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brain research

Research articles and news stories tagged with brain research

·June 7, 2025·6 min read

Symptom Provocation Boosts Brain Stimulation Effectiveness

A new meta-analysis suggests that provoking symptoms just before delivering repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can improve clinical outcomes for OCD and nicotine dependence. Researchers examined data from multiple studies and found that rTMS was nearly twice as effective when paired with targeted symptom provocation.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 6, 2025·5 min read

Obeying Orders Lowers Moral Responsibility Perception in the Brain

A new brain imaging study reveals that the sense of agency—our feeling of being responsible for our actions—decreases when we follow orders, regardless of whether we are civilians or military officers. Participants were asked to make moral decisions involving inflicting harm either freely or under coercion, and fMRI results showed reduced neural markers of agency during coerced actions.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 6, 2025·7 min read

Brain Area Stores and Resolves Hypotheses for Landmark Ambiguity

Researchers have discovered that the mouse brain can simultaneously encode multiple hypotheses about its spatial location while navigating environments with ambiguous landmarks. In a complex task requiring mice to distinguish between identical cues, neurons in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) exhibited distinct activity patterns reflecting different possibilities of where the mouse might be.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 6, 2025·4 min read

Sleep-Wake Perception Intact in Many With Insomnia

A new study finds that patients with insomnia often retain accurate sleep-wake perception and intact regulatory systems, despite feeling as though they sleep poorly. Using serial awakenings during sleep lab monitoring, researchers found no significant difference in sleep perception between healthy individuals and those with insomnia.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·June 6, 2025·4 min read

Skin Aging Reduced by Molecules from Bacteria in the Blood

Researchers have identified three anti-aging compounds produced by Paracoccus sanguinis, a bacterium found in the bloodstream. These indole-based metabolites reduced inflammation and oxidative stress in human skin cell cultures—key contributors to skin aging.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·June 6, 2025·6 min read

Study Links Gut Bacteria to MS Risk and Reveals Key Triggers

A new twin study has identified specific gut bacteria that may contribute to the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), the most common inflammatory disease of the central nervous system. By comparing identical twins where only one has MS, researchers reduced confounding genetic and environmental factors and pinpointed 51 bacterial taxa with different abundances.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·June 6, 2025·5 min read

Nanowire Retinal Implant Restores Vision and Sees Infrared

Researchers have developed a retinal prosthesis made of tellurium nanowires that restores partial vision in blind mice and enables near-infrared vision in primates. The implant, woven into a lattice of light-sensitive nanowires, converts both visible and near-infrared light into electrical signals for the brain.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 6, 2025·5 min read

Brain’s Reward Center Tracks Not Just What, But When Rewards Arrive

The brain’s ventral tegmental area (VTA) encodes not only the value of anticipated rewards but also the precise timing of when those rewards are expected. Long known for its role in producing dopamine and guiding reward prediction, the VTA is now shown to process reward expectations on multiple time scales.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 5, 2025·5 min read

How the Brain Tells Imagination from Reality, And When It Fails

A new study identifies the brain mechanisms that help us distinguish real experiences from imagined ones. Researchers found that the fusiform gyrus—a region involved in visual processing—plays a key role in telling reality from imagination, especially when we mentally picture something vividly.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 5, 2025·6 min read

Mice Experience Rubber Hand Illusion

A new study shows that mice, like humans, can experience a sense of embodiment toward an artificial limb—similar to the famous rubber-hand illusion. When their real limb was hidden and both real and fake limbs were brushed in sync, mice visually tracked a threat to the fake limb, indicating perceived ownership.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 5, 2025·4 min read

Can AI Be Funny? Yes, But Not Funnier Than a Human

A new study shows that AI can create internet memes rated as funny and shareable as those made by humans—but the best jokes still come from people. Researchers compared memes made by humans, AI, and human-AI teams, using classic templates like Doge and Futurama Fry.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 5, 2025·10 min read

Dopamine Neurons Map Future Rewards, Not Just Past Ones

Populations of dopamine neurons don't simply signal reward prediction errors—they encode rich maps of possible future outcomes, including when and how much a reward might be. This diverse, adaptable neural code mirrors cutting-edge AI strategies known as distributional reinforcement learning.

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brain research

Symptom Provocation Boosts Brain Stimulation Effectiveness

Obeying Orders Lowers Moral Responsibility Perception in the Brain

Brain Area Stores and Resolves Hypotheses for Landmark Ambiguity

Sleep-Wake Perception Intact in Many With Insomnia

Skin Aging Reduced by Molecules from Bacteria in the Blood

Study Links Gut Bacteria to MS Risk and Reveals Key Triggers

Nanowire Retinal Implant Restores Vision and Sees Infrared

Brain’s Reward Center Tracks Not Just What, But When Rewards Arrive

How the Brain Tells Imagination from Reality, And When It Fails

Mice Experience Rubber Hand Illusion

Can AI Be Funny? Yes, But Not Funnier Than a Human

Dopamine Neurons Map Future Rewards, Not Just Past Ones

Left-Handed Creativity Myth Debunked

Tiny RNA Mark Helps Explain Brain Wiring and Mental Disorders

Brain Tracks Emotional Transitions Through Music

People Prefer Human Empathy, Even When AI Says the Same Thing

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