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…
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Sometimes it’s hard to understand why scientists do what they do. Why spend a career studying cells, fungus, or flies? Other than being nerdy and wanting to learn about our…
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From that evil itch on your arm to torturous diseases such as malaria, Zika, dengue, and yellow fever, mosquito bites can have unpleasant consequences. But have you ever wondered why…
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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…
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When babies are born, they cannot see very well, but their vision vastly improves as they continue to develop. Sometimes, the eyes don’t communicate well with the brain, and vision…
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It is no surprise that a child prefers its mother’s voice to those of strangers. Beginning in the womb, a fetus’s developing auditory pathways sense the sounds and vibrations of…
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My father often jokes that hundreds of years from now, future anthropologists will speak of the cult of the Seattle goddess, her shrine adorning every airport, shopping mall, and train…
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Our sense of sight is arguably our most important sense. Imagine how different your life would be if soon after birth, you lost the ability to see. For over 1.4…
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The minds of individuals are like parallel universes, forever inaccessible to one another. Never do we truly see through the eyes of another person. It is common for us to…
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Have you ever wondered if you experience the world like everyone else? We assume that our senses tell us what’s going on in the world, but they’re far from perfect.…
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We have someone new joining our team! She is a neuroscience PhD student at the University of Iowa, and she studies speech perception – but let’s let the animation she created…
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Dear Skin,
I would like to express my upmost gratitude for the vast amount of receptors you possess. Among my favorites – the practical ones that allow me to find…
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Our eyes contain millions of color-sensitive cells, called cones, which maximally respond to red, green, and blue light. With just these three types of color receptors, we can see the…
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What if you could take a pill to enhance your cognitive abilities? What if this pill could help you ace a test, get more work done efficiently, and truly multitask? …
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If you’re in a room with ten adults, chances are two of them are going to develop a mental illness –- and only one of them will receive proper treatment.…
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You don’t know you know this song, but you definitely know this song: “Hey Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you…” Did the end of the lyric materialize in…
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In a recent hack, private information from nearly 30 million users was leaked from Ashley Madison, a “dating” website intended to facilitate extramarital affairs. The sheer number of Ashley Madison…
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In a recent Knowing Neurons piece, we explored the exotic visual abilities of other animals, while lamenting the limitations of human color vision. In this article, we stretch those limits…
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What would the world be like without color? Imagine you are a neurophysiologist, who studies color perception. You know that light is a wave and that humans perceive color according…
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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…
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If you think about it, the surface of the human body, the skin, is actually one huge sheet of tactile receptors. The dozens…
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When we see the world, there is a huge amount of processing that occurs in the neural circuits of the retina, thalamus, and…
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It’s 1861, and the French neurologist Paul Broca is examining a new patient. Dr. Broca is puzzled because all the patient can say is “tan.” When Dr. Broca asks him…
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Admit it! You’ve taken one of those online quizzes to see if you’re more “right-brained” or “left-brained.” Too bad it’s all bunk! Popular culture would have you believe that…
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Bzzzzzz! Splat! Ugh! Anyone who has ever been around a campfire during the summer months is familiar with this progression of noises. Mosquito bites and the resulting welts provide unwelcome…
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“What is color?”
What a good question! The answer is a bit tricky, but it starts with light. Color is the visual perception of different wavelengths of light reflecting off…
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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…
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When you look at an object, like the picture above, there are many features your brain has the task of processing. Color, texture, and position in space to name a few. Lines and angles…
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Our senses connect us to the world. Your visual system lets you know that there is a yellow car ahead of you, and your auditory system lets you know that…
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Envision this scenario. It’s the end of a grueling hike and you’re racing back to civilization along a trail in the mountains as darkness falls. You’ve become separated from your…
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The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 500,000 people will experience spinal cord injuries (SCI) every year. Researchers at the Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute in…
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How many advertisements do you see each day? If you could count them all (billboards, television commercials, sidebar advertisements on your Facebook feed), it would add up to almost 5,000! …
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Have you ever tried to go to sleep hungry? Believe me, it doesn’t work. You just end up lying in bed, listening to your stomach growl, and dreaming about your…
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The beloved classic cartoon “Tom and Jerry” brings amusement and laughter to the young and old alike. As the house cat Tom attempts to capture the mouse Jerry, we also…
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“Ouch!” Thanks to our always-alert sensory neurons that provide a spatial sense of self (proprioception) and pain (nociception), we receive an early warning to any noxious stimuli (think needle prick…
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In Northern Pakistan, a ten-year old street performer awed and horrified crowds with his ability to place knives through his arms and walk across burning coals all seemingly without pain.…
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For many, pain is an indescribably awful feeling that causes suffering and emotional distress. It is a sensation that is so unpleasant – so unbearable – that most people will…
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Genes are no different from individuals. Sometimes they behave in a simple, logical way. Other times, they are unpredictable and influenced by their surroundings. The central dogma (DNA to RNA to…
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Vision is arguably one of our most important senses. We rely on it to recognize color, shape, movement, distance, and perspective about the world around us. Although all parts of…
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For Indiana Jones, there was no villain as menacing and no foe as treacherous as the writhing snakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Audiences saw their archaeologist champion paralyzed…
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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…
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Take a moment to think about how amazing it is that we can taste so many flavors in the meals we eat! Approximately ten thousand taste buds located on the…
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The brain has an amazing ability to identify the source of sounds around you. When driving, you can tell where an approaching fire truck is coming from and pull over…
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Our human experience is enriched by our senses. The world would appear to be a dull place if the brain did not endow us with the ability to construct visual…
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