The neocortex of our brain is the seat of our intellect. New data suggests that mammals created it with new types of cells that they developed only after their evolutionary split from reptiles. The ...

It has been known for nearly 20 years that slow, synchronous electrical waves in the brain during deep sleep support the formation of memories. Why that is, was previously unknown. How do permanent ...

Researchers have discovered how two brain areas, neocortex and thalamus, work together to detect discrepancies between what animals expect from their environment and actual events. These prediction ...

Researchers from the National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS) in Japan revealed that neurons in the deepest part of the cortex exhibit experience-dependent plasticity The mammalian ...

Contrary to previous assumptions, nerve cells in the human neocortex are wired differently than in mice. The study found that human neurons communicate in one direction, while in mice, signals tend to ...

Modern humans have a mutation that boosts the growth of neurons in the neocortex, a brain region associated with higher intelligence. This is absent in more ancient humans like Neanderthals, so it is ...

In the neocortex of the brain, excitatory neuronal cells that arise from the same progenitor cell express patterned combinations of clustered protocadherin proteins (cPCDHs). The pattern of cPCDHs ...

In a bid to better understand, and potentially treat, a host of conditions that affect early cognition, neurodevelopment, and the brain later in life, investigators at Johns Hopkins Medicine and ...

Scientists have been searching for an answer to the question of 'what makes us human'for decades. Many have looked to our close relatives, like Neanderthals or Denisovans, as a comparison. The modern ...

Wanting to better understand how the brain forms and stores long-term memory, an international team of scientists undertook a study of the brain's circuits. Their work sheds new light on the way the ...

The neocortex stands out as a stunning achievement of biological evolution. All mammals have this swath of tissue covering their brain, and the six layers of densely packed neurons within it handle ...