Neuroscience News and Research

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Metastatic Lung Cancer Cells Cozy Up to Neurons and Form Synapses

Small cell lung cancer cells that metastasize to the brain cozy up to neurons and form working electrical connections, called synapses, according to an upcoming study led by Stanford Medicine researchers.

11 Sep 2025

Researchers Develop New Technique to Detect Causality in Neural Spike Trains

Understanding the brain's functional architecture is a fundamental challenge in neuroscience. The connections between neurons ultimately dictate how information is processed, transmitted, stored, and retrieved, thus forming the basis of our cognitive functions.

10 Sep 2025

Genetic Discovery Reveals How Plants Respond to Blue Light and Cold

Plants may be stuck in one place, but the world around them is constantly changing. In order to grow and flower at the right time, plants must constantly collect information about their surroundings, measuring things like temperature, brightness, and length of day.

3 Sep 2025

Plants Activate Immunity Instead of Growth During Drought Recovery

A plant's number one priority is to grow-a feat that demands sunlight, nutrients, and water. If just one of these three inputs is missing, like water in a drought, growth halts.

2 Sep 2025

Study Uncovers Connection Between Neuronal Overactivation and Parkinson’s Disease

Certain brain cells are responsible for coordinating smooth, controlled movements of the body. But when those cells are constantly overactivated for weeks on end, they degenerate and ultimately die.

28 Aug 2025

Salk Researchers Create First Genetic Atlas to Span the Entire Arabidopsis Life Cycle

Nearly everything you know about plants was first discovered in a plant you've likely never heard of. Arabidopsis thaliana, also known as thale cress, is a small, flowering weed that has shaped much of plant biology as we know it.

20 Aug 2025

Feline Dementia May Explain Synapse Loss in Alzheimers

The study uncovers amyloid-beta's role in glial-mediated synapse loss in feline cognitive dysfunction, enhancing understanding of Alzheimer's disease.

20 Aug 2025

Minimal Plant Genomes Made Possible by New Genetic Strategy

Ancient events in plant evolution have left behind large, duplicated regions in their genomes.

14 Aug 2025

New Imaging System Reveals Cellular Activity at Unprecedented Depths

Both for research and medical purposes, researchers have spent decades pushing the limits of microscopy to produce ever deeper and sharper images of brain activity, not only in the cortex but also in regions underneath such as the hippocampus.

8 Aug 2025

Salk Scientists Use CRISPR to Uncover Microproteins Linked to Obesity

The obesity rate has more than doubled in the last 30 years, affecting more than one billion people worldwide.

8 Aug 2025

Ribosome Levels Drop During Early Brain Development

A team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists has identified a specific stage of neurodevelopment when differentiating neural cells produce fewer ribosomes, which are responsible for making proteins.

6 Aug 2025

Simple Peptides Mimic Natural Protein Protection to Revolutionize Biomolecule Stability

A new study from researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) reveals that extremely simple peptides can mimic a biological process that protects sensitive proteins from environmental stress.

6 Aug 2025

Small Changes in Brain Enzyme May Have Shaped Modern Human Behavior

The evolutionary success of our species may have hinged on minute changes to our brain biochemistry after we diverged from the lineage leading to Neanderthals and Denisovans about half a million years ago.

5 Aug 2025

AI Tool Accelerates Hunt for Elusive Genome‐Encoded Microproteins

Proteins sustain life as we know it, serving many important structural and functional roles throughout the body.

1 Aug 2025

Neuroscientists Uncover Separate Brain Regions for Recognizing Liquids and Solid Objects

Imagine a ball bouncing down a flight of stairs. Now think about a cascade of water flowing down those same stairs.

1 Aug 2025

Thalamus Found to Modulate Cortical Sensitivity to Touch

The cerebral cortex processes sensory information via a complex network of neural connections. How are these signals modulated to refine perception? A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has identified a mechanism by which certain thalamic projections target neurons and modify their excitability.

31 Jul 2025

Retinal Immune Response Relies on Microglia Not Neutrophils

During most eye infections or injuries, neutrophils, immune cells found in the blood, are usually the first line of defense.

28 Jul 2025

New Computer Program Mimics Human and Animal Cell Behavior

Using mathematical analysis of patterns of human and animal cell behavior, scientists say they have developed a computer program that mimics the behavior of such cells in any part of the body.

28 Jul 2025

New Method Enables Precise Fatty Acid Delivery Without Albumin

Fatty acids (FAs) are essential to cell membrane formation, energy storage, and lipid metabolism. Yet, delivering them for research remains a challenge due to their insolubility in water and the reliance on albumin to facilitate transport.

23 Jul 2025

OHSU Team Identifies Gene Essential for Brain's Protective Layer

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered a gene that is critical to the brain’s ability to form myelin, a protective layer around nerves, potentially leading to new treatments for an extremely uncommon childhood disorder and more common diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

23 Jul 2025