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: Across 27 trials in older adults with mild memory and thinking problems, tai chi and qigong classes lifted overall thinking scores by a moderate amount compared with no exercise. More weekly minutes were not always better, and the dosing patterns still need testing. Key Findings 27 randomized trials, 2,034 people: All aged 60+ with …
TL;DR: Across four small studies, adults with vestibular migraine, a type that causes dizzy spells, scored noticeably lower on thinking tests than healthy people, even between attacks. The review was small and could not rule out anxiety, poor sleep or medicines as causes. Key Findings 6 studies found; 4 pooled: 208 people with vestibular migraine, …
TL;DR: Pooling 114 brain-scan studies, researchers found that grammar and arithmetic both lit up four spots on the left side of the brain, all part of a general problem-solving network. Beyond that, each skill leaned on its own separate regions. Key Findings 114 fMRI studies: 48 on grammar, 66 on arithmetic, in healthy children and …
TL;DR: Women who reported 10+ brain injuries from a partner performed on a speed test like someone about 21 years older than their actual age. They scored about 11 years “older” than survivors with no brain injury; the study of 207 women found a link, not proof that the injuries caused the difference. Key Findings …
TL;DR: A 2026 meta-analysis in Neurological Sciences pooled 10 studies that gave people with Parkinson’s disease, tested while on their dopamine medication, and healthy adults the same “think of as many ideas as you can” tasks. On average, the two groups scored about the same, with neither a creative boost nor a clear deficit. Key …
TL;DR: In a crossover trial of 119 adults living near busy highways, a month with a real HEPA air purifier did not clearly speed up a thinking test across the whole group. Among adults 40 and older, though, participants finished the harder test 12% faster after the real-purifier month than after the fake-purifier month. That …
TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint found that pupil dilation measured inside a virtual reality (VR) headset increased as working-memory load rose in healthy adults, was reproducible 60–90 days later in 33 returnees, and was smaller under the highest load in cognitively impaired patient cohorts than in 81 healthy controls. Key Findings Forty-three healthy adults completed …
TL;DR: A 2026 randomized training study in Nature Communications found that sensory-guided joint learning—a combination of performance-triggered wrist vibration, Copy/New strategy cues, and an adaptive electroencephalography (EEG) decoder—produced a 19.0-percentage-point improvement in motor-imagery brain-computer interface (BCI) accuracy in healthy BCI-naïve adults, versus 6.3 and 3.0 points in two control groups. Key Findings Thirty-one healthy adults …
TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in Nature Communications reported that 10 daily bouts of optogenetic dentate-gyrus stimulation produced weeks-long changes in chromatin, nuclear structure, behavior, and spatial coding, while Cyclin B deletion weakened several effects; this ECT-inspired model does not establish how electroconvulsive therapy works in people. Key Findings Ten stimulation sessions produced the durable …
