Scientists have found that the process of adaptive myelination, which helps the brain learn new skills, can also promote addiction to opioids. Our brains, even in adulthood, continually adapt to what ...

Our brains, even in adulthood, continually adapt to what we do, strengthening or weakening neural pathways as we practice new skills or abandon old habits. Now, research by Stanford Medicine ...

The human brain remains adaptable even into adulthood alternately strengthening and weakening various neural pathways. And now, new research from Stanford Medicine scientists suggests that this ...

Loss of myelin—the fatty substance that surrounds the axons of nerve cells—is one of the reasons nerve cells fail to recover after injury and in some diseases. Myelin acts like insulation, covering ...

You might well think that myelin, the fatty insulation that speeds action potentials between neurons, falls solely under the purview of oligodendrocytes. After all, these specialized cells wrap ...

The study covered in this summary was published in medRxiv.org as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. Tau protein levels are lower in more highly myelinated cortical regions. Tau spreading ...