Would you like to be hooked up to a device that lets you detect magnetic fields like a bird? How about sensing infrared light like a snake? Perhaps a feed of real-time stock market data into your mind is more your sort of thing. According to David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University in California, it will soon be possible to make all this a reality.

A new theory that takes inspiration from artificial intelligence has suggested that the weirdness of dreams is essential to their purpose.

The long read: A growing chorus of scientists and philosophers argue that free will does not exist. Could they be right?

Screams of joy appear to be easier for our brains to comprehend than screams of fear, a new study suggests. The results add a surprising new layer to scientists’ long-held notion that our brains are wired to quickly recognize and respond to fearful screams as a survival mechanism (SN: 7/16/15).

Elon Musk finally got to show off his monkey. Neuralink, a company founded by Musk that is developing artificial-intelligence-powered microchips to go in people's brains, released a video Thursday appearing to show a macaque using the tech to play video games, including "Pong."

Some 2,700 years ago in the ancient city of Sam’al, in what is now modern Turkey, an elderly servant of the king sits in a corner of his house and contemplates the nature of his soul. His name is Katumuwa. He stares at a basalt stele made for him, featuring his own graven portrait together with an inscription in ancient Aramaic. It instructs his family, when he dies, to celebrate ‘a feast at this chamber: a bull for Hadad harpatalli and a ram for Nik-arawas of the hunters and a ram for Shamash, and a ram for Hadad of the vineyards, and a ram for Kubaba, and a ram for my soul that is in this stele.’

There is no shortage of psychological and pharmacological therapies to combat the world’s most widespread mental health issue, major depressive disorder (MDD). However, a significant portion of the affected population fail to respond to many of these traditional therapies. For this reason, new drugs must be tested and validated. One promising candidate is ketamine – famously but somewhat improperly known as a horse tranquilizer.

Using a new class of nanoparticles that are two thousand times thinner than a human hair, Sakhrat Khizroev, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University’s College of Engineering, hopes to unlock the secrets of the brain.

After a year of criticism by health experts, mockery from comedians and blistering critiques from political rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is standing unabashedly tall among the nation's governors on the front lines of the coronavirus fight.

A two-week course of high doses of CBD helps restore the function of two proteins key to reducing the accumulation of beta-amyloid plaque, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, and improves cognition in an experimental model of early onset familial Alzheimer's, investigators report.

The CIA tried to fight communism by dosing unwitting soldiers and prisoners with acid. ON APRIL 10, 1953, ALLEN DULLES, THE NEWLY APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF THE CIA, delivered a speech to a gathering of Princeton alumni. Though the event was mundane, global tensions were running high. The Korean War was coming to an end, and earlier that week, The New York Times had published a startling story asserting that American POWs returning from the country may have been “converted” by “Communist brain-washers.”

Back in the 1970s, the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget discovered that, if you ask young children to explain the mechanics of vision as they understand them, their answers tend to reveal the exact same misconception: that the eyes emit some sort of immaterial substance into the environment and capture the sights of objects much like a projector.

You are what you think. Understanding this is essential to start thinking in more useful ways. Why do two heads think better than one and four heads think better than two? It’s because we’re all limited by our own experiences and biases. How can we overcome this?

A tiny population of neurons known to be important to appetite appear to also have a significant role in depression that results from unpredictable, chronic stress, scientists say. These AgRP neurons reside exclusively in the bottom portion of the hypothalamus called the arcuate nucleus, or ARC, and are known to be important to energy homeostasis in the body as well prompting us to pick up a fork when we are hungry and see food.

A single large dose of cannabidiol (CBD) does not alter brain activity in several reward-related brain regions, according to a new double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The findings appear in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Yale researchers have devised a way to peer into the brains of two people simultaneously while are engaged in discussion. What they found will not surprise anyone who has found themselves arguing about politics or social issues.

When equipped with the right dietary guidelines, vitamins, and social support from close relatives, senior adults can help mitigate and prevent loss of memory. This comprehensive guide shares some of the most simple tactics when it comes to battling disorders that target a person's memory.

A new neuroimaging study offers a first look at what happens in the brain when we try to stop thinking about one thing in order to make room for new ideas. The findings offer clues on how to be more productive when studying and working. They could also lead to new therapies for trauma and anxiety disorders.

Two main types of cells compose the central nervous system—neurons and glia. Neurons form the primary actors in the brain. They use electrical signals and the chemical signalling to relay information about the various regions. Without the function of neurons and supporting cells, anything that we think and experience and do would be impossible.

When he was two years old, Ben stopped seeing out of his left eye. His mother took him to the doctor and soon discovered he had retinal cancer in both eyes. After chemotherapy and radiation failed, surgeons removed both his eyes. For Ben, vision was gone forever.