Topic description and stories

Neuroscience has transformed our understanding of the brain and promises treatments for devastating disorders that affect millions.

Charts map rapid growth and slow decline of brains

06 April 2022

An international team of researchers has created a series of brain charts spanning our entire lifespan – from a 15 week old fetus to 100 year old adult – that show how our brains expand rapidly in early life and slowly shrink as we age. 

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Dunking a cookie into a cup of coffee

Just made coffee while chatting to a friend? Time to thank your ‘visuomotor binding’ mechanism…

14 Mar 2014

Experiments have identified a dedicated information highway that combines visual cues with body motion. This mechanism triggers responses to cues...

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Scientists wake up to causes of sleep disruption in Alzheimer’s disease

27 Feb 2014

New research using fruit flies with Alzheimer’s protein finds that the disease doesn’t stop the biological clock ticking, but detaches it from the...

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That was supposed to be going up, wasn't it?

Stress hormones in financial traders may trigger ‘risk aversion’ and contribute to market crises

18 Feb 2014

New study’s findings overturn theory of personal risk preference as a ‘stable trait’, and show that real source of instability in risk behaviour “...

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Overview of average regional sex differences in grey matter volume. Areas of larger volumes in women are in red and areas of larger volume in men are in blue.

Males and females differ in specific brain structures

11 Feb 2014

New study examines thousands of brains from two decades of research to reveal differences between male and female brain structure.

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Study confirms a gene linked to Asperger Syndrome and empathy

17 Dec 2013

Scientists have confirmed that variations in a particular gene play a key role in the autism spectrum condition known as Asperger Syndrome. They have...

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Chemical structure of Modafinil

Modafinil, a drug typically used to treat sleep disorders, reduces depression’s severity when taken with antidepressants

27 Nov 2013

Researchers believe findings could help the many individuals for whom anti-depressants offer little or no relief

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Synesthetic number form

Synaesthesia is more common in autism

20 Nov 2013

People with autism are more likely to also have synaesthesia, suggests new research in the journal Molecular Autism .

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Patient in ‘vegetative state’ not just aware, but paying attention

31 Oct 2013

Research raises possibility of devices in the future to help some patients in a vegetative state interact with the outside world.

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Cluster of greatest grey matter volume reduction in patients with ADHD compared with control subjects located in the left middle frontal gyrus, overlaid on a rendered standardized brain template.

Imaging study shows dopamine dysfunction is not the main cause of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

28 Oct 2013

Research suggests that the main cause of the disorder may lie instead in structural differences in the grey matter in the brain.

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Areas highlighted in red on the right and left brain hemispheres show the frontal and temporal brain networks involved in the processing of linguistic information in intonation

Tuning into the melody of speech

15 Oct 2013

In a groundbreaking new study, Cambridge researchers have mapped out the neurobiological basis of a key aspect of human communication: intonation.

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Genetic mutations linked to Parkinson’s disease

12 Aug 2013

Mutations might play a key role in the death of brain cells.

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̽»¨Ö±²¥skinny on cocaine

09 Aug 2013

New research suggests chronic cocaine use causes profound metabolic changes, reducing the body’s ability to store fat.

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