Summary: New research reveals that people with a father who had Alzheimer’s may be more vulnerable to the spread of tau protein in the brain, a hallmark of the disease. The study followed 243 individuals with a family history of Alzheimer’s over nearly seven years and found that those with...
Summary: New research reveals that chemotherapy can lead to rapid and widespread changes in brain connectivity in breast cancer patients. Using functional MRI scans, scientists observed disruptions in the frontal-limbic system and cerebellar cortex, regions involved in executive function and memory.These changes intensified and expanded as treatment progressed, suggesting a...
Summary: New research reveals that serotonin plays a key role in how the brain predicts future rewards, shedding light on its puzzling activity in response to both pleasure and pain. Scientists found that serotonin neurons encode a “prospective code for value,” signaling expectations about upcoming outcomes and how rapidly those...
Summary: Scientists have created the most detailed wiring diagram of a mammalian brain to date, mapping every cell and synapse in a cubic millimeter of a mouse’s visual cortex. Using cutting-edge microscopy, AI, and 3D reconstruction, researchers captured more than 200,000 cells and over 500 million connections.The work revealed surprising...
Summary: New research reveals that people with cannabis use disorder (CUD) have elevated dopamine levels in a brain region associated with psychosis, such as schizophrenia. This may help explain why frequent cannabis use can increase the risk of hallucinations and delusions.Using neuromelanin-MRI scans, researchers showed that dopamine-related brain signals were...
Summary: New research shows that a child’s ability to regulate behavior—an aspect of executive function—is closely tied to how they understand and learn language. Researchers tested over 100 Dutch children aged 4 to 5, using sentence comprehension tasks and eye-tracking.They found that children with stronger executive function were better at...
Summary: A global study of over 66,000 people reveals that susceptibility to misinformation varies across age, gender, education, and political ideology. Participants took a test to judge whether news headlines were real or fake, and those in Generation Z, women, conservatives, and less-educated individuals were more likely to believe misinformation.Interestingly,...
Summary: Touch is a vital sense, yet the brain processes active and passive touch using distinct pathways. In mice, researchers found that different regions of the thalamus—the brain’s sensory hub—respond uniquely depending on whether the animal actively explored with its whiskers or passively received a touch.While one part of the...
Summary: A new study has found that blood vessels in the retina may hold early clues about a person’s risk of developing dementia. Researchers observed that narrower arterioles, wider venules, and thinner retinal nerve fiber layers were linked to higher dementia risk around midlife.These eye changes may mirror brain changes...
Summary: Children born to mothers with diabetes face significantly higher risks of developing neurodevelopmental disorders, according to a sweeping new meta-analysis involving over 56 million mother–child pairs.The study, which analyzed 202 research papers, found that maternal diabetes—especially pre-gestational diabetes—is associated with increased odds of conditions such as autism, ADHD, intellectual...
