Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Neuroscience

A speech therapist forms an L during a stuttering therapy.

What Neuroscientists Are Discovering About Stuttering

After centuries of misunderstanding, researchers are tying the condition to genes and brain alterations.

This cheese is real, but by stimulating certain parts of a mouse's brain, researchers were able to trick the critter into smelling scents that were not present.

New Research

Experiment Tricks Mice Into Smelling Things That Aren’t There

Researchers stimulated certain of the mouse’s brain cells in a particular order to produce ‘synthetic smells’

A gene unique to humans increased brain size in common marmosets.

Brain Gene Tops the List for Making Humans, Human

In a study involving marmosets, a primate genetically similar to humans, researchers have come closer to understanding brain evolution

The Covid-19 pandemic has skyrocketed the demand for new strains of mice to help scientists understand the progression of the disease, test existing drugs, find new therapeutic targets and develop vaccines.

Covid-19

Building a Mouse Squad Against COVID-19

A Maine laboratory is on the verge of supplying a much-needed animal for SARS-CoV-2 research

Researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science averaged the structures of 1,625 mouse brains to create a standard model.

New Research

Researchers Created a 3-D Map of 100 Million Cells in the Mouse Brain

Neuroscientists have been using the tool since 2017 to pinpoint where exactly their data are coming from

Video calls also remove several of the nonverbal cues that humans rely on for communication.

Why Video Calls Are Surprisingly Exhausting

Expressing yourself and trying to read others’ faces in a grid of video feeds is a taxing task

Peter Longstaff, a foot artist who participated in the neurological study.

Artists Who Paint With Their Feet Have Unique Brain Patterns

Neuroscientists determined that certain “sensory maps” in the brain become more refined when people use their feet like hands

The bicolored white-toothed shrew (Crocidura leucodon), a small mammal known to carry and transmit Borna disease virus to other animals.

A Shrew-Borne Virus Is Responsible for Deadly Brain Infections in Humans

First discovered in livestock hundreds of years ago, Borna disease virus has apparently been claiming human lives for decades

The Heslington brain, revealed intact within a 2,600-year-old skull unearthed near modern day York, England

New Research

Super Resilient Protein Structures Preserved a Chunk of Brain for 2,600 Years

After death, most brains decompose within months or years. This one lasted millennia

These are ten of the biggest strides made by scientists in the last ten years.

The Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of the Decade

Breakthroughs include measuring the true nature of the universe, finding new species of human ancestors, and unlocking new ways to fight disease

It's hard enough to talk about our feelings. Now, try doing it across languages.

The Meanings Behind Words for Emotions Aren’t Universal, Study Finds

Certain emotions may be universal. But the way humans describe their feelings, it seems, is not

How many sheep?

Dogs’ Brains Naturally Process Numbers, Just Like Ours

Scientists stuck 11 dogs in fMRI scanners to see if their brains had a knack for quantity

Talk about a rat race.

Scientists Taught Rats to Drive Tiny Cars to Earn Froot Loops

What’s more, driving seemed to relax the rodents

The crypt-keeper brainwashes victims, then consumes them from the inside out

Parasitic Crypt-Keeper Wasp Manipulates the Minds of Seven Fellow Insect Species

The ‘hypermanipulator’ is named after Set, the Egyptian god of war and chaos

New Research

Rats Learned to Play Hide and Seek to Help Study the Brain

The animals squeaked and jumped for joy during the game, a sign that they enjoy play just as much as humans

Brain donation is of critical importance for scientists' understanding of brain disorders.

Inside a Brain Bank, Where Humans’ Most Precious Organ Is Dissected and Studied

Unlike organ transplants, brains are used primarily to support research of some of the most widespread and debilitating diseases in the world

This brain is just one of many making up the Indiana Medical History Museum's extensive collection.

The Future of Mental Health

How One Museum Is Giving a Voice to Former Mental Health Patients

The Indiana Medical History Museum is telling the human stories behind its collection of brains, tumors and other biological remains

The microbiome—a collection of organisms including bacteria, archaea, fungi and viruses that live in the human gut—has been shown to play a significant role in brain function.

How the Gut Microbiome Could Provide a New Tool to Treat Autism

A growing body of evidence suggests the behavioral symptoms of autism spectrum disorder could be linked to bacteria in the gut

The lines scribbled over this famous Georges Seurat painting come from an experiment that tracked how the human eye jerks around as it takes in the details of the scene.

Our Eyes Are Always Darting Around, So How Come Our Vision Isn’t Blurry?

Our brains manage to construct stable images even as our eyes keep jerking around. Here’s what we know about how that happens.

New Research

New Study Suggests Leonardo da Vinci Had A.D.H.D.

The master painter had difficulties with procrastination, finishing projects and staying on task his entire life

Page 10 of 22