The human brain filters through a flood of experiences to create specific memories. Why do some of the experiences in this deluge of sensory information become “memorable,” while most are discarded by the brain?
A computational model and behavioral study...
Since Yale researchers first observed the ability of the anesthetic ketamine to dramatically improve symptoms in many patients with treatment-resistant depression more than two decades ago, the drug has provided a powerful new therapeutic option for...
As a young mechanical engineering student, and later as a medical student, Yale’s Samuel Wilkinson became fascinated with what science — particularly theories of evolution — might tell us about the meaning and purpose of life.
In a new book, “Purpose:...
The eyes have been called the window to the brain. It turns out they also serve as an immunological barrier that protects the organ from pathogens and even tumors, Yale researchers have found.
In a new study, researchers showed that vaccines injected into...
Over the past decade or so, scientists have amassed an impressive arsenal of weapons to address the multifaceted, complex challenge of mental illness, from new genomic analysis tools and high-resolution neuroimaging technologies, to the creation of huge...
A new Yale-led study has found that stem cells migrate to help repair damaged lung cells caused by injuries such as viral or bacterial infections.
The findings were published Feb. 19 in the journal Developmental Cell.
“This is an exciting new insight into...
An overly robust immune response to usually harmless germs has been linked to colitis, a potentially severe inflammation of the colon that afflicts millions of people worldwide. A new Yale-led study not only reveals that the presence of one class of fatty...
It’s well known that plants have a fine-tuned ability to sense changes in the season by how much daylight they’re exposed to, yet scientists observed more than a century ago that plants sometimes grow during one season and flower in another. Most research...
Every system in a living organism depends upon a finite supply of energy in order to function. In humans, no organ is more energy-intensive than the brain, which consumes about 20% of the body’s metabolic energy.
But how is energy distributed in the...
Ribonucleic acids (RNAs) are the ultimate cellular insiders. They perform several critical jobs, such as ferrying genetic instructions from a living organism’s DNA to its protein-making machinery (a process key to cellular processes) and controlling which...