Neuroscience News

Male mice are hardwired to recognize the sex of other mice, a new study shows. Females' circuitry guiding that decision differs from males.

The discovery, by Stanford researchers, of neurons that drive mice’s innate ability to identify the sex of other mice highlights the importance of biological influences on sex-specific behaviors.

Brain cells called oligodendrocytes supply insulation by wrapping neurons in multiple layers of fatty extensions, preserving signal strength and markedly speeding up transmission. But studying these cells in culture has been virtually impossible -- until

Studying human oligodendrocytes, which provide insulation for nerve cells, has been challenging. But a new way of generating stem-cell-derived, three-dimensional brain-cell cultures is paying off.

Humans have relied on plants for millennia to treat a variety of neurological ailments. Now, researchers are using microscopic worms to better understand how plant molecules shape behavior – and perhaps develop better new drugs.

Pain sensation and the emotional experience of pain are not the same, and now, in mice, scientists at Stanford have found the neurons responsible for the latter.

Researchers at Stanford demonstrated that direct stimulation of fewer than two dozen neurons linked to social interaction was enough to suppress a mouse’s drive to feed itself.

A study in Nature details a discovery with potential clinical significance for treating eating disorders such as anorexia. To make that discovery, Stanford researchers had to develop a "first-time-ever" way of teasing apart two separate but closely intert

Researchers led by Daniel Palanker have discovered that an imaging technique known as interferometry could be used to monitor neuron behavior.

Stanford scientists are making efforts to create high-resolution simulated versions of the human brain, bells and whistles and warts and all.

Why a defective gene is tied so strongly to Parkinson’s disease has baffled researchers. Now, a study led by Stanford scientists appears to have pieced together a major part of the puzzle.

Studies have associated low zinc levels with autism spectrum disorder. But why this should be the case has been unclear. Now, scientists may have an explanation for the link.

Genetic mutations affecting a single gene called LRRK2 play an outsized role in Parkinson's disease, but nobody's been able to say what the connection is between the genetic defect and the brain-cell die-off that characterizes the condition. Here's a clue

Stanford researchers have shown in rats that pharmacologically active amounts of a fast-acting anesthetic drug could be released from nanoparticle "cages" in small, specified brain areas at which the scientists had aimed a beam of focused ultrasound.

Stanford researchers used focused ultrasound to pry molecules of an anesthetic loose from nanoparticles. The drug’s release modified activity in brain regions targeted by the ultrasound beam.

The release of a single signaling chemical from a specific nerve-cell tract in a particular part of the brain, like an on/off switch, may spell the difference between sociability and social awkwardness.