Hiding in plain sight, new research shines a spotlight on the placenta’s critical role in the nature versus nurture debate and how it confers risk for schizophrenia and likely other neurodevelopmental disorders including ADHD, autism, and Tourette syndrome. This new... Continue Reading →
Researchers at King’s College London have discovered a fundamental process by which brains are built, which may have profound implications for understanding neurodevelopmental conditions like autism and epilepsy. The study, published in Nature and funded by the Wellcome Trust, also answers an... Continue Reading →
What if you could hold a physical model of your own brain in your hands, accurate down to its every unique fold? That’s just a normal part of life for Steven Keating, Ph.D., who had a baseball-sized tumor removed from... Continue Reading →
Neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have identified a neural circuit in the amygdala, the brain’s seat of emotion processing, that gives rise to anxiety. Their insight has revealed the critical role of a molecule called dynorphin, which could serve as... Continue Reading →
In space, the human body loses muscle mass. Although living in microgravity requires no heavy lifting, this loss of muscle reduces physical performance. Decreased muscle mass could also prove particularly problematic on future missions to destinations such as the Moon... Continue Reading →
A study of 35 families led by a UC San Francisco psychiatric researcher showed for the first time that the structure of the brain circuitry known as the corticolimbic system is more likely to be passed down from mothers to... Continue Reading →
Running barefoot is better than running with shoes for your working memory, according to a new study published by researchers at the University of North Florida. The experiment, designed by lead researcher Dr. Ross Alloway, undertaken with Dr. Tracy Alloway,... Continue Reading →
If a mother picks up an infection during pregnancy, her immune system will kick into action to clear the infection – but this self-defense mechanism may also have a small influence how her child’s brain develops in the womb, in... Continue Reading →
OSIRIS-REx mission recently arrived at its destination, asteroid Bennu. On approach, data from the spacecraft’s spectrometers revealed chemical signatures of water trapped in clay minerals. While Bennu itself is too small to have ever hosted liquid water, the finding indicates... Continue Reading →
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