For recreational users, ecstasy has long been associated with a harmonious mindset. Now there’s research to back that up. In a new study of MDMA, ecstasy’s main ingredient, the drug indeed made people more cooperative—but only with trustworthy partners.

Studies have found an association between cannabis use and transient psychotic symptoms, such as unusual thoughts, suspiciousness, and hallucinatory experiences. A new study suggests that this relationship is mostly attributable to genetic predisposition. But the research, which appears in JAMA Psychiatry, found that person-specific factors also influence the association between psychotic-like experiences and cannabis use to a lesser extent.

Looking to the future has always defined humanity. Will A.I. become the best crystal ball of all?

Eva Feldman's research shows Implanting neural stem cells in the brains of mouse models improved recognition and spatial memory, along with learning

Preliminary finding turns heads at neuroscience meeting

Why is my awareness here, while yours is over there? Why is the universe split in two for each of us, into a subject and an infinity of objects?

Susie McKinnon doesn’t remember being a child or remember being any age other than she is now: in her 60s. She can’t remember special events, either. She knows she went to her nephew’s wedding. She knows her husband went with her. But she can’t actually remember being there. In fact, she has very few memories from her life – but she doesn’t have amnesia.

Stigma often prevents patients from acknowledging an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. A series of high-profile disclosures may help change that.

The military wants future super-soldiers to control robots with their thoughts. By Michael Joseph Gross.

Findings open new avenues for the research of neurodegenerative disorders

Suppose neuroscientists could predict your intentional actions before you can. Would that mean that you lack free will? I used to think that it would. Now I'm not so sure.

But the results apply only to male rats and involve radio frequencies long out of routine use.

'Rats appear to have the same active forgetting ability as humans do – they forget memories selectively when those memories cause distraction,' research shows. While it is widely accepted and scientifically proven that human beings have a selective memory – we forget distracting memories to focus on what matters – little is known about the capacity to forget in other mammalian species.

Robert King spent 29 years living alone in a six by nine-foot prison cell. He was part of the “Angola Three”—a trio of men kept in solitary confinement for decades and named for the Louisiana state penitentiary where they were held. King was released in 2001 after a judge overturned his 1973 conviction for killing a fellow inmate. Since his exoneration he has dedicated his life to raising awareness about the psychological harms of solitary confinement.

Brain changes, visible on scans, are also associated with Alzheimer’s precursors

Hannah Jenkins survived a cycling accident - but woke up no longer being able to understand English.

For the first time, researchers have discovered that birds can sleep in flight.

The cerebellum can’t get no respect. Located inconveniently on the underside of the brain and initially thought to be limited to controlling movement, the cerebellum has long been treated like an afterthought by researchers studying higher brain functions. But researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say overlooking the cerebellum is a mistake. Their findings, published Oct. 25 in Neuron, suggest that the cerebellum has a hand in every aspect of higher brain functions — not just movement, but attention, thinking, planning and decision-making.

Researchers at Brown found that alcohol hijacks a conserved memory pathway in the brain and changes which versions of genes are made, forming the cravings that fuel addiction.

All perception is created by the brain, which is therefore illusory and limited by its own function. Because of a certain way the neurons within our brain get fired on specific inputs, they give a distinct output or reaction expressed in our physical reality. A visual of a pizza advertisement gives you a pleasurable craving which can then be converted into an output action, for example.

Hints at potential treatments for age-related dementia and memory loss

A new study from Johns Hopkins shows that individuals with early onset Alzheimer's disease—those under the age of 65—don't benefit from deep brain stimulation, a treatment already proven to be effective for easing motor symptoms of people with Parkinson's disease. "Our results suggest that as we look at deep brain stimulation as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease, we should probably focus on those over 65, which is the bulk of people with Alzheimer's," says Jeannie-Marie Leoutsakos, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Tiny doses of magic mushrooms and truffles could help you to produce more new and creative ideas

A small study of 10 cosmonauts found that spaceflight led to changes in gray and white matter volume in the brain.

When researchers convinced a group of young people to stop smoking pot, their cognition quickly improved. This adds to research warning against teen pot use, despite marijuana's growing acceptance.

We know the menagerie of microbes in the gut has powerful effects on our health. Could some of these same bacteria be making a home in our brains? A poster presented here this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience drew attention with high-resolution microscope images of bacteria apparently penetrating and inhabiting the cells of healthy human brains.

Up to half of all patients who survive emergency medical treatment in the intensive care unit have mental problems when they return home. Doctors studying the problem say it starts with delirium.

Electrical stimulation of cells in the nasal passages produces sweet fragrances and chemical odors

Scientists may soon be able to create human brains in a lab, according to the latest research. For the first time scientists have successfully grown a 3D model of the brain using human cells, allowing them to better study abnormal brain activity. Experts have been culturing brain tissue for years but this technique uses functional neutral tissue to create 'brain-like organoids'.

Grief is both real and measurable. Scientists now know that the death or your father or mother will forever alter your brain chemistry and may also have physical effects.

A substance that gives pot its kick appears to reduce the brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease – at least in mice. In mice that had been genetically tweaked to develop symptoms like those of Alzheimer's, animals that received a synthetic form of tetrahydrocannabinol for six weeks performed as well as healthy mice on a memory test, scientists reported Tuesday at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego.

Researchers at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Norway in have discovered a network of brain cells that expresses our sense of time within experiences and memories. "This network provides timestamps for events and keeps track of the order of events within an experience," says Professor Edvard Moser, Nobel laureate and director of the Kavli Institute, which is based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). This area of the brain where time is experienced is located right next to the area that codes for space.

What can hyperpolyglots teach the rest of us?

Money has poured into Alzheimer's research, but until very recently not much of it went toward investigating infection in causing dementia. A million dollar prize may lead more scientists to try.

On Amazon, you can shell out about $15 to buy pills made of cellulose, titanium dioxide, gelatin, and dye. None of these ingredients have any medical effect, but customers report taking these pills for pain relief, to reduce excessive sweating, and even to quit smoking. It’s not surprising, really. Medical quackery has a long and proud history, and so long as there’s gullible people, there will be somebody selling snake oil. But here’s the rub: Right on the bottle, in big, blue letters is the word “placebo.” The only claim the manufacturer makes about these pills is that they are guaranteed not to contain any kind of medicine.