BrainASAP

Childhood Psychological Abuse Predicted Lower Adult Relationship Satisfaction Through Reduced Belongingness

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Childhood Psychological Abuse Predicted Lower Adult Relationship Satisfaction Through Reduced Belongingness

TL;DR: A 2026 longitudinal study in Personality and Individual Differences followed 346 Turkish young adults across two survey waves three months apart and found that childhood psychological abuse predicted lower adult relationship satisfaction, with a reduced sense of belonging acting as the statistical mediator linking the early adversity to the later romantic outcome. Key Findings …

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AI Chatbot Use for Companionship Predicted Higher Emotional Isolation Four Months Later in 12-Month Cross-Lagged Study

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AI Chatbot Use for Companionship Predicted Higher Emotional Isolation Four Months Later in 12-Month Cross-Lagged Study

TL;DR: A 12-month four-wave longitudinal study in Psychological Science (N=2,149 adults across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia) found that feeling more emotionally isolated predicted higher chatbot use four months later — and that higher chatbot use, in turn, predicted further increases in emotional isolation at the next wave. Key Findings Bidirectional link with emotional …

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First 25 mg Psilocybin Dose Increased EEG Entropy and Predicted Well-Being

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First 25 mg Psilocybin Dose Increased EEG Entropy and Predicted Well-Being

TL;DR: A 2026 exploratory study in Nature Communications found that a first 25 mg psilocybin dose in 28 psychedelic-naive adults increased electroencephalography (EEG), a scalp recording of brain electrical activity, entropy during the acute session and that entropy predicted one-month well-being change. Key Findings 28 psychedelic-naive adults: Participants received 1 mg psilocybin as a low-dose …

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Inflammation Markers Did Not Track Depression or Alcohol Use

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Inflammation Markers Did Not Track Depression or Alcohol Use

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health found that depression symptoms, alcohol use, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms were not associated with C-reactive protein (CRP), a blood inflammation marker, or a pro-inflammatory cytokine index in 972 community adults, and twin analyses suggested familial confounding explained several cytokine-AUD links. Key Findings …

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Each Extra Hour of Daytime Napping Linked to ~13% Higher Mortality in 19-Year Wrist-Actigraphy Study of Older Adults

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Each Extra Hour of Daytime Napping Linked to ~13% Higher Mortality in 19-Year Wrist-Actigraphy Study of Older Adults

TL;DR: A 2026 study in JAMA Network Open tracked 1,338 older adults from the Rush Memory and Aging Project for up to 19 years using objective wrist-actigraphy and found that each additional hour of daytime napping per day was linked to ~13% higher mortality, each extra nap per day to ~7% higher mortality, and morning …

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Boosting Astrocyte Sox9 Improved Amyloid Plaque Clearance and Preserved Cognition in Alzheimer’s Mouse Models

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Boosting Astrocyte Sox9 Improved Amyloid Plaque Clearance and Preserved Cognition in Alzheimer's Mouse Models

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Nature Neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine showed that boosting Sox9, a transcription factor that regulates aging astrocytes, improved astrocytes’ ability to clear amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s mouse models and preserved cognitive function — pointing to a treatment strategy that targets the brain’s own support cells rather than directly attacking …

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Monocyte Epigenetic Aging Tracked Non-Somatic Depression in Women With and Without HIV

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Monocyte Epigenetic Aging Tracked Non-Somatic Depression in Women With and Without HIV

TL;DR: A 2026 study in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences measured a monocyte-specific DNA methylation clock (MonoDNAmAge) in 440 women with and without HIV, and found that accelerated monocyte epigenetic aging was specifically linked to non-somatic depressive symptoms (anhedonia, hopelessness, cognitive impacts) but not to broader depression severity, supporting …

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Longer Breastfeeding Predicted Better Self-Control at Age 3.5 in Quebec Longitudinal Cohort

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Longer Breastfeeding Predicted Better Inhibitory Control at Age 3.5 in Quebec Longitudinal Cohort

TL;DR: A 2026 longitudinal study in Appetite following 491 Quebec children found that infants breastfed for at least three to six months showed better inhibitory control — the ability to suppress an automatic response — at age three and a half than infants who were never breastfed, with the largest behavioral benefits in those breastfed …

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Connexin 36 Loss Disrupted Thalamocortical Synchrony in Mice

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Connexin 36 Loss Disrupted Thalamocortical Synchrony

TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in Translational Psychiatry found deleting connexin 36, an electrical-coupling protein between neurons, weakened several schizophrenia-relevant brain-wave readouts. Key Findings Sleep architecture mostly held; the rhythm on top of it broke: Cx36 knockout mice did not lose normal sleep-wake organization. They lost the fast coordination riding inside it. Spindle density preserved, …

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Connectome-seq Maps Brain Wiring With RNA Barcodes at Single-Synapse Resolution

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Connectome-seq Turned Synapses Into Barcodes

TL;DR: A 2026 Nature Methods paper introduced Connectome-seq, a barcode-sequencing method for mapping which neuron types connect to each other while preserving cell identity, with a mouse circuit as the first major test. Key Findings Wiring maps become sequencing data: Engineered synaptic proteins (SynBar) plus AAV-delivered RNA barcodes plus single-synaptosome sequencing turn each connection into …

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