TL;DR: A 2026 birth cohort study in Environment & Health linked low-level prenatal lead exposure to lower infant Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3) developmental scores, with FAM50B/PTCHD3 DNA methylation markers explaining part of the association. Key Findings Lead was the clearest metal finding: Among 21 detectable cord-blood metals, lead showed a consistent negative association with …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Journal of Pain Research described 3 adults with type I complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a severe neuropathic pain condition with sensory, autonomic, motor, and skin changes, whose pain scores improved after pregabalin and who were then able to participate more fully in rehabilitation. Key Findings Case-series evidence: Researchers reported …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Journal of Pain Research found that spinal cord stimulation and dorsal root entry zone lesioning reduced pain for selected patients with refractory postherpetic neuralgia, but the evidence came from a 10-patient single-center series. Key Findings 10 refractory PHN patients: The retrospective series included 6 men and 4 women treated between …
TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint found that nonverbal Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to infer another person’s beliefs or perspective, varied in 44 adults with post-stroke aphasia and was more closely tied to vascular brain-health markers than to aphasia severity. Key Findings Study group: 44 adults with aphasia after mostly left-hemisphere stroke completed 2 …
TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint linked higher blood inflammatory markers with diffusion MRI signs of altered white-matter microstructure in 457 dementia-free middle-aged and older adults, especially for a combined cytokine score and orientation dispersion index. Key Findings 457 dementia-free participants: The cross-sectional study examined adults with a mean age of 63.82 years and used blood …
TL;DR: A 2026 European Journal of Pediatrics study found that children with phenylketonuria, or PKU, had higher depression scores and lower quality of life than controls, with the worse pattern in children diagnosed later. Key Findings Children studied: The study included 76 children ages 8-15, split into early-diagnosed PKU, late-diagnosed PKU, and healthy control groups. …
TL;DR: A 2026 Neurological Sciences study followed 216 early Parkinson’s patients for 2 years after levodopa started and found that several non-motor symptom differences between men and women persisted or emerged despite adjustment for baseline scores and levodopa dose. Key Findings 216 early Parkinson’s patients completed 24-month follow-up after starting levodopa, including 139 men and …
TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint linked pre-surgery diffusion MRI markers in Parkinson’s disease to 6-month changes in impulsive-compulsive behaviour after subthalamic deep brain stimulation. Key Findings Small DBS cohort: Researchers followed 35 Parkinson’s disease patients from preoperative diffusion MRI to 6-month clinical follow-up after subthalamic deep brain stimulation. Behaviour score: Impulsive-compulsive behaviour was measured with …
TL;DR: A 2026 Nature Methods paper described a self-localized ultrafast pencil beam that made volumetric multiphoton imaging faster and more stable, including 1-minute 3D scans of transferrin uptake in a live human blood-brain barrier model. Key Findings Optics advance: A standard multimode fiber produced a stable, sidelobe-suppressed Bessel-like pencil beam near critical power. Microscopy fit: …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Journal of Medical Case Reports described organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN), a delayed nerve-injury syndrome, in a 44-year-old pesticide applicator after years of low-level exposure without a typical acute poisoning crisis. Key Findings 9-year exposure history: The patient had worked with chlorpyrifos, malathion, and diazinon for years, often 6-9 hours daily …
