TL;DR: A 2026 Research Square preprint followed 120 college students with a smartphone app and found that a higher share of positive emoji check-ins was the most consistent digital marker tied to lower depression, lower anxiety, and higher flourishing. Key Findings 120-student smartphone study: The app combined brief emoji check-ins, symptom questionnaires, voice samples, GPS-derived …
TL;DR: A 2026 randomized study in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that coherent breathing, a slow 6-breaths-per-minute breathing routine, improved several recovery markers in highly trained 400-meter athletes under repeated race stress without improving race times. Key Findings 22 trained athletes: Researchers randomized 11 athletes to usual recovery and 11 athletes to …
TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in iScience found that blocking Itch, an E3 ubiquitin ligase involved in protein tagging, improved several memory-test readouts in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model and reduced neuronal apoptosis, including when researchers used the existing drug clomipramine. Key Findings Two Itch strategies: Researchers tested AAV-delivered loss-of-function Itch mutants and clomipramine, a …
TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint found that a composite cerebral small vessel disease (cCSVD) score from routine T1 MRI predicted 3-month cognitive recovery after stroke better than any single small-vessel marker in a 65-person cohort. Key Findings Recovery window: The study analyzed 65 early subacute stroke survivors who completed baseline and 90-day follow-up visits. MRI …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in BMC Psychiatry found that structural MRI of the cerebellum separated first-episode bipolar depression from unipolar depression with 76.3% exploratory model accuracy, mainly because several cerebellar gray-matter regions were smaller in bipolar depression. Key Findings MRI cohort included three groups: Researchers analyzed structural MRI from 42 bipolar depression patients, 48 unipolar …
TL;DR: A 2026 MRI preprint on medRxiv found that patients with catatonia were less likely to have a left paracingulate sulcus (PCS), a stable anterior cingulate cortex fold, than psychiatric patients without catatonia. Key Findings 523 MRI scans: Researchers compared 109 patients with catatonia, 323 psychiatric patients without catatonia, and 91 healthy controls. Left PCS …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Psychopharmacology found that healthy adults who used cannabis frequently had higher circulating THC markers after at least 12 hours of verified abstinence, but their cold-pressor pain threshold, pain tolerance, and pain ratings did not differ from occasional users. Key Findings 75 cannabis users were tested: the sample included 38 occasional …
TL;DR: A 2026 mouse and cell study in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy linked ATP11B, a phospholipid-flipping transport protein, to hippocampal iron handling, mitochondrial failure, ferroptosis, and age-related cognitive decline. Key Findings ATP11B fell with brain aging: Older mice showed lower blood-brain-barrier tight-junction markers and ATP11B emerged from integrated aging, endothelial-cell, and transport-gene analyses. ATP11B …
TL;DR: A 2026 BMC Psychiatry study found that antipsychotic dose was not associated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a brief cognitive screening test, in clinically stable schizophrenia patients under 40, while higher symptom scores and longer illness duration tracked lower cognition. Key Findings Forty-one clinically stable outpatients with schizophrenia were included after researchers screened a …
TL;DR: A case study published in 2026 in BMC Neurology described a 45-year-old man with acute anti-glycine receptor progressive encephalomyelitis with rigidity and myoclonus (PERM), a stiff-person-spectrum disorder, whose sound-triggered muscle jerks repeatedly drove oxygen saturation down to 30% before immunotherapy and plasma exchange were followed by recovery. Key Findings Acute onset: Symptoms developed over …
