A new optogenetic method called Optobow is helping researchers to discover specific and individual components of functional neural networks in the living brain. A Nature Communications report states this new method can help provide more detailed insights into both brain function and structure.

A new Translational Psychiatry report suggests physical exercise may help protect neurons and reduce symptoms of dementia in older people.

Researchers have developed a software tool that analyzes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of patient brains and with 74% accuracy diagnoses schizophrenia. Moreover, the software’s algorithms were also able to reasonably estimate how bad the symptoms of the disease were in individual patients.

A new study reveals a drug currently used to treat dementia may be helpful in the treatment of traumatic brain injury.

Individual differences in the pattern of release of the hormone cortisol in response to a stressful experience reveal how stressed a person actually feels, suggests a study of healthy women published in The Journal of Neuroscience. This approach could help to better identify and treat individuals more susceptible to the negative feelings associated with the physiological stress response.

A new study has found that a gene variant, thought to be carried by nearly 25 percent of the population, increases the odds of developing depression.

Just as athletes cross-train to improve physical skills, those wanting to enhance cognitive skills can benefit from multiple ways of exercising the brain, according to a comprehensive new research.

A small patch of neurons fires in complex ways to encode movement of much of the body according to new research.

Using cryo-electron microscopy, researchers have been able to capture how glutamate opens glutamate receptor ion channels. The Nature study provides significant insight into how receptors can mediate brain function.

Finally this week, a team at the University of Wollongong, Australia, has used a 3D printer to create nerve cells found in the brain.