brain

Daytime sleep is critical for effective learning in young children

Few features of child-rearing occupy as much parental brain space as sleep, and with it the timeless question: Is my child getting enough?

Researchers show how brain cell connections get cemented early in life

When we’re born, our brains aren’t very organized. Every brain cell talks to lots of other nearby cells, sending and receiving signals across connections called synapses.

Two neighboring brain cells "talk" to one another by sending signals across a gap called a synapse. The more active the synapse during development, U-M researchers found, the more a protein called SIRP is cut loose from one cell, travels to the other, and helps stabilize the synapse for the future.

Those with ALS redefine what it means to be alive

With the tap of a toe or the blink of an eye, those with ALS are redefining what it means to be alive.

I have to admit it took some time to come up with that line and believe it -- to have that kind of positive outlook on this nasty deadly disease and the future.

Just a year and a half ago, my mother, Myrna Malveaux, 69, was healthy. Our family's matriarch, she was the one who was the life of the party, the trusted confidante but town crier of all family secrets, the glue that held my father, me, and my three siblings together.

The benefits of brain mapping

Many scientists now believe that real progress on learning how the brain works can be made only through highly funded, inter­disciplinary big science...