Summary: A new study questions whether playing youth football leads to harmful protein buildup in the brain. Researchers examined 174 donated brains, including former high school and college players, and found no link between contact sports and excess tau protein in a key memory region.Instead, the protein accumulation was tied...

Summary: Childhood maltreatment leaves profound and often unseen scars, affecting mental health, physical well-being, and social development long into adulthood. Traditional assessments are invasive and often miss the full scope of harm as it happens.Researchers have now shown that a widely used behavioral checklist, filled out by caregivers, can effectively...

Summary: Autistic adults describe nonverbal communication as an exhausting “unwritten language” they must decode in real time, according to a new study. Reviewing hundreds of firsthand accounts, researchers found that many struggle to interpret facial expressions and body language while trying to perform expected cues themselves.This mental effort often leads...

Summary: Scientists have identified how the brain protein cypin helps maintain strong connections between neurons, a discovery with implications for treating brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. Cypin ensures proper protein tagging at synapses, allowing neurons to communicate effectively and support memory and learning.The research also revealed cypin slows protein breakdown...

Summary: A new study shows that oxytocin nasal spray helps mothers with postpartum depression interact more positively with their babies. After receiving oxytocin, mothers expressed more warmth, affection, and physical contact, reporting a greater sense of positivity during playtime.However, the spray did not improve caregiving sensitivity or reduce stress levels,...

Summary: A large U.S. medical records study has found that adults prescribed gabapentin six or more times for chronic low back pain face significantly higher risks of dementia (29%) and mild cognitive impairment (85%) within 10 years. The risks were especially pronounced in younger adults aged 35–64, where rates of...

Summary: Researchers have uncovered how primate brains transform flat, 2D visual inputs into rich, 3D mental representations of objects. This process, dubbed “inverse graphics,” works by reversing the principles of computer graphics — starting from a 2D view, through an intermediate stage, to a 3D model.Using a neural network called...

Summary: A new study reveals that long-tailed macaques, like humans, are most captivated by videos featuring social conflict and familiar group members. Researchers showed the macaques videos of monkeys engaged in fighting, grooming, running, or sitting, and found they spent the most time watching aggressive encounters.They also preferred watching members...

Summary: A surgical robot trained on real procedure videos performed a critical phase of gallbladder removal autonomously, adapting to unexpected situations and responding to voice commands. This breakthrough shows how artificial intelligence can combine precision with the flexibility needed for real-world medicine.The robot, using a machine-learning framework similar to ChatGPT,...

Summary: Researchers have uncovered a surprising connection between a cancer-related signaling pathway and the blood-brain and blood-retina barriers. The study shows that the tumor-suppressing protein p53 weakens the Norrin/Frizzled4 pathway, which is crucial for maintaining these protective barriers.This suggests that cancer therapies boosting p53 might unintentionally compromise brain and eye...