Summary: A new study shows that brain connectivity patterns, especially in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, can help predict how patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) will respond to antidepressants. By combining brain imaging with clinical data, researchers developed machine learning models that accurately predicted treatment outcomes across two large...

Summary: A new study finds that people are more concerned about the immediate risks of artificial intelligence, like job loss, bias, and disinformation, than they are about hypothetical future threats to humanity. Researchers exposed over 10,000 participants to different AI narratives and found that, while future catastrophes raise concern, real-world...

Summary: Infants as young as 15 months can use language context to infer the meaning of words referring to objects they’ve never seen. Researchers found that when 15-month-olds heard a new word in a familiar context—like “kumquat” during a conversation about fruit—they later identified the unseen object correctly.This ability to...

Summary: Scientists have created a technology called Oz that stimulates individual photoreceptor cells in the human eye to create an entirely new, ultra-saturated color never seen in nature—dubbed olo. Using microdoses of laser light, Oz activates specific combinations of cone cells to generate this vivid blue-green hue, which vanishes the...

Summary: New research reveals that the brain stores memories of cold experiences, which can later trigger metabolic responses in anticipation of cold environments. Mice trained to associate visual cues with cold temperatures began to increase their metabolism when shown those cues—even at room temperature.This response was linked to specific memory-encoding...

Summary: Micronanoplastics—tiny plastic particles from environmental sources—were found in much higher concentrations in the arteries of people with plaque-related stroke symptoms compared to those with healthy arteries. In a new study, individuals with symptomatic carotid plaque had plastic levels up to 51 times higher than those without plaque.While the presence...

Summary: Our brain doesn’t passively receive visual input—it actively orchestrates a symphony of neural oscillations to process the complex, dynamic scenes we see in everyday life. A new study reveals that features like brightness and contrast in different parts of the visual field trigger distinct oscillations across specific neural circuits.These...

Summary: A new study reveals that chronic stress activates immune cells that travel to the brain, amplify inflammation, and heighten fear responses. Researchers found that psychedelics like MDMA and psilocybin disrupt this immune-brain crosstalk, reducing stress-related fear in mice and showing similar effects in human tissue samples.These findings suggest psychedelics...

Summary: A large international study has found that middle-aged Americans report higher levels of loneliness than older adults, a pattern seen in only one other country—the Netherlands. While loneliness generally increases with age globally, the U.S. stands out as an exception, with factors like unemployment, caregiving burdens, and lack of...

Summary: A new preclinical study has found that two drugs—o-Vanillin and RG-7112—can clear “zombie cells” from spinal discs, potentially treating the root cause of chronic low back pain. These senescent cells accumulate with age or injury and cause inflammation, pain, and tissue damage.When administered orally to mice, the drugs reduced...