Everyday Speech May Reveal Early Cognitive Decline
Summary: Researchers found that everyday speech timing — including pauses, fillers, and subtle patterns — strongly reflects executive function, a key cognitive system that supports memory and flexible thinking. Using AI to analyze natural speech, the study showed that these linguistic features can predict cognitive-test performance independent of age, sex, or education. Because speech is […]
AI Models Form Theory-of-Mind Beliefs
Summary: Researchers showed that large language models use a small, specialized subset of parameters to perform Theory-of-Mind reasoning, despite activating their full network for every task. This sparse internal circuitry depends heavily on positional encoding, especially rotary positional encoding, which shapes how the model tracks beliefs and perspectives. Because humans perform these social inferences with […]
Stress Undermines Brain Circulation, Increase Dementia Risk
Summary: Researchers found that a rare class of neurons—type-one nNOS neurons—plays a central role in regulating brain blood flow and coordinating neural activity in mice. Removing these stress-vulnerable cells caused major drops in vessel oscillations and widespread reductions in electrical signaling, suggesting a crucial link between neuron loss, blood-flow decline, and brain-function impairment. Because these […]
Autism and ADHD Brain Patterns Reveal Shared Biological Roots
Summary: A new study shows that autism symptom severity, rather than a formal diagnosis, aligns with shared brain-connectivity patterns across children diagnosed with autism or ADHD. Stronger autistic traits were linked to heightened connectivity between frontoparietal and default-mode networks, regions central to social cognition and executive functions. These connectivity differences also mapped onto gene-expression profiles […]
Low Choline Could Be a Hidden Driver of Anxiety
Summary: A large meta-analysis of 25 studies found that people with anxiety disorders have significantly lower levels of choline, a vital brain nutrient, compared to individuals without anxiety. This reduction was especially pronounced in the prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate emotion and behavior. The findings point to a potential biological signature of anxiety disorders and […]
Why the Brain Struggles to Switch Between Learned Motor Skills
Summary: A new study shows that people often struggle to switch between familiar motor skills and newly learned movement patterns, leading to predictable errors. Volunteers tended to stick with the previous movement strategy even when instructed to switch, revealing how deeply motor habits persist. Switching between two newly learned motor skills was initially even harder, […]
Babies’ Brains Tune In to Mom’s Voice and Shift How They See New Faces
Summary: New findings show that seven-month-old infants are finely tuned to their mothers’ voices, displaying stronger neural tracking than when hearing strangers. When a stranger’s voice accompanied an unfamiliar face, babies’ brains showed enhanced processing of that face, suggesting maternal speech shifts how infants allocate attention. Facial emotion did not change these outcomes, indicating the […]
Psychedelics Calm Stress Circuits to Reduce Alcohol Drinking
Summary: New research shows that psilocin, the active metabolite of the psychedelic psilocybin, may reduce alcohol consumption by calming stress-sensitive neurons in the central amygdala. In female mice exposed to long-term alcohol use, psilocin dampened the hyperactivity of these neurons, temporarily reducing drinking. Similar effects occurred in mice with milder alcohol exposure, aligning with clinical […]
Why Alzheimer’s Patients Forget Loved Ones
Summary: Researchers have discovered that the heartbreaking moment when a person with Alzheimer’s no longer recognizes family may stem from the breakdown of perineuronal nets, protective structures that support social memory. In mice, the loss of these nets erased memory of familiar individuals while sparing object memory, mirroring early human symptoms. Using MMP inhibitors successfully […]
Shyness May Originate in the Cerebellum
Summary: New research reveals that trait shyness is linked to reduced spontaneous neural activity in the cerebellum, a brain region traditionally associated with motor control but increasingly recognized for its role in emotion and social cognition. Using resting-state fMRI and ReHo analysis, researchers found that shy individuals exhibited lower synchrony in the cerebellar Crus I […]