We’ve all heard the best approach to solve a problem is to “sleep on it.” It turns out there may be more truth to this adage than previously thought. While stories abound of eureka moments surfacing from dreams, scientific evidence has remained elusive, due to the challenge of systematically manipulating dreams.
A new study by neuroscientists at Northwestern University validates the possibility of influencing dreams and offers a crucial step to support the theory that dreams in REM sleep—the rapid eye movement phase of sleep in which lucid dreaming can occur—may be especially conducive to helping individuals come up with creative solutions to a problem.
The study has been published in the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness.
For years, scientists have viewed cancer as a localized glitch in which cells refuse to stop dividing. But a new study suggests that, in certain organs, tumors actively communicate with the brain to trick it into protecting them.
Scientists have long known that nerves grow into some tumors and that tumors containing lots of nerves usually lead to a worse prognosis. But they didn’t know exactly why. “Prior to our study, most of the focus has been this local interaction between the nerve [endings] and the tumor,” says Chengcheng Jin, an assistant professor of cancer biology at the University of Pennsylvania and a co-author of the study, which was published on Wednesday in Nature.
Jin and her colleagues discovered that lung cancer tumors in mice can use these nerve endings to communicate way beyond their close vicinity and send signals to the brain through a complex neuroimmune circuit. They also confirmed the circuit exists in humans.
✍️: Jacek Krywko 📸: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images.
Lung cancer tumor cells in mice communicate with the brain, sending signals to deactivate the body’s immune response, a study finds.
Memories must be flexible so animals can adapt when the world changes. FMI neuroscientists have found that in fruit flies, simply tasting a sugar reward again can weaken all previous associated memories. This process may inspire new ways to safely update harmful or unwanted memories. The paper is published in the journal Current Biology.
Memories help animals survive by guiding them on what to look for and what to avoid, such as remembering the smell of food or the warning signs of danger. But in a constantly changing world, those memories must also remain flexible. If a reward or threat no longer has the same meaning, the brain needs ways to update what it has learned without completely forgetting the past.
Olympic skiers, bobsledders and speed skaters all have to master one critical moment: when to start. As athletes prepare for the upcoming Winter Olympics, that split second is in the spotlight because when everyone is fast, strong and skilled, a moment of hesitation can separate gold from silver. Research from Carnegie Mellon University helps explain why that split-second pause happens and how the brain controls it, offering insight not only into elite athletic performance, but also how people make everyday decisions when the outcome isn’t clear.
Eric Yttri, associate professor of biological sciences, wanted to study how the brain decides when to act and when to wait, especially when the outcome is uncertain. He said to think about the moment the puck drops at a heated rivalry hockey game.
“Move too early, you get ejected from the faceoff. Move too late, and the puck is already gone. Having that sort of fine control on your ability to delay your action is really key,” Yttri said. “It’s a sword that cuts both ways.”
Alzheimer’s disease is often measured in statistics: millions affected worldwide, cases rising sharply, costs climbing into the trillions. For families, the disease is experienced far more intimately. “It’s a slow bereavement,” says Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Nicholas Tonks, whose mother lived with Alzheimer’s. “You lose the person piece by piece.”
There’s a lot of discussion about how the neurodegenerative disorder may be caused by a buildup of “plaque” in the brain. When someone refers to this plaque, they’re talking about amyloid-β (Aβ), a peptide that occurs naturally but can accumulate and come together. This is known to promote Alzheimer’s disease development.
Now, Tonks, graduate student Yuxin Cen, and postdoctoral fellow Steven Ribeiro Alves have discovered that inhibiting a protein called PTP1B improves learning and memory in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In this Mind-Body Solution Colloquia, Michael Levin and Robert Chis-Ciure challenge one of neuroscience’s deepest assumptions: that cognition and intelligence are exclusive to brains and neurons.
Drawing on cutting-edge work in bioelectricity, developmental biology, and philosophy of mind, this conversation explores how cells, tissues, and living systems exhibit goal-directed behavior, memory, and problem-solving — long before neurons ever appear.
We explore: • Cognition without neurons. • Bioelectric networks as control systems. • Memory and learning beyond synapses. • Morphogenesis as collective intelligence. • Implications for AI, consciousness, and ethics.
This episode pushes neuroscience beyond the neuron, toward a deeper understanding of mind, life, and intelligence as continuous across scales.
A group of researchers has built a computer chip in a flexible fiber thinner than an average human hair. The team from Fudan University in Shanghai says that their Fiber Integrated Circuit (FIC) design can process information like a computer, yet is durable enough to be “stretched, twisted, and woven into everyday clothing.” Use cases touted by the authors of the paper include advancements in the fields of brain-computer interfaces, VR devices, and smart textiles. This cutting-edge FIC design was apparently inspired by the construction of the humble sushi roll.
Flexible electronics have come a long way in recent years, with malleable components for power, sensing, and display readily available. However, so-called flexible electronic devices and the wearables made from them still usually contain components fabricated from rigid silicon wafers, limiting their applications and comfort. The Fudan team says that their FIC can remove the last vestiges of electronic rigidity “by creating a fiber integrated circuit (FIC) with unprecedented microdevice density and multimodal processing capacity.”
What happens when biology is no longer the foundation for sentience, agency, and consciousness?
This groundbreaking panel discussion brings together some of the world’s most brilliant minds in AI, neuroscience, and philosophy to tackle humanity’s most profound questions about the future of intelligence.
Chaired by neuroscientist Patrick House, the conversation explores the boundaries of machine agency, the possibility of AI emotion, and the future of human–machine interaction.
🎙 Featured Speakers: - Joscha Bach – Cognitive Scientist, AI Researcher, Philosopher. - Dmitry Volkov – Co-founder of the International Center for Consciousness Studies (ICCS), Philosopher, Entrepreneur, Founder of Social Discovery Group & EVA AI - Matthew Macdougall – Head of Surgery at Neuralink, Pioneer in Brain–Computer Interfaces. - Murray Shanahan – Professor of Cognitive Robotics at Imperial College London, Scientist at DeepMind.
Key Topics in This Debate: - Whether giving machines “agency” is just a useful human shortcut (The Intentional Stance). - If the deeper question is not “Is AI conscious?” but “Can it truly love?” - How modern AI is erasing the Uncanny Valley. - The challenge of true individuality and creativity in AI-generated art. - How human biological hardware shapes consciousness — and what this means for building sentient machines.
00:00:00 — Introduction and Presentation of Participants.
Joscha Bach explores the nature of consciousness, free will, and reality through the lens of computation, cognitive science, and philosophy. Rather than treating the mind as a mystical entity, Joscha frames consciousness as a constructed dream—a model generated by the brain to make sense of the world and coordinate behavior.
We examine why beliefs should remain provisional, how the self functions as a useful fiction, and why suffering emerges when internal learning signals misfire. Joscha explains why free will feels real even if decisions arise before awareness, how meaning exists beyond the individual ego, and why wisdom is not simply knowledge but the ability to orient oneself within larger systems of value.
André’s Book Recs: https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com/bo… 00:00 Intro: Joscha Bach 04:24 Agnosticism, Evidence, and Logical Alternatives 11:20 Reality as a Mental Simulation 13:00 What Physicalism Actually Claims 16:55 Telepathy, Rituals, and Distributed Minds 19:45 Consciousness Does Not Make Decisions 22:55 Free Will as a Post-Hoc Story 24:00 Consciousness as a Trance State 26:00 Meditation and the Illusion of Self 29:10 Out-of-Body Experiences Explained 31:07 Ad: BON CHARGE 36:30 Why the Brain Fills in Missing Reality 39:50 Dreams, Selves, and Narrative Identity 43:20 Intelligence, Models, and World-Building 47:10 Why Reality Feels Stable 51:00 Meaning, Agency, and Mental Compression 55:10 Why Consciousness Feels Central (But Isn’t) 59:30 The Psychological World vs Physical Reality 1:04:10 Intelligence Without Awareness 1:08:45 The Cost of Believing the Self Is Real 1:13:30 Waking Up From the Narrative 1:18:40 What a Cognitive Science View Really Implies 1:23:30 Final Thoughts: Living Inside the Dream ___________ Episode Resources: https://www.cimc.ai/ / andreduqum / knowthyself / @knowthyselfpodcasthttps://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com Listen to the show: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4bZMq9l Apple: https://apple.co/4iATICX
___________ 00:00 Intro: Joscha Bach. 04:24 Agnosticism, Evidence, and Logical Alternatives. 11:20 Reality as a Mental Simulation. 13:00 What Physicalism Actually Claims. 16:55 Telepathy, Rituals, and Distributed Minds. 19:45 Consciousness Does Not Make Decisions. 22:55 Free Will as a Post-Hoc Story. 24:00 Consciousness as a Trance State. 26:00 Meditation and the Illusion of Self. 29:10 Out-of-Body Experiences Explained. 31:07 Ad: BON CHARGE 36:30 Why the Brain Fills in Missing Reality. 39:50 Dreams, Selves, and Narrative Identity. 43:20 Intelligence, Models, and World-Building. 47:10 Why Reality Feels Stable. 51:00 Meaning, Agency, and Mental Compression. 55:10 Why Consciousness Feels Central (But Isn’t) 59:30 The Psychological World vs Physical Reality. 1:04:10 Intelligence Without Awareness. 1:08:45 The Cost of Believing the Self Is Real. 1:13:30 Waking Up From the Narrative. 1:18:40 What a Cognitive Science View Really Implies. 1:23:30 Final Thoughts: Living Inside the Dream. ___________
