Singer Amy Winehouse died from alcohol toxicity in 2011, the same year that the American Society of Addiction Medicine publicly recognized addiction as a brain disorder.
Alcohol and other drugs can overpower the reward pathways of the brain.
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Sapolsky summarises the latest scientific research relevant to determinism: the idea that we’re causally ‘determined’ to act as we do and couldn’t possibly act any other way.
Animal nervous systems may lose their adaptive edge with climate change.
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Rapidly changing temperatures and sensory environments are challenging the nervous systems of many species. Animals will be forced to evolve to survive.
Model of a thylacine at the Australian Museum.
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Why is it so difficult to swat a fly? A team of insect experts explains how a fly’s sophisticated vision allows it to quickly react to visual cues.
The U.S. BRAIN Initiative seeks to elucidate the connection between brain structure and function.
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From figuring out where memories are stored to how sensory information translates to behavior, new technologies are helping neuroscientists better understand how the brain works.
Different painkillers provide relief in different ways. The most effective medication is the one that best targets the type of pain you’re experiencing with minimal side effects.
The compact olfactory system provides a more accessible way to study the brain as a whole.
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Understanding how the brain translates smells into behavior change can help advance search and rescue technology and treatments for neurological conditions.
The death of 57-year-old Paul Millachip at Fremantle’s Port Beach is a reminder that shark bites, though rare, can be tragic. New research aims to reduce the risk by understanding sharks’ vision.
Carey Wilson, The University of Melbourne and Thibault Renoir, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Early reports suggested an apparent increase in OCD relapse rates and symptom severity during the pandemic. But a year on, we’re learning this may not be the case.
Scientists still still don’t fully understand how general anaesthesia affects the brain and body. A molecule found in bioluminescent stony coral may shed some light.
The author, Arash Javanbakht, at his gym. Javanbakht did not like to exercise until he found an activity he enjoyed.
Arash Javanbakht
Many doctors believe that exercise is the closest thing to a miracle drug that modern medicine has in its arsenal. But have you ever wondered why that is so? Your brain actually benefits, too.
This Ig Nobel-winning research is shedding light on how ultrasound waves could be used to non-invasively control nerve impulses (and therefore ‘thoughts’) in our brains.
Medical treatments involving neurostimulation, or cerebral electromagnetic stimulation, are resurfacing and appear to be more effective than drugs for treating depression.
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Air traffic controllers have to process and manage large amounts of information to get airplanes to their destinations. The brain manages the incessant traffic of neurons in a similar fashion.
Different MR images help us unravel the mysteries of the brain. A diffusion MRI tractography reconstruction like this reveals the complicated wiring deep within a person’s brain.
Thijs Dhollander
Peter C. Doherty, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Born in Italy in 1909, Levi-Montalcini avoided being transported to Auschwitz as a young woman and rose to prominence as a neurobiologist. She was a co-recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Medicine.