Columbus, OH, USA. Men may think about sex more often than women do, but a new study suggests that men also think about other biological needs, such as eating and sleep, more frequently than women do, as well.

And the research discredits the persistent stereotype that men think about sex every seven seconds, which would amount to more than 8,000 thoughts about sex in 16 waking hours.

Berkeley, CA, USA. During the dream phase of sleep, also known as REM sleep, our stress chemistry shuts down and the brain processes emotional experiences, taking the painful edge off difficult memories.

The findings offer a compelling explanation for why people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as war veterans, have a hard time recovering from painful experiences and suffer reoccurring nightmares.

Bar Harbor, ME, USA. Researchers have discovered a new factor in synapse-building, also showing that the building and pruning processes occur independently of each other.

Like a gardener who stakes some plants and weeds out others, the brain is constantly building networks of synapses, while pruning out redundant or unneeded synapses.

Cambridge, MA, USA. A technical advance moves research toward building a computer system that replicates the human capability for learning new tasks, with potential impacts on neural simulations and intelligent robots.

The new computer chip mimics how the brain's neurons adapt in response to new information, a phenomenon known as plasticity, that is believed to underlie many brain functions, including learning and memory.

Rehovot, Israel. The hormone oxytocin helps to direct development of the neurohypophysis, an interface between nerve fibers and blood vessels located at the base of the brain in which biochemical commands are passed from the brain cells to the bloodstream and from there to the body.

Since the neurohypophysis is one of only a few portions of the brain able to regenerate after injury, understanding how it is formed may one day help achieve such regeneration in other parts of the central nervous s