Summary: Music therapy is proving to be a powerful adjunct treatment for a range of conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, chronic pain, movement disorders, and mental health issues. Research highlights how music can regulate heart rate, reduce anxiety, and even improve communication in patients with memory loss.Both active and passive music...
Summary: A new research initiative is investigating how obesity reshapes brain circuits involved in reward, motivation, and emotion, potentially driving unhealthy food decisions. The cross-disciplinary team will use cutting-edge electrochemical techniques to measure real-time brain chemical responses to food-related stimuli in humans.By comparing these neurochemical patterns with markers of metabolic...
Summary: A new AI tool called RibbonFold is revolutionizing how scientists understand misfolded proteins linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Unlike existing tools such as AlphaFold, which predict correctly folded proteins, RibbonFold is specifically designed to model the twisted, ribbonlike shapes of amyloid fibrils that accumulate in neurodegenerative diseases.The tool uses...
Summary: A large-scale study using Finnish national data has found that young adults diagnosed with mental disorders are significantly less likely to become parents by age 39. The most pronounced effect was seen in individuals with schizophrenia, while common disorders like depression and anxiety also reduced parenthood rates—especially among men.Differences...
Summary: AI-generated avatars are increasingly used to deliver science content on platforms like TikTok, raising questions about how their appearance affects viewer trust. A new study tested whether avatar realism and gender influenced perceived trustworthiness among nearly 500 participants.Surprisingly, more realistic avatars were rated as more competent, benevolent, and trustworthy...
Summary: A global analysis of dietary trends across 101 countries over 60 years reveals that populations consuming more plant-based proteins tend to live longer. While animal-based proteins are linked to lower infant mortality, plant-based sources such as legumes, tofu, and grains are associated with increased adult life expectancy.After adjusting for...
Summary: New research reveals that politicians with narcissistic, psychopathic, or Machiavellian traits significantly increase affective polarization among voters. When citizens identify ideologically with such leaders, they become more hostile toward political opponents.This polarization is driven not by opposing politicians but by the actions and rhetoric of the leaders they support....
Summary: Our brains can adapt to filter out repeated distractions, according to a new EEG study. Participants learned to ignore frequent visual distractions, such as a red shape in the same location, while searching for a target.Over time, brain activity showed reduced visual processing for these learned distractions — and...
Summary: Signs of autism may be detectable as early as 9 months of age, well before the typical diagnosis window of 3 to 5 years. Researchers found that infants who were described by parents as fussy, slow to adapt, or delayed in development were more likely to show autism-related traits...
Summary: New research reveals how our brains coordinate with others during dancing, highlighting the importance of shared rhythm and visual contact. When dancers moved to the same song and could see each other, unique neural signals emerged to support social coordination.Surprisingly, the brain responded most to subtle knee-bouncing movements—suggesting these...
