Supplement Shows Promise in Blocking Amyloid in Alzheimer’s
Summary: A new study shows that oral arginine, a naturally occurring amino acid, can significantly suppress amyloid-β aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease models. Researchers found that arginine not only prevented Aβ42 from clumping but also reduced plaques and inflammation in mouse and fruit fly models carrying Alzheimer’s-related mutations. Treated mice showed improved cognitive performance alongside reduced […]
Early Brain Activity Differences Predict Addiction Risk in Boys vs Girls
Summary: A large-scale analysis of nearly 1,900 children found that those with a family history of substance use disorder show early differences in how their brains transition between activity states, long before any drug exposure. Girls with family history showed increased transition energy in introspective networks, suggesting greater difficulty shifting out of internal, stress-linked states. […]
Screen Time in Tweens Predicts ADHD, Slower Brain Growth
Summary: A large, two-year study of nearly 12,000 children found that higher screen time at ages 9–10 predicts an increase in ADHD symptoms, independent of a child’s starting symptom level. Brain imaging revealed that heavy screen use is associated with smaller cortical volume and disrupted development in regions critical for attention, cognition, and reward processing. […]
Thrill Fatigue: How Dopamine Devalues Repeated Rewards
Summary: New research shows that the same dopamine receptor mechanism responsible for drug addiction also governs the natural decline in motivation when we repeat rewarding behaviors. By studying male fruit flies, researchers found that dopamine acting through the D2 receptor promotes persistence during mating, but repeated experiences cause these receptors to desensitize. Once desensitized, dopamine […]
AI Interviews Outperform Standard Mental Health Rating Scales
Summary: A new study demonstrates that an AI assistant can conduct psychiatric assessment interviews with greater diagnostic accuracy than widely used mental health rating scales. In a sample of 303 participants with confirmed psychiatric conditions, the AI assistant Alba provided DSM-based diagnostic suggestions after a brief conversational interview, outperforming rating scales in eight of nine […]
Unexpected Superhero Cameos Make People Kinder
Summary: A new behavioral study demonstrates that sudden, unexpected events can significantly increase altruistic behavior in everyday environments. When a person dressed as Batman appeared on a Milan subway, passengers were nearly twice as likely to give up their seats to a pregnant woman compared to the normal routine condition. Surprisingly, many who acted generously […]
Language Emerged From Many Roots, Not Just One
Summary: A new framework argues that human language did not arise from a single evolutionary leap but from the convergence of many biological abilities and cultural processes. The authors highlight how speech learning, grammar formation, and social cooperation evolved along different paths before merging into the complex communication we use today. By integrating insights from […]
The Brain Has a Dance Mode, And AI Just Mapped It
Summary: A team of researchers used a massive dance video dataset and advanced AI models to map how the human brain interprets dance, revealing striking differences between experts and nonexperts. By pairing fMRI recordings with AI-derived cross-modal features, they found that higher-order brain regions outperform simple motion or sound cues when processing choreography. Expert dancers […]
Brain Releases Hidden Kinase to Supercharge Pain and Learning
Summary: New research reveals that neurons release a little-understood extracellular kinase called VLK to strengthen synaptic connections, providing a missing piece in how the nervous system adapts during learning and pain. The kinase phosphorylates EphB receptors outside the cell, which recruits NMDA receptors and amplifies synaptic signaling. Mice lacking VLK showed reduced pain hypersensitivity after […]
Shocking Disparities: Women Face Higher Risk of ECT
Summary: A large international survey of 858 electroconvulsive therapy recipients found that women are twice as likely as men to receive ECT and experience more adverse effects. Women reported higher rates of memory loss, greater feelings of coercion, and more harmful emotional outcomes, often describing the treatment as retraumatizing. They were also less likely to […]