Knight Initiative News

The 1970s papers from Goldberg and Wurtz made ambitious mechanistic studies of higher brain functions seem feasible.

Mice learn fastest and most reliably when they experience an increase in dopamine paired with an inhibition of serotonin in their nucleus accumbens, a new study shows, helping to resolve long-standing questions about the neuromodulators’ relationship.

A new generation of researchers at Stanford’s Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute is developing tools to modify brain activity for research and clinical applications—without drilling through the skull.

Juliet Knowles's research has recently shown that the brain can use adaptive myelination to perfect “skills” that are actually pathological, such as having seizures.

Stanford Medicine research demonstrates a new way of detecting cells implicated in the malfunctions that cause psychiatric diseases.

New research from the Malenka lab reveals that reward-based learning requires the two neuromodulators to balance one another's influence.

Today, we are going back into the archives for a conversation with neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and best-selling author David Eagleman about the science of synesthesia. If you don't know what that is, you're about to find out.

This week, we talk with our founding director, Bill Newsome, about the 10-year legacy of the NIH BRAIN Initiative and the uncertainty for the future brought on by this year's dramatic funding cuts.

This week we are talking with Stanford neuroscientist Ivan Soltesz about endocannabinoids, illuminating the "day job" of these unusual neurotransmitters and how they may be hijacked by cannabinoid drugs such as THC and CBD.

Laura Gwilliams, a Wu Tsai Neuro faculty scholar, and Brian Hie are the inaugural faculty of Stanford Data Science. Their work spans multiple disciplines but is united by the desire to explore and leverage large volumes of real-world data.

Work on human cognition by the founding director of the Wu Tsai Neuro Center for Mind, Brain, Computation and Technology was foundational for neural-network-based computational modeling 

This week we are talking with Stanford neurobiologist Lisa Giocomo, exploring the intersection of memory, navigation, and the boundaries we create between ourselves and the world around us.

Stanford undergraduates and local community college students showcased their summer research projects at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, highlighting efforts to introduce students to neuroscience research for the first time.

A collaboration between Institute Faculty Scholars Julia Kaltschmidt and Todd Coleman has identified a key step in nervous system control over gut motility, opening new opportunities for understanding GI disorders in premature infants

This week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we talk with Leanne Williams about distinctive biotypes of depression revealed by brain imaging and AI, and the implications for therapy and mental health.

This week, we talk with Michelle Monje and Rob Malenka about recent findings on the role of myelin plasticity in opioid addiction.

To advance neuroscience research using EEG and TMS technologies, the Koret Human Neurosciences Community Lab has awarded its inaugural Human Neuroscience Pilot Grants to ten innovative research projects.

Why do our brains get worse at learning as we get older, and what can we do about it? Institute affiliate Carla Shatz discusses our brain's capacity for change on this podcast episode.

This week, we talk with Surya Ganguli about the neuroscience of AI, and how advances in artificial intelligence could teach us about our own brains.

This week on From Our Neurons to Yours, we talk with memory expert Anthony Wagner about the nature of memory and how to improve it.