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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Aesop's Fable -  ̽»¨Ö±²¥Star

Aesop’s Fable unlocks how we think

26 Jul 2012

Cambridge scientists have used an age-old fable to help illustrate how we think differently to other animals.

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Stem cells

Teaching old cells new tricks

24 Apr 2012

Much hyped by the media, stem cells have tremendous power to improve human health. As part of the Cambridge Stem Cell Initiative, Dr Ludovic Vallier’...

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Molecular Psychiatry

Chronic cocaine use may speed up ageing of brain

24 Apr 2012

Research shows chronic users’ brains age dramatically faster than their non-drug using peers.

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Brain

Wiring the brain

12 Apr 2012

Scientists have created a simple new model of the human brain which reproduces the statistics of its complex network organization.

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Brain scans from study

Siblings’ brain scans could hold the key to drug addiction

03 Feb 2012

Research provides insight into why some individuals with a family history of drug abuse are at higher risk of addiction.

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Brain scan

Test your memory!

10 Jan 2012

Online test allows public to assess their recall; scientists will use data to study long-term memory.

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Pensive parent

Search and rescue: scientists identify a novel therapy with potential for treating Parkinson’s disease

22 Dec 2011

A collaboration between virologists and neuroscientists at Cambridge ̽»¨Ö±²¥ has demonstrated how viruses that cross the blood/brain barrier could...

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Neurons, in vitrio colour!

̽»¨Ö±²¥man with the golden brain

13 Dec 2011

What’s the point of a brain? This fundamental question has led Professor Daniel Wolpert to some remarkable conclusions about how and why the brain...

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Grouper and moray.

Memory like a fish

09 Dec 2011

̽»¨Ö±²¥traditional belief that fish have short memory spans may not be as true as we thought. Gates scholar Alex Vail is carrying out research that...

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Functional neuroimaging of the human brain

̽»¨Ö±²¥communicative brain

29 Nov 2011

What is it about the human brain that makes language possible? Two evolutionary systems working together, say neuroscientists Professor William...

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A close up of a young woman snorting cocaine during the 1920s

Possible tool to help cocaine users kick the habit

06 Oct 2011

Medicines which increase levels of the brain chemical dopamine may hold the key to helping those addicted to cocaine and amphetamines kick the habit...

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Digitally enhanced MRI of the human head showing the brain and spinal cord in blue/green and the other tissues in red and pink.

Serotonin levels affect the brain’s response to anger

15 Sep 2011

Research provides new insight into why some individuals may be more aggressive than others.

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