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adaption

·October 9, 2025·8 min read

Brain Cells That Thrive on Uncertainty Help Us Adapt and Learn

Scientists have discovered a group of brain cells in the orbitofrontal cortex that become more active when outcomes are uncertain, revealing how the brain adapts and learns from unpredictable situations. These neurons—found in both rats and humans—help balance flexibility and precision in decision-making, particularly when rewards are inconsistent.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 25, 2025·4 min read

Babies Show Surprising Flexibility in How They Learn and Adapt

New research reveals that babies as young as eight months can flexibly adapt their learning strategies to changing environments. Using eye-tracking and shifting patterns of visual stimuli, researchers observed that infants adjusted their behavior based on whether the monster on screen appeared in a predictable or unpredictable location.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 11, 2025·7 min read

Brain Maps of Reward Adapt Fast to New Experiences

A new study reveals that the brain rapidly rewires itself to map rewarding experiences like food, even when the location of those rewards changes. Using virtual reality and real-time brain imaging, researchers observed how mice formed flexible "reward maps" in the hippocampus that updated within moments of reward relocation.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 28, 2025·4 min read

Dopamine Surge Boosts Brain’s Ability to Adapt

For the first time, researchers have directly observed dopamine release in the human brain during moments of cognitive flexibility. Using PET imaging, they found that dopamine levels spike in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex when people switch between tasks — and the more dopamine released, the more efficiently they adapted.

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Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·May 15, 2022·5 min read

What Makes Some More Afraid of Change Than Others?

Differences in gene expression in key brain areas may account for the reason some are less fearful of change than others.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 16, 2020·5 min read

Teaching Artificial Intelligence to Adapt

A new AI model mimics how the prefrontal cortex uses gating to control information flow between different areas of neurons. The system could help in the development of new artificial intelligence technologies that better mimic the human brain.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology Visual Neuroscience

·September 4, 2018·3 min read

A Neurological Synergy in Explaining the Processing of Optical Illusions

Researchers have uncovered what they are calling 'neurological synergy' which occurs during visual adaptation.

Image shows blurry people crossing a busy street.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·November 26, 2016·3 min read

How Neurons Have Meta Adapted to Cope With Our Rowdy World

A new study reports as auditory neurons become more familiar with a sound environment, they speed up their adaption to the noisiness of that environment.