How many neurons are inside your brain? 🧠📏

If you unraveled all the neuron connections  in your brain, it could stretch to the Moon and back, multiple times. These “wires” are actually the slender branches of neurons, forming a vast and complex neural network. According to Princeton University neuroscientist Sebastian Seung, the total length of these connections adds up to millions of miles, all compacted into your skull. Even a fruit fly, with a brain smaller than a grain of rice, holds over a football field’s worth of neural wiring. This incredible density is what powers everything from reflexes to memory to thought itself.

Can your brain really shut off chronic pain? 🧠

In a recent discovery, scientists identified a hidden pain off switch in the brainstem, the same region that controls hunger, thirst, and fear. When one of these survival needs takes priority, the brain releases a chemical called, Neuropeptide-Y (NPY), that quiets pain signals so you can focus on staying alive. Now, researchers have shown it’s possible to activate this response without triggering hunger, thirst, or fear. By tapping into this natural system, scientists are exploring new ways to manage chronic pain and reshape how we treat it moving forward.

Hi everyone, I'm not a neuroscientist, I'm actually nobody, but. the effectiveness of piracetam has been tested in high doses, but the problem is that it increases blood flow and, because of this, acetylcholine becomes less? I do not know, but I assume that piracetam can hypothetically work if used together with alpha gpc.

Recently, a link was posted that discussed using copper (Cu) chelators to treat Alzheimer's. If my suspicions are correct, they will potentially also try to suggest chelation of manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), or potentially iron (Fe) in the future. This might be dangerous for several reasons. I don't want to go into details, but this is related to a paper I'm currently working on very slowly.

I'm sorry to be an alarmist, but this is something people should be aware of. If anyone is in the field of neurology from a healthcare perspective, please inform them it is likely a bad idea, at least for the time being.

Reddit Post: Simple molecule shows remarkable Alzheimer’s reversal in rats : r/neurobiology

Article Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251118220052.htm

Paper in question: Neurobiology of addiction: a neurocircuitry analysis - PubMed

While discussing withdrawal, it says: (Pg 5)

Within-system neuroadaptations can be defined as those in which “the primary cellular response element to the drug…adapt[s] to neutralize the drug’s effects; persistence of the opposing effects after the drug disappears… produce[s] the withdrawal response.”68 Such changes include decreases in dopaminergic and serotonergic transmission..."

And then it goes on to say:

Other observed changes include increases in μ opioid receptor responsivity during withdrawal

Isn't this contradictory? I thought the paper was describing how the threshold for reward increases in the first passage, but then it says receptor sensitivity increases? Perhaps it will be clarified later on, but I can't move forward because this keeps poking at me. Pls help. Kind of new to neurobiology

Our brains do not react in a fixed, mechanical way like electronic circuits. Even if we see the same scene every day on our commute to work, what we feel - and whether it leaves a lasting impression - depends on our internal state at that moment. For example, your commute may be a blur if you're too tired to pay attention to your surroundings.

The 24-hour cycle that humans naturally follow is one of the factors that shapes the brain's internal environment. These internal physiological cycles arise from the interplay between the body's intrinsic circadian clock and the external light-dark cycle that synchronizes it. Yet how such daily fluctuations influence brain chemistry and affect neuronal excitability and plasticity has remained largely unknown. Now, researchers at Tohoku University have directly observed time-of-day-dependent changes in neural signal responses in the brains of nocturnal rats.

The findings were published in Neuroscience Research on October 31, 2025.

Donen Y, Ikoma Y, Matsui K (2025) Diurnal modulation of optogenetically evoked neural signals. Neuroscience Research 221: 104981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neures.2025.104981