The aim of this annual brain post is to make a whole year’s worth of my daily tweets available, all in one place, in case anybody fancies browsing what I considered to be the most interesting, accessible brain research breakthroughs of 2016. It’s not purely neuroscience. There are also tidbits from other realms of science beyond the brain. If you’d like to follow me on Twitter you can find me at @drjacklewis

So, without further ado, here are all my tweets from 2016, in no particular order…

7 not 8 hrs sleep per night appears to be the magic number

The buzz of truly altruistic giving seems to increase with age, according to a new brain imaging study

Could Alzheimer’s boil down to the immune system developing a taste for synapses?

Drug opens blood brain barrier 2 let therapeutic drugs in; huge potential 4treating many brain illnesses

Big data approach indicates that first sign of Late Onset Alzheimer’s is reduced blood flow to the brain

New study in humans with bipolar disorder unexpectedly finds genetic abnormalities in the striatum

High intelligence in tiny bird brain by “packing more neurons into a smaller space than primates”

Why comparisons between brain and silicon-based computing power are just plain silly

Control over hand/arm movements to be regained after neck break via brain chip is spectacular

BrainCraft – a YouTube channel using stop-motion animation to bring neuroscience to life

Neurosurgery retrospective came from Henry Marsh, now prospective view from a brain surgeon in training

Look mum – no hands!! Racing drones with the power of thought alone – the future has finally arrived

Our ability to adapt quickly to new circumstances fades as we age. Pesky brain circuit responsible is identified

Exercise after learning can help you retain information better. To maximise this brain hack – timing is key…

Everyone should know these simple psychological tricks to reduce calorie intake daily

Move aside old fashioned fingerprints, hello new-fangled brain prints

Love this study that used fMRI to figure out what physics concepts volunteers were thinking about

Concussion induced changes in the white matter still evident 6 months after initial injury

It was always just a matter of time before a study emerged indicating that zapping brains boosts creativity

We enjoy making decisions for others more than we do our own

Designer drugs try2retain memory by boosting maintenance of dendritic spines, whilst reducing toxicity

Why do about 80% of elderly people with Alz’s also have diabetes (or similar)

Drugs can screw up your brain. We’re not talking recreational drugs. We’re talking drugs from the pharmacy

Mechanism of action by which long-term memories are erased in the brain has been identified

Even one of neuroscience’s most powerful tools for investigating how brains work was discovered by mistake

I’ve been banging on about the need to exercise body for the brain’s sake for years, NS explains why

Brain area identified in fMRI (pSTS) is particularly interested in emotionally meaningful facial expressions

Allergy-prone? Could your low fibre diet. Give your gut bacteria food they need to calm your immune system

Bug in most popular fMRI analysis software may invalidate findings of over 40,000 brain imaging studies

Why so many of us struggle to NOT eat the things we know we shouldn’t

If you need to tell a lie and want to get away with it then do it on a full bladder

Computers predicting Oscars? Movie directors control audiences’ eye gaze and brain responses…?

Brain to gut and gut to brain in IBS

From the horse’s mouth… what the first ever brain scan of people on LSD actually discovered

In UK where many mums can’t AFFORD full-time infant nurture during pre-school years, this must sting

Precise location/connectivity of “inner compass” defined for the very 1st time

DNA To what degree is intelligence hereditary?

Oh the irony: artificial sweeteners can stimulate our brains to seek out more food

Here’s a thing or six you should know about how your brain does learning

What your child’s brain, needs now, is love, sweet love…

Brains on acid (fMRI study from Imperial)

Protein engineered into brain allows neurons to be switched on/off with the stroke of a bar magnet (sort of)

Memory Chains

Young migraineurs often have deficiency in certain vitamins, perhaps same in older migraine-sufferers too?

Before you know it, brain stimulation to improve mood will be as commonplace as laser eye surgery

Small study indicates people with Multiple Sclerosis have different gut bacteria to those with healthy brains

This article about how rapidly our cognitive abilities dwindle through digital multitasking is excellent

Mouse study indicates that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder could be switch on and offable

Degree to which person’s oxytocin gene is switched on/off seems to have fundamental impact on social skills

If brain’s “pain matrix” lights up in people born without a sense of pain, can you still call it a “pain matrix”?

Brace yourself for therapeutic poo transplants for MS&depression! If this way round then why not in reverse?

Why we’d all benefit from napping like a pro – it improves alertness, concentration&attention for 4hrs

Using fMRI to scan a brain at rest predicts much about how it responds to tasks using language, gambling etc

School kid 3D prints bioreactor for studies on mini-brains (cheaper & more efficient than industrial ones)

When contact sports career ravages body, leaving you in constant pain, where should you turn for relief?

A different way of thinking about stress (and how to get the best out of it)

Biohacking in Silicon Valley – rather them than me

Who’d wear a device that can detect when you’re making a decision & nudge you towards the healthy choice?

How to turn a mouse transparent and make its neurons glow so you can see whole nervous system in 3D

How your working environment can impact brain function – for better and for worse

Evidence continues to build attesting to the rejuvenating impacts of meditation on the very fabric of the brain

Give your gut bacteria a little TLC and they might just help you dodge a stroke

Why a walk in the woods really does help your body and your soul

“Since its formation, our solar system has orbited the Milky Way 20 times..”

In the 1900s, Being a ‘Cigarette Fiend‘ Was a Legitimate Defense for Murder

High tech approach to treating phantom limb pain

Dr Tamminen’s article How a lack of sleep affects your brain – and personality

Why are gambling machines so addictive?

Controlling pain in phantom limb patients via robotics

UKBigBrainData study suggests interesting positive correlations between alcohol and white matter reduction, also smoking and iron deposits

I love that a few cunning multisensory illusions can help to relieve some forms of chronic pain – so clever

@LlianaBird & I wrote a book based on 100+ stories from our Geek Chic Weird Science podcast

Mo Costandi’s book, NEUROPLASTICITY, is now available on Amazon amzn.to/1WSUfUp

First case of a ‘monkey midwife‘ seen in golden snub nosed monkeys – the monkeys that act as midwives

How much is 1 more year of your life worth? That’s exactly what health services must decide

The enormous power of the unconscious brain

The space submarine hunting the solar system for aliens

The art of brain function and dysfunction

Oxford Uni study finds that stroke patients given electrical brain tingle (tcDCS) plus intensive rehab recover best

Another nutbag decides to devote his life & fortune to uploading his brain to a computer

Congratulations Cardiff on your sparkly new Connectom brain scanner. Hubble telescope of the human brain, huh?!

British memory researchers win prestigious Brain Prize

RIP Terry Brain author of Trapdoor stop-motion children’s animations

Orangutan ‘copies human speech‘, offering “new clues to how human speech evolved”

Increased amygdala activity related to more heart disease (prob via elevated white blood cell-induced inflammation)

Don’t be surprised in 2025 when our high streets start to become eerily empty. Coming soon to a living room near you bit.ly/1L73T15

Small numbers processed in the right side of the brain, large numbers on the left, but the goalposts move…

Your brain’s constant gardener

Either the most amusing, or the most terrifying, promotional video I’ve ever seen. What do you think?

It’s heart-warming to see that we’re probably all hard-wired for altruism;sad that so many bury it under selfishness

That there are this many brain cells in a dust mite-sized chunk may help us to fathom the complexity of a full brain

On the role of meat in evolution of the modern brain – exquisite

Higher fluid intelligence – for problem solving – is associated with greater energy turnover in specific brain areas

“..shunned in the mistaken belief they have biological defects.In fact..evidence shows that most’ve endured traumas”

Measuring brainwaves of expert pilots with EEG to guide the stimulation of novice pilots with tcDCS, speeds learning bit.ly/1oUAs86

Monkeys fitted with brain machine interfaces can manoeuvre their electric wheelchairs with thought alone

Staggering to think of all the cash made by companies selling as-yet-unproven performance improving neurostimulation

New hippocampal neurons in the adult brain for the first time sheds light on their importance in learning

Maple syrup might help to stop brain proteins getting in a tangle

Breaking bad (habits)

Epicentre of aggression pinpointed in mice; does human violence stems from similar brain structures?

Immersive Virtual Reality 3D art is here…

Clinical trials to experiment with bringing (freshly) dead people back to the land of the living

Treating sugar addiction like drug abuse

Brain modem

What you know fundamentally impacts upon how you see

7T+ magnets might be just the ticket for MRI scans that type for you as you imagine each individual letter

Prosthetic arms that allow users to feel touch at the finger tips so they can handle delicate objects

A nice summary of the current state of play in the world of brain training

Homing in on important brain mechanisms involved in triggering migraines

When i was being electrocuted for my latest TV show – anticipation of infrequent shocks was the worse

Crossing the uncanny valley in VR – it’s coming…

Scientists show that rubber-hand illusion can be produced by smartphones

Why most people close their eyes when kissing? Pretty obvious isn’t it. Do we really need this to explain?

Believe it or not, children who intensively play video games actually seem to do pretty well at school after all..

Sugar—the addictive enemy hiding in plain sight

Could hypnosis banish the worried well from GP waiting rooms?

Why do sunbathers live longer than those who avoid the sun?

How the acoustics in musical spaces can impact on the emotional experience

Interactive blog post shows what it’s like reading with dyslexia

Strength training helps older adults live longer

Kavli Neuro Prize to Eve Marder, Michael Merzenich & Carla Shatz for experience-dependent plasticity work

Early Alzheimer’s supplement drink helps to maintain brain volume but has little effect on cognition

For a youthful brain –  stay in school for as long as possible and avoid the sedentary lifestyle like the plague

Did human-like intelligence evolve to help us care for helpless babies?

Breathing polluted air during pregnancy leads to kids w/ poor self-regulation issues

Zapping brains with electricity (tDCS) may exert various benefits by triggering calcium release in astrocytes

Antimatter changed physics: the discovery of anti-memories could revolutionize neuroscience

Heart-warming to know that pinky and the brain still get on after all this time

Same sex brains sync up better than different sex brains when performing a joint task

Brain Topiary: new neurons in adult brains proliferate before being pruned back 2right shape

Skynet Is Coming… Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks program receives $100M

How awareness of your heartbeat may be tweaked in order to reduce anxiety

Brain benefits of NOT watching TV

Reward pathways of cannabis smokers respond strongly to a image of a joint

Study on cadaver w/ electrodes on inner surface of skull suggests tcDCS has no effect on the brain

The importance of bromance

The weirdest senses animals have that you don’t

I love it when my “frontal lobe just goes on holiday… and it lets the sensory cortex just do what it wants”

There are many roads to fear. Twins with no amygdalae both still feel anxiety when exposed to certain drugs

When you get interrupted when in the middle of something and struggle to remember where you were at..?

Sleep deprivation increases pleasure derived from eating food through similar mechanism to cannabis

Being in clinical trials may seem like easy money, but tragic off-target side effects are always a possibility

Just imagine what will happen when parkour enthusiasts get their hands on these robotic exoskeletons

Keeping busy is good for the brain, but chronic stress is bad for health of body & brain

Why Your Profile Picture Doesn’t Reveal the True You

Looking back at Sci-Fi literature that predicted modern VR tech

Ep 2 of my new TV series is all about faces…available to stream, anywhere in the world, at your leisure, here

In ep4 of SotB I meet a man who hallucinates in his blind patch & a surgeon who fits bionic lenses

Ciliated cells control the flow of cerebrospinal fluid through brain ventricles

Gut bacteria gobble GABA – helping to explain how what goes on in our bellies can influence our moods

Improved visual acuity that lasts two hours with just 20 mins of electrical brain zapping

Researchers find that children’s brains develop faster with music training

In ep7 of my new series i conquer fear&pain with help of Wim Hof, stream in 4k definition, at your leisure

How the brainstem regulates breathing

The Physical damage racism inflicts on your brain and body

Multiple drones controlled by a brain-computer interface

People with anger problems seem to have less white matter connecting their frontal lobes and parietal lobes

What goes on in the brain as you learn a brand new language…?

How laughing gas inspired early psychedelic literature

We’re discovering new ways to detect if someone is lying. And finding old ways are wrong

New tricks to peer deep into the brain with yet more precision

A few simple questions can help anyone disarm anxiety before it strikes

3D imaging of amyloid-beta plaques in the brains of deceased Alzheimer’s patients

New study reveals a link between circadian clock disruption and tumor growth

Similar deficits in white matter tracts connecting left and right sides of brain in autistic, OCD & ADHD kids

Seeking Clues to Stuttering Deep Within the Brain

The Strange Brain of the World’s Greatest Solo Climber

Doggy fMRI study reveals that, like us, canine brains process word meaning on left & intonation on right

Fusiform gyrus – containing region (FFA) for recognising faces – is ~13% larger in adults than kids

Believe it or not foetal fMRI has arrived! Yes, that’s right, brain imaging in the womb

Gaming that can help depressed people to feel better by helping them to focus

Will nose-witnesses soon play a role in our courts of law? (“Eyewitnesses” are so 20th century)

Prof Van der Meer (Norwegian University) offers science-based tips for optimal ways to raise infants

Mini-brains grown from stem cells taken from milk teeth can tell you a thing or two about their actual brains

You can tell how old a person is from their brain’s glial cell health

Neuroscience in practice to enhance your star gazing experience

Antibody targeting protein in Blood Brain Barrier reduces signs of brain ageing

Some people (3-5%) simply get no joy from listening to music – now we know why

What happens in the brain when people’s beliefs are challenged?

Carbon nanotube electrodes much better than conventionals, but how to jam a “wet noodle” into the brain?

Reduced blood flow to Broca’s area (key area in speech production) in stutterers

 Brain + Nature = Health

Memory &  cognition improvements in 65+ year old people if they take regular 1-hour long siesta after lunch

If learning a 2nd language is one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2017, this might be motivating for you

Interfering w/ vagal nerve function can help various health conditions – now can be done w/ greater precision

tcDCS therapy overview: depression/addiction/fibromyalgia (good news) tinnitus/stroke (bad news)

Monkey metamemory

Facebook wants in on Brain Control Interfaces

16 year old’s ovarian tumour found to contain brain tissue that resembles a cerebellum and brainstem

Genetically-speaking you are 10% retrovirus – deal with it!

Peripheral neuropathy ( seen in diabetes, chemo, HIV) could be helped by anti-muscarinic agents

CBT for psychosis found to be associated with measurable changes in brain connectivity

No meaningful difference in amygdala sizes in male vs female brains across 30yrs of MRI studies

Dreaming (REM) sleep accelerates pruning of certain brain connections, vital to reshaping teenage brains

Resensitising brain cancer to chemotherapy using old school anti-malaria drug

A study of 500 MRI scans reveals the links between personality traits and brain structure

I’ve often wondered why so many schizophrenic people smoke&smoke so hard;they might be self-medicating

We’ve known for a while that Zika shrinks foetal brains, now tech is helping science to figure out why

WHO said Brazil Olympics must be cancelled or zika virus will spread all over world at home time.

How serious Rio Olympics Zika problem could be for global health? Read this Harvard Public Health Review.

Awesome: “artificial neuron that switches between crystal and glass-like states as information comes in”

What’s your #littlelifesaver ? When i feel blue, i get on my skates

Once a year I pick up my mouth organ, give it a sniff & put it right back down again – probably for the best

Beware the backup plan

5 books on the brain review by Scientific American

Ever thought of depositing your brain in a brain bank when you’re done with it. You should. You really should

“Lab tech to lab leader” tale of scientist striving to identify molecular secateurs for trimming the brain bush

Ep5 of my new series Secrets of the Brain is all about Time Perception. Stream it anytime, anywhere…

Nature have made a nice 2min video to explain why the new improved brain map is so cool

Souped up MRI shows newly discovered rubbish disposal system in action as it pumps waste materials out of the brain

New research has “uncovered stress&depression connectome” .. multiple routes from brain2adrenal glands

Breast feeding boosts neurodevelopment aged 7 for pre-term babies

“New” study shows Brain Training improves dementia outcomes? Dodgy reporting strikes again

Brushy One String always makes me smile. Amazing what you can do with a guitar that has 5 strings missing

Precise imprint of brain on inner skull enables comparison of today’s brains to those of 17,000 yrs ago

I thought I knew a thing or two about Cognitive Ease, now thanks to @veritasium I know a thing or two more

Human brain enlargement was driven by social comparison skills to aid strategic helping

Don’t call it a comeback, it’s been here for years. ElectroConvulsiveTherapy for major depression, would you?

Being overweight in middle age seems to rob humans of brain white matter compared to normal weight peers

Fizzy pop

Learning to be generous, it’s all in the brain

Gene therapy for Parkinson’s patients with goal of reviving the early benefits of L-Dopa drug treatments

Greater past / future happiness = delusional

What happens in brains of hypnotised people (vs those who can’t be)? Newly published fMRI study reveals all

High fat/sugar diet in pregnancy linked to higher rates of ADHD in kid in later life

Meditators may have greater awareness of subconscious will – that’s one way of interpreting these results…

Some people are over-reliant on internet to supplement memory – imagine if Google started charging

Morphine – gold standard of pain relief – has side effects ranging from annoying to deadly. Now a new option

Neanderthals not bright enough to be schizophrenic

Olympians zap brains in hope of improving performance despite no independent evidence to show  it works

Role of oxytocin in optimism (it seems to place the focus on desirable rather than undesirable feedback)

Physics intuition and action planning are “intimately linked in the brain”

Some interesting neuroscience-based speculations on Pokemon Go – why has it become so popular?

Exposure therapy helps people get over arachnophobia. Now a simple tweak has been found to make it last

Poor sleep may partly cause PTSD, not just symptom, so improve sleep (via brain zap) to reduce PTSD cases

Honestly officer, it’s not my fault, I keep flying into these rages because of a parasite that’s living in my brain

Scanning kids brains before they can read predicts how well areas that support reading will develop by age 8

Reorientation Cost (my term) seems to be the difference between older and younger brains in elite gaming

Unexpected ability to feel touch / muscle control when spine injury patients learn to use exoskeleton to walk

Stock market prediction involves brain areas usually recruited when wondering what others are thinking

Method for measuring synaptic density without having to chop up a brain

How to make low calorie food taste better? Tweak the odour

Window into teenage brain development – all about developing hubs (through which so much traffic passes)

Ever imagined being able to make music with lightening? Someone’s cracked it..

Specific brain rhythm observed in EEG data when people write a text on their smartphone

“[the temple] is the perfect window to the thalamus, which lies seven centimetres below”

UltraSoundAwakening: man emerges from minimally conscious state after having thalamus ping’ed with US

Quote of the week: “Who needs legs when you’ve got chemistry”

Where does the instinct to be altruistic come from in the first place? As with everything… it promotes survival

Why do we sleep? If we don’t: our synapses get saturated and brains become overly excitable

Real-life zombie cockroach, courtesy of the emerald wasp.

We’re making great progress in understanding what drives risky choices using very latest neuroscience tools

Motivation boost …anyone?

Facebook’s #ArtificialIntelligence Research lab releases open source #fastText on GitHub

The orbits of the stars in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy

Neuroscientists create ‘atlas’ showing how words are organised in the brain

A cautionary tale about the promises of modern brain science

What really happens to food when you drop it on the floor…

To increase productivity take some breaks (and sleep better)

What Teens Need Most From Their Parents

Beautiful images from futuristic work. The tools of neuroscience get evermore powerful

Who better than Russ Poldrack to review a book about what MRI can and can’t do?

Could brain stimulation help people with anorexia?

Stop blaming mental illness for violent crimes | Dean Burnett

Gut bacteria regulate nerve fibre insulation

Race & DNA & Neanderthals & sex & the new book & stuff.

MoCostandi’s book NEUROPLASTICITY is out now in the UK

The brain becomes more modular and integrated in development

LatitudeTalks is back with its second episode, ‘The Porn Perspective’ Listen here

Why billionaires have more sons

The viruses that may save humanity

Africa’s sunshine could eventually make the continent a supplier of energy to the rest of the world

How we built machines that can think for themselves

The Spartan launch system could radically reduce the costs of blasting satellites into orbit

Next generation of flexible robots w/ stretchable sensors

Week in Brains

Teaching old dogs new tricks (literally)

How problems with spelling provide evidence to suggest separate systems for long term vs working memory

Dogs and some primates may have a magnetic compass in their eyes

New research suggests that “modern men increasingly value brains over beauty in their long-term partners”

Concerned about drones snooping on your city? Might time to take up the art of falconry

Iceman Wim Hoff is teaching science a thing or two about mind over matter

MRI parts are being recycled to help discover the fundamental forces of nature

Brains and Beauty

Brains work better in summer

Vagus nerve stimulation results in significant relief of depressive symptoms versus sham stimulation

“Nanoscale implants that are inserted into the brain but which interact with cells optically”

Understanding the human brain – the story so far…

“excessive synaptic pruning model..far from new..was proposed in 1983 &..discussed in 3580 papers”

Babies can categorise colours before language… which I don’t find surprising at all but apparently it is

Who would’ve thought brushing your teeth could help you avoid a stroke!

“Japanese already had a name for the experience of well-being in nature: shinrin-yoku or ‘forest bathing’”

Why being sceptical of anyone claiming to be a “great multitasker” makes sense

Sleep deprivation leads to higher rate of false confessions

Half the population of the globe will be short sighted by 2050 =5Bn of 10Bn

Midlife physical activity is associated with better cognition in old age

‘Gambling’ wolves take more risks than dogs

Big neuroscience is going global

Mice who sing for sex in the ultrasound range use vocal cords arranged like a bit like a jet engine

Preventing obesity with mindful eating

London Eye tastes like lumpy mashed potato and baked beans to a lexical-gustatory synaesthete

Brain size and the risk of getting shot – Size does matter

Mice fall for rubber hand illusion just like us

Show me the former pro footballers with accelerated age-related cognitive decline, then i’ll stop heading balls

The revival of brain PET

Irrational decisions neatly explained by reward driven behaviour + biases

Little did we know how big a role immune cells play in everyday brain function; in health not just in sickness

Tesla unveils its new line of camouflaged solar panels

N=2?-1

Cognitive benefits in later life for mum’s who have their last kid after 35, but why…?

The world in 2076: Genetically engineered people are everywhere

Connectome fingerprinting can identify people with 100% accuracy

Staying socially active can slow decline in older adults’ ability to function

Remote-controlled optogenetic mice

Winners of the 2016 BioArt competition include this image of a spinal neuron in culture

Eternal Sunshine is here. Rather than erasing painful memories,mightn’t this result in a penchant for BDSM?

The Eye As a Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease

Musical training creates new brain connections in children

Obituaries are often written before celebs have died. Turns out brains do a similar thing with DNA

Double-blind trial shows that single dose of psilocybin can give 6 months relief from cancer-related anxiety

Levels of IL-6 inflammatory cytokine in blood at 9 years old used to predict bipolar symptoms in adulthood

Your not just imagining it – people’s aggression really does manifest itself in the way they walk: agro-swagger

Cracking the brain

One day, logging into your computer, email, twitter etc may require you to don a hatful of EEG electrodes

Your brain’s structural connections are as unique as your fingerprint. No surprises there then

Sleep and thermoregulation

“Cloudy with a chance of pain” Study investigates potential link between the weather and pain conditions

The language of creativity

Using MRI to distinguish between depression subtypes to predict whether TMS might be useful or not

Hippocampal detonator synapses

http://bit.ly/DrJEEGcntlRobt Dear Santa, If I’ve been good enough this year, please may I have a robotic arm controllable via 64 electrode EEG?

How the brain juggles tradeoffs between effort and reward in decision making

“Individuals may engage in geek culture in order to maintain narcissistic self-views”

Star-shaped glial support cells form chain to bridge L/R halves of the brain for baby neurons to grow along

The world’s first home-made brain implant

Ban digi-media use 1hr before bedtime, keep bedrooms, mealtimes & parent-child playtime screen free

Don’t mesmerise under-3’s with screens – chances are you’ll be doing them a great disservice in long run

Insightful video about how to make see-thru brains & what we can learn. Karl Deisseroth on CLARTY

Although “Princess Leia brainwaves” is unashamedly headline grabbing – science itself is pretty fascinating

The most self-ruinous way of consuming social media? Lurking: observing without contribution

Ability to make new memories, but keep the old prob relies on multiple synaptic “dials”

@LlianaBird & I are delighted to announce our new book #MiceWhoSing available now at Waterstones

Miltary Brain Stimulation

Hopefully this will dispel the widespread myth that it takes a lot of mindfulness practice to gain any benefit

Porn Brain: some teens are over-consuming porn to the extent that it effects normal sexual function

TV/radio off please: tough to separate speech/noise for older people, even in those who aren’t hard of hearing

Schizophrenics more likely to try cannabis. Why would delusional people crave greater distance from reality?

Maybe I won’t be saving up my $200k to hitch a ride to Mars with Elon after all… space brain sounds nasty!!

Stress and conception don’t mix: one of the dark sides of mind over matter

Boys &  girls brains change as a result of extreme stress: insula volume is reduced in girls, increased in boys

Rats are ticklish too

Male/female brains, more similar than dissimilar, but why stereotypical gender differences in behaviour…?

Sleep paralysis in Brazilian folklore and other cultures

Brain-inspired intelligent robotics: The intersection of robotics and neuroscience

This mental quirk could explain why you’re always running late

There was I thinking MRI was terrible at monitoring for specific emotions – not according to this…

A few words from the man behind Google’s brain

In this week’s @GCweirdscience podcast we discuss a miracle cure for cancer, gravity waves and horses

WeirdScience Ep51 podcast: newly discovered planet in our solar system, head transplants & ejaculating bees

Episode 62: Tribute to John Glenn, Preserved Dino-Tail, Pubic Hair grooming /  STD’s &  Magic Mushrooms

11 out of 10 on the geek-o-meter: Milky Way over the Pinnacles

How to stimulate deep brain areas without having to open the skull to implant electrodes – very clever work

Too many neurons spoil the memory

Leave my iPhone alone: why our smartphones are extensions of ourselves

Music therapy can reduce pain and anxiety; improve quality of life for people w/dementia

Learning from experience of others (single cell recordings in the human AC)

Thought that learning to get around was all about the hippocampus? Think again…

Cheetah brains

Imagine being able to feel sensation of touch through a robotic finger…BCI makes it reality

Global connectivity differences in brain scans of PTSD vs no-PTSD kids traumatised by Sichuan Earthquake

1st 2 months of human embryonic development in womb with amazing new accurate 3D interactive atlas

Tuning brains to banish pains: alpha freq light / sound pulses induce activity observed in placebo analgesia

Study investigates how far electrical current applied at human brain surface travels via phosphene mapping

Deep brain stimulation soon to use tiny coils to influence neurons with magnetism rather than electrons

If the way we breathe influences what we remember, are there breathing techniques to help students revise?

Starting with the world’s first city in 3700 BC, this map visualizes the history of urbanization

Explore how the brain is computing the mind

When does brain development reach completion?

In Cambridge? You can contribute to cutting edge @The_MRC cognitive neuroscience research.

How to get Artificial Intelligence to tell us when it’s not sure anymore and needs some human help

Ditch that sense of entitlement – it’s an illusion and will just make you perpetually miserable

“..a lesion..can disrupt the brain’s familiarity detector and reality monitor simultaneously”

Multilab study indicates that pulling smiling/frowning facial expressions does NOT induce emotions after all

How many different types of neurons there in the brain (even just the hypothalamus) blows my mind

Experts: “almost twice as likely to remember incidents relating to..topic that never happened”

Might stoned drivers be more cautious?

Mouse study suggests Omega-3 may promote brain toxin removal by helping out the glymphatic system

Could the impact of oxytocin on human behaviour boil down purely to synchrony

Psychobiotics – science of figuring out what to feed your gut bacteria so they influence the brain positively

Psychics used as controls for schizophrenia studies! Both hear voices, psychosis only present in latter group

Turns out people high on psychopathy scale ARE capable of regretting past actions, just don’t learn from it

How sleep affects responses to anti-depressant medication

Drugs for ex-convicts to reduce violent reoffending

See how superagers brains compare2young ones. Figure out how they keep their brains so plump&juicy

Pano brain

fMRI measures impact of antidepressant drugs on serotonin and dopamine levels in discrete brain areas

Dino brain

Could NA hold the key to coordinating integration of different brain areas according to task demands?

Preference lag for previously pleasure-giving things

UK Biobank imaging study finds links between brain anatomy and cognitive decline

Toddler robots help solve how children learn

First pop song ever written by artificial intelligence. The singularity is coming!

Graphene brain implants

One day BRAIN may replace Google

“The Irrational Idea That Humans Are Mostly Irrational“

Now you see ‘em, now you don’t: Visual illusion 12 ever-present black dots cannot be seen at the same time

Obesity epidemic

Being bored is good for children – and adults

The best-known homunculus diagram was actually drawn by Penfield’s secretary

Could ultrasound therapy activate immune cells to increase toxin removal, thereby slowing brain ageing?

I am Groot: Plants can do associative learning

Secrets for how to master your #intuition and trust your gut from @bakadesuyo

Yoshinori Ohsumi gets Nobel medicine prize

Rhesus monkey with damaged spinal cord moves leg via remote (brain) control

Deep brain ultrasound procedure zaps thalamus to abolish Cornish man’s uncontrollable tremor

Iron-based pollution nanoparticles found in the brains of deceased; from Mexico City to Manchester

Incredible: switching just one pair of nucleotides in an ancient ancestor’s DNA trebled our brain volume

Loneliness is endemic among older people, with deep cuts to befriending and daycare services

Why women feel cold more than men? (and why are many women advised that it’s in just their head!?)

Why childbirth is so painful

“Big-brained adults start out life as big-brained babies, so evolution came into conflict with itself.”

Why do paper cuts hurt so much!?

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37988197?post_id=1119922004725090_1275515435832 BBC News – Dementia game ‘shows lifelong navigational decline’

Ketamine for Depression: An Update

Radio interview on new paper on decision making in traders, gut instinct and interoception

“Assorted mammalian brains, roughly to scale.”

Science must take risks/push boundaries to advance. Can psychedelics open new window into mental health?

The truth behind new mum’s baby brain

The well-designed city is a healthy city, all over the world

Brain Books of 2016

Walk more, it’s good for your brain

Drink for joy, not to drown woes – boozing under duress may reverberate through your brain in later weeks

People tweaking doses of multiple nootropics with no concept of drug-drug interactions is terrifying

Buffalo worms for dinner. They have as much biovailable iron as sirloin

What is a SuperRecogniser?

Illuminating the realities of “flashbulb” memories – not as reliable as once thought

Areas critical for consciousness identified in human brain

Gene editing now works on cells that have stopped multiplying, prospect of fixing adult DNA malfunctions

The latest memristors – materials that mimc behaviour of synapses – are becoming incredibly sophisticated

Potential for MDMA (ecstasy) as a therapeutic agent for PTSD to be investigated in a proper clinical trial

Swimming… good for your brain, it seems

Added sugar in our diet is bad, but I didn’t realise range of negative impacts, like reduced oxytocin!

How genes can influence music’s impact on mood

Imagine if middle-aged people were one day prescribed nicotine to slow brain ageing?

Improved muscle strength via weight training “significantly improved global cognition” in mild cog. impaired

Talk about getting the wrong end of the stick…

How brains restore masked speech

Cross-species studies of orbitofrontal cortex & value-based decision-making

Whole new neuroscience-based perspective on adage: “not the size of the boat but the motion in the ocean”

Sharks like listening to AC/DC and heavy metal music, says #MiceWhoSing

“People who speak two languages often outperform monolinguals on general measures of executive function”

Article on helping kids with dyslexia & brain changes that result is great lesson in using animated gifs

What placebo/belief can and can’t heal

The marriage of technology and young brain, for better and for worse…

“Like many of my friends, I spent years using prescription stimulants… Then I tried to get of”

NYT highlights problems UK faces –Brexit May Hurt Britain Where It Thrives: Science and Research

Bonobos become long-sighted when middle-aged too

How to get adolescents to eat healthily? Make it a joint act of rebellion against the food industry…

Fast fMRI can detect oscillatory neural activity in humans

Why do we kill? Controversial study blames our distant ancestors

Lithium (yes the element) useful treatment for various psychiatric conditions & we’re finally figuring out why

Most influential neuroscientists from the world of brain imaging? A computer programme has worked it out

Kahneman and Tversky’s errors in understanding human error

Yawning cools brain? Do they need to cool a bit to get off to sleep, or in an effort to postpone sleep?

Researchers translate bat talk. Turns out bats spend most of their time arguing and complaining

How memory actually works is deeply counter-intuitive and constantly fascinating.

The Sahara desert could advance into Southern Spain

Tories just quietly put £7.9 BILLION worth of #NHS contracts up for sale

Apart from getting readers to consider TMS/ tDCS these reminders re: improving brain function ain’t too bad

Brain soup anyone? Apparently the best way to compare cortical neuron number across different species.

Our little black box podcast where we chat with neurologist+neuroscientist @DuzelLab is up

“Fisher gave scientists a mathematical machine for turning baloney into breakthroughs..flukes into funding”

How video games unwittingly train the brain to justify killing

So this is what adolescence is all about

Neuroscientist who spanned intellectual divide offers some thought-provoking new perspectives

“Rotating waves during human sleep spindles organize global patterns of activity…”

Wonder how many other podcasts talk about cuttlefish who count and growing sperm!?

GC EP 56: Green Slime with sight, Paracetamol lies and Pigtails!

Brain Game Claims Fail A Big Scientific Test

Your brain has a physics engine & helps you avoid causing chaos in the grocery aisle

New drug improving longevity & memory in animal studies of prion disease brings hope for fight against Alz’s

How subtle changes in our bodies affect awareness & confidence

Structural changes in the brains of teens are highly correlated with genes linked to schizophrenia

Winners of the 2016 British Wildlife Photography Awards

Teens perform better at reinforcement learning than adults (NB main difference in hippo not striatum)

Higher BMI-> More inflammation-> poorer cognitive function according to new study

Before you start zapping your brain why not wait until science has actually researched what it does to us?

How to manage the global Neuro-Tsunami

Sleep deprivation associated with increased calorie consumption the following day

“Delta waves represent slow wave activity that increases after brain injuries.”

Time passes fast, time passes slow. Neuroscience may finally have pinpointed brain areas that influence this

If you want to hang onto your crystalline intelligence in later life don’t forget to eat your greens

Some wise words on ToDo lists

You can’t work people to death just because you pay them lots

The brain’s stick (as in carrot and stick) of decision making resides in the globus pallidus

Images of neurons migrating within brain tissue of newborn babies (mostly completed by ~5 months old)

Would you let someone implant a $100 million dollar brain chip if would make you more intelligent?

Feel like you’re addicted to your prescription medicine? You’re not alone…

Cancer surgeons can tell healthy from cancerous cells with audio signal generated by laser reflection analysis

The plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s disease don’t necessarily result in symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease

Injecting blood plasma of human teenagers into “old” mice rejuvenates their cognition

New approach halts spread of Alzheimer’s via tau protein tweak to prevent tangles

Quite possibly the strangest sex study i’ve ever read about.. and there’s a lot of competition for that accolade

A musical about cancer, playing at National Theatre from tomorrow until the end of November… who’s in??

Further financial boost for NIH BRAIN Initiative

Congrats @kmdouglass et al for winning the image contest

The biology of bigotry (is prejudice in your genes?)

Time to revise how we think about the cerebellum (role extends far beyond balance and muscle coordination)

TMS reawakens access to latent memory (link to orig Science paper at end of article)

Train the parents to train the child. A successful strategy for improving autistic kids’ communication abilities

How to grow your own brain

A common diabetes drug may stave of dementia even in nondiabetics

Now the human brain’s beauty is available for all to see (in great detail) thanks to the Allen Institute

Any book by Steven Rose =winning for me

Promising Links Found Between Different Causes of Parkinson’s

Magnetic pulse (TMS) applied at border between temporal/parietal lobes hobbles perspective taking ability

Why ice skaters don’t get dizzy when they spin

How do we track the evolution of myths and folktales over time? Anthropologist Julien D’Huy explains

Bigger the brain, longer the yawn

Growing up, my mother seemed lost in her own world. Then I discovered why. She had a lobotomy

Injectable electrode mesh could revolutionise deep brain stimulation

Can you boost your brain power by making yourself ambidextrous?

Where in your brain do all those virtual maps of space live?

What living with Lewy Body disease was like in Robin Williams’s last months on Earth

High incidence of brain injuries among homeless is not being addressed by NHS

If you want to practise mindfulness, the garden is the place to be

Could thinning of the grey matter really account for risk aversion in older adults?

An fMRI study that shines some light on why negative stereotypes stick (clue: it’s easier)

What’s different about the brain of a man who can play 33 games of chess simultaneously (and blindfolded)?

Lie to me: first a little, then more and more – it will become easier as your amygdala adapts to the habit

Stem cells from schizophrenics produce fewer neurons

These monkeys are creating tools thought to be unique to humans – by accident

Building a building so high that the roof spins around earth at the speed of light?

This #selfie single-handedly justifies the existence of selfie-sticks. #slothselfie @reddit

Oversharing on Facebook – my brain made me do it… again!

Dear fans of MMA, If you repeatedly punch someone in the head this kind of thing is inevitable

Might diabetics of the future be treated with an injection directly into the brain?

A single species of gut bacteria can reverse autism-related social behavior in mice

Longer maternity leave linked to better infant health

Neurofeedback during fMRI scan enables volunteers to learn to crank up their reward pathways

Best of both worlds for Middle Aged brains (better emotional regulation techniques&crystalline intelligence)

Nice synopsis of a few of the more notable achievements in neuroscience to arise over the course of 2016

Turning mice into killers at the flick of an (optogenetic) switch

Mixing up names of nearest & dearest probably due to them being stored in ur “people I love” brain directory

“I did what honour dictated and that belief sustains me, except for a slight desire to be dead, which I’m sure will pass” Brando re: Bounty

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time, none, zero” —Charlie Mungern

Read this & you’ll find clues re: why mixing up your exercise regime is a good way2promote neuroplasticity

A new study indicates that taking up yoga can have a very positive impact on the brain

Go inside the lab with the world’s largest collection of brains affected by the disease CTE

Could Alzheimer’s stem from toxic remnants of the brain’s attempt to fight off infection?

I hope my retirement home is as brain health-centric as this one…

Earth and the moon – as seen from Mars

SkyWall gun stops drones dead, then gives a parachute landing

Cocoa benefits turn out to be a bit of a chocolate teapot, upon closer inspection

Interesting perspective from a man with a rare form of synesthesia

Finally FDA restrictions on antibiotic use in livestock. Can’t use the medically important ones anymore.

The brain looks like a forest but the forest works like a brain! Brilliant @Radiolab episode

Today’s route to work involves driving thru’ mountains of Spain – who knew neuroscience would be so jetset?

Make the best out of any situation!

With 4 new elements discovered Asia enters the hall of fame and the USA jumps to 2nd place

Analysis of MDMA studies suggests ‘ecstasy’ can damage brain’s serotonin system

Smell you later, stranger

How brains respond to being insulted and laughed at

You can draw a straight, uninterrupted line across the sea from Newfoundland to Australia

Confused about mixed messages regarding differences between male & female brains?

Jamie Oliver praises “brave” sugar tax move in #Budget2016

Could “vesicle trafficking” be at the root of the brain disease that so afflicted the great Ali in his later years?

Why do we make bad choices? It’s all relative. As in, quite literally…

That powered exo-skeleton from Aliens? Yep. We got that now

The mysterious science of hiccups: why we get them and how to stop them

Just how smart is an octopus? Smarter than you think

New Chinese supercomputer is world’s most powerful

Success! Nasa’s #Juno craft is now in orbit around #Jupiter

Bacteria can turn cylindrical rotors and provide a steady power source

Ingestible batteries and robots in the bloodstream could be future treatment solutions

Sugar tax will raise £520m for primary school sports

A glia chased by three axons! It doesn’t end well. 40 hours time-lapse from the archives