One in every 10 individuals above the age of 65 develops an age-related neurological disorder like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, yet treatment options remain sparse for this population. Scientists have begun exploring whether cannabinoids—compounds derived from the cannabis plant, like well-known THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol)—may offer a solution. A third, lesser-known cannabinoid called CBN (cannabinol) has recently piqued the interest of researchers, who have begun exploring the clinical potential of the milder, less psychoactive substance ..read more

Since Yale researchers first observed the ability of the anesthetic ketamine to dramatically improve symptoms in many patients with treatment-resistant depression more than two decades ago, the drug has provided a powerful new therapeutic option for mental health professionals ..read more

It could be very informative to observe the pixels on your phone under a microscope, but not if your goal is to understand what a whole video on the screen shows. Cognition is much the same kind of emergent property in the brain. It can only be understood by observing how millions of cells act in coordination, argues a trio of MIT neuroscientists. In a new article, they lay out a framework for understanding how thought arises from the coordination of neural activity driven by oscillating electric fields—also known as brain "waves" or "rhythms ..read more

Bacterial meningitis is a devastating infectious disease because, even when cured, most survivors live with permanent neurological disabilities such as motor impairment, cognitive delay, hearing and vision loss, seizures, and psychiatric disorders, due to neuronal damage caused by the infection. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now revealed new insights into the mechanisms of bacterial brain invasion and neuronal damage during bacterial meningitis ..read more

Picture this: You want to take a walk to your favorite ice cream parlor for the first time after winter. You can probably remember how to get there. How does our brain guide us to such rewarding places? In a study recently published in Nature Communications, researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology (LIN) in Magdeburg used state-of-the-art methods to answer this question. They discovered that our brain uses a special code to guide us to places that promise rewards ..read more

A group of researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine led an investigation that offers new insight into the development of the human forebrain ..read more

Some people with tough-to-treat epilepsy might benefit if doctors target a brain region newly linked to the disorder, a new study suggests ..read more

Cedars-Sinai investigators have discovered how brain cells responsible for working memory—the type required to remember a phone number long enough to dial it—coordinate intentional focus and short-term storage of information. The study detailing their discovery was published in Nature ..read more

Layer 6b, the deepest layer of the mammalian brain's cortex, has recently been the focus of numerous neuroscience studies. Despite the interesting findings gathered in recent years, the role of this deep cortical layer remains poorly understood ..read more

One potential underlying cause of symptoms in individuals with depression is an emotion-processing bias which causes them to have a stronger response to negative information more so than positive. While prior research has sought to further understand and treat the neural mechanisms behind these biases, many questions remain in the fight against treatment-resistant depression (TRD ..read more