Knight Initiative News

Our emotions can override the brain's calculations, leading to otherwise irrational decisions like charitable donations.

It’s worth a look at the Storify page to get a sense of the breadth of work encompassed under the banner of neuroscience.

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will award the Donald B. Lindsley Prize to Matthew Lovett-Barron, PhD, of Stanford University. Supported by The Grass Foundation, the prize recognizes an outstanding PhD thesis in the area of general behavioral neuroscie

The awards are designed to encourage scientists to pursue creative research projects with the potential of leading to big improvements in health care.

Alcoholism is an immense national and international health problem. Alcoholism’s terrific toll is better sighted on city streets than in celluloid skyscraper scenarios.

A new study in mice shows that restoring the synthesis of a key brain chemical tied to inhibiting addictive behavior may help prevent alcohol cravings following binge drinking.

By year’s end, we may learn whether injecting old people with blood from young people can improve their memory and even reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

The Stanford Neurosciences Institute awarded their first round of Seed Grants, funding five projects, each of which brings together two or more faculty members to solve problems within the field of neuroscience.

Stanford psychologists found that applicants for microloans are more likely to win approval if the photograph they send along with the application evokes a positive emotional response.

A blue glowing device the size of a peppercorn can activate neurons of the brain, spinal cord or limbs in mice and is powered wirelessly using the mouse's own body to transfer energy. Developed by a Stanford Bio-X team, the device is the first to deliver

A series of experiments has produced incredible results by giving young blood to old mice. Now the findings are being tested on humans. Ian Sample meets the scientists whose research could transform our lives.

Using high-field MRI technology and staining techniques, scientists have located inflamed, iron-containing scavenger cells in a memory-formation structure in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients who died.

Cells pull themselves through the world with the help a complex internal protein scaffold called the cytoskeleton. Given the ubiquitous role of that structure in cell movement – particularly a protein called actin – it seemed likely those same proteins wo

A new Stanford-based center will receive nearly $7.3 million in funding over a five-year period to conduct interdisciplinary research on Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders.

If you find yourself forgetting information you have only your synapses to blame. These connections between neurons are what hold on to memories.

A team of Bio-X scientists applied microscopy know-how to a long-standing theory in neuroscience: if brain connections called synapses store memories, those synapses should last as long as the memories themselves. It turns out they do, as Mark Schnitzer w

When people are confronted with an unknown piece of electronics, one way they can figure out how it works and what it does is to twiddle with the knobs and switches. That's been hard to do with the slick, knob-less surface of the brain.

How do we reverse-engineer the most mysterious organ?

Understanding the brain's mechanics isn't enough to reverse-engineer a functional copy. What's needed is a theory of how those pieces add up to a human being.

If you wanted to reverse-engineer a piece of electronics, the first thing you'd investigate is how the various parts are connected. In the brain, that means tracing the paths of 100 billion neurons.