Neuroscience News

The brain expertly enhances some signals and filters out others so that we can ignore distractions and focus on the most important details. How does the brain accomplish these feats of focus? In recent research at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., we have illuminated a new answer to this question.

While Alzheimer’s disease usually affects people over the age of 65, it can also affect people in their 40s, 50s and early 60s. When it does, the condition is known as younger-onset or early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Knowing how challenging it can be to quit smoking, Andrea King, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, wanted to find a treatment that could help smokers to quit, particularly those who would describe themselves as heavy drinkers.

Benoit Roux, PhD leads effort to build supercomputing cluster to explore structure and dynamics of biological systems.

What are the features of our brains that truly exist for computation and not as part of a compromise? Put another way, if we were to design a brain from scratch for the sole role of a computer, how would we do it differently?

A new study of mice exposed to cocaine reveals how drugs can cause anatomical changes in the brain.