Cognition

Cognitive Reserve in First-Episode Psychosis Linked to Genetics and Onset

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Cognitive Reserve in First-Episode Psychosis Linked to Genetics and Onset

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Psychological Medicine found that cognitive reserve in non-affective first-episode psychosis was higher with greater genetic predisposition to educational attainment and lower with earlier psychosis onset or family history of psychosis. Key Findings 174 first-episode patients: Researchers analyzed people with non-affective first-episode psychosis, with a mean age of 25.5 years. Educational-attainment …

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Autistic Children Rated Navigation Lower Despite Similar Task Performance

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Autistic Children Rated Navigation Lower Despite Similar Task Performance

TL;DR: A 2026 preprint in medRxiv found that 26 autistic children and 25 typically developing peers performed similarly on iPad-based navigation tasks, but the autistic group rated its own sense of direction lower. Key Findings Objective navigation performance did not differ between autistic and typically developing children across path integration, egocentric pointing, mapping, or perspective …

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AD8 Dementia Screening Items Tracked Psychosocial Risk in Chinese Older Adults

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AD8 Dementia Screening Items Tracked Psychosocial Risk in Chinese Older Adults

TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint found that specific AD8 dementia-screening items, especially judgment, repetition, finances, tool use, and daily memory problems, tracked functional and psychosocial vulnerability in 144 Chinese-speaking older adults. Key Findings Small community sample: The cross-sectional study included 144 Chinese-speaking adults with a mean age of 73.1 years. Three AD8 domains: Exploratory factor …

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Problematic Gaming Linked to Lower Working Memory, Not Recreational Play

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Problematic Gaming Linked to Lower Working Memory, Not Recreational Play

TL;DR: A 2025 study in Computers in Human Behavior linked at-risk problematic gaming to weaker basic working memory, while recreational gaming was linked to better target detection on an attention-control task. Key Findings Three gaming groups: Researchers compared 114 adults who were non-gamers, recreational gamers, or gamers at risk for gaming disorder. Working memory was …

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Evidence Accumulation Predicted Cigarette and Cannabis Use

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Evidence Accumulation Predicted Cigarette and Cannabis Use

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Neuropsychopharmacology found that decision-making measures from a stop-signal task, especially evidence accumulation, predicted cigarette and cannabis use better than stop-signal reaction time (SSRT), a common estimate of response inhibition. Key Findings More than 1,000 young adults: The analysis used IMAGEN cohort stop-signal task data from 1,256 participants at age 19 …

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COVID Neurocognitive Recovery Improved After Alpha/Delta and Omicron

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COVID Neurocognitive Recovery Improved After Alpha/Delta and Omicron

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment followed 55 adults after mild-to-moderate COVID-19 and found that neurocognitive test performance improved over time after both Alpha/Delta-era and Omicron-era infections. Key Findings 55-person longitudinal sample: Researchers compared 28 Alpha/Delta-era participants with 27 Omicron-era participants after mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Initial cognitive findings: About half of each group …

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Sleep History Modulated Wake EEG Oscillations Across Development With Distinct ADHD Patterns

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Sleep History Modulated Wake EEG Oscillations Across Development With Distinct ADHD Patterns

TL;DR: A 2026 eNeuro study of 163 people ages 3-25 found that sleep history and age shaped waking electroencephalography (EEG) oscillations, while children with ADHD showed distinct sleep-wake EEG patterns. Key Findings Sleep and development interact to shape wake EEG oscillations: The amount of recent sleep or wakefulness produces age-dependent effects on EEG oscillation amplitude …

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Psychopathy Linked to Higher Cortical Surface Area in 804 Incarcerated Men

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Psychopathy Linked to Higher Cortical Surface Area in 804 Incarcerated Men

TL;DR: A 2026 study in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science linked higher psychopathy in MRI data from 804 incarcerated men to lower empathic concern and broader cortical surface area, while empathy scores themselves were not directly tied to cortical thickness or surface area. Key Findings The sample was large for prison MRI research: the study …

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Year-Long Aerobic Exercise Lowered Long-Term Cortisol in Midlife Adults: First Randomized Trial Mapping Cause and Effect

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Year-Long Aerobic Exercise Lowered Long-Term Cortisol in Midlife Adults: First Randomized Trial Mapping Cause and Effect

TL;DR: A 2026 randomized clinical trial in the Journal of Sport and Health Science assigned 130 midlife adults to 150 minutes/week aerobic exercise or no-exercise control for 1 year and found sustained lower long-term cortisol in the exercise group. Key Findings Year-long randomized trial in 130 midlife adults: Participants aged 26 to 58 were randomly …

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Right OFC rTMS Improved Visuospatial Memory in First-Episode Schizophrenia

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Right OFC rTMS Improved Visuospatial Memory in First-Episode Schizophrenia

TL;DR: A 2026 randomized study in Psychological Medicine found that right orbitofrontal cortex repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a noninvasive brain-stimulation method, improved visuospatial memory on the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT) in people with first-episode schizophrenia. Key Findings The analysis included 90 patients: Researchers studied 48 people assigned to active rTMS and 42 assigned …

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