Tool use is widely reported across a broad range of the animal kingdom, yet comprehensive empirical tests of its function and evolutionary drivers ...

When people discuss whether a particular trait is innate or environmental, it is usually assumed that each of these components is fixed.

Zappable · Episode

Author summary One of the most remarkable qualities of the brain is its capacity to learn and adapt. How the learning process imprints and maintains memories, by shaping the architecture of connectivi...

The brain modifies synaptic strengths to store new information via long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). Evidence has mounted that long-term synaptic plasticity is controlled vi...

Author summary Researchers have developed various learning rules for artificial neural networks, but it is unclear how these rules relate to the brain’s natural processes. This study focuses on the ca...

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Sensory information can be differentially processed, enabling similar sensory stimuli to elicit different, context-specific behavioral strategies. This study uncovers a conserved configuration of elec...

Oby, Degenhart, Grigsby and colleagues used a brain–computer interface to challenge monkeys to override their natural time courses of neural activity. They found the time courses to be highly robust, ...

The majority of cells in the cerebral cortex are unspecialized, according to an unpublished analysis—and scientists need to take care in naming neurons, the researchers warn.

Classical models of memory in psychology and neuroscience rely on similarity-based retrieval of stored patterns, where similarity is a function of retrieval cues and the stored patterns. While parsimo...

Nature Neuroscience - Brain function requires the formation of diverse and specific synapses. The authors show that the molecular code specifying excitatory connectivity on Purkinje cells evolves...

Dynamical balance of excitation and inhibition is usually invoked to explain the irregular low firing activity observed in the cortex. We propose a robust nonli

Author summary The impressive successes of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in solving a range of challenging artificial intelligence tasks have led many researchers to explore the similarities betwe...

The ability to learn is typically attributed to animals with brains. However, the apparently simplest form of learning, habituation, in which a steadi…

Deep neural networks are a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that imitate how human brains process information, but understanding how these networks "think" has long been a challenge. Now,…

Inhibiting CaMKII impairs short-term memory (STM) in mice during an avoidance task but does not affect long-term memory (LTM). This suggests that STM and LTM are processed differently, with CaMKII cri...

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The intrinsic organization underlying the central cognitive role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is poorly understood. The work to date has been dominated by cytoarchitecture as a canvas for studies on...