By Chris Gabriel
Rock climbing is as much a puzzle as it is a sport. Anyone could guess that climbing requires a unique combination of athletic skills: muscular power to…
Read More
Weight trainers often espouse the “mind-muscle connection”. But what actually happens to the brain during strength training? Surprisingly, even a few weeks of weight training alter the nervous system, and…
Read More
Nearly everything we do requires our brain in some way. Eating a bagel? That uses your brain. Reading this article? That’s using your brain, too. All those questionable decisions you…
Read More
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is a peripheral neuropathy disorder that affects various genders and ethnic groups worldwide. Nerve cell abnormalities are associated with this disorder and are linked to symptoms such as…
Read More
Alternating Hemiplegia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects children. A characteristic symptom of the disorder is repetitive episodes of paralysis on one side or both sides of the body. The…
Read More
Spanish Translation also available here: Neuro Cartilla: Sistema Vestibular
~~~
Have you ever watched shaky camera footage taken by someone running frantically through the forest? The camera shot shakes and…
Read More
Neuroscience continues to investigate the difference between a bad habit and the spectrum of mental health disorders known as body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs). BFRBs afflict less than 3% of the…
Read More
Astronauts are no strangers to the harsh and wild conditions of outer space. From ionizing radiation to microgravity, these space explorers are exposed to a myriad of stressors that play…
Read More
In Parkinson’s Disease, specific cells in the brain die. Over time, this makes basic movements like walking and reaching for a cup impossible. Researchers are racing to find effective treatments.…
Read More
Brain damage is a major concern for us humans – car accidents, football, falling backwards. It’s pretty easy to cause a concussion. Woodpeckers, however, pound away daily using much more…
Read More
The platypus and the echidna are the only mammals that have the power of electroreception, which means they can sense electrical changes. Check out this new Weird Animal Brain to…
Read More
Epigenetics change which genes are active and which are inactive. Research over the past few years has shown that these changes are important for protecting the brain from neurodegeneration and…
Read More
The brain is one of the most complex and amazing structures in the universe. It allows us to experience the world, feel, remember, and plan for the future. But for…
Read More
The human brain is arguably the most complex organ. Throughout life, it is shaped ever so slightly by each and every experience we endure. The resulting nuances are what make us…
Read More
The octopus almost reaches alien status when it comes to its brain and nervous system. And yet, the differences can help us understand more about the human brain as well…
Read More
According to the World Health Organization, smoking is responsible for approximately 6 million deaths in the world every year or one fatality every six seconds. 71% of all lung cancers…
Read More
You probably have certain skills that I don’t. Each of us, having spent enough time practicing something new, can become an expert. A simple, ubiquitous example is driving a car…
Read More
In early 2014, the American free-solo rock climber Alex Honnold climbed 2,500 feet of limestone without ropes. The demanding route called El Sendero Luminoso in El Potrero Chico, Mexico required…
Read More
Unlike the sense of vision, which is perceived only by light-sensitive photoreceptors in our eyes, the mechanoreceptors that respond to light touch are located in sensory neurons all over the…
Read More
Huntington’s disease (HD) is an incredibly debilitating neurodegenerative disorder. Currently, there is no treatment that effectively reverses the progression of the disease or delays its onset. Huntington’s is a particularly…
Read More
The brain has an amazing ability to form internal maps of the world around it. Knowing Neurons has previously written several articles about place cells in the hippocampus and how…
Read More
Walking around in the real world, as opposed to the uncluttered hallways of your school, requires flexible and adaptive fine-tuning of the basic alternating stepping pattern of our two legs.…
Read More
On Monday, Knowing Neurons highlighted a recent research article that described a new miniature microscope that was small enough to sit on a mouse’s head and light enough to allow…
Read More
“You are here.” It’s the phrase that you’ll find on almost any map, punctuated with the ubiquitous oversized arrow. It is the salient mark in a sea of confusing lines,…
Read More
It’s 1920, and an epidemic is in full effect. Encephalitis lethargica (also known as sleepy sickness) has spread across the globe, leaving some of its victims as still as statues,…
Read More
We often fail to appreciate the small and precise functions of our motor system. How effortless and smooth our movements are when getting up from a chair! How quick and…
Read More
One of the fundamental goals of cognitive and systems neuroscience is to create a computer program that can simulate the activity of the human brain, from single neurons, through network…
Read More
Life is a continuum of learning motor skills to achieve goals. At a young age, children learn how sit up, walk, jump, and then cut with scissors. Later, they may…
Read More
More than a decade has passed since President Clinton first announced that the human genome project was successfully completed:
We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey…
Read More
How many neural processes are going on within your body as you read this sentence? The answer to this question is hard to fathom, I know, but give it a…
Read More
