New neuroimaging research provides new insight into how tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, affects the human brain. The study found that THC increases glutamate concentrations in the striatum, a major brain structure involved in the coordination of body movement, decision-making and the initiation of action.

The story of Dr. Rapp

There was an announcement made last year that a Chinese scientist called Dr He Jiankui had used the gene-editing technique Crispr and managed to the world’s first genetically modified babies. At the same time, Elon Musk announced the true purpose of Neuralink. Read on to find out what his vision of Neuralink holds for us.

Fear is arguably as old as life. It is deeply ingrained in the living organisms that have survived extinction through billions of years of evolution. Its roots are deep in our core psychological and biological being, and it is one of our most intimate feelings. Danger and war are as old as human history, and so are politics and religion.

We are getting closer to current times now. In this part of my story/testimony God is working in my heart to a point of wanting to meet others. You know God knows when the time is right for things to happen. He does have a plan and I can look at my past and see that if none of it happened then I would could not be

A hormone released during exercise may protect the brain against Alzheimer’s disease. It may also explain the known positive effects of exercise on mental performance. Irisin is a hormone generated by muscle tissue that is carried around the body in the bloodstream. Fernana de Felice at the Federal University of Rio de Janerio and colleagues found that people with Alzheimer’s had lower levels of the hormone compared with healthy individuals.

The long read: Five years after his last taste of alcohol, William Leith tries to understand its powerful magic

Imagine being confined to a small, dark room, with no social interaction whatsoever for 30 days. Not many people would jump at this opportunity. But, in November 2018, a professional US poker player Rich Alati bet US$100,000 that he could survive 30 days alone and in total darkness. He was kept in a small, completely dark room with nothing but a bed, fridge and bathroom. Even with all the resources he needed to survive, Alati couldn’t last the month. After 20 days he negotiated his release, taking a payout of US$62,400.

Neuroscientists are teaching computers to read words straight out of people's brains. Kelly Servick, writing for Science, reported this week on three papers posted to the preprint server bioRxiv in which three different teams of researchers demonstrated that they could decode speech from recordings of neurons firing. In each study, electrodes placed directly on the brain recorded neural activity while brain-surgery patients listened to speech or read words out loud. Then, researchers tried to figure out what the patients were hearing or saying.

Researchers are getting closer to understanding the neurological basis of personality. For a new paper in the Journal of Personality, Nicola Toschi and Luca Passamonti took advantage of a recent technological breakthrough that makes it possible to use scans to estimate levels of myelination in different brain areas (until fairly recently this could only be done at postmortem).

Scientists have found preliminary evidence that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other compounds found in marijuana can promote the cellular removal of amyloid beta, a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer's disease.

When Ryan Darby was a neurology resident, he was familiar with something called alien limb syndrome, but that did not make his patients’ behavior any less puzzling. Individuals with this condition report that one of their extremities—often a hand—seems to act of its own volition. It might touch and grab things or even unbutton a shirt the other hand is buttoning up. Patients are unable to control the rebellious hand short of grabbing or even sitting on it.

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Adorable babies and cute puppies can make us happy. But researchers say their cuteness can be so overwhelming that it unleashes some ugly thoughts.

New research suggests that the brain does not objectify people who are in revealing clothing if they’re not posed in a provocative way. The findings, which appear in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, indicates that objectification is mostly related to suggestive postures. “Sexualization is widely present in mass media with women (and to a lesser extent men) often depicted in sexualized ways. Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) posits sexualization in the mass media is among the main vehicle of objectification of others...

Philosopher Peter Carruthers insists that conscious thought, judgment and volition are illusions. They arise from processes of which we are forever unaware

FMT for manic depression? Maybe.

Freud’s notion of a dark, libidinous unconscious is obsolete. A new theory holds that the brain produces a continuous stream of unconscious predictions

Researchers in Australia have developed a 10-minute test that can detect the presence of cancer cells anywhere in the human body, according to a newly published study. The test was developed after researchers from the University of Queensland found that cancer forms a unique DNA structure when placed in water. The test works by identifying the presence of that structure, a discovery that could help detect cancer in humans far earlier than current methods, according to the paper published in journal Nature Communications.

Many transgenic mouse models exist that mimic a range of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)—related pathologies. They play a key role in both basic research and preclinical testing of potential therapeutics for AD. Although they have contributed greatly to the pathophysiology of β-amyloid toxicity, none fully replicates the human disease.

UCSF researchers programmed a machine-learning algorithm to diagnose early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. The algorithm used PET scans – a common type of brain scan.

If someone told you, in all seriousness, that they talk to invisible beings who control the universe, you’d probably back away slowly, nodding and smiling, while desperately looking for the nearest exit or escape route. If this person then said they wanted to be in charge of your life, you’d probably do the same, but more urgently, and with a view to finding the nearest police officer.

One manufacturer of virtual-reality trainers has already begun including the devices in its simulators.

Research suggests the winter blues are triggered by specialized light-sensing cells in the retina that communicate directly with brain areas involved in mood.Just in time for the winter solstice, scientists may have figured out how short days can lead to dark moods. Two recent studies suggest the culprit is a brain circuit that connects special light-sensing cells in the retina with brain areas that affect whether you are happy or sad. When these cells detect shorter days...

MIT chemical engineers and neuroscientists have devised a new way to preserve biological tissue, allowing them to visualize proteins, DNA, and other molecules within cells, and to map the connections between neurons. The researchers showed that they could use this method, known as SHIELD, to trace the connections between neurons in a part of the brain that helps control movement and other neurons throughout the brain.

It’s not yet time to abandon the idea that adult human brains make new nerve cells.

Musa Manzini, a jazz bassist, was awake and playing slowly as surgeons performed an “awake craniotomy,” which allowed them to remove a brain tumor without causing damage.

Does it ever strike you as odd that you and a friend can experience the same event at the same time, but come away with different memories of what happened? So why is it that people can recall the same thing so differently? We all know memory isn’t perfect, and most memory differences are relatively trivial. But sometimes they can have serious consequences.

Brain cells are some of the only body cells that can perform these alterations

A neuroscientist’s research into the mysteries of motion helps a paralyzed woman escape her body.

For the first time, researchers have got evidence that dreams help soothe the impact of emotional events in our lives, acting like overnight therapy. By Rowan Hooper. (July 18, 2018)

Could nasal breathing be more helpful for our brains than breathing through the mouth?

Why your brain is like an ant colony: they both get wiser and more stable by using collective memory for learning

Millions of Canadians use it. Here's what happens to your brain when you take a hit.

For most of human history, people have assumed that some kind of vitalistic essence had to be added to matter to produce life. The belief in an immaterial soul was pervasive. At one point, a scientist even tried to weigh the soul by weighing a body right before and after death, expecting to find a decrease when the soul departed (see Benjamin Radford’s column in the Skeptical Inquirer “Measuring Near-Death Experience,” May/June 2007).