It was the juice that tipped him off. At lunch, Ícaro de A.T. Pires found the flavor of his grape juice muted, flattened into just water with sugar. There was…
Category: Neuroscience
Sleep deprivation may make people less generous
Lack of sleep has been linked to heart disease, poor mood and loneliness (SN: 11/15/16). Being tired could also make us less generous, researchers report August 23 in PLOS Biology.…
An hour after pigs’ deaths, an artificial system restored cellular life
Call it cellular life support for dead pigs. A complex web of pumps, sensors and artificial fluid can move oxygen, nutrients and drugs into pigs’ bodies, preserving cells in organs…
Spinal stimulation gives some people with paralysis more freedom
By his count, Michel Roccati is on his third life, at least. In the first, he was a fit young man riding his motorcycle around Italy. A 2017 crash in…
Herminia Pasantes discovered how taurine helps brain cells regulate their size
When Herminia Pasantes Ordóñez was about 14 years old, in 1950, she heard her mother tell her father that she would never find a husband. Pasantes had to wear thick…
How scientists are shifting their search for links between diet and dementia
The internet is rife with advice for keeping the brain sharp as we age, and much of it is focused on the foods we eat. Headlines promise that oatmeal will…
Glial cells may take on big jobs in unexpected parts of the body
In the theater of the brain, nerve cells have long been cast as the stars, bringing mental scenes to life with their electrical and chemical performances. Yet many of the…
Headbutts hurt the brain, even for a musk ox
Punishing headbutts damage the brains of musk oxen. That observation, made for the first time and reported May 17 in Acta Neuropathologica, suggests that a life full of bell-ringing clashes is…
COVID-19 has killed a million Americans. Our minds can’t comprehend that number
One million deaths. That is now roughly the toll of COVID-19 in the United States. And that official milestone is almost certainly an undercount. The World Health Organization’s data suggest…
Baby marmosets may practice their first distinctive cries in the womb
Cradled inside the hushed world of the womb, fetuses might be preparing to come out howling. In the same way newborn humans can cry as soon as they’re born, common…
