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Addiction involves changes in the brain that make it extremely difficult to fight the impulse for just one more drink or one more hit. Recent research sheds some more light on just what kinds of changes cocaine can cause in the synapses of brain areas associated with reward.
Read MoreDuring this election season, balance the talking heads with scientific minds. The web is about to get a brand new blog to fill your cortex with enough science to carry you through to the next presidency. The Dish on Science launches today, in fact, and they're having a Reddit AMA starting at 6 p.m. PST.
Read MoreHands. As a species, we humans take pride in our opposable thumbs and our penchant for maneuvering our digits to perform complicated tasks. Coordination of limbs is an evolutionarily ancient skill, shared by both vertebrates and invertebrates alike. What is happening in the brain during complicated bimanual performances such as piano playing? And does practice make "perfect" in the brain?
Read MoreIn this episode, we will talk with Professor Adam Cohen of Harvard University about taking apart electronics from the street, building a scanning tunneling microscope in your bedroom, and exciting projects using proteins to sense membrane voltage and image neural activity.
Last month, we asked you, the reader, which of the five major senses you find most interesting from a neuroscience perspective. We received the following response from guest contributor, Scott Jon Shagin. Here, Shagin describes each of the major senses from his experience living with multiple sclerosis and explains why he feels the one he picks is the most "interesting." His precise and punchy post is sure to delight, educate and enlighten.
(Photo Credit: Scott Shagin)
Read MoreWhat do psychosis, psychedelics and sleep deprivation have in common? They make you really bad at perceiving visual illusions…and really good at hallucinating.
Driven by bewilderment, a hunch, and a sense of purpose, I set out to determine how sleep deprivation causes visual hallucinations. My quest turned up a key paper (written entirely in German), a new hypothesis and a vow to get more sleep. Below is an exposition of my journey, beginning about a decade ago.
Read MoreToday, our guest is Kristin Branson, a Group Leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus. We’ll be speaking with her about searching for the right topic to study, tracking animal behavior using machine learning, and thinking about problems globally.
Today, our guest is Prof. Eric Nestler, Professor and Chair of Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Director of the Friedman Brain Institute at Mount Sinai. In this episode, we’ll talk about the molecular basis of basis of addiction, improving animal models of depression, and being a true Yalie.
Today, our guest is Okihide Hikosaka, a Senior Researcher and Section Chief at the National Eye Institute, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. We’ll be speaking with him about the role of speculation and intuition in science, the life histories and personalities of our monkey colleagues, and how short-term versus long-term memories inhabit different parts of the basal ganglia.
The number of cells in the human brain is a staggering figure. There are over a trillion cells if you count both neurons (the better-known cells that compute with electrical signals) and glia (cells that provide support and protection for neurons). But the complexity of the brain only becomes more mind-boggling once you recognize that these cells have remarkably different appearances, genetic signatures, and electrical functions.
Read MoreHome of NeuWrite West and the Stanford Neuroblog.
Do you have burning questions about how the brain works? You’ve come to the right place! Submit all your questions to NeuWrite West and we will have a neuroscientist research and answer your question.
Note: The NeuWrite West team consists of research scientists. Therefore, we can not provide answers to questions of a medical nature; we are not medical doctors.
Questions will have a turn-around time of approximately one month.
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