A study from UCLA neurologists challenges the idea that the brain recruits existing neurons to take over for those that are lost from stroke. It shows that in mice, undamaged neurons do not change ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have unraveled the processes that give astrocytes, the most abundant glial cell in the brain, their special bushy shape, which is fundamental for brain ...

New experiments reveal how astrocytes tune neuronal activity to modulate our mental and emotional states. The results suggest ...

Neurons in the brain store RNA molecules - DNA gene copies - in order to rapidly react to stimuli. This storage dramatically accelerates the production of proteins. This is one of the reasons why ...

Navigating the world is no mean feat, especially when the world pushes back. For instance, airflow hitting a fly on its right side can, after a turn, become a headwind. To stay on course, the fly's ...

Adding rat stem cells to a mouse embryo resulted in a ‘hybrid brain’ in which the rat cells stepped in to restore function when the mouse’s sense of smell was removed, new research has shown. It’s the ...

Every day our brains strive to optimize a trade-off: With lots of things happening around us even as we also harbor many internal drives and memories, somehow our thoughts must be flexible yet focused ...

A late 1980s commercial meant to combat drug addiction used a pair of frying eggs as a metaphor for the effects of drugs on the human brain. While researchers have long understood that there is a ...

Neurons are the most well-known cells in the brain but they are not the only type of cell in this organ. The other main type is the glial cells, also known as neuroglia. Glia comes from the Greek word ...

Neurons are famously fragile, yet some injured cells manage to hang on, stabilize, and even reconnect. That quiet resilience has long been a mystery, especially given how easily damaged circuits can ...

Researchers report that neuronal activity is necessary and sufficient for astrocytes to develop their complex shape, and interrupting this developmental process results in disrupted brain function.