Neuroscience

Powerful new experiments have uncovered some of the molecular underpinnings of sleep.

Is the brain a blank slate, or is it wired from birth to understand the world?

A new theory explains how fragile quantum states may be able to exist for hours or even days in our warm, wet brain. Experiments should soon test the idea.

Irrationality may be a consequence of the brain’s ravenous energy needs.

Scientists are having a difficult time finding a treatment for the Zika virus in part because so few drugs are safe for pregnant women. But one antibiotic has shown promise.

Researchers are racing to understand how the Zika virus causes birth defects. Their first results have revealed tantalizing clues about how the virus interferes with the developing brain — and how it might be stopped.

The neuroscientist Sheena Josselyn can evoke and erase memories in mice using new tools that precisely control the brain.

A specific set of neurons deep in the brain may motivate us to seek company, holding social species together.

A project to decipher the brain’s learning rules could revolutionize machine learning.