Neuroscience

A light switch inside the brain

Activating and deactivating individual nerve cells in the brain is something many neuroscientists wish they could do, as it would help them to better understand how the brain works.

Neuroscience

Seeing the brain's electrical activity

Neurons in the brain communicate via rapid electrical impulses that allow the brain to coordinate behavior, sensation, thoughts, and emotion. Scientists who want to study this electrical activity usually measure these signals ...

Neuroscience

Putting the brakes on heroin relapse

Neuroscientists from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) report in Science Advances that star-shaped brain cells known as astrocytes can "turn off" neurons involved in relapse to heroin. Drug-related cues in the ...

Cardiology

Researchers map rotating spiral waves in live human hearts

Electrical signals tell the heart to contract, but when the signals form spiral waves, they can lead to dangerous cardiac events like tachycardia and fibrillation. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and clinicians ...

Ophthalmology

Smart microchips may optimise human vision

To date, chip-based retinal implants have only permitted a rudimentary restoration of vision. However, modifying the electrical signals emitted by the implants could change that. This is the conclusion of the initial published ...

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