BrainASAP

Semaglutide Reduced Heavy Alcohol Drinking by 13.7 Percentage Points vs Placebo in 26-Week Trial of Adults With AUD and Obesity

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Semaglutide Reduced Heavy Alcohol Drinking by 13.7 Percentage Points vs Placebo in 26-Week Trial of Adults With AUD and Obesity

TL;DR: A 2026 randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial in The Lancet (N=108 adults with both moderate-to-severe alcohol use disorder and obesity) found that 26 weeks of once-weekly 2.4 mg semaglutide reduced heavy drinking days by 41.1 percentage points compared with a 26.4-point reduction on placebo — a 13.7-point treatment difference, with parallel drops in alcohol craving, …

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REDDI MEG AI Classified Four Neurodegenerative Diseases With 0.81 Balanced Accuracy

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REDDI MEG AI Classified Four Neurodegenerative Diseases With 0.81 Balanced Accuracy

TL;DR: A 2026 preprint in medRxiv reported that REDDI, an interpretable AI pipeline using resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG), classified four neurodegenerative diseases with mean balanced accuracy of 0.81. Key Findings The dataset covered four disease groups: it included 32 people with mild cognitive impairment, 18 with multiple sclerosis, 20 with Parkinson’s disease, and 39 with amyotrophic …

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Rostral Prefrontal Gradient Predicted Creativity in Frontotemporal Dementia

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Rostral Prefrontal Gradient Predicted Creativity in Frontotemporal Dementia

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Brain found that creativity in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia tracked a rostral prefrontal cortex gradient, meaning the functional separation between default-mode and executive-control networks predicted creative performance. Key Findings 56-person clinical sample: researchers compared 27 patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) against 29 control participants from the ECOCAPTURE cohort. …

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Repeated Psilocybin Doses Reduced OCD Severity

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Repeated Psilocybin Doses Reduced OCD Severity

TL;DR: A 2026 trial in Journal of Psychopharmacology found that repeated supervised psilocybin sessions reduced Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) scores, a standard measure of obsession and compulsion severity, in 15 adults with OCD. Key Findings 73.3% met responder criteria: At the end of the 8-week treatment, 11 of 15 participants had at least a …

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Group Exercise in Psychiatric Care Built Routine and Belonging

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Group Exercise in Psychiatric Care Built Routine and Belonging

TL;DR: A 2026 mixed-methods study in BMC Psychiatry found that adults in psychiatric treatment valued group-based physical activity less as generic exercise and more as structured, socially supported care, with 97% of questionnaire participants saying they felt supported by activity leaders. Key Findings Real-world psychiatric care: The program was embedded in an Oslo outpatient clinic …

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Parkinson’s Visual Hallucination Mouse Model Mapped Behavior Sequences

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Parkinson's Visual Hallucination Mouse Model Mapped Behavior Sequences

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy built a Parkinson’s visual hallucination mouse model and found that a combined behavior map identified hallucination-like episodes better than any single movement measure. Key Findings Model: Researchers used 6-OHDA to create Parkinson-like dopamine injury in male C57BL/6 mice, then used benzhexol hydrochloride to trigger Parkinson’s …

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OCD DBS Response Linked to Lower GPe Alpha-Band Activity

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OCD DBS Response Linked to Lower GPe Alpha-Band Activity

TL;DR: A 2026 preprint in medRxiv found that deep brain stimulation for severe obsessive-compulsive disorder was followed by lower globus pallidus externus alpha-band activity in clinically responsive patients, suggesting a possible brain readout of sustained DBS response. Key Findings 10 severe OCD patients: Researchers recorded local field potentials from the anterior globus pallidus externus (GPe) …

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Noise Exposure Disrupted Sound-Offset Timing Before 24-Hour Brainstem Recovery

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Noise Exposure Disrupted Sound-Offset Timing Before 24-Hour Brainstem Recovery

TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in The Journal of Physiology found that damaging noise temporarily disrupted sound-offset responses in a brainstem hearing circuit, but those timing responses partly recovered within 24 hours through rapid circuit adaptation. Key Findings Sound-offset responses mark when sound ends: researchers studied neurons in the superior paraolivary nucleus (SPN), a brainstem …

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Nazi Propaganda Images Reduced Guilt and Shame in German Viewers

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Nazi Propaganda Images Reduced Guilt and Shame in German Viewers

TL;DR: A 2026 study in European Journal of Social Psychology found that adding flattering Nazi-era propaganda images to atrocity photographs reduced several immediate negative emotions in German viewers across the combined evidence, even though the clearest guilt effect did not replicate in the online sample. Key Findings Mixed-image condition: Participants saw atrocity photographs alone or …

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