Beyond the left brain / right brain hypothesis
Creativity in the Brain
Am I Hearing Things?
For the first time, researchers can study auditory hallucinations in mice
Brain Maps
Special cells in the brain help you navigate your world
It’s all about balance: How the brain eliminates unwanted connections
Researchers identified a protein that eliminates synapses
Can a high sugar diet change how you taste?
A recent study found that consumption of a high sugar diet had lasting effects on sweet taste perception.
Brain Beats
Can’t figure out what to listen to next? Try out binaural beats!
The Neurological Exam
Searching for clues to diagnose problems in the brain
Out with the old and in with the new? Navigating the explore-exploit trade-off
How do we decide when to try something new and when to stick with what we know?
The Endogenous Opioid System: Your Body’s Natural Pain Reliever?
How does your body use its natural systems to relieve pain? Might we be able to use what we know about natural pain relieving processes in order to treat chronic pain and battle the opioid epidemic?
Forgetting, remembering, and stress
How is memory affected by stress? It all comes down to timing.
The Neuroscience of Narcolepsy
Loss of one type of neuron can throw sleep transitions into chaos
An unexpected molecule helps mice walk again
A hyperactive form of an immune molecule helped neurons regenerate their connections after injury
What can cause our brains to forget?
Recent research suggests microglia, the immune cells in your brain, are responsible for forgetting memories.
Can intermittent fasting change how we age?
By engaging a cell-breakdown process called autophagy, fasting can clear more than the belly.
Too hot to handle
Why does too much spice feel like fire?
How Spotify Uses What We Know About the Brain to Make Music Recommendations
Big companies like Google and Spotify use what we know about the brain to build a class of models called neural networks that help power many of their services.
Tone-Deafness and the Brain
How does our brain help us sing in tune and what goes wrong in tone-deaf individuals?
When concussion symptoms stick around: the elusive post-concussion syndrome
What is post-concussion syndrome and what causes it? We’re still not sure.
See you in 2021!
PennNeuroKnow is taking a break for the holidays. We’ll be back in the new year to share more neuroscience with you.
The Benefits of Gift Giving
Does giving a gift actually make you happier?
A Bug’s Life
How do ants know their roles in a colony?
COVID-19 and the Brain: An Update
Summarizing the latest work on how SARS-CoV-2 affects the nervous system
Feeling Frosty
Some people are sad that winter is here, but others have S.A.D.- Seasonal Affective Disorder
Scary movies and haunted houses: understanding the fear and fun paradox
Researchers found that there is a “just-right” amount of enjoyable fear
The Autonomic Nervous System and Dysautonomia
The nervous system is constantly regulating many important processes in the body, all without us having to consciously think about it. How does it do this, and what happens when things go wrong?
Echo, Echo
Humans and bats use similar strategies to localize sounds
How a volcano turned a brain into glass
Researchers found perfectly preserved neurons in the remains of the Mount Vesuvius eruption
The Cells of Consciousness
How close is science to finding the cellular source of consciousness?
No pain… a lot to gain
Can anesthesia lead us to better pain killers?
I Got It From My Mama: Maternal Microbes Support Brain Development of Her Offspring
New research in mice shows how gut microbes affect the brain, even before birth.
