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.

Researchers said the amoebas likely got into the woman's brain through the tap water she used to fill a neti pot, rather than using saline or sterile water. The organisms entered her brain after she squirted the water up into her upper nasal cavity.

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

The human brain needs to suppress obvious ideas in order to reach the most creative ones, according to scientists at Queen Mary University of London and Goldsmiths, University of London. Creativity requires us to break away from more common and easily reached ideas but we know little about how this happens in our brain. A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that brainwaves play a crucial role in inhibiting habitual thinking modes to pave the way to access more remote ideas.

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

Almost everyone has something they fear – maybe it’s spiders, enclosed spaces, or heights. When we encounter these “threats,” our hearts might begin to race, or our hands may become sweaty. This is called a threat fear response, and it exists to help us avoid potential pain. Most of us only feel scared when a threat is present. But when the threat fear response happens even when a threat isn’t present, it can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobias, or anxiety.

Researchers from the Cognition and Brain Plasticity research group of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the University of Barcelona (UB), in collaboration with several hospitals, have discovered that an intellectually active lifestyle confers protection against neurodegeneration in people with Huntington's disease, delaying the onset of symptoms and loss of gray matter in the brain.

New research suggests that exposure to childhood adversity is associated with reduced cognitive control and alterations in key brain networks. The findings, which appear in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, could help explain the link between childhood adversity and depression.

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

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)

Hydrogels are physical and chemical polymer networks capable of retaining large quantities of liquid in aqueous conditions without losing their dimensional stability. They are used in a whole host of applications, and in combination with other components and they acquire specific properties such as electrical conductivity. The Materials + Technology research group in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environment...

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

Religious and spiritual experiences have profound effects on many people around the world. A new study from a team of neuroscientists shows that what they feel is caused by activating the brain's reward circuits that control our ability to feel pleasure. It's the part of the brain associated with sex, drugs, music as well as love.

The human mind can be a confusing and overwhelming place. Despite incredible leaps in human progress, many of us still struggle to make our peace with our thoughts. The roots of this are complex and multifaceted. To find explanations for the global mental health epidemic, one can tap into neuroscience, psychology, evolutionary biology, or simply observe the meaningless systems that dominate our modern-day world.

In May of 2017, Louise decided that her life was just too difficult, so she’d end it. In the previous four years, three siblings and a half-sibling had died, two from disease, one from fire and one from choking. Close friends had moved away. She felt painfully, unbearably alone. It would be the fourth time Louise (I’m using her middle name to protect her privacy), then 68, would attempt suicide, and she was determined to get it right.

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.

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?

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

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.

NASA has made a commitment to send humans to Mars by the 2030s. This is an ambitious goal when you think that a typical round trip will anywhere between three and six months and crews will be expected to stay on the red planet for up to two years before planetary alignment allows for the return journey home. It means that the astronauts have to live in reduced (micro) gravity for about three years, well beyond the current record of 438 continuous days in space held by the Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov.

A new study published in Radiology showed that a deep learning model predicted Alzheimer’s disease with 82% specificity and 100% sensitivity about 6 years before diagnosis by using fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET imaging studies of the brain. According to the study published in the journal Radiology, artificial intelligence can help predict Alzheimer’s disease, a disease where early diagnosis can be pivotal for the introduction of treatments and interventions.

While there’s still a debate about whether we have free will or not, most researchers at least agree that we feel as if we do. That perception is often considered to have two elements: a sense of having decided to act – called “volition”; and feeling that that decision was our own – having “agency”. Now in a paper in PNAS, Ryan Darby at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and colleagues have used a new technique – lesion network mapping – to identify for the first time the brain networks that underlie our feelings of volition and for agency.

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.

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

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.

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.

Findings open new avenues for the research of neurodegenerative disorders

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

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.

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