One sleepless night can blur the brain, but just 20 minutes of exercise or a well-timed nap may help new memories survive for days. In a McGill University-led study, participants who exercised for 20 minutes or slept for 90 minutes after prolonged wakefulness performed about 22 percent better on a delayed memory test than those [...]

Aging appears to alter how key cerebellar neurons fire, with measurable effects on movement and coordination. Aging often brings slower movement, weaker balance, and reduced agility, but the brain changes behind these losses have been difficult to identify. McGill University researchers have now directly linked declining activity in Purkinje cells, an important type of neuron [...]

Scientists have discovered that the brain’s sensory systems play a much larger role in speech learning than previously believed. New research suggests that learning to speak a new language, or recovering speech after injury, relies more heavily on the brain’s sensory systems than on regions responsible for controlling movement. The findings, from researchers at McGill [...]