Is there a definitive test for mental illness? Not yet, but using advanced neuropsychiatric diagnostic tools including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), mental…

A variation in a gene called GRIK4 appears to make people with depression more likely to respond to the medication citalopram (Celexa) than are people without the variation, a study by the National…

Jon-Kar Zubieta and colleagues have pinpointed a brain region central to the machinery of the placebo effect—the often controversial phenomenon in which a person’s belief in the efficacy of a…

The link between alcohol and aggression is well known. What’s not so clear is just why drunks get belligerent. What is it about the brain-on-alcohol that makes fighting seem like a good idea" And do…

The classic model of how brain cells communicate was put forth in 1943 by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, at the time the first digital computers were being envisaged, and the McCulloch-Pitts…

New research suggests that an eyedrop used to diagnose a rare syndrome in infants can cause severe lethargy lasting up to 10 hours and requiring hospital admission and oxygen administration. In the…

In some regions of Central Europe, salad dressing is made with pumpkin seed oil, which has a strong characteristic nutty flavor and striking color properties - in the bottle it appears red, but it…

Salk Institute neurobiologists are beginning to tease apart the complex brain networks that enable humans and other higher mammals to fix our gaze on one object while independently directing…

Researchers have come a step closer to understanding the incredible targeting system of human vision, namely how the brain and eye team up to spot an object in motion and follow it, a classic…

A role for prion proteins, the much debated agents of mad cow disease and vCJD, has been identified. It appears that the normal prions produced by the body help to prevent the plaques that build up…