The cerebellum ("little brain") is tucked underneath the basal ganglia; it sits in the back of the skull below the cerebrum. Source: CLIPAREA l Custom media/Shutterstock Neuroscientists have unearthed ...

New findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience have shed light on a mysterious pathway between the reward center of the brain that is key to how we form habits, known as the basal ganglia, ...

Within the human brain, movement is coordinated by a brain region called the striatum, which sends instructions to motor neurons in the brain. Those instructions are conveyed by two pathways, one that ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- In his home office in Durham, Duke neuroscientist Richard Mooney shows a series of images of a bird’s brain on song. In one, what looks like a pointillist painting illustrates a young ...

In a recent study published in Nature Neuroscience, a group of researchers explored how the cerebellum directly affects dopamine release in the substantia nigra compacta (SNc). While the cerebellum's ...

Dopamine is one of the most extensively studied chemical messengers in the human brain, and yet scientists are still figuring out how it works to accomplish so much. For years, the classic view has ...

Dopamine is a powerful signal in the brain, influencing our moods, motivations, movements, and more. The neurotransmitter is crucial for reward-based learning, a function that may be disrupted in a ...