THE LATEST RESEARCH
New findings about the brain, behavior and mental health—with the evidence and limits in view.
TL;DR: A 2026 review pulled together 36 lab studies that grew motor neurons, the nerve cells destroyed in ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), from stem cells of patients whose ALS comes from changes in one particular gene. Only 3 problems showed up reliably, such as d…
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TL;DR: In a 2026 study, a self-teaching computer program studied microscope images of rat brain slices, stained to show the fatty insulation around nerve fibers, with no labels saying what anything was. It sorted the tissue into real brain regions on its own a…
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TL;DR: In a small 2026 brain-scan study, researchers measured a marker of synapses, the contact points between brain cells, in women newly diagnosed with depression who had never taken medication. In one spot of the cerebellum, at the back of the brain, the ma…
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TL;DR: In a 2026 study, women who had chemotherapy for breast cancer and women who never had cancer watched dozens of short film clips, then described them from memory. Right after watching, the chemo survivors recalled somewhat fewer small details, like color…
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TL;DR: When people were told which of two remembered sounds would be tested, they recalled its pitch more accurately, but not where it came from. Both features were judged faster, suggesting attention does not sharpen every detail of a sound memory equally. Ke…
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TL;DR: Some old mice lost the ability to switch strategies while others stayed sharp, and the struggling mice had more energy-producing mitochondria crowded into their brain connections. Twenty weeks of the antioxidant MitoQ improved strategy switching in a sm…
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TL;DR: In mice with a long-lasting allergic-type sinus inflammation, the mix of nose bacteria changed, and signs of inflammation rose in the hippocampus, a memory area of the brain. Certain nose bacteria tracked with those brain changes, but the study cannot s…
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TL;DR: Chemicals in the breath of people with sleep apnea differ from those of people without it, and early studies suggest a breath test might one day help screen for it. The best result so far correctly sorted about 3 in 4 people, which is not yet good enoug…
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TL;DR: A review of 18 small studies finds that some people with Parkinson's can learn to control brain signals linked to their symptoms using neurofeedback. Whether that reliably improves movement or daily life is still unproven. Key Findings 18 studies, 3 app…
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TL;DR: Young female mice bred to develop Alzheimer's-like disease remembered objects normally on a standard test, but lost the resistance to memory interference that healthy females have. Separating the interference by place or strengthening the memory restore…
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