Neuro Primer: Aging
What happens to the brain in aging?
Normal aging comes with many changes in brain structure and function. As individuals approach the age of 65 years and above, they experience…
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Plasticity
A Tale of Plasticities
You may have heard it repeated in the media and pop culture that humans’ brains don’t change at all after birth. However, the past several decades of neuroscience research have…
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Neuro Primer: Neurodevelopment
How does your brain become a brain?
Neurodevelopment is the crucial process through which every brain is formed.…
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Out with the Old, in with the New – Can Neuron Transplantation Stop Brain Aging?
his past November, neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero connected a dead person’s head to a different corpse – a procedure he claimed to be a “successful head transplant.” His assertion was attacked…
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Is too much sugar a form of brain abuse?
We all know too much sugar is bad for us. But did you know that having unfettered access to sugar might produce brain changes similar to highly stressful situations, such…
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Smells Like Teen Synapses: A Look Inside Adolescent Brains and Behaviors
“I would there were no age between sixteen and three-and-twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child,…
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From Stevens to Synapses: A Conversation with Kelsey Martin
Take your wildest guess. How many neurons make up the human brain? You’re not guessing wild enough if you said anything less than a trillion. The circuitry of the human…
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Reconciling the Past with Pills: A New Approach to PTSD Treatment
Over a lifetime, the human brain stores countless memories. Some are mundane and practical, others are subjective, and some influence our thinking and behaviour. Not all of them are good.…
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Is Self-Awareness Humanity’s Greatest Trait?
The adult human brain is comprised of approximately 86 billion neurons on average, with at least as many nonneuronal cells, networked together to create the substance and memories of a…
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LTP: When Neurons Make a Long-term Commitment
A few months ago, I got a new smart phone that had a bigger screen and a different operating system. For a while, I was annoyed that I made so…
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