The Amazing Human Brain

The human brain is the body's computer. Find out everything there is to know about your brain and stay updated on the latest news with the comprehensive articles and images of the brain at LiveScience.com. Learn more about this vital organ as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about your brain.

Related Topics: Memory, Nervous System, Personality

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A book at a library

Your Brain Needs 1.5 MB of Storage to Master Your Native Language

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

About the size of a 1.5 MB floppy disk

"Thirst neurons" light up in the subfornical organ of the brain.

How Does the Body Know When to Stop Drinking Water?

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

Too little or too much water can be dangerous for the body.

A magnetic field surrounds our planet and protects it from solar radiation. Our brains might be able to tune into it.

Scientists Find Evidence That Your Brain Can Sense Earth's Magnetic Field

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

The Earth's magnetic field might be influencing the brain.

Broken-heart syndrome weakens the muscles of the heart, causing its left ventricle to enlarge. The heart takes on a shape like a “takotsubo,” a Japanese fishing pot used to trap octopuses. The condition is also known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

Broken-Heart Syndrome May Stem from the Brain

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

The brain decreases its chatter, the heart weakens and balloons up

Illustration of a brain made out of clocks

Why Does Time Fly When You're Having Fun?

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

The brain...it likes to play

Neurons pass signals to one another through a synapse.

How Does Consciousness Arise in the Brain?

By Davinia Fernández-Espejo published

It's one of the most important unanswered questions of modern neuroscience.

An illustration shows an electrode stimulating a bundle of white matter called the cingulum bundle.

Doctors Zapped a Woman's Brain So She Could Laugh Through 'Awake' Brain Surgery

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

Being awake during surgery can be terrifying, but laughing might help

Images of a human brain scan

Women's Brains Are 3 Years 'Younger' Than Men's, Study Suggests

By Rachael Rettner published

A new study suggests that, by at least one measure, women's brains are biologically younger than men's.

rat, lab rat

Could 'Memory-Erasing' Implants Help Prevent Drug Relapses? It Worked for These Rats.

By Brandon Specktor published

These rats loved cocaine — until they got their memories "erased."

Alice in Wonderland

Man with 'Alice in Wonderland Syndrome' Watches Computer Icons Leap Off Screen

By Laura Geggel published

At first, the man couldn't believe his eyes. The icons on his desktop computer were slowly jumping out of his monitor, hovering in the space between him and the screen.

Marijuana joints

Smoking Pot Just Once May Increase Teen Brain Volume: Why That Could Be Bad

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

Smoking pot just once might be linked to changes in young brains

An MRI showing the brain.

There's a Link Between the Size of Your Belly and the Size of Your Brain

By Rachael Rettner published

A new study links belly fat, or visceral fat, with brain shrinkage.

Electric brain

10 Things We Learned About the Brain in 2018

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

The brain sculpts not only who we are but also the world that we experience. It tells us what to see, what to hear and what to say.

What do you see when you look at this image, by artist Joseph Jastrow, published in 1899 in Popular Science Monthly?

7 Illusions That Blew Our Minds in 2018

By Yasemin Saplakoglu published

An arrow points right. Turn it 180 degrees, it still points right. Turn it again... it points right.

In a recent study, scientists compared the skull of Little Foot (shown here) with that of other hominins.

Brain of Mysterious 'Little Foot' Human Relative Was Half-Man, Half-Ape

By Stephanie Pappas published

The brain of a very old human ancestor looks a lot like an ape's and a little like a human's.

One of the features that distinguishes modern humans (right) from Neandertals (left) is a globular shape of the braincase.

Do You Carry Neanderthal DNA? The Shape of Your Skull May Tell.

By Charles Q. Choi published

The shape of your brain may say a lot about the Neanderthal in you.

Balamuthia mandrillaris

'It Was Just Dead Brain Tissue': Seattle Woman Dies from Extremely Unusual Infection

By Sara G. Miller published

It started with a sinus infection that wouldn't go away.

Lab-Grown Mini Kidneys 'Go Rogue,' Sprout Brain and Muscle Cells

By Mindy Weisberger published

Miniature kidneys produced in the lab were hiding something from the researchers that grew them.

neuron, nerve cell

Bacteria May Live (Harmlessly) in Your Brain

By Rachael Rettner published

In the latest example of bacteria being "literally everywhere," scientists appear to have found evidence of microbes living harmlessly in our brains.

Surgeons performing brain surgery.

Can Injecting Millions of Stem Cells into the Brain Treat Parkinson's Disease?

By Rachael Rettner published

A new experimental therapy for Parkinson's disease that involves injecting millions of special stem cells into the brain of patients with the condition is currently being tested in a clinical trial.