Memory News

June 30, 2026

Top Headlines

Scientists Discover Ancient Brain Cells That Help Block Distractions

June 24, 2026 Scientists have discovered a tiny group of neurons in an ancient brain region that acts like a built-in focus filter, helping the brain ignore distractions and zero in on what matters most. When researchers temporarily switched off these neurons in ...

New Brain Study Reveals Speech Learning Works Differently Than We Thought

June 23, 2026 A new study suggests that learning and remembering speech relies more on how the brain processes sounds and sensations than on the areas that control mouth and face movements. The discovery could reshape speech therapy and help improve future ...

Scientists Found an Early Depression Clue Hidden in Children’s Eyes

June 16, 2026 Depression appears to change what children notice in the faces around them, but the effect depends on family history. Kids with a higher inherited risk became more focused on sadness, while lower-risk children lost some of their natural attention to ...

Cannabis Study Finds THC Can Create False Memories

Mar. 11, 2026 THC doesn’t just blur memories—it can create new ones that never happened. In a controlled experiment, cannabis users were much more likely to recall words that were never shown and struggled with tasks like remembering to do something later. ...

Scientists Found the Brain Glitch That Makes You Think You’re Still Hungry

June 11, 2025 A team of scientists has identified specialized neurons in the brain that store "meal memories" detailed recollections of when and what we eat. These engrams, found in the ventral hippocampus, help ...

People with Critical Cardiovascular Disease May Benefit from Palliative Care

May 16, 2025 Palliative care is specialized medical care focused on easing symptoms, addressing psychological and spiritual needs, and helping patients and caregivers make critical decisions aligned with their ...

Energy and Memory: A New Neural Network Paradigm

May 14, 2025 Listen to the first notes of an old, beloved song. Can you name that tune? If you can, congratulations -- it's a triumph of your associative memory, in which one piece of information (the first few notes) triggers the memory of the entire pattern ...

Neuroscientists Pinpoint Where (and How) Brain Circuits Are Reshaped as We Learn New Movements

May 7, 2025 Brain researchers have identified a bridge between the thalamus and the cortex as the key area that is modified during motor learning functions. They found that such learning does much more than ...

Remembering the Cold: Scientists Discover How Memories Control Metabolism

Apr. 23, 2025 New multidisciplinary research shows that the brain forms memories of cold experiences and uses them to control our metabolism. The study shows that cold memories form in the brain -- and map out how they subsequently drive thermoregulation. The ...

Watching Our Brains Remember Multiple Things at Once

Apr. 22, 2025 A new study offers insight into what is happening in our brains when our working memory must use its limited resources to remember multiple things. Researchers found that two parts of the brain work together to ensure that more brain resources are ...

Sleep Matters: Duration, Timing, Quality and More May Affect Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Apr. 14, 2025 Healthy sleep includes multiple components, such as number of hours of sleep per night, how long it takes to fall asleep, daytime functioning and self-reported sleep satisfaction, and addressing ...

Adulting Is Hard on the Heart: Teen to Young Adulthood Is a Critical Time to Address Risk

Mar. 26, 2025 Many youth have heart disease risk factors by their late teens, and preventing or addressing these risks early may reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the future, according to a ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:21am EDT

These Overlooked Brain Cells May Control Fear and PTSD

Apr. 4, 2026 Astrocytes, once thought to be mere brain “support cells,” are now revealed to be key players in fear memory. Researchers found they actively help form, recall, and weaken fear responses by ...

Scientists Just Solved a Major Mystery About How Your Brain Stores Memories

Mar. 24, 2026 Scientists have found that your brain separates memories into “what” and “where/when” using two different groups of neurons. One set responds to specific objects or people, while another ...

Your Brain Does Something Surprising When You Don’t Sleep

Jan. 20, 2026 When you’re short on sleep and your focus suddenly drifts, your brain may be briefly slipping into cleanup mode. Scientists discovered that these attention lapses coincide with waves of fluid ...

A "herculean" Genetic Study Just Found a New Way to Treat ADHD

Jan. 2, 2026 Attention depends on the brain’s ability to filter out distractions, but new research suggests this works best when background brain activity is quieter. Scientists found that lowering certain ...

Why Some Memories Last a Lifetime While Others Fade Fast

Nov. 30, 2025 Scientists have uncovered a stepwise system that guides how the brain sorts and stabilizes lasting memories. By tracking brain activity during virtual reality learning tasks, researchers identified ...

A 500-Million-Year-Old Brain "radar" Still Shapes How You See

Nov. 8, 2025 New research shows that the superior colliculus, a primitive brain region, can independently interpret visual information. This challenges long-held beliefs that only the cortex handles such complex ...

Scientists Find Mind Trick That Unlocks Lost Memories

Nov. 3, 2025 Researchers found that embodying a digital, childlike version of one’s own face helps unlock vivid childhood memories. This illusion strengthens the connection between bodily self-perception and ...

How the Brain Decides Which Moments You’ll Never Forget

Sep. 27, 2025 Boston University researchers found that ordinary moments can gain staying power if they’re connected to significant emotional events. Using studies with hundreds of participants, they showed that ...

How the Brain Links Related Memories Formed Close in Time

Mar. 22, 2025 If you've ever noticed how memories from the same day seem connected while events from weeks apart feel separate, a new study reveals the reason: Our brains physically link memories that occur close ...

Why Don't We Remember Being a Baby? New Study Provides Clues

Mar. 20, 2025 Though we learn so much during our first years of life, we can't, as adults, remember specific events from that time. Researchers have long believed we don't hold onto these experiences because the ...

Think You’re Bad at Languages? Experts Say These 5 Myths Are to Blame

May 21, 2026 Many people avoid learning a new language because they remember stressful grammar lessons or fear making mistakes. But language experts say communication, culture, and connection matter far more than ...

Parts of the Brain That Are Needed to Remember Words Identified

Mar. 19, 2025 The parts of the brain that are needed to remember words, and how these are affected by a common form of epilepsy, have been identified by a team of neurologists and neurosurgeons at ...

New AI-Powered Tool Could Enhance Traumatic Brain Injury Investigations in Forensics and Law Enforcement

Feb. 26, 2025 A team of researchers has developed an advanced physics-based AI-driven tool to aid the forensic investigation of traumatic brain injuries ...

We Need a New Definition of Dyslexia, Research Says

Feb. 25, 2025 A new definition of dyslexia is needed to more accurately describe the learning disorder and give those struggling with dyslexia the specific support they require, says new ...

Meet the Newly Discovered Brain Cell That Allows You to Remember Objects

Feb. 12, 2025 Researchers have discovered a new type of neuron that plays a fundamental role in recognition memory -- how the brain registers the difference between new and familiar objects and forms long-term ...

Positive Emotions Plus Deep Sleep Equals Longer-Lasting Perceptual Memories

Feb. 3, 2025 Researchers have uncovered how perceptual memories linked to positive emotions, such as joy or happiness, are strengthened during sleep. The study could help scientists understand the neurological ...

How Does the Hippocampus Coordinate Memory Encoding and Retrieval?

Feb. 3, 2025 A team of scientists has unveiled how the hippocampus orchestrates multiple memory processes, including encoding new information, forming memories, and retrieving ...

Rethinking Altruistic Punishment: New Experimental Insights

Jan. 27, 2025 A research team developed a new experimental game to explore whether people avoid witnessing selfish behavior to evade punishing others or simply to avoid confronting unfairness. The study found that ...

Memory Systems in the Brain Drive Food Cravings That Could Influence Body Weight

Jan. 15, 2025 A research team identified the brain's food-specific memory system and its direct role in overeating and diet-induced obesity. They found a specific population of neurons in the mouse brain that ...

How One Brain Circuit Encodes Memories of Both Places and Events

Jan. 15, 2025 A computational model explains how place cells in the hippocampus can be recruited to form any kind of episodic memory, even when there's no spatial ...

Study Reveals That Sleep Prevents Unwanted Memories from Intruding

Jan. 2, 2025 The link between poor sleep and mental health problems could be related to deficits in brain regions that keep unwanted thoughts out of ...

The Distinct Nerve Wiring of Human Memory

Dec. 11, 2024 The black box of the human brain is starting to open. Although animal models are instrumental in shaping our understanding of the mammalian brain, scarce human data is uncovering important ...

Why People Remember Certain Things and Not Others

Dec. 6, 2024 Exactly why do people remember what they remember? A recently published review paper sheds light on this fundamental question and the relationship between factors that influence human ...

New Pathways to Long-Term Memory Formation

Dec. 5, 2024 Researchers have discovered a new pathway to forming long-term memories in the brain. Their work suggests that long-term memory can form independently of short-term memory, a finding that opens ...

Stress Makes Mice's Memories Less Specific

Nov. 15, 2024 Stress is a double-edged sword when it comes to memory: stressful or otherwise emotional events are usually more memorable, but stress can also make it harder for us to retrieve memories. Now, ...

Grabbing Pizza With Coworkers Isn't Just Fun -- It Could Boost Your Teamwork Skills

Nov. 12, 2024 Forming memories around shared experiences, whether something fun like grabbing a pizza or as emotionally straining as an employee strike, has a way of binding people together. But it could also ...

Debunked: Children Aren't Quicker at Picking Up New Motor Skills Than Adults

Nov. 12, 2024 Contrary to popular belief, children aren't better at learning new skills than adults. Indeed, young adults seem to learn faster than kids -- but also tend to forget more quickly. Here, better ...

Brain Stars Hold Our Memories

Nov. 6, 2024 A new study changes the way we understand memory. Until now, memories have been explained by the activity of brain cells called neurons that respond to learning events and control memory recall. ...

Researchers Have Uncovered the Mechanism in the Brain That Constantly Refreshes Memory

Nov. 6, 2024 Researchers have discovered a neural mechanism for memory integration that stretches across both time and personal ...

Meta-Learning of Motor Skills in the Dorsal Premotor Cortex of the Brain

Oct. 31, 2024 Researchers have discovered that the dorsal premotor cortex serves a 'meta-learning' function, overseeing and regulating physical movements. Once believed to be limited to movement ...