Knight Initiative News

Stanford researcher Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD, was the first to explore ketamine as a treatment for OCD.

A Stanford psychiatrist is researching the effects of ketamine on the brains of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, hoping to determine why, in studies, the drug has provided relief from symptoms.

As research shows that the hallucinogen is a potentially powerful treatment for intractable mental disorders, and academics continue to debate its safety, private clinics across the country offer the drug to patients now.

Today, most of the care for dementia patients — 83 percent — is provided by unpaid family members, two-thirds of whom are women. And the responsibility of providing care to the growing number of patients with dementia expected over the next 20 years will

With the publication of his latest book, Robert Sapolsky tackles the best and worst of human behavior and the nature of justice in the absence of free will.

As the population ages, a surge in patients with dementia will place an inordinate burden on working women, risking “hard-fought gains for equality in the workplace,” according to Stanford researchers.

The seeds of autism, schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders are planted during the formation of the brain’s complex circuitry, which largely occurs during the second half of pregnancy. That’s not the kind of thing scientists can zoom in on.

Stanford investigators fused two stem-cell-derived neural spheroids, each containing a different type of human neuron, then watched as one set of neurons migrated and hooked up with the other set.

Umbilical cord blood from human newborns, and in particular a single protein contained in it, boosted old mice’s brain function and cognitive performance, new research from Stanford shows.

Human umbilical cord blood can rejuvenate learning and memory in older mice, according to a study led by Stanford neuroscientists Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, and Joe Castellano, PhD.

There isn’t a good mathematical model for the brain’s navigation system.

Neuroscientists’ discovery of grid cells, popularly known as the brain’s GPS, was hailed as a major discovery. But new Stanford research suggest the system is more complicated than anyone had guessed.

A study published in Science today describes how researchers led by Stanford molecular biologist Mark Krasnow, MD, PhD, identified a handful of nerve cells in the brain stem that connect breathing to states of mind.

Stanford scientists have identified a small group of neurons that communicates goings-on in the brain’s respiratory control center to the structure responsible for generating arousal throughout the brain.

Researchers long believed that the cerebellum did little more than process our senses and control our muscles. New techniques to study the most densely packed neurons in our brains reveal that it may do much more.

Conventional computer chips aren’t up to the challenges posed by next-generation autonomous drones and medical implants. Now, Kwabena Boahen has laid out a way forward, using ideas built in to our brains.

Stanford scientists found that teaching ordinary people a technique used by “memory athletes” not only boosted their recall ability but also induced lasting changes in the organization of their brains.

The American Health Care Act, the House Republican’s Affordable Care Act replacement plan released Monday, would worsen the opioid epidemic, Keith Humphreys, PhD, a Stanford professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and colleagues say.

Memory athletes — individuals with the remarkable ability to, say, memorize the order of entire decks of cards in mere seconds — invariably have a trick up their sleeve.

A group of researchers at Stanford developed an experimental brain-controlled prosthesis that allows people with paralysis to type on a keyboard just by thinking about moving their hands.