Neuroscience News

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.

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.

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.

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.

Impulsive behavior in teens can go hand in hand with drug use, but the link is weak and doesn’t necessarily predict future behavior. A Stanford psychologist and colleagues think they can do better, using images of the brain.

In a Stanford-led research report, three participants with movement impairment controlled an onscreen cursor simply by imagining their own hand movements.

Millions of people are living with paralysis in the United States alone. Sometimes their paralysis comes gradually, as occurs in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease. Sometimes it arrives suddenly, as it did for Dennis Degray.

A new organic artificial synapse made by Stanford researchers could support computers that better recreate the way the human brain processes information. It could also lead to improvements in brain-machine technologies.

Enkephalins are peptides that are produced in response to certain stimuli — such as stress, fear or pain — that also have potent painkilling properties.

Lack of sleep definitely affects your performance the next day, and probably for a longer period of time than you might expect, according to a new study.

A substance called A-beta, is strongly and broadly believed to play a major role in the Alzheimer’s disease’s pathology.

Judging from the very terms used to designate brain research — neuroscience, neurology, neurobiology — you might figure nerve cells (or neurons) are the only cells in the brain worth knowing about or, the only cells resident in that organ.

Astrocytes, the brain’s most abundant cells, are essential to the survival and healthy function of nerve cells. But aberrant astrocytes may be driving brain disorders.