Cambridge scientists have solved the mystery of why both stimulating and blocking a particular "switch" in the brain can help ...

Habits can feel mysterious, arriving almost overnight or refusing to stick despite weeks of effort. New work on a “hidden switch” in the brain suggests those differences are not just about willpower, ...

Researchers found that specific brain circuits help decide which jobs bees perform as they age. When those circuits were switched off, older worker bees began caring for the queen again instead of ...

How does our brain switch between different behaviors? A new study has now provided the first answers to this key question in neuroscience. Using mice, the researchers investigated electrical activity ...

Post-traumatic stress disorder is often described as a brain stuck in survival mode, with threat circuits firing long after the danger has passed. Now researchers are zeroing in on a specific neural ...

Brain preserved in formaldehyde. — Gaetan Lee (CC BY 2.0) Scientists have discovered a brain “pain switch” that prioritises survival needs over chronic suffering. This discovery could lead to new hope ...

Leuven, Belgium, 23 July 2025 – Researchers have identified a key neural switch that controls whether animals instinctively flee from a threat or freeze in place. By comparing two closely related deer ...

The left figure illustrates the hypothalamus, a region responsible for encoding the switch between survival-related behaviors, along with its connected regions during the switching process. The right ...