News

Cagri Yuksel describes new research revealing that REM sleep and vagal nerve activity may play a crucial role in how the brain recovers from fear. These findings could open the door to innovative therapies for PTSD and related conditions.

Have you ever had the sense that the person you’re talking to is just a “robot”? That they’re following some script without thinking about it? New research by Ilona Bass and Tomer Ullman examines the detection of automatic behavior in other people, finding it is a common and robust phenomenon across domains.

Haritosh Patel and colleagues explore how nature’s blueprint for smell can inspire next-generation gas sensors. By applying principles from biological olfaction—such as active sniffing, adaptive sensing, and neural-inspired processing—this work presents a new perspective for more sensitive, selective, and robust electronic noses with applications in healthcare, environmental monitoring, and beyond.

Astrocytes are the most abundant non-neuronal cell type in the brain, though the mechanisms they use to communicate with neurons remains unclear. A new study from Florian Engert (Harvard), Misha Ahrens (Janelia) and colleagues, first author Alex B Chen. has identified a role for astrocytes in implementing feedforward inhibition over slow timescales and filled in critical molecular details in a biochemical pathway that astrocytes use to signal to neurons

A new study from Xiang Gao (Fudan University), Alberto Ascherio (Harvard School of Public Health), and colleagues, first author Peilu Wang (Fudan University) finds that people who consume higher servings of ultra-processed foods are more likely to show early signs of Parkinson's.

Congratulations to Joshua Sanes, the John C. Tarr Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and former HBI Co-Director, on being been named a Fellow of the British Royal Society!