Summary: Adolescents who use e-cigarettes or conventional tobacco products are significantly more likely to report symptoms of depression and anxiety than non-users, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed data from over 60,000 U.S. middle and high school students surveyed between 2021 and 2023.Teens using both e-cigarettes and conventional products showed...

Summary: New research shows that our brain’s internal map rewrites itself every time we navigate a familiar environment. Even when mice experienced identical virtual mazes with controlled sensory input, their hippocampal neurons activated in different patterns on each run.This suggests spatial memories are dynamic, evolving rather than fixed, and may...

Summary: A new study reveals how evolution fine-tunes instinctive fear responses by tweaking a key neural switch deep in the brain. Comparing two deer-mouse species, researchers found that forest-dwelling mice have hypersensitive escape circuits, while open-field mice are more likely to freeze.This difference is traced to the dorsal periaqueductal gray...

Summary: A new study shows that inflammation levels influence how cannabis affects anxiety and sleep quality. Researchers found no overall change in inflammatory markers after 4 weeks of cannabis use, but baseline inflammation moderated outcomes.CBD-rich cannabis products consistently reduced negative mood and improved sleep, while THC-heavy products had more variable...

Summary: A new study shows how math helps explain why babies nap erratically, teens stay up late, and older adults wake earlier. Researchers expanded the classic two-process sleep model by adding the effects of light exposure, uncovering how internal and external factors interact to regulate sleep.Simulations revealed that modern indoor...

Summary: Scientists developed a computational “aging clock” that measures the biological age of brain cells and identifies compounds with rejuvenating potential. By analyzing gene activity from healthy and neurodegenerative brain tissue, they pinpointed 453 interventions predicted to reverse cellular aging.Initial animal tests showed improvements in behavior, cognition, and molecular markers...

Summary: A new study warns of “AIPasta,” a strategy that uses generative AI to craft many slightly different versions of false claims to mimic widespread public belief. Unlike traditional CopyPasta, which repeats the same message verbatim, AIPasta increased perceptions of consensus, especially among politically predisposed groups.In experiments, AIPasta raised belief...

Summary: A new study reveals how pleasant touch fosters social bonds between humans and rats by activating oxytocin signaling in the brain. Researchers found that repeated tickling of rats increased their vocalizations, preference for human interaction, and oxytocin receptor expression in the VMHvl region.Blocking oxytocin signaling reduced the rats’ affinity-like...

Summary: Living through the Covid-19 pandemic may have accelerated brain ageing, even in people who were never infected, a new study finds. Brain scans of nearly 1,000 adults showed older, male, and disadvantaged individuals were most affected.While only those infected showed measurable drops in thinking speed, the observed ageing effect...

Summary: Researchers uncovered how our biological clocks keep a 24-hour rhythm even as temperatures fluctuate. Using physics-based models, they discovered that at higher temperatures, gene activity rhythms become distorted—rising faster and falling slower—to maintain the cycle’s duration.This waveform distortion also influences how well our clocks sync with light-dark cues, keeping...