Featured
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News |
These brain cells could influence how fast you eat — and when you stop
Scientists found the cells in mice — and say they could lead to a better understanding of human appetite.
- Carissa Wong
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World View |
Only 0.5% of neuroscience studies look at women’s health. Here’s how to change that
A new initiative challenges the severe neglect of women’s brain health from puberty through to pregnancy and menopause.
- Emily G. Jacobs
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Nature Podcast |
How to 3D print fully formed robots
Printing multi-material objects in a single run, and the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions for preventing type 2 diabetes.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Shamini Bundell
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Editorial |
Brain and body are more intertwined than we knew
A host of disorders once thought to be nothing to do with the brain are, in fact, tightly coupled to nervous-system activity.
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Comment |
How AI could lead to a better understanding of the brain
Early machine-learning systems were inspired by neural networks — now AI might allow neuroscientists to get to grips with the brain’s unique complexities.
- Viren Jain
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News |
Coffee in stereo: your brain records an odour’s spatial information
Scent information from the two nostrils leads to two types of neural activity.
- Saima Sidik
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News Feature |
Psychedelic treatments are speeding towards approval — but no one knows how they work
Many questions remain about the formerly taboo chemicals that are being used to treat trauma and depression.
- Sara Reardon
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Book Review |
Consciousness: what it is, where it comes from — and whether machines can have it
To understand where artificial intelligence might be heading, we must first understand what consciousness, the self and free will mean in ourselves.
- Liad Mudrik
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Research Briefing |
How light receptor cells in fruit-fly eyes multitask
A type of light-sensitive cell in one of the visual systems of fruit flies transmits two chemical messengers, histamine and acetylcholine, in response to the same light signal. These two molecules act on distinct neurons that have different functions: one type creates an image and the other synchronizes biological rhythms with the day–night cycle.
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News & Views |
Dopamine determines how reward overrides risk
Why do animals pursue reward in the face of punishment? Dopamine-releasing neurons that promote reward-seeking behaviour indirectly impair those that encode punishment avoidance, affecting decisions on risk.
- Kristin M. Scaplen
- & Karla R. Kaun
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News |
‘Mind-blowing’ IBM chip speeds up AI
IBM’s NorthPole processor sidesteps need to access external memory, boosting computing power and saving energy.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Deep asleep? You can still follow simple commands, study finds
Experiments suggest that sleep doesn’t cut you off from the outside world as much as scientists had thought.
- Anil Oza
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Clinical Briefing |
An engineered virus shows potential as an immune therapy in glioblastoma
Therapies for aggressive, recurrent glioblastomas are sorely needed but frequently fail in trials. A first-in-human trial of CAN-3110, an engineered herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1), shows that it is safe and seems to extend survival and stimulate immune responses — particularly in people with antibodies to HSV1.
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News |
New pill helps COVID smell and taste loss fade quickly
The antiviral drug ensitrelvir, which shortens sensory problems, is one of the few COVID-19 drugs available to people not at high risk of grave illness.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News |
Milkshake neuroscience: how the brain nudges us toward fatty foods
Brain imaging shows how high-fat foods exert their powerful pull.
- Max Kozlov
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Career Column |
Methods section too short? Use online protocols to make complex techniques understandable
New wet-lab methods can be hard to share owing to their complexity, but with a little extra effort, you can give users a leg-up in getting started.
- Lars Borm
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News |
Your brain finds it easy to size up four objects but not five — here’s why
Neuron activity shows that the brain uses different systems for counting up to four, and for five or more.
- Mariana Lenharo
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News |
The brain cells linked to protection against dementia
People with an abundance of specific neurons are more likely to escape cognitive decline despite having signs of Alzheimer’s in their brains.
- Sara Reardon
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News |
Is depression lifting? AI that interprets brain waves has answers
A pattern of brain activity linked with recovery from severe depression could be used to improve therapies such as deep-brain stimulation
- Max Kozlov
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News |
Psychedelic drug MDMA moves closer to US approval following success in PTSD trial
Long-awaited trial data show drug is effective at treating post-traumatic stress disorder in a diversity of people.
- Sara Reardon
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Correspondence |
Neurotechnology: we need new laws, not new rights
- Sjors Ligthart
- , Christoph Bublitz
- & Susie Alegre
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Nature Video |
Mind-reading computers turn brain activity into speech
Algorithms trained to associate sounds with neural activity can give people back their voice
- Shamini Bundell
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News |
Brain-reading devices allow paralysed people to talk using their thoughts
Two studies report considerable improvements in technologies designed to help people with facial paralysis to communicate.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News Feature |
Europe spent €600 million to recreate the human brain in a computer. How did it go?
The Human Brain Project wraps up in September after a decade. Nature examines its achievements and its troubled past.
- Miryam Naddaf
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Technology Feature |
The quest to map the mouse brain
By combining single-cell sequencing with methods to map the spatial location of gene expression, scientists are unravelling the extraordinary cellular diversity of the brain.
- Diana Kwon
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Technology Feature |
Sharp resolution, big samples: ExA-SPIM microscope accelerates brain imaging
An innovative microscopy technique bridges the gap between field of view and resolution.
- Alla Katsnelson
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Nature Podcast |
Audio long read: Lab mice go wild — making experiments more natural in order to decode the brain
Neuroscientists are developing new set-ups to study how the brain might work in the messy, unpredictable real world.
- Kerri Smith
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News |
Mind-reading machines are coming — how can we keep them in check?
Devices that can record and change brain activity will create privacy issues that challenge existing human-rights legislation, say researchers.
- Liam Drew
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News |
Dementia risk linked to blood-protein imbalance in middle age
Abnormal levels of certain proteins — many of which have roles outside the brain — could be an early hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease or similar conditions.
- Lilly Tozer
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Article
| Open AccessSpatially resolved multiomics of human cardiac niches
Single-cell and spatial transcriptomic analysis of eight human heart tissues reveals the cellular profiles and tissue architecture of niches including the cardiac conduction system, and a new tool, drug2cell, identifies drug target expression.
- Kazumasa Kanemaru
- , James Cranley
- & Sarah A. Teichmann
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News Feature |
What does ‘brain dead’ really mean? The battle over how science defines the end of life
Ideological differences threaten to muddy the definition of death in the United States — with potentially negative consequences for clinicians and people awaiting organ transplants.
- Max Kozlov
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Research Briefing |
Insights into the genetic architecture of multiple sclerosis severity
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system and a common cause of chronic neurological disability in young adults. A systematic search identifies genetic variants associated with differences in severity and confirms resilience of the central nervous system to be an important determinant of outcome.
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News |
Concussion guidance for sport sidesteps link to brain disease — critics are baffled
The statement’s authors say the connection between repeated head injuries and the condition CTE is based on insufficiently rigorous data.
- Katharine Sanderson
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News |
How psychedelic drugs achieve their potent health benefits
Mouse studies suggest that drugs from LSD to ecstasy renew the brain’s flexibility — but some scientists are sceptical.
- Sara Reardon
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Nature Podcast |
What IBM’s result means for quantum computing
A test case for practical applications of quantum computers, and how psychedelic drugs might make brains more malleable.
- Shamini Bundell
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News Feature |
Lab mice go wild: making experiments more natural in order to decode the brain
Armed with technologies to track a creature’s every move, neuroscientists are gaining insights into animal — and human — behaviour.
- Kerri Smith
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Outlook |
Brain-zapping technology helps smokers to quit
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is already approved to help people overcome addiction to cigarettes, but researchers still have a lot to learn about how to deliver the treatment effectively.
- Simon Makin
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Research Briefing |
The geometry of the human brain shapes its function
Brain activity is structured in space and time. The resulting activity patterns are conventionally thought to depend on an intricate web of anatomical connections that link specialized populations of cells. This work challenges this paradigm by showing that macroscale neuronal dynamics of the human brain are fundamentally shaped by its physical geometry.
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News |
The human brain’s characteristic wrinkles help to drive how it works
A model of the brain’s geometry better explains neuronal activity than a model based on the ‘connectome’.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Does brain stimulation boost memory and focus? Mega study tries to settle debate
Analysis of more than 100 studies of non-invasive electrical brain stimulation probes whether the controversial technology works.
- Emily Waltz
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News |
Chronic stress can inflame the gut — now scientists know why
Signals originating in the brain make their way to gut nerve cells, leading to a release of inflammatory chemicals.
- Saima Sidik
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Outlook |
Accelerating drug development with 3D neural models
A reproducible cell-culture system could help to evaluate new therapies for disorders that affect the brain.
- Christine Evans-Pughe
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Outlook |
Revealing vascular roadblocks in the brain
High-resolution imaging quickly identifies blood clots before they inflict major damage.
- Michael Eisenstein
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News |
Brain–spine interface allows paralysed man to walk using his thoughts
The device provides a connection between the brain and spinal cord, allowing thought to control movement.
- Dyani Lewis
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Technology Feature |
Brain imaging: fMRI advances make scans sharper and faster
Researchers are finding ways to improve one of neuroscientists’ favourite tools: functional magnetic resonance imaging.
- Diana Kwon
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News |
How one man’s rare Alzheimer’s mutation delayed the onset of disease
Genetic resilience found in a person predisposed to early-onset dementia could potentially lead to new treatments.
- Sara Reardon
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News |
Alzheimer’s drug donanemab: what promising trial means for treatments
Results suggest that the amyloid-targeting drug candidate slows cognitive decline in some people, but questions remain over its potential side effects.
- Sara Reardon
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Nature Careers Podcast |
Unlocking the mysteries of the brain’s neocortex
Entrepreneur Jeff Hawkins explains how our knowledge of the brain can help us to better understand artificial intelligence.
- Dom Byrne
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News Feature |
How menopause reshapes the brain
Researchers are starting to learn how the early stages of menopause affect brain health — and what that could mean for treatment.
- Heidi Ledford