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 review in Journal of Neuroinflammation proposed that Alzheimer microglial dysfunction can be understood as checkpoint collapse, where failed regulatory controls feed three interacting lipid, iron/ferroptosis, and inflammation/complement axes. Key Findings Review framework, not trial result: Alzheimer microglial evidence through April 2026 was synthesized rather than used to test a new drug or …
TL;DR: A 2026 preprint in medRxiv reported that people living with dementia (PLwD) and carers were generally open to artificial intelligence (AI) support in structured medication reviews, but only when AI remained validated, transparent, secure, and subordinate to human clinical judgement. Key Findings 26-person qualitative sample: Researchers interviewed 12 people living with dementia and ran …
TL;DR: A 2026 Nature Communications paper introduced EmulatRx, a multi-agent AI framework that used real-world clinical data to help design target-trial-emulation workflows for acute and chronic diseases, including Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease examples. Key Findings 20-trial evaluation: Researchers curated 20 clinical trials, with 10 acute-condition trials from MIMIC-IV and 10 chronic-disease trials from INSIGHT. …
TL;DR: A 2026 preprint in medRxiv analyzed plasma proteomics in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment and found that four continuous molecular axes described the data better than hard subtype labels. Key Findings 5,895-person AD/MCI sample: The discovery analysis used one record per participant from the Global Neurodegeneration Proteomics Consortium. 81.5% module-space variance: Four continuous …
TL;DR: A 2026 preprint in medRxiv warned that a standard Alzheimer’s disease biomarker-clock analysis can create a countdown paradox, where later biomarker-clock ages appear linked to faster mild cognitive impairment onset because of the way remaining time is calculated. Key Findings 100% false positives in simple null simulations: The standard countdown analysis rejected the null …
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Journal of Medical Internet Research found that care robots showed a low-certainty reduction in neuropsychiatric symptoms, but six other pooled outcome domains did not reach statistical significance. Key Findings 34 randomized trials: The review included 34 randomized controlled studies across 17 countries, with 2,476 participants. 20 meta-analyzed …
TL;DR: A 2026 narrative review in International Journal of General Medicine argued that apathy in Alzheimer’s disease is tied to damage across motivation circuits, including the anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, striatum, locus coeruleus, and large-scale brain networks. Key Findings Apathy was framed as its own syndrome: The review separates reduced goal-directed behavior from depression, …
TL;DR: A 2026 review in International Journal of Molecular Medicine mapped how exercise and fluoxetine overlap in Alzheimer’s disease mechanisms such as mitochondrial quality control, oxidative stress, inflammation, and neuroplasticity, but clinical combination benefits remain unproven. Key Findings Review article, not trial: Wu and Li synthesized mechanistic evidence on exercise and fluoxetine in Alzheimer’s disease …
TL;DR: A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that choroid plexus volume, an MRI-visible structure involved in cerebrospinal-fluid regulation and immune signaling, was larger in Alzheimer’s disease than in healthy controls. Key Findings Sixteen studies: The review included 16 MRI-based studies covering 2,004 Alzheimer’s disease patients and 883 healthy controls. …
