Researchers have built a tiny, lightweight microscope that captures neuron activity with unprecedented speed that can be used in freely moving animals. The new tool could give scientists a more ...

The mammalian brain is a web of densely interconnected neurons, yet one of the mysteries in neuroscience is how tools that capture relatively few components of brain activity have allowed scientists ...

A newly described technology improves the clarity and speed of using two-photon microscopy to image synapses in the live brain. The brain's ability to learn comes from "plasticity," in which neurons ...

Our brain is a complex organ. Billions of nerve cells are wired in an intricate network, constantly processing signals, enabling us to recall memories or to move our bodies. Making sense of this ...

Brain cells are constantly swallowing material from the fluid that surrounds them - signaling molecules, nutrients, even pieces of their own surfaces - in a process known as endocytosis that is ...

Hormone levels fluctuate like the tides, ebbing and flowing according to carefully orchestrated cycles. These hormones not only influence the body, but can cross into the brain and shape the behavior ...

In a previous post I described the life of Camillo Golgi, who in 1873 discovered a method for visualizing neurons in the microscope, and went on to develop a since-disproven theory that all the ...

Microscopy is an imaging technique that enables us to see a world that would otherwise be invisible to us. Once upon a time, visualizing cells, microbes and other entities not perceptible to the naked ...

In the late 1800s, Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal drew hundreds of images of neurons. His exquisite work influenced our understanding of what they look like: Cells with a bulbous center ...