Neuroscience

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.

New insights from neuroscience — aided by a small zoo’s worth of dancing animals — are revealing the biological origins of rhythm.

The same brain cells that track location in space appear to also count beats in time. The research suggests that our thoughts may take place on a mental space-time canvas.