Summary: New research shows that running a marathon can cause a temporary reduction in brain myelin, the fatty substance that insulates neurons and supports efficient communication. This decrease, observed in regions related to motor coordination and sensory processing, appears to result from the body using myelin lipids as an energy...

Summary: New research reveals that a single night of sleep can enhance memory for the order of real-world experiences—lasting for over a year. In a unique study, participants took an immersive art tour and were later tested on their memory of both object features and event sequences.While memory for visual...

Summary: A new study has identified a brain circuit that correlates with how intensely people engage in politics, regardless of their political beliefs. Researchers examined data from 124 male military Veterans with penetrating brain injuries and found that lesions in certain brain areas affected levels of political involvement.Higher engagement was...

Summary: Researchers studying marmosets discovered that Purkinje cells in the cerebellum help regulate tongue movement by signaling when to stop as the tongue nears its target. These cells were highly engaged during precision tasks, like inserting the tongue into narrow tubes, but not during casual grooming.When researchers suppressed these cells,...

Summary: New research shows that apathy and fatigue in advanced cancer are driven not by physical decline, but by inflammation-sensing neurons that suppress motivation. Scientists discovered that inflammation triggers a brainstem-to-reward-center pathway that reduces dopamine, the brain’s key motivation chemical.Blocking this pathway in mice restored their drive to act, even...

Summary: New research reveals that the immune checkpoint molecule Tim-3 plays a critical role in how microglia, the brain’s immune cells, respond to Alzheimer’s disease. While Tim-3 normally helps maintain brain homeostasis, it can also inhibit microglia from clearing harmful plaques that accumulate in Alzheimer’s.In mouse models, deleting Tim-3 reprogrammed...

Summary: Scientists have discovered a new protein pathway involved in neurodegeneration by studying “mini-brain” organoids made from patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).They found that the protein GRAMD1B plays a crucial role in managing cholesterol and lipid balance within neurons—processes closely linked to Alzheimer’s and FTLD.Altered levels of GRAMD1B led...

Summary: New research reveals that lip size significantly influences how people perceive facial attractiveness, and these perceptions vary based on gender and exposure. Female participants preferred plumper lips on female faces, while males preferred natural lip size, suggesting gendered beauty standards.The study also found that recent exposure to altered lip...

Summary: Poor oral health is significantly linked to increased migraine, abdominal, and musculoskeletal pain in women, particularly those with fibromyalgia. Researchers identified specific oral microbes associated with higher pain scores, highlighting a potential gut-brain-oral microbiome connection.Participants with the worst oral health were up to 60% more likely to report severe...

Summary: Researchers have created an AI-powered “digital twin” of the mouse visual cortex that can accurately simulate neural responses to visual input, including movies. Unlike earlier models, this digital twin generalizes beyond its training data, predicting neuron behavior and structure with remarkable accuracy.Trained on 900 minutes of brain recordings, the...