Summary: Around 1 in 5 babies are born with a sensitive, unregulated temperament that may raise their risk for anxiety and emotional challenges. A new study shows that contingent responsive parenting—caregivers who accurately respond to a baby’s cues—can reshape early brain activity in ways that support emotional regulation.Infants who received...

Summary: Psilocybin use in the U.S. has risen sharply across all age groups since 2019, coinciding with increasing legalization and interest in its therapeutic potential. A new study reveals a 44% rise in past-year use among young adults and a 188% increase among those over 30.While many users report mental...

Summary: Researchers have developed RHyME, an AI-powered system that enables robots to learn complex tasks by watching a single human demonstration video. Traditional robots struggle with unpredictable scenarios and require extensive training data, but RHyME allows robots to adapt by drawing on previous video knowledge.This method bridges the gap between...

Summary: As psychedelics gain traction in mental health treatment, questions remain about their long-term effects. A new study followed individuals self-administering psychedelics and found that while some experienced lingering visual aftereffects, most were not distressed by them.Surprisingly, delusional ideation slightly decreased a month after use, suggesting that psychedelics may not...

Summary: A new study reveals that the way DNA folds inside brain cells plays a critical role in glioblastoma, one of the deadliest forms of brain cancer. Researchers discovered that in cancer cells, genes cluster into 3D “hubs” that coordinate tumor-driving activity, even without mutations.Disrupting these hubs using CRISPR interference...

Summary: The brain needs constant energy to function, especially for managing neurotransmitter activity. A new study shows that when energy is depleted—such as during a stroke—neurons begin releasing glutamate in abnormal, self-amplifying bursts that can damage nerve cells.Using a fluorescent sensor, researchers observed long-lasting, localized glutamate events that became more...

Summary: The retina, as part of the central nervous system, may reflect early signs of brain disorders like schizophrenia. A large-scale genetic study found that people with higher genetic risk for schizophrenia tend to have thinner retinas, even in the absence of symptoms.These subtle changes were detected using optical coherence...

Summary: New research reveals how dopamine helps the brain learn to avoid unpleasant outcomes by responding differently in distinct brain regions during negative experiences. In a study with mice, scientists tracked dopamine activity over time as animals learned to escape an adverse event, showing that one brain area adapted early...

Summary: A brief episode of anxiety can significantly impair a person’s ability to distinguish between safe and dangerous environments, according to new research using a virtual reality flower-picking game. Participants who developed clear spatial memory of which areas contained “stinging bees” (simulated by mild shocks) exhibited lower anxiety, while those...

Summary: Humans use hand gestures during conversation, but until now, it wasn’t clear whether listeners actively use these gestures to anticipate speech. A new study using virtual avatars shows that listeners indeed use iconic gestures—like miming typing—to predict what the speaker will say next.EEG recordings revealed that such gestures trigger...