Microglia are amoeba-like cells that scour the brain for injuries and invaders. But sometimes the usually helpful cells go into overdrive and damage the brain, researchers say.

Without a cure for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, prevention is paramount. Habits that helped early humans thrive still make sense: a varied diet, exercise and an engaging social life.

Duke anthropologist Brian Hare argues that humans evolved in a way that left us more cooperative and friendlier than our now extinct human cousins, like Neanderthals and Denisovans.

It's looking like MS strikes when a variety of triggers gang up to impair neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Researchers are using their new knowledge to search for treatments.

Money has poured into Alzheimer's research, but until very recently not much of it went toward investigating infection in causing dementia. A million dollar prize may lead more scientists to try.

Nearly 130 years since its inception, a modest knob of rubber with a metal handle is still invaluable in diagnosing disease and avoiding expensive testing. But its history is anything but simple.

Researchers were able to dial down painful recollections of a car crash by having people play the video game Tetris while in the emergency room. The technique makes use of the malleability of memory.

As more research suggests some degree of dietary cholesterol is harmless, if not healthy, the egg's reputation is slowly returning. Yet some experts worry the science is being misinterpreted and spun.

The true health of politicians has likely been cloaked in secrecy since the days of Mesopotamian kings, but definitely since the Wilson administration. Has the time come to test presidents' cognition?

A woman with ALS was able to type just by thinking about the letters, and people with cancer found their anxiety and depression erased by a single encounter with magic mushrooms.

The failure of an experimental drug that targets clumps of protein inside the brains of Alzheimer's patients called into question one of the leading theories about the cause of the dementia.

Researchers are exploring changes in prenatal nutrition to lower risks for future mental disorders. The work is preliminary, but there is ample precedent for maternal diet affecting children's health.

Doctors can now marshal patients' immune systems to fight some cancers. Yet many people don't respond to immunotherapy, and the costs of treatment can be astronomical.

After a 1964 poll of psychiatrists found almost half considered Barry Goldwater psychologically unfit to be president, the doctors' professional society said they should stay mum on mental fitness.

Research on sleep-deprived fruit flies identified specific brain cells that can trigger sleep. The finding of these sleep circuits in insects could help scientists better understand human insomnia.

While still experimental, deep brain stimulation with implanted electrodes is being tested as a way to ease dementia in patients with Alzheimer's and other neurological conditions. Could it work?

Among the microbes that live in us and on us, bacteria have gotten most of the attention. Now scientists are exploring the fungi and their effects on health.

Cancer dogma holds that most malignancies are caused by DNA mutations inside the nuclei of cells, mutations that ultimately lead to runaway cellular proliferation. Given the countless genetic blips that have been associated with various cancers, the illness has actually come to be seen as a complex of diseases for ...

In June of 2001 musician Peter Gabriel flew to Atlanta to make music with two apes. The jam went surprisingly well.

At each session Gabriel, a known dabbler in experimental music and a founding member of the band Genesis, would riff with a small group of musicians. The bonobos – ...

Sometime around 1907, well before the modern randomized clinical trial was routine, American psychiatrist Henry Cotton began removing decaying teeth from his patients in hopes of curing their mental disorders. If that didn't work, he moved on to more invasive excisions: tonsils, testicles, ovaries and, in some cases, colons.

Cotton ...