an Alzheimer’s drug, developed by pharmaceutical company Biogen, remains up in the air.

Animals

A fish’s fins may be as sensitive to touch as fingertips

Newfound parallels between fins and fingers suggest that touch-sensing limbs evolved early, setting the stage for a shared way to sense surroundings.

Anthropology

These human nerve cell tendrils turned to glass nearly 2,000 years ago

Part of a young man’s brain was preserved in A.D. 79 by hot ash from Mount Vesuvius’ eruption.