Watching Pain on Screen Can Make Your Body Flinch
Summary: Watching someone experience pain on screen activates your own brain’s touch-processing system in a highly organized, body-specific way. Visual regions of the brain contain hidden maps of the body that allow sight alone to trigger sensations normally produced by physical contact. These maps align both with where the body appears in the visual field […]
Brain Damage in Schizophrenia May Begin in Specific Neural Epicenters
Summary: New brain imaging research shows that structural damage in schizophrenia spectrum disorders may begin in specific “epicenter” regions before spreading across connected brain networks. Individuals with the condition showed widespread reductions in structural similarity between key cognitive and emotional brain regions. These disruptions were strongest in patients with more severe symptoms and poorer cognitive […]
Brain Uses Molecular Timers to Decide What We Remember
Summary: New research shows that long-term memory is not stored by a single molecular switch, but by a sequence of timed genetic programs unfolding across different brain regions. Using a virtual-reality learning model in mice, scientists found that experiences are promoted or demoted through multiple biological “durability gates.” Early molecular timers allow quick forgetting, while […]
AI Uncovers Hidden Stress Damage in the Body
Summary: Researchers developed an AI tool that detects chronic stress by measuring adrenal gland volume on routine chest CT scans. This biomarker aligns with cortisol levels, stress questionnaires, and future cardiovascular outcomes, offering the first imaging-based method to quantify stress load in the body. The findings show that larger adrenal volume is linked to higher […]
Brain Rebuilds New Skills Using “Cognitive LEGO Blocks”
Summary: New research reveals that the brain’s flexibility comes from its ability to reuse “cognitive building blocks” across many tasks, allowing rapid adaptation with minimal relearning. By studying monkeys performing a set of related categorization tasks, researchers found that the prefrontal cortex combines and recombines shared neural patterns like components in a modular system. These […]
Your Brain Quietly Rewires Itself at 9, 32, 66 and 83
Summary: Researchers identified five major phases of human brain wiring that unfold from birth to old age, marked by four major turning points at ages 9, 32, 66, and 83. Childhood and adolescence are periods of rapid reorganization, while adulthood brings a long plateau of structural stability. Beginning in the mid-60s, gradual declines in connectivity […]
Brains Sync Up When People Collaborate
Summary: A new study shows that when two people work together toward a shared goal, their brains begin to process information in increasingly similar ways. Using EEG recordings, researchers found that while all participants showed similar early responses to visual patterns, only collaborating pairs developed sustained neural alignment linked to the rules they agreed upon. […]
Young Adults With Obesity Show Early Signs of Brain Stress
Summary: New research shows that young adults with obesity already display biological patterns associated with liver stress, chronic inflammation, and early neural injury—changes typically seen in older adults with cognitive impairment. Participants with obesity also had unusually low blood choline levels, a nutrient critical for liver function, inflammation control, and long-term brain health. These low […]
How the Prefrontal Cortex Tunes What We See
Summary: New research shows that the prefrontal cortex doesn’t simply broadcast generic commands to sensory regions—it sends finely tailored signals that shape how the brain processes vision depending on arousal and movement. In mice, two prefrontal areas transmitted distinct information to both visual and motor cortices, sharpening or dampening visual responses depending on internal state. […]
Your Brain Has a Built-In Isolation Mode
Summary: New research uncovers the exact immune-to-brain pathway that drives the loss of social motivation during sickness. Scientists showed that when the cytokine IL-1β binds to receptors on neurons within the dorsal raphe nucleus, it activates a circuit that reduces social interaction. This pathway acts independently of lethargy, revealing that social withdrawal is an actively […]