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Can we really choose our own fate, or is free will an illusion?

9 December 2019

Neuroscientist Hannah Critchlow asks if your fate is hardwired into your brain, from what you like to eat to who you fall in love with

Neuroscientist Gina Rippon: Busting the myth of male and female brains

2 December 2019

Any differences in the brains of males and females are not the result of a fixed biological blueprint, says neuroscientist Gina Rippon

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore wins 2018 Royal Society Book Prize

2 October 2018

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore walked away with the honours at the 2018 Royal Society Insight Investment Book Prize - and the calibre of the runners-up made it a hard year to call

There are two types of worrier - which you are depends on genes

25 June 2018

The genomes of half a million people reveal that there are two kinds of worrier, providing new clues about how genes help form our personalities

Faulty placenta may explain why some people get schizophrenia

29 May 2018

A poorly-working placenta may affect brain development in the womb, and this could explain the link between pregnancy complications and schizophrenia

Chimp evolution was shaped by sex with their bonobo relatives

24 May 2018

Some chimpanzee populations gained useful DNA from interbreeding with bonobos, and one may even have become more gentle and “bonobo-like” in its brain structure and behaviour

World's most-spoken languages may have arisen in ancient Iran

23 May 2018

About 3 billion people speak Indo-European languages like English and Hindustani, and it seems the first such tongue was spoken south of the Caucasus mountains

People adapted to the cold and got more migraines as a result

3 May 2018

A gene variant that helps humans cope with colder climates also seems to have put people living in northerly regions at a higher risk of migraine

We can read memories by analysing brain gene activity

10 April 2018

Memories have unique genetic signatures that reveal what they are. The finding could lead to ways to read and alter memories in people with PTSD or phobias

First glimpse of how genes may cause mental health problems

8 February 2018

Geneticists are starting to unpick what causes psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and even some autism-like developmental conditions