Health

How does caffeine give us energy?

As our school and work schedules start returning to normal, many of us will find ourselves reaching for a pick-me-up to make it through the day. Often, this comes in the form of caffeine—say, in a cup of coffee or tea, ...

Medical research

Scientists eavesdrop on communication between fat and brain

What did the fat say to the brain? For years, it was assumed that hormones passively floating through the blood were the way that a person's fat—called adipose tissue—could send information related to stress and metabolism ...

Neuroscience

Live monitoring of brain metabolism with fluorescence

Lactate is generated in the body as a byproduct during normal metabolism and exercise. While considered a useless waste product for a long time, recent studies have shown that lactate can be an indicator for cancer and various ...

Neuroscience

Researchers discover how hormones define brain sex differences

Sex hormones play an important role in shaping an animal's behavior, and their influence starts early. Early-life hormonal surges help shape the developing brain, establishing circuitry that will influence behavior for a ...

Biomedical technology

The free-energy principle explains the brain

The RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan, along with colleagues, has shown that the free-energy principle can explain how neural networks are optimized for efficiency. Published in the scientific journal Communications ...

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