4+ day, 11+ hour ago   (362+ words) For something so familiar to human experience, consciousness is still a mystery. Each day, people cycle through wakefulness and sleep, from a higher level of consciousness to a lower one. What’s more, some people alter their conscious experience with drugs…...

5+ day, 9+ hour ago   (221+ words) A new study led by UCLA Health researchers has identified a specific type of brain cell and a tiny structure on its surface that changes when the body is under stress, which may help explain why stress can lead to…...

5+ day, 11+ hour ago   (580+ words) As an embryo develops from a small cluster of stem cells, those once “blank slate” cells begin to take on more specialized roles like brain, liver, or muscle cells, and organize themselves into three-dimensional structures such as tissues and organs....

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (515+ words) But how can one chemical messenger perform so many functions? Scientists have long suspected that a different set of neurons using the same neuromodulator may be specialized to a specific process, but they lacked the tools to study them separately....

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (946+ words) When studying psychedelics, scientists made a fatal error. They assumed that if two psychedelics worked the same way, so must they all. In a new study from Northeastern University, a team led by Prof. Craig Ferris found that the oldest…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (330+ words) Experts at the University of Sydney have found that a gene involved in regulating the body’s response to stress switches on more easily in the brains of people who live with schizophrenia. The study, published in the American Journal of…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (449+ words) Scientists can engineer living cells to perform useful tasks, from producing medicines and sustainable chemicals to detecting disease. Unlike traditional engineered systems, living cells are constantly changing as they grow, making their behavior difficult to predict and control. Dr. Chelsea…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (496+ words) Researchers at Georgia State University have identified a previously unknown aspect of schizophrenia that offers a new way to understand how the disorder affects large-scale brain coordination. In a new study, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, researchers introduced a…...

3+ week, 9+ hour ago   (436+ words) The researchers grew human neurons in three-dimensional scaffolds that mimic some of the structure of brain tissue. This allowed them to study infection in a setting that more closely resembles the human brain than traditional cell cultures grown on flat…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (776+ words) Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that, according to the CDC, currently impacts around 35,000 Americans-with 5,000 more diagnosed each year. Risk climbs with age, and treatments only slow progression. With no cure and an aging population, scientists are urgently…...