Neuroscience

The brain is a unique place. It is shielded from much of the body by the blood-brain barrier, meaning it’s protected from pathogens and potentially dangerous substances that might be in our blood. And historically, many scientists believed that separation extended to the immune system as well: the brain has its own specialized immune cells called microglia, but immune cells present in the rest of the body were long thought to steer clear of the brain unless there was a disease or other problem requiring their presence.

Caffeine is not only found in coffee, but also in tea, chocolate, energy drinks and many soft drinks, making it one of the most widely consumed psychoactive substances in the world.

Grassroots rugby concussion guidelines need to be improved as players’ brains remain altered despite them being symptom-free and cleared to play, researchers have found.

Many grooves and dimples on the surface of the brain are unique to humans, but they’re often dismissed as an uninteresting consequence of packing an unusually large brain into a too-small skull.

There’s good news for people with migraine who take common drugs before or during pregnancy—a new study found no increase in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD in their children. The study, which looked at drugs used for migraine attacks called triptans, is published in Neurology.

In a new clinical study, researchers from the Texas Biomedical Device Center (TxBDC) at The University of Texas at Dallas demonstrated unprecedented rates of recovery for spinal cord injuries.

Researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil have succeeded in showing, in an animal model, that the process of insulin resistance in the brain affects both Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy and may be a linking factor between the two diseases.

Successfully treating type 2 diabetes may involve focusing on brain neurons, rather than simply concentrating on obesity or insulin resistance, according to a study published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have upended the decades-old dogma of how connections between brain cells are rearranged during states of heightened vigilance or attention. The team found that a brain chemical associated with alertness, attention and learning alters brain connectivity and function not by acting directly on neurons, the cells known for their quick transmission of information, but through the work of astrocytes, another, slower-acting type of brain cell that is often overlooked in the field of neuroscience.

Scientists at McMaster University have uncovered new insights into the complex interactions between different kinds of brain cells and their responses to social and stress stimuli.