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 ...

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 ...

Have you ever seen something that doesn't quite add up? Maybe a shape in the dark resembles a face, or an orange momentarily looks like an apple. Scientists now have a new idea about how different ...

Contrary to previous assumptions, nerve cells in the human neocortex are wired differently than in mice. Those are the findings of a new study conducted by Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and ...

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 ...

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 ...

What makes us human? According to neurobiologists it is our neocortex. This outer layer of the brain is rich in neurons and lets us do abstract thinking, create art, and speak complex languages. An ...

The question of what makes modern humans unique has long been a driving force for researchers. Comparisons with our closest relatives, the Neandertals, therefore provide fascinating insights. The ...

As far back as Plato and Aristotle, people believed that our memories had to be physical somethings that were stored somewhere in the brain. But only in modern times have we learned much about what ...

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 ...