Christos Constantinidis

The day 14-year-old Christos Constantinidis finished reading Asimov’s New Guide to Science, he knew he was going to be a scientist. Today, he studies what’s actually happening in our brains when we’re thinking. Read More

For centuries, the human brain has intrigued scientists and philosophers alike. It stores our memories and shapes our behavior—the center of learning, emotion and identity. Yet even after decades of research, much about how the brain works remains a mystery. “People have been fascinated with questions of how you learn and who you are—philosophical questions that all come back to processes in the brain,” says Lisa Monteggia, Lee E. Limbird Professor in Pharmacology and the Barlow Family Director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute. Now neuroscience is at a watershed moment, with new tools poised to dramatically expand understanding of the central nervous system.   Read More

Much of the human brain is still a mystery, largely because it’s pretty difficult to see what’s going on in there. Assistant Professor Daniel Gonzales and the team in his lab are working to make that easier. They’re using experimental platforms that record brain activity with unprecedented precision on all levels. It works on everything from whole-brain networks to individual synapses—tiny gaps between brain cells that are one-tenth the width of a human hair. “We can … really detail pictures of brain activity during learning,” Gonzales said. “And then we can apply that to study diseases that degrade learning.” Read More

Thirteen innovative projects across seven colleges and schools have been selected for the spring 2024 round of Seeding Success internal grants. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation announced the recipient list on May 31. Read More

By Marissa Shapiro THE IDEA The human brain is organized in functional networks—connected brain regions that communicate with each other through dedicated pathways. That is how we perceive our senses, how the body moves, how we are able to remember the past and plan for the future. The “default mode” network is the part of... Read More

By Marissa Shapiro THE IDEA The human brain is organized in functional networks—connected brain regions that communicate with each other through dedicated pathways. That is how we perceive our senses, how the body moves, how we are able to remember the past and plan for the future. The “default mode” network is the part of... Read More