Brain

Abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky, who may have been a synesthete, once said: "Color is the key. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many chords. The artist is the hand that, by touching this or that key, sets the soul vibrating automatically."

Feel the Music—Literally—With Some Help From New Synesthesia Research

How one artist created a show inspired by the neurological experience of synesthesia

This untitled painting by Willem De Kooning was created in the 1950s, decades before the artist was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Scientists Spot Cognitive Decline in Famous Artists’ Brushstrokes

Could paintings hold clues to Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases?

Dyslexia affects up to 17 percent of American schoolchildren. Researchers now believe it may be caused by difficulty in the brain rewiring itself.

Dyslexia May Be the Brain Struggling to Adapt

The learning disorder may be less a problem with language processing, and more a problem with the brain rewiring itself

Flickering images can induce seizures in people with epilepsy.

Why Do Flashing Images Cause Seizures?

For people with epilepsy, a flashing screen can be more than a passing annoyance

To speak, perchance to think? A long-tailed macaque opens wide in Bali, Indonesia.

What's Really Keeping Monkeys From Speaking Their Minds? Their Minds

When it comes to language, primates have all the right vocal equipment. They just lack the brains

The Nobel Prize, named after the repentant creator of dynamite, has been awarded nearly every year since 1901.

What Does It Take to Win a Nobel Prize? Four Winners, in Their Own Words

Some answers: Messiness, ignorance and puzzles

You May Not Have Rhythm, But Your Eyeballs Sure Do

Tracking eye movement gives researchers a peek into how the brain reacts to music

An Inca skull from the Cuzco region of Peru, showing four healed trepanations. The new review focuses on the practice in ancient China.

Drilling Deep: How Ancient Chinese Surgeons Opened Skulls and Minds

A new review finds evidence that the Chinese performed trepanation more than 3,500 years ago

"I will never forget that you did this to me."

Dogs May Possess a Type of Memory Once Considered 'Uniquely Human'

New research suggests that man’s best friend remembers more than we thought

A tickled rat.

What Tickling Giggly Rats Can Tell Us About the Brain

Their laughter manifests in a surprising region of the cerebral cortex

A U.S. Air Force pilot performs a pre-flight check. Perhaps one day, connecting electrodes to the scalp could be part of that routine.

U.S. Military Tests Brain Stimulation to Sharpen Mental Skills

Could electrodes one day replace pill bottles in the theatre of war?

Grégoire Courtine, an author on the new study, holds a silicon model of a primate’s brain, a microelectrode array and a pulse generator. The brain-spine interface consists of elements like these.

A New Wireless Brain Implant Helps Paralyzed Monkeys Walk. Humans Could Be Next.

One small step for monkeys, one potential leap for humans

133-Million-Year-Old Pebble Discovered to Be First Fossilized Dinosaur Brain

Found on a beach in England, the small fossil contains blood vessel, cortex and part of the membrane that surrounds the brain

One of the subjects of a new study on how the human nervous system responds to tactile intensity cracks an egg with ease with the help of an experimental prosthetic device.

How Hacking Neural Networks Can Help Amputees Flawlessly Crack an Egg

By tapping into the body's nervous system, researchers could create touch-sensitive prosthetics

Why do some people seem able to lie without feeling bad?

How White Lies Snowball Into Full-On Deception

Using brain scans, researchers find evidence that bad feelings associated with lying lessen over time

Heavy drinking can cause brain changes that make you want to drink more.

How a Genetically Engineered Virus Could Help the Brain Fight Alcohol Cravings

Heavy drinking can change the brain to make cravings worse. Can gene therapy change it back?

To make Tumor Paint, Jim Olson's team extracts molecules from the deathstalker scorpion (Leiurus quinquestriatus).

How Scorpion Venom Is Helping Doctors Treat Cancer

When injected into the body, Tumor Paint lights up cancers. The drug could lead to a new class of therapeutics

A new study investigates booze in bars.

Loud Sounds Can Make Your Drink Seem Stronger

The scientific reason that clubbing and cocktails go hand in hand—but shouldn't always

"Hey guys this sugar is great, but where can we find some morphine?"

Addict Ants Show That Insects Can Get Hooked on Drugs, Too

How researchers got a non-mammal hooked on drugs for the first time

Blind People Can Use Visual Areas of the Brain to Solve Math Problems

The brain is a highly adaptable organ

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