Shelly Fan, University of California, San Francisco
Tinkering with the brain’s electrical field shows tantalizing promise for boosting memory, but it doesn’t always work. A new study offers one reason why.
It’s time to stop being sniffy about the human sense of smell.
Nestor Rizhniak/Shutterstock
Move over, dogs. The latest evidence suggests humans can match most other animals when it comes to smelling – and even outperform them for certain scents.
The stone flakes are flying, but what brain regions are firing?
Shelby S. Putt
We can’t observe the brain activity of extinct human species. But we can observe modern brains doing the things that our distant ancestors did, looking for clues about how ancient brains worked.
A host of spaces that were once immune to commercial intrusion – from parks to our friendships – are now being infiltrated by advertisers. Are we being enslaved by a ‘merciless master’?
Brain-computer interfacing is a hot topic in the tech world, with Elon Musk’s announcement of his new Neuralink startup. Here, researchers separate what’s science from what’s currently still fiction.
Brains are precious. We can’t just let any old thing in.
Neil Conway/Flickr
The blood-brain barrier helps protect the brain, but it also creates difficulties in treating brain disorders. Ultrasound may offer a safe way to more effectively deliver therapies.
Reining the mind back from fearful things.
Shutterstock
Hominin skull casts (L-R) Australopithecus afarensis, Homo habilis, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis.
Roger Seymour/South Australian Museum
The discovery by researchers at Yale University that the brain is capable of converting glucose into fructose may lead to changes in how we target neurological complications in diabetes.