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Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·July 5, 2025·8 min read

Blurry Beginnings Shape Brain’s Visual Pathways

New research reveals how early-life blurry, low-color vision may help shape the brain’s visual pathways into specialized systems. Using computational models trained on low-quality images followed by high-quality ones, scientists showed this developmental trajectory produces distinct magnocellular and parvocellular-like processing.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 11, 2025·8 min read

How the Brain Solves Problems When It Can’t Be Perfect

A new study reveals how humans use flexible problem-solving strategies like hierarchical and counterfactual reasoning when faced with complex tasks. Researchers had participants predict a hidden ball’s path through a maze, requiring them to make real-time decisions based on sound cues and memory.

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

·May 29, 2025·8 min read

Astrocytes May Hold the Key to Brain’s Vast Memory Capacity

New research proposes that astrocytes—long thought to be merely supportive cells—may significantly enhance the brain’s ability to store memories. Unlike neurons, astrocytes cannot fire electrical signals but can influence synaptic activity through calcium signaling and gliotransmitters.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·April 7, 2025·8 min read

Immune Signals Shape Social Behavior and Anxiety in the Brain

New research reveals that the immune molecule IL-17 can influence behavior by acting directly on specific regions of the brain. IL-17 reduces neuron excitability in the cortex to enhance sociability, while in the amygdala, it increases excitability and induces anxiety.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 19, 2025·8 min read

From High Valyrian to Klingon: Artificial Languages Engage the Brain Like Natural Speech

A new study finds that the brain processes artificial languages, such as Esperanto and Klingon, using the same neural network as natural languages. Researchers scanned the brains of 44 speakers of constructed languages and observed activation in language-processing regions when participants listened to sentences in their conlang. This contrasts with computer programming languages, which engage different brain areas linked to logical reasoning.

This shows people around a campfire talking.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·March 18, 2025·7 min read

When Did Humans First Speak? Genes Offer New Clues on Language Origins

New genetic research suggests that humans first developed language around 135,000 years ago when populations began geographically splitting, followed by widespread social use around 100,000 years ago. Using data from 15 genetic studies, researchers found that early human groups branched out approximately 135,000 years ago, which likely coincides with the origin of language as a cognitive system.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 15, 2025·8 min read

How the Brain Uses Place Cells to Anchor Episodic Memories

Researchers have developed a model explaining how place cells in the hippocampus anchor both spatial and episodic memories. Grid cells in the entorhinal cortex interact with hippocampal cells to create a scaffold, linking memories to specific neural patterns.

This is a drawing of a toy fox and a child with a speech bubble saying "blicket" and "toy".

Featured Neuroscience

·November 21, 2024·8 min read

Toddlers Use Grammar Hints to Unlock the Meaning of New Words

Toddlers use subtle grammatical cues in sentences to infer the meanings of new words. Researchers found that children rely on "focus" signals—emphasis or stress in speech—rather than assuming words are mutually exclusive.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 12, 2024·8 min read

Exercise Spurs Nerve Growth Through Biochemical and Physical Impact

Researchers found that exercise promotes neuron growth through both biochemical signals (myokines) and physical stretching. Muscle cells, when contracted, release myokines that boost neuron growth and maturity.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 7, 2024·7 min read

Can Language Models Really Understand? Study Uncovers Limits in AI Logic

A recent study questions if large language models (LLMs) truly form coherent world models, despite their accurate outputs in complex tasks like generating directions or playing games. Researchers found that while LLMs provide nearly flawless driving directions, they fail with unexpected changes, suggesting the models don't grasp underlying rules.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 3, 2024·8 min read

Researchers Create Cell-Level Wearable Devices to Restore Neuron Function

Researchers have developed tiny, wireless devices capable of wrapping around individual neurons, potentially aiding in the treatment of neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis. These devices, made from a soft polymer, roll up snugly around cell structures when exposed to light, allowing precise measurement and modulation of cellular activity. As they’re battery-free and actuated noninvasively by light, thousands of them could be deployed in the body simultaneously.

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