The function of sleep is still elusive despite the well-known effects of sleep loss or poor-quality sleep on cognitive function and long-term health. When and how long animals (including humans) sleep is determined by, on the one hand, their internal circadian clock, which aligns physiology... click to read more

Historically, neuroscience focused on neurons, the functional cellular units of communication in the brain. However, exciting recent advances in microscopy have revealed the importance of many other cell types in essential brain functions. Amongst these supporting players in the brain are microglia, the immune cells... click to read more

The idea that our brains influence our physical and mental health is both commonplace and somewhat taboo. We've heard that exercise can cheer us up, and stress can make us queasy, but the placebo effect "fools" us into getting well. Such mind-body connections, essential for... click to read more

For at least 10,000 years, approximately 90% of humans have preferred using the right hand over the left. The question of why about one in ten people are left-handed has fascinated scientists for centuries, but no clear answer has yet emerged. We already knew that genetic... click to read more

When we look at the world before us, we experience a unified scene of shapes and colors. But individual neurons in our brain do not. They are microscopic automata that can only emit electrical impulses when specific shape patterns appear in their little territory of... click to read more