Featured
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Outlook |
Restoring smell with an electronic nose
Development of an olfactory implant that could tackle anosmia is in its early stages.
- Simon Makin
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Outlook |
Unpicking the link between smell and memories
The ability of aromas to bring back highly specific memories is becoming better understood, and could be used to boost and heal our brains.
- Roxanne Khamsi
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Outlook |
Building neural networks that smell like a brain
Computational neuroscientist Guangyu Robert Yang lifts the lid on the use of machine learning to detect and process odours, and the wider implications for neuroscience.
- Conor Purcell
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Outlook |
Olfactory receptors are not unique to the nose
The hundreds of receptors that give us our sense of smell have been found to have important roles in other parts of the body, and the prospect of targeting them with drugs is growing.
- Liam Drew
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Outlook |
The dogs learning to sniff out disease
Veterinarian Cynthia Otto explains how we might harness animals’ ability to smell human illnesses — including COVID-19.
- Julianna Photopoulos
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Outlook |
The science behind COVID’s assault on smell
The loss of the sense of smell has been a hallmark symptom of COVID-19. The mechanisms behind SARS-CoV-2’s ability to interfere with this sense — as well as why variants such as Omicron do so less frequently — are becoming clearer.
- Elie Dolgin
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Outlook |
Sniffing out smell’s effects on human behaviour
Olfaction could influence how people respond to threats or select a partner. To investigate, researchers need to design experiments that can capture its effects.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Outlook |
How to bring back the sense of smell
Treatments for olfactory loss are currently scarce, but with millions of people unable to smell as a result of COVID-19, researchers are pursuing the problem with renewed vigour.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Research Highlight |
Human brains run hot — sometimes more than 40 °C
The temperature of a healthy brain rises and falls over the course of a day, but its average value is higher than the typical oral temperature.
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News |
COVID and smell loss: answers begin to emerge
Researchers are learning more about how the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus stifles smell — and how they might revive it.
- Michael Marshall
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News Feature |
Guardians of the brain: how a special immune system protects our grey matter
The nervous and immune systems are tightly intertwined. Deciphering their chatter might help address many brain disorders and diseases.
- Diana Kwon
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Career Column |
Starting a scientific career with narcolepsy
Ronja Weber describes living as a PhD student with narcolepsy, a chronic condition that disrupts sleep-wake processes.
- Ronja Weber
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News & Views |
Young cerebrospinal fluid improves memory in old mice
Infusion of cerebrospinal fluid from young mice into old mice restores memory recall in the aged animals by triggering production of the fatty myelin sheath that insulates neurons in the brain.
- Miriam Zawadzki
- & Maria K. Lehtinen
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News & Views |
A switch in neuronal dynamics that helps to initiate movement
Experiments on the mouse brain reveal that neuronal signals from the midbrain to the cortex act as a switch that transforms the dynamics of cortical neuronal activity and, in turn, initiates movement.
- Oliver M. Gauld
- & Chunyu A. Duan
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News |
Can brain scans reveal behaviour? Bombshell study says not yet
Most studies linking features in brain imaging to traits such as cognitive abilities are too small to be reliable, argues a controversial analysis.
- Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
Brain changes after COVID revealed by imaging
Imaging before and after infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus reveals substantial changes in the brain after infection. The work sets an example for the high standards required in large longitudinal neuroimaging studies.
- Randy L. Gollub
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News Feature |
The COVID generation: how is the pandemic affecting kids’ brains?
Child-development researchers are asking whether the pandemic is shaping brains and behaviour.
- Melinda Wenner Moyer
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Outline |
Video: Rebuilding a retina
Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in older adults, but techniques are being developed to offset the worst of the damage.
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Outline |
The quest to treat dry age-related macular degeneration
A raft of approaches for preventing loss of vision owing to this disease are showing their mettle in clinical trials.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Outline |
A visual guide to repairing the retina
People who develop the dry form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) currently have no effective options for preserving their vision. But several promising therapeutic avenues are being explored that might just change that.
- Michael Eisenstein
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News & Views |
Cerebellar neurons that curb food consumption
Artificial activation of neurons identified in a brain region called the cerebellum reduces food intake in mice. The findings could have implications for people with appetite disorders.
- Richard Simerly
- & Ralph DiLeone
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Technology Feature |
An expanding molecular toolbox untangles neural circuits
Scientists are developing ways to probe the activity, function and organization of neurons in real time with increasing precision.
- Esther Landhuis
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News & Views |
Fifty years of the brain’s sense of space
Neurons in a brain region called the hippocampus were found to be selectively active when rats are in a specific spatial location during natural navigation. The discovery launched research efforts into how the brain supports spatial memory.
- Isabel I. C. Low
- & Lisa M. Giocomo
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Research Highlight |
How ‘sleep misperception’ fools people into thinking they don’t sleep
Research on slumbering volunteers reveals the surprising stage when we feel most deeply asleep.
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News |
Vanishing rainforest and how to catalogue brain cells — the week in infographics
Nature highlights three key infographics from the week in science and research.
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Editorial |
Neuroscientists make strides towards deciphering the human brain
Early findings from the BRAIN Initiative are exciting, but researchers still have a way to go in their quest to understand the entire human brain.
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News & Views Forum |
A census of cell types in the brain’s motor cortex
An atlas of the cell types found in the motor cortex of the brain has been built using various types of data. Two neuroscientists explain the technological feats involved in the project, as well as the utility of the resource for future research.
- Johan Winnubst
- & Silvia Arber
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News Feature |
How the world’s biggest brain maps could transform neuroscience
Scientists around the world are working together to catalogue and map cells in the brain. What have these huge projects revealed about how it works?
- Alison Abbott
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Article
| Open AccessThe mouse cortico–basal ganglia–thalamic network
Mesoscale connectomic mapping of the cortico–basal ganglia–thalamic network reveals key architectural and information processing features.
- Nicholas N. Foster
- , Joshua Barry
- & Hong-Wei Dong
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News |
Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who discovered biology of senses
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian share the award for identifying receptors that allow the body’s cells to sense temperature and touch.
- Heidi Ledford
- & Ewen Callaway
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News & Views |
The genetic symphony underlying evolution of the brain’s prefrontal cortex
The prefrontal cortex of the human brain is larger than that of other species. Comparisons of mouse, macaque and human brains uncover some of the genetic and molecular factors behind these differences.
- Jenelle L. Wallace
- & Alex A. Pollen
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long-read: why sports concussions are worse for women
Scientists are racing to better understand traumatic brain injury in women's sports
- Katharine Sanderson
- & Shamini Bundell
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News |
Doubts raised about cooling treatment for oxygen-deprived newborns
Widely-used technique is associated with increased mortality in low- and middle-income countries.
- Max Kozlov
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News & Views |
Insights into a receptor that lets insects sense scents
In insects, odorant receptor proteins form membrane ion channels that open on binding to an odorant molecule. The structures of an inactive and an active channel lend insights into how insects detect and distinguish between odours.
- Emily R. Liman
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News Feature |
Why sports concussions are worse for women
As women’s soccer, rugby and other sports gain popularity, scientists are racing to understand how the female brain responds to head injury.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News & Views |
Private immune protection at the border of the central nervous system
At the outer border of the brain and spinal cord, immune cells have been observed that originate from the bone marrow of the adjacent skull and vertebrae. They reach this site through special bone channels, without passing through the blood.
- Britta Engelhardt
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News & Views |
A protective signal between the brain’s supporting cells in Alzheimer’s disease
In a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, interleukin-3 protein released by cells called astrocytes activates microglia, the immune cells of the brain. These then cluster around disease-associated protein aggregates and help to clear them.
- Jerika J. Barron
- & Anna V. Molofsky
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Outlook |
Accelerating the diagnosis of epilepsy with computer modelling
The start-up Neuronostics is using the brain waves of large numbers of people to assess an individual’s risk of seizure disorders more quickly and accurately.
- Eric Bender
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Outlook |
Better brain training for treating psychological conditions
Start-up GrayMatters Health wants to improve treatment for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder by combining two neuroscience techniques.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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News & Views |
Attraction and repulsion cooperate during brain-circuit wiring
Examination of the molecular interactions that govern the assembly of neural circuits in a brain region called the hippocampus reveals that neuronal projections are guided to their targets by both attractive and repulsive cues.
- Yajun Xie
- & Corey Harwell
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News |
Injection of light-sensitive proteins restores blind man’s vision
The first successful clinical test of a technique called optogenetics has allowed a person to see for the first time in decades, with the help of image-enhancing goggles.
- Sara Reardon
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News & Views |
Neural interface translates thoughts into type
A neural interface has been developed that could enable people with paralysis to type faster than they could using other technologies, by directly translating attempts at handwriting into text.
- Pavithra Rajeswaran
- & Amy L. Orsborn
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News |
Head-injury risk higher for female soccer players, massive survey finds
Data on the rates and causes of concussion in US high-school athletes reveal striking differences between the sexes.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News |
Psychedelic drugs without the trip? This sensor could help seek them out
An easier way to identify non-hallucinogenic psychedelics could aid treatment for illnesses such as depression and PTSD.
- Ariana Remmel
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News |
CRISPR-based gene therapy dampens pain in mice
Targeted approach could lead to an opioid-free way of treating chronic pain.
- Ariana Remmel
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News Feature |
How gut microbes could drive brain disorders
Scientists are starting to work out how the gut microbiome can affect brain health. That might lead to better and easier treatments for brain diseases.
- Cassandra Willyard
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News Feature |
How ecstasy and psilocybin are shaking up psychiatry
Regulators will soon grapple with how to safely administer powerful psychedelics for treating depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Paul Tullis
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News Explainer |
COVID’s toll on smell and taste: what scientists do and don’t know
Researchers are studying the sensory impact of the coronavirus, how long it lasts and what can be done to treat it.
- Michael Marshall