Neuroscience

A dog with a bandage on their head.

One tiny dog’s outsized contribution to brain surgery

A terrier mix makes history as the first patient to undergo canine neurosurgery in a collaborative effort of specialists in human and veterinary medicine using cutting-edge augmented reality technology and infrared imaging.

Sacha Adorno ・

A person holding their head in pain near a window.

Rate of suicide higher in individuals with headaches

New research from Penn Medicine finds that suicide attempt and completion is highest among individuals with headaches from head injuries, but also elevated in individuals with mild headaches.

Kelsey Geesler

Judith Schaechter and Anjan Chatterjee looking at her stained glass installation.

Your brain on beauty

At the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics, researchers explore what exactly the brain is doing when it experiences art, and what artists are doing when they create art out of their experiences.

S.I. Rosenbaum for Penn Medicine Magazine ・

Om Gandhi.

Penn fourth-year Om Gandhi is a 2025 Rhodes Scholar

Penn fourth-year Om Gandhi, from Barrington, Illinois, has been awarded a 2025 Rhodes Scholarship, which funds tuition and a living stipend for graduate study at the University of Oxford in England. He is among 32 American Rhodes Scholars, and an expected 100 worldwide.

Louisa Shepard ・

Network schematic of peoples' browsing activity on Wikipedia.

Studying Wikipedia browsing habits to learn how people learn

A collaborative team of researchers analyzed the information-seeking styles of more than 480,000 people from 50 countries and found that gender and education inequality track different types of knowledge exploration. Their findings suggest potential cultural drivers of curiosity and learning.

Nathi Magubane ・

Flavia Vitale holding a vial with a gloved hand.

Building solutions for brain disorders

Penn Engineering’s Flavia Vitale’s work developing devices that help people living with brain disorders has earned her a CAREER award, which will support her lab’s research in materials and devices that interface with different chemical and electrical signals inside the brain.

Melissa Pappas ・



In the News


HealthDay

Too often, ER docs don’t spot migraines in minority kids

A study by Marissa Maliakal Anto of Penn Medicine finds that Black and Hispanic children seen in ERs are more likely to have their migraines go undiagnosed.

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ARS Technica

When does your brain think something is worth the wait?

Research by Joe Kable of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues finds that subjects with damage to certain regions of the prefrontal cortex are less likely to wait things out.

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PBS NewsHour

‘Brains and Beauty’ exhibit explores how the mind processes art and aesthetic experiences

Anjan Chatterjee of the Perelman School of Medicine says that the aesthetic triad is a mental system for engaging with an artwork.

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SciTechDaily

Scientists unveil 16+ distinct nerve cell types behind human touch

A study by Wenqin Lo of the Perelman School of Medicine and colleagues used detailed analyses of the genes used by individual nerve cells to identify 16 distinct types of nerve cells in humans.

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WHYY (Philadelphia)

Free West Philly community clinic, which provided care to hundreds, is closed

Penn Medicine resident Noor Shaik and Michael Rubenstein of the Perelman School of Medicine discuss a West Philadelphia clinic that became a model for collaborations between academic health systems and community organizations.

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The Washington Post

Alzheimer’s patients and their families hear a new word: Progress

Jeffrey Maneval of the Perelman School of Medicine classifies two new drug treatments for Alzheimer’s as “a double, not a home run.”

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