THE LATEST RESEARCH
New findings about the brain, behavior and mental health—with the evidence and limits in view.
TL;DR: In a small trial of 30 nursing-home residents with Parkinson's, adding 15 minutes of Baduanjin, a gentle qigong routine, to regular physical therapy led to better balance and farther walking after 12 weeks. Walking speed on a timed test and motor sympto…
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TL;DR: In a small Spanish study of 84 adults with severe grief, scores fell most in the group given ayahuasca alongside grief therapy. People were not randomly assigned, so this is an early signal, not proof. Key Findings Ayahuasca plus therapy: Grief severity…
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TL;DR: In 41 studies of adults with schizophrenia or a related condition, 7 of 18 antipsychotics lowered hostility more than a dummy pill. Confidence in the evidence was low or very low. Key Findings Antipsychotics beat placebo: 7 of 18 drugs clearly reduced h…
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TL;DR: A 2026 review looked for studies comparing memory and thinking test scores of older Latin American immigrants with those of people born in their new country, and found only 3, all on Mexican-born adults in the United States. Those adults scored lower th…
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TL;DR: In a 2026 study, rats that had a stroke got 7 sessions of mild electrical pulses to the median nerve, which in people runs through the wrist. Compared with untreated stroke rats, they did better on movement tests, had less brain damage and kept more of…
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TL;DR: In a 2026 study, 9 people with spinal cord injuries wore a brain-wave cap and imagined moving their left or right foot. A new AI model named the imagined foot correctly 85% of the time, vs 75% for the best older model, but it was tested on recorded data…
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TL;DR: A 2026 review gathered human studies comparing the gut contents of people with and without Parkinson’s disease. Bacteria and the compounds they make showed the most consistent differences, including fewer bacteria that ferment fiber, while research on g…
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TL;DR: A 2026 study found that a gene called MAFF was more active in brain tissue from people who had Parkinson’s disease than from people who didn’t. A genetic analysis linked naturally higher MAFF to a slightly lower risk of Parkinson’s, but that result was…
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TL;DR: In a 2026 lab study, researchers looked at the chemical switches that turn genes on and off in medulloblastoma, a brain cancer that mostly affects children. Removing a protein called KDM2B slowed the growth of 2 of the cancer’s main types in lab dishes…
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TL;DR: In a 2026 study, 12 healthy volunteers wore a brain-wave cap and silently imagined singing a song, moving a hand or their feet, or doing both at once. A computer told all 8 mental tasks apart about half the time, far better than the 1-in-8 expected by g…
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