The addictive substance in alcohol, ethanol, acts as a stimulant in lower blood-alcohol concentrations and as a depressant in larger concentrations.

Drug abuse is one of the nation's most serious health problems. About 9 percent of Americans, more than 22 million people, abuse drugs on a regular basis. Drug abuse, including alcohol and nicotine, is estimated to cost the U.S. more than $600 billion each year.

Opioids are substances that bind to opioid receptors in the brain to relieve pain.

Twenty years of research have established the connection between adverse childhood experiences and long-term health. Now researchers are looking for ways to measure the biology behind the correlation and try to reverse it.

Our body’s natural sleep-wake rhythm, or circadian rhythm, helps us stay healthy and function throughout our daily lives.

Huntington’s disease is a heritable neurodegenerative disease that can impact those under 20 in its juvenile form and develop in adults as early as their 30s and 40s.

Historically associated with combat veterans, PTSD symptoms occur in people with vastly different experiences, including those whose jobs rarely take them away from a desk.

Working out buffs up the body — and perhaps the mind, too. New research is revealing how physical activity can reduce and even ward off depression, anxiety and other psychological ailments.

And other neuroscience news you may have missed in August 2022.

Arousal is a physiological state involving brain and body changes that motivate behavior and enable response to stimuli.