Sleep is crucial for concentration, memory, coordination, and even emotional health. Research holds promise for devising new treatments to allow millions of people to get a good night’s sleep.

The ability to react quickly in response to threatening events has been with us since the time of our earliest ancestors.

Processing information from the sensory systems is one of many functions of the brain. Such information is often the first step in other brain activities, including learning and retaining knowledge.

Genes and the environment converge powerfully during early sensitive windows of brain development to form the neural circuits underlying behavior. Although most neuronal cell death occurs in the embryo, the paring down of connections occurs in large part during critical periods in early postnatal life.

Once the neural induction has occurred, the next step for new neurons is a journey to the proper position in the brain. This process is called migration, and it begins three to four weeks after a human baby is conceived.

The brain uses some unconventional means to communicate.

The two halves of the nervous system work together in order for your body to properly communicate its sensations and needs.

Most medicines today were developed using trial-and-error techniques, which often do not reveal why a drug produces a particular effect. But the expanding knowledge gained from molecular biology methods makes safer and more effective drugs possible.

The discovery in the late 1950s that the level of dopamine was decreased in the brains of Parkinson’s patients was followed in the 1960s by successful treatment with the drug levodopa, which is converted to dopamine in the brain. This historical event is one of the greatest medical breakthroughs in the field of neurology.

What do standing frustrated in a supermarket checkout line or sitting in a traffic jam have in common with fleeing predators, as was done in the early days of human beings?