TL;DR: A 2026 rat study in Neuropsychopharmacology found that chemogenetically inhibiting a prelimbic cortex to nucleus accumbens core pathway blocked cue-triggered cocaine seeking after cocaine alone, but did not block relapse-like behavior after sequential cocaine and alcohol use. Key Findings The model tested sequential polysubstance use: rats self-administered cocaine, then some received access to 20% …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that in 65 continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) adherent patients with obstructive sleep apnea, those who still showed objective daytime sleepiness on a psychomotor vigilance task scored worse on global cognition, memory, executive function, attention, and processing speed despite using their devices regularly. Key …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Cell Chemical Biology found that alzheimer’s inflammation may be driven by a specific chemical switch: S-nitrosylation of STING at cysteine 148, which pushed innate immune signaling toward synaptic damage. Key Findings STING carried the redox switch: The study identified S-nitrosylation of human STING at cysteine 148 as a redox modification …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in The British Journal of Psychiatry found that people with anxiety disorders showed hyper-scanning during neutral image viewing and hyper-pursuit during moving-dot tracking, suggesting that eye-tracking could capture measurable patterns of anxiety-related vigilance. Key Findings 307-person sample: Researchers compared 91 patients with anxiety disorders, 118 with depressive disorders, and 98 healthy …
TL;DR: A 2026 in vitro study in Molecular and Clinical Oncology found that amitriptyline reduced C6 glioma cell viability and PD-L1 checkpoint expression, but the same drug weakened the cell-killing effect of radiation when combined with temozolomide. Key Findings Amitriptyline alone reduced glioma cell growth: In non-radiated C6 glioma cultures, 10 micromolar amitriptyline lowered viability …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Neuropsychopharmacology found that reward uncertainty, measured with functional MRI (fMRI), a brain-scan method, engaged different adolescent brain networks during waiting for a possible reward versus learning the outcome, with anxiety and anhedonia tied to different parts of that response. Key Findings 84 adolescents were scanned: The sample included psychotropic-medication-free youth …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Neurology Open Access found that in 793 dementia-free adults, higher vitamin D levels around age 39 were associated with less tau readout on PET brain imaging about 16 years later, while amyloid beta did not show the same relationship. Key Findings 793 dementia-free adults: Participants had vitamin D measured in …
TL;DR: A 2006 study in Perception found that synesthesia was estimated to be 88 times more common than the old 0.05% figure after researchers used non-self-referred sampling and objective consistency tests. Key Findings Older conventional wisdom was about 0.05%: the paper describes that as the prior belief about synesthesia prevalence. The prevalence estimate was 88 …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Translational Psychiatry found that three different plasma p-tau217 assays separated Alzheimer’s dementia from controls and frontotemporal degeneration with excellent accuracy, shifting the test from whether the marker works to which platform clinics can deploy. Key Findings Three p-tau217 assays all performed strongly: The cohort included 39 cognitively unimpaired controls, 28 …
TL;DR: In Drosophila melanogaster, caffeine consumed at night impaired inhibitory control in an airflow task, especially in females. The effect was not explained by simple hyperactivity or sleep deprivation, and the study points to dopamine signaling in mushroom-body circuits as part of the mechanism. Key Findings Nighttime caffeine impaired stopping behavior: flies kept moving under …
