Neuroscience

85 ideas, each explained on one page with a 60-second lesson you can play right there.

5-HT2A receptor The 5-HT2A receptor is the primary excitatory serotonin receptor in the brain and the main docking target for psychedelic drugs like LSD.
Action Potential An action potential is a fast electrical spike across a cell membrane that lets neurons, muscles, and endocrine cells send signals.
Adrenaline Adrenaline is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands that prepares your body to react to danger or stress.
Allostatic load Allostatic load is the cumulative physical wear and tear on your body caused by chronic or repeated stress.
Amygdala The amygdala is a pair of almond-sized clusters of neurons located deep inside the temporal lobes of the brain.
Amyloid beta Amyloid beta is a small protein fragment naturally produced and released by brain cells every day.
Animal echolocation Animal echolocation uses sound emission and returning echoes to measure object distance, size, and velocity in air and water.
Artificial consciousness Artificial consciousness is the idea that a non-biological machine or artificial intelligence could have subjective, inner experiences.
Attachment in adults Adult attachment theory shows how early caregiver bonds shape trust, emotional distance, and relationship stability in adulthood.
Attachment Styles Attachment styles describe patterns infants use to stay close to caregivers, shaping expectations in future relationships.
Attention Span Attention span is the amount of time someone concentrates on a task before becoming distracted.
Automaticity Automaticity is the ability to carry out actions and mental tasks without thinking about the low-level steps.
Axons An axon is the long, slender cable that extends from a nerve cell to send electrical signals to other cells.
Basal ganglia The basal ganglia are a group of interconnected structures deep beneath the cerebral cortex.
BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, is a protein that acts as a growth factor for nerve cells in the brain and body.
Benjamin Libet Benjamin Libet was an American neuroscientist who studied human consciousness at the University of California, San Francisco.
Beta Endorphins Beta endorphins are peptide molecules, chains of amino acids made in the brain, that act as the body's natural painkillers.
Chronotype A chronotype is a person's natural biological tendency to sleep and be active at specific times during a 24-hour day.
Circadian Rhythm Circadian rhythms are roughly 24-hour internal biological cycles.
Cocktail party effect The cocktail party effect is your brain's ability to focus on a single speaker while filtering out competing background noise.
Cognitive Distortions A cognitive distortion is an exaggerated or irrational thought pattern that causes you to perceive reality inaccurately.
Critical period A critical period is a developmental window where the nervous system requires specific environmental input to wire essential functions.
Cue-dependent forgetting Cue-dependent forgetting is failing to recall something that's still stored because the right cue is missing.
Default Mode Network The default mode network is a coordinated set of brain regions that fires up when you are not focused on the outside world.
Dementia Dementia is an umbrella term for a progressive decline in mental abilities caused by physical damage to the brain, which interferes with daily life.
Distraction Distraction is the process of pulling attention away from a chosen focus, which blocks or reduces the intake of relevant information.
Dopamine Dopamine is a chemical messenger that nerve cells use to communicate with one another.
Dreams A dream is a series of images, events, and emotions that your mind generates involuntarily while you sleep.
Dunbar's Number Dunbar's number is the cognitive limit of roughly 150 stable relationships a human can maintain, predicted by neocortex size.
Earworm An earworm is a catchy piece of music or a phrase that continuously loops in your mind without your deliberate choice.
Electroreception Electroreception is the biological ability to detect electrical fields in the surrounding environment.
Encoding specificity principle Information is easiest to retrieve when the physical, auditory, or mental state at recall matches the conditions present during learning.
Enteric nervous system The enteric nervous system is a mesh of 500 million neurons lining your digestive tract that runs your digestion.
Executive Function Executive function is the brain network that overrides automatic impulses to plan, remember information, and hit long-term goals.
Extinction (psychology) Extinction stops a learned behavior by withholding reinforcement or cues, creating a new memory rather than erasing the old one.
Fight-or-flight response Fight-or-flight is the body's automatic reaction to threat: the amygdala alerts the hypothalamus, adrenaline floods in, and digestion shuts down.
Forgetting curve The forgetting curve shows that memory loss is steepest right after learning.
Freudian Unconscious The Freudian unconscious is the part of the mind holding hidden thoughts, drives, and memories that a person cannot inspect directly.
Frisson Frisson is a brief physical reaction to rewarding stimuli like music or art that creates skin tingling, goosebumps, and pleasure.
Gamma-Aminobutyric acid Gamma-Aminobutyric acid, or GABA, is the main chemical messenger that dampens nerve cell activity in the adult mammalian nervous system.
Ghrelin Ghrelin is a hormone made mainly by cells in the stomach that travels to the brain to trigger hunger.
Glial cell Glial cells are non-neuronal cells in the nervous system that support, protect, and insulate neurons instead of firing electrical impulses.
Hippocampus The hippocampus is a curved structure tucked inside each side of the brain that turns new experiences into long-term memories.
Human echolocation Human echolocation is the ability to detect and map objects by producing sounds and listening to the returning echoes.
Hypothalamus The hypothalamus is an almond-sized brain structure located below the thalamus that connects your nervous system to your hormone system.
Immunology Immunology is the branch of biology and medicine that studies how immune systems protect organisms from disease.
Imprinting (psychology) Imprinting is a rapid learning process during a brief early window that permanently shapes an animal's social and mating preferences.
Inattentional blindness Inattentional blindness causes people to miss visible objects in plain sight when their attention is fully occupied by another task.
Involuntary memory Involuntary memory is a type of memory that occurs when everyday sensory cues trigger past recollections without conscious effort.
Learned helplessness Learned helplessness is giving up after stress you couldn't control.
Leptin Leptin is a protein hormone made by fat cells that tells your brain how much energy your body has stored.
Levels-of-processing effect The levels-of-processing effect is the finding that how well you remember something depends on how deeply you analyze it during encoding.
Long-term potentiation Long-term potentiation is a long-lasting increase in signal strength between two neurons after they fire together repeatedly.
Melatonin Melatonin is a hormone produced in the brain that tells the body when it is dark outside.
Memory Consolidation Memory consolidation is the brain process that stabilizes newly learned information so it can be stored as a long-term memory.
Mind Wandering Mind wandering happens when thoughts drift away from immediate tasks.
Myelin Myelin is a fatty coating that wraps around nerve fibers to insulate them and speed up electrical signals.
Myenteric plexus The myenteric plexus is a mesh-like network of nerve cells embedded between the muscle layers of your digestive tract.
Neurogenesis Neurogenesis is the biological process where neural stem cells divide and create new neurons, the signaling cells of the nervous system.
Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves.
Neurotransmitters A neurotransmitter is a chemical messenger released by a nerve cell to send a signal across a microscopic gap to another cell.
Noradrenaline Noradrenaline is a chemical messenger in your body and brain that acts as both a hormone and a neurotransmitter.
Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning is a learning process where voluntary actions change based on the rewards or punishments that follow them.
Oxytocin Oxytocin is a peptide hormone, a small chemical messenger made of amino acids, produced in the brain's hypothalamus.
Pituitary Gland The pituitary gland is a tiny hormone-secreting organ at the base of the brain that directs the rest of the endocrine system.
Prairie Vole The prairie vole is a small, burrowing rodent native to the grasslands of North America.
Prion A prion is an infectious misfolded protein that forces healthy proteins of the same type to fold into its own abnormal shape.
Psychedelic therapy Psychedelic therapy is the use of psychedelic substances under professional supervision to treat mental health disorders.
Psychological stress Psychological stress is a reaction to perceived demands.
Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior in both humans and nonhumans.
REM Sleep REM sleep is a distinct phase of sleep where the brain acts nearly awake while the body's skeletal muscles are paralyzed.
Reminiscence bump The reminiscence bump is why adults over forty remember more from ages 10 to 30 than from any other time of life.
Self-Control Self-control is the ability to regulate your thoughts, emotions, and behavior when facing immediate temptations and impulses.
Serotonin Serotonin is a chemical messenger that nerve cells use to communicate with each other and with the rest of the body.
Sleep Sleep is a reversible state of reduced consciousness and physical activity where the body rests and sensory responses drop.
Slow-Wave Sleep Slow-wave sleep is the deepest stage of non-REM sleep, defined by large delta waves that help the brain consolidate declarative memories.
Synapse A synapse is the microscopic junction where a nerve cell passes signals to another cell.
Synaptic pruning Synaptic pruning is the biological process of eliminating or weakening unused connections between brain cells.
Synaptic vesicle A synaptic vesicle is a microscopic lipid bubble inside a nerve cell that stores chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.
Synaptogenesis Synaptogenesis is the process where neurons form synapses, which are the specialized communication junctions between nerve cells.
Tau protein Tau protein stabilizes the internal skeleton of nerve cells, but clumps into neurofibrillary tangles during dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Testing effect The testing effect is the memory boost from recalling information instead of rereading it.
TRPV1 Receptors TRPV1 receptors are ion channels in sensory nerve cells that detect scalding heat, acids, and pungent chemicals like capsaicin.
Vagus nerve The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in your body, running from your brainstem down into your chest and abdomen.
Working Memory Working memory is the cognitive system that holds and manipulates information temporarily so you can reason and make decisions.