New experiments reveal how astrocytes tune neuronal activity to modulate our mental and emotional states. The results suggest ...

For more than a century, the story of the brain has been told as a tale of neurons, with every thought and memory traced to their electrical chatter. That narrative is now being rewritten as evidence ...

To enjoy the scent of morning coffee and freshly baked cookies or to perceive the warning smell of something burning, the brain needs two types of cells, neurons and astrocytes, to work closely with ...

Why are we able to recall only some of our past experiences? A new study led by Jun Nagai at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan has an answer. Surprisingly, it turns out that the brain cells ...

Resting brain stem cells hardly differ from normal astrocytes, which support the nerve cells in the brain. How can almost identical cells perform such different functions? The key lies in the ...

Major depressive disorder affects hundreds of millions worldwide, but a key to understanding its origins may lie in the brain’s immune system. New findings spotlight astrocytes—previously overshadowed ...

For decades, neuroscientists focused almost exclusively on only half of the cells in the brain. Neurons were the main players, they thought, and everything else was made up of uninteresting support ...

Could a single nucleotide switch safeguard decades of brain health before Alzheimer’s sets in? Researchers know that this is what the rare apolipoprotein E3 Christchurch variant does, but how it pulls ...

Cedars-Sinai investigators have discovered a healing mechanism that could one day be harnessed to help treat patients with spinal cord injuries, stroke, and neurological conditions such as multiple ...