brains – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 The Cellular Secret to Resisting the Pressure of the Deep Sea https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cellular-secret-to-resisting-the-pressure-of-the-deep-sea-20240909/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cellular-secret-to-resisting-the-pressure-of-the-deep-sea-20240909/#respond Mon, 09 Sep 2024 14:18:08 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140436 The post The Cellular Secret to Resisting the Pressure of the Deep Sea first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> The bottom of the ocean is cold, dark and under extreme pressure. It is not a place suited to the physiology of us surface dwellers: At the deepest point, the pressure of 36,200 feet of seawater is greater than the weight of an elephant on every square inch of your body. Yet Earth’s deepest places are home to life uniquely suited to these challenging conditions. Scientists have studied how the...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cellular-secret-to-resisting-the-pressure-of-the-deep-sea-20240909/feed/ 0 How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-our-longest-nerve-orchestrates-the-mind-body-connection-20240826/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-our-longest-nerve-orchestrates-the-mind-body-connection-20240826/#respond Mon, 26 Aug 2024 14:45:37 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=140053 The post How Our Longest Nerve Orchestrates the Mind-Body Connection first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> It is late at night. You are alone and wandering empty streets in search of your parked car when you hear footsteps creeping up from behind. Your heart pounds, your blood pressure skyrockets. Goose bumps appear on your arms, sweat on your palms. Your stomach knots and your muscles coil, ready to sprint or fight. Now imagine the same scene, but without any of the body’s innate responses to an...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-our-longest-nerve-orchestrates-the-mind-body-connection-20240826/feed/ 0 Can Psychedelics Improve Mental Health? https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-psychedelics-improve-mental-health-20240606/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-psychedelics-improve-mental-health-20240606/#respond Thu, 06 Jun 2024 13:00:01 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138356 The post Can Psychedelics Improve Mental Health? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> During traumatic periods and their aftermath, our brains can fall into habitual ways of thinking that may be helpful in the short run but become maladaptive years later. For the brain to readjust to new situations later in life, it needs to be restored to the malleable state it was in when the habits first formed. That is exactly what Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist and psychiatric researcher at the...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/can-psychedelics-improve-mental-health-20240606/feed/ 0 What Happens in the Brain to Cause Depression? https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-happens-in-the-brain-to-cause-depression-20240523/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-happens-in-the-brain-to-cause-depression-20240523/#respond Thu, 23 May 2024 13:00:20 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138100 The post What Happens in the Brain to Cause Depression? first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> For decades, the best drug therapies for treating depression, like SSRIs, have been based on the idea that depressed brains don’t have enough of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Yet for almost as long, it’s been clear that simplistic theory is wrong. Recent research into the true causes of depression is finding clues in other neurotransmitters and the realization that the brain is much more...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-happens-in-the-brain-to-cause-depression-20240523/feed/ 0 Electric ‘Ripples’ in the Resting Brain Tag Memories for Storage https://www.quantamagazine.org/electric-ripples-in-the-resting-brain-tag-memories-for-storage-20240521/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/electric-ripples-in-the-resting-brain-tag-memories-for-storage-20240521/#respond Tue, 21 May 2024 14:10:37 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138060 The post Electric ‘Ripples’ in the Resting Brain Tag Memories for Storage first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> György Buzsáki first started tinkering with waves when he was in high school. In his childhood home in Hungary, he built a radio receiver, tuned it to various electromagnetic frequencies and used a radio transmitter to chat with strangers from the Faroe Islands to Jordan. He remembers some of these conversations from his “ham radio” days better than others, just as you remember only some...

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