A stressful situation activates three major communication systems in the brain, all of which regulate bodily functions.

Medical professionals have come to rely on even more specialized forms of the MRI machine, each suited to spotting specific warning signs.

Although most of us don’t think of it in this way, the related senses of taste and smell help us interpret the chemical world.

Neuroscientists believe that the brain can remain relatively healthy and full-functioning as it ages.

Medical science offers us a number of different ways to dull or treat pain.

Considered the most common mental illnesses, anxiety disorders affect an estimated 18 percent of the adult population in a given year, or 40 million Americans.

The messages sent from one brain cell to another are the basis of brain function. Brain cells communicate through both electrical and chemical means.

One of the most common and least understood neurobiological disorders, Tourette syndrome is an inherited disorder that affects about 200,000 Americans. Males are affected three to four times as often as females.

PET is one of the most important techniques for measuring blood flow or energy consumption in the brain. This method of measuring brain function is based on the detection of radioactivity emitted when positrons, positively charged particles, undergo radioactive decay in the brain.

Our best insights into how the normal brain ages come from long-term studies of the nervous system that began decades ago.