New maps hint at how electric fish got their big brains
Helmet-heads of the freshwater fish world, African mormyrid fishes are known for having a brain-to-body size ratio that is similar to humans.
Nov 15, 2018
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Substances associated with bee ferocity reported
Brazilian researchers may have discovered why Africanized honeybees are so aggressive. The scientists detected higher levels of certain chemical substances in the brains of Africanized honeybees than in gentler strains of ...
Where hominid brains are concerned, size doesn't matter
The recently discovered species Homo naledi may have had a pint-sized brain, but that brain packed a big punch. New research by Ralph Holloway and colleagues—that include researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand, ...
Lab-created mini-brains reveal how growing organ maintains neuronal balance
Scientists can now explore in a laboratory dish how the human brain develops by creating organoids—distinct, three-dimensional regions of the brain. In research published in Cell Stem Cell, Yale scientists coaxed early ...
In brain evolution, size matters—most of the time
Which came first, overall bigger brains or larger brain regions that control specialized behaviors? Neuroscientists have debated this question for decades, but a new Cornell University study settles the score.
New study revises the development and evolutionary origin of the vertebrate brain
A study recently published in PLOS Biology provides information that substantially changes the prevailing idea about the brain formation process in vertebrates and sheds some light on how it might have evolved.
New analysis of brain network activity offers unique insight into epileptic seizures
Epilepsy is a complex neurological disorder that afflicts approximately 50 million people worldwide. Although this disease has been known to exist for centuries, the exact mechanism of its cardinal symptom, the epileptic ...
Dog brains process both what we say and how we say it, study shows
The first study to investigate how dog brains process speech shows that our best friends in the animal kingdom care about both what we say and how we say it. Dogs, like people, use the left hemisphere to process words, a ...
Seeing the light: Army ants evolve to regain sight and more in return to surface
A change to a more challenging environment could, over time, re-ignite and grow old parts of the brain that have gone inactive, according to a study of army ants led by a Drexel biology professor.
Parenting in the animal world: Turning off the infanticide instinct
Many bachelor mammals, including lions, mountain gorillas, monkeys, and mice, attack and kill the offspring of other males—a form of infanticide—yet display parental behavior once they themselves become fathers. Now, ...
