TL;DR: Stroke patients whose brain arteries showed tiny traveling clots on an ultrasound scan had nearly 3 times the odds of poor recovery than those without, across 13 studies. The signals may mark a more unstable stroke rather than cause the worse outcome. Key Findings 13 studies, 1,777 patients: About 1 in 5 (361) had …
TL;DR: Readers slowed down more for surprising but sensible sentence endings than for impossible ones, and remembered those surprising words better. When people expect some nonsense, they seem to brush it off quickly. Key Findings 38 German-speaking students read sentences word by word. Slowest on surprising but sensible endings, faster on expected and on impossible …
TL;DR: When 35 adults got fake feedback saying they were making more mistakes, they slowed down slightly, and they slowed most when told the buttons were faulty. Errors blamed on the machine also triggered a stronger brain “alert” signal than errors blamed on themselves. Key Findings Slower with fake errors: 571 ms with true feedback, …
TL;DR: When 18 healthy adults walked on a treadmill wearing a powered ankle exoskeleton, their stride lengths varied more from step to step, but their lower legs and feet moved more steadily. Their overall walking rhythm did not change. Key Findings More step-to-step variation: Stride-length variability rose from 1.9% to 2.8%. Steadier near the device: …
TL;DR: Healthy adults normally react a bit slower to a spot that recently caught their attention, a habit that helps attention move on. A single dose of a drug that boosts dopamine, and another that blocks it, both weakened this habit compared with placebo. Key Findings 28 healthy adults, each tested on three visits. Both …
TL;DR: Six weeks of home “static hold” arm training made untrained young men about 27% stronger and increased how fast they built up force by about 60%. Brain-to-muscle signals changed too, but tests of a proposed brainstem pathway gave mixed results. Key Findings Stronger fast: Maximum elbow-bending force rose about 27% in trained groups. Quicker …
TL;DR: Young mice carrying the human APOE4 gene, the biggest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s, had overexcited memory circuits months before any memory trouble showed up. Removing APOE4 from their neurons returned those cells to normal. Key Findings Early warning spikes: Young APOE4 mice had more abnormal electrical spikes in parts of the hippocampus. Spikes …
TL;DR: A single long-read DNA test covering 564 genes found 17 of 20 known disease-causing changes in 18 people with Parkinson’s or inherited repeat disorders. It missed three large or repetitive changes, so it needs more work before it could replace several separate tests. Key Findings 17 of 20 found (85%): In people whose genetic …
TL;DR: In a 16-person trial, stroke survivors using a forearm stimulation sleeve during hand therapy all finished the 6-week program and rated it highly. Early arm-movement scores favored the sleeve, but the trial was too small to show that it works. Key Findings 16 of 16 finished: All 12 sessions over 6 weeks, in both …
TL;DR: Ambroxol, an old cough medicine, can boost a key brain enzyme in lab studies, but a review of 20 clinical reports found no proven benefit in Gaucher disease or GBA1-linked Parkinson’s. In a randomized trial of people with GBA1-linked Parkinson’s, ambroxol did not improve thinking-test scores over 1 year; scores slightly favored placebo. Key …
