Neuroscience

How the reward system in the brain processes risky decisions

The mechanisms underlying decision-making have been a long-standing focus of neuroscience research. But now, researchers from Japan have found new information about how the reward system in the brain processes risky decisions.

Neuroscience

Secret structure in the wiring diagram of the brain

In the brain, our perception arises from a complex interplay of neurons that are connected via synapses. But the number and strength of connections between certain types of neurons can vary. Researchers from the University ...

Neuroscience

How do tired animals stay awake?

New research provides clues to falling fast asleep—or lying wide awake. Studying fruit flies, the researchers found that brain neurons adapt to help the flies stay awake despite tiredness in dangerous situations and help ...

Neuroscience

Why are sounds not perceived under anesthesia?

The purpose of anesthesia is to put the brain into an unconscious state in which stimuli such as sounds are not perceived. In this state, the neurons in the auditory cortex are still stimulated by sounds, but the latter are ...

Genetics

3D map reveals DNA organization within human retina cells

National Eye Institute researchers mapped the organization of human retinal cell chromatin, the fibers that package 3 billion nucleotide-long DNA molecules into compact structures that fit into chromosomes within each cell's ...

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 ...

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