Why doctors used to think drilling into people’s skulls could treat...
Lobotomies used to be a horrific way that doctors tried to treat patients with mental illness. Doctors thought those with mental illness had abnormal neural connections so severing them may help. More than 40,000 people got lobotomies in the US before the practice fell out of favor in the 1950s. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for…
Scientists discovered a surprising new brain circuit in mice that’s making...
A newly discovered brain circuit in mice helps relax the brain during times of extreme stress. A lead researcher says the study results suggest similar processes may occur in the human brain. The study may help scientists identify why stress is so debilitating for some, like those with ADHD. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for…
New data show that an old model of the brain’s motor...
Scientists found evidence of two interleaved systems, which may help explain the connection between what's going on in our bodies and what's going on in brain areas involved in thoughts and emotions.
Neuralink transported brain implants covered in pathogens, group alleges
Enlarge / Pager, a 9-year-old Macaque, plays MindPong with his Neuralink. The US Department of Transportation is investigating allegations that Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, violated federal transportation regulations when it shipped contaminated implants removed from the brains of deceased research monkeys infected with multiple types of dangerous pathogens. The alleged violations could have…
How humans got a new gene that makes our brains larger
Enlarge / Building a bigger brain requires new genes, not a workout. On the DNA level, there's not much to distinguish humans from our closest relatives: chimpanzees and bonobos. At stretches of DNA that line up, human and chimp sequences are well over 90 percent identical. And, for the most part, the DNA does line…
Sorry, prey. Black widows have surprisingly good memory
Robert Llewellyn / Getty Images Black widows must despise Clint Sergi. While working on his Ph.D. in biology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Sergi spent his time designing little challenges for spiders—which often involved rewarding them with tasty dead crickets or confounding them by stealing the crickets away. “The big question that motivated the work…
What Happens in Our Brains on a Frightful Halloween Night? ...
It's the middle of October -- and you know what that means. Millions of people are watching reruns of The Shining, tiptoeing through haunted houses and willfully participating in what basically amounts to light psychological distress. During spooky season, we crave fear. On the face of it, deliberately choosing to be scared seems rather unusual. Aren't…
Our ancestors left Africa both with and without modern brains
Enlarge / One of the remarkably intact Dmanisi skulls at the time of its discovery. We have an extensive collection of fossils from the lineages that produced us humans. A large number of Australopithecus and early Homo skeletons track the transition to bipedal walking and the appearance of features that mark our present anatomy. But…
What happens when you replace a human gene with its Neanderthal...
Enlarge / The difference between modern human (left) and Neanderthal skulls means there must be some differences in how their brains develop. What are the key differences between modern humans and our closest relatives, the Neanderthals and Denisovans? For the Neanderthals, there doesn't look to be any sort of obvious difference. They used sophisticated tools,…
Mathematics Looks The Very Same In The Brains Of Kids And...
Two fourth-graders rock side to side while doing math equations at Charles Pinckney Elementary School's "Brain Room" in Charleston, S.C., in 2015. John McDonnell/The Washington Post/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption John McDonnell/The Washington Post/Getty Images Two fourth-graders rock side to side while doing math equations at Charles Pinckney Elementary School's "Brain Room" in Charleston,…
