Neuroscience News

Stanford researchers have found intrusive immune cells in a place in the brains of humans and older mice where new nerve cells are born. The intruders appear to impair nerve cell generation.

Selectively subduing a set of cells that migrate to the brain after a stroke occurs could meaningfully treat the stroke even days later.

Instead of trying to fix stroke-damaged nerve cells, Stanford scientists took aim at a set of first-responder immune cells that live outside the brain but rush to the site of a stroke. It worked.

By using eye-tracking technology to automatically control a pair of autofocus lenses, engineers have created a prototype for “autofocals” designed to restore proper vision in people who would ordinarily need progressive lenses.

In the latest issue of Stanford Medicine magazine, writer Nathan Collins listens to the stories of lab members, including neurobiologist Miriam Goodman.

Rewarding experiences alter the spatial maps in our brains.

Scientists find neurons that hard-wire brains to recognize the sex of strangers

Plans, dreams and day-to-day work for a team studying the sense of touch.

In 2012, a pair of neurosurgery residents traded their scrubs for lab coats in an effort to understand, at the most basic level, what causes medulloblastoma, the most common pediatric brain cancer.

Blocking an immune-related molecule lodged in blood vessels stops memory loss

Impeding VCAM1, a protein that tethers circulating immune cells to blood vessel walls, enabled old mice to perform as well on memory and learning tests as young mice, a Stanford study found.

Old mice suffered far fewer senior moments on memory tests when Stanford investigators disabled a single molecule dotting the mice’s cerebral blood vessels.

A new technique to examine how flatworms re-grow their limbs and organs could one day help scientists understand how human brains recover from stroke or traumatic injury.

Low oxygen levels during brain development may cause particular cells to differentiate too soon, a Stanford-led study found.

Brain cells called microglia serve as the brain’s garbage crew, scarfing up bits of cellular debris. But their underperformance in aging brains contributes to neurodegeneration. Now, a possible workaround?

Brain cells called microglia keep brains young by eliminating accumulations of protein debris. But their garbage-colllection ability fades with age.