Neuro Primer: Sleep
It’s easy to ask: “Why sleep?” But we can also turn the question on its head: “Why wake?” We need to be awake, among other reasons, to find and eat…
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Brainstem
The Departure of Skill Memories from Motor Cortex: Deeper Directions for Neuroscience
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…
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Messing with the ‘Flip-Flop’ Switch: Why Getting Sick Makes You Sleepy
We all know how it feels to be sick. The fatigue, increased sleep, and general malaise that accompany a cold are the primary reasons people stay bedridden when ill. Even…
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Science with a Touch of Art: A Conversation with David Ginty
If you think about it, the surface of the human body, the skin, is actually one huge sheet of tactile receptors. The dozens of types of receptors that innervate the…
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