Tag Archives: Brain

MRI study shows: Early separation from the mare is extremely harmful to the foal.

By | February 5, 2026
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Early separation is extremely harmful to the foal. Credits: Barnabas Davoti

French researchers have, for the first time, used MRI scans to demonstrate the significant negative impact early separation from the mother has on foals' development. Growth and physical development are impaired, important brain regions mature less effectively, and stress resistance and social skills are weaker. Social interactions shape both the physiological and behavioral development of offspring. It is known that a lack of care… Read more »

Asian elephants have larger brains than their African relatives

By | May 21
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Credits: Jan Zwilling, Leibniz-IZW

African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth and significantly larger than their Asian relatives, from whom they are separated by millions of years of evolution. Nevertheless, Asian elephants have brains that are 20 percent heavier, as researchers from Humboldt University of Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), together with international colleagues, have demonstrated. They also showed that elephant brains… Read more »

Not unique: Chimpanzees also have a neural language network

By | May 16
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Credits: Francesco Ungaro, pexels

Human language processing is based on the neural connections between language areas in the brain. This language network, which enables the exchange of information between nerve cells, was previously considered unique to humans. Now, researchers have made an important discovery regarding the evolutionary development of our language: Under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology… Read more »

Brain reacts with hunger to consumption of artificial sweeteners

By | May 12
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Credits: cottonbro studio, pexels

Artificial sweeteners are virtually calorie-free and are increasingly used in the food industry, for example in soft drinks. A study led by the University of Southern California (USC) with participation from Tübingen now sheds light on the effects of excessive consumption of artificial sweeteners, such as sucralose, on the brain. Although calorie-free, sucralose stimulates appetite in the brain, especially… Read more »

Mystery solved: How the brain links visual stimuli such as color and movement

By | May 12
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Credits: cottonbro studio, pexels

Max Arwed Crayen has been awarded the 2024 doctoral prize of the German Primate Center (DPZ) – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research. His doctoral thesis, which investigates how the brain links visual stimuli such as color and movement – ​​and why this sometimes leads to perceptual illusions – was recognized. In his doctoral research, conducted in the Cognitive Neuroscience Department at the DPZ, Crayen combined psychological experiments… Read more »

Study: Brain learns to block out disturbing stimuli over time

By | April 16, 2025
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Credits: Peter Valckx, Vrije Universiteit

The human brain can learn through experience to filter out disruptive and distracting stimuli, such as a bright billboard at the roadside or a flashing banner on the internet. Researchers from the University of Leipzig and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam have discovered, using electroencephalography (EEG), that early visual processing patterns in humans change through repeated experience. Often, a distracting factor is more easily ignored after… Read more »

New insights into the development of the cerebrum

By | March 27, 2025
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Credits: Lidiia Tynianskaia, German Primate Center GmbH

Two specific genes, found exclusively in humans, jointly influence the development of the cerebrum. This was discovered in a recently published study by researchers from the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics. They have thus succeeded in demonstrating that these genes collectively contribute to the evolutionary enlargement of the brain. The study results show that… Read more »

Axolotl brain: New method enables research into neuronal organization

By | March 7, 2025
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Credits: Artem Lysenko, pexels

The axolotl is an excellent model for studying regeneration. However, investigating its nervous system has proven difficult due to a lack of suitable tools for visualizing and manipulating neural circuits. In a recent study, Katharina Lust and Elly Tanaka from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences present a method for visualizing genes… Read more »

Observation of the pupil during sleep allows conclusions to be drawn about brain activity

By | March 5, 2025
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Credits: ETH Zurich

For the first time, researchers can observe the behavior of sleeping people's pupils over several hours. Looking under the eyelids has shown them that more happens in the brain during sleep than previously thought. When people sleep, their eyes are usually closed. But it's not just the eyeball that rolls back and forth under the closed eyelids: Researchers led by study directors… Read more »

Appetite for more and more: Just a few chocolate bars change the brain

By | February 27, 2025
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Credits: TungArt7, pixabay

The proportion of obese people has increased rapidly in recent decades, posing enormous challenges for those affected, healthcare systems, and healthcare providers. The hormone insulin plays a key role in the development of morbid obesity. Until now, much has suggested that insulin, particularly in the brain, leads to metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. Now, a study from the University Hospital of Tübingen, by… Read more »