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TL;DR: In female mice without ovaries, a model of menopause, the osteoporosis drug raloxifene and the hormone progesterone each protected brain dopamine from a toxin that mimics Parkinson’s. Giving both together worked no better than either alone. Key Findings…
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TL;DR: During Parkinson’s surgery, 19 people played a game where they accepted or rejected money splits. Dopamine-like neurons deep in their brains fired more when an offer beat what the person expected, and this signal was stronger when the offer seemed to co…
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TL;DR: Healthy adults normally react a bit slower to a spot that recently caught their attention, a habit that helps attention move on. A single dose of a drug that boosts dopamine, and another that blocks it, both weakened this habit compared with placebo. Ke…
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TL;DR: A 2026 laboratory study in ACS Omega reported that a laser-induced graphene sensor detected dopamine across a controlled range in artificial human tears, supporting a possible noninvasive biomarker-monitoring route that still needs real human tear testi…
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TL;DR: A 2026 study in iScience found that 1 hour of small-space confinement suppressed male courtship in Drosophila, and dopamine signaling into the mushroom body was needed to keep that suppression going after the stress ended. Key Findings 1-hour stress mod…
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TL;DR: A 2026 iScience study recorded human substantia nigra neurons during Parkinson’s surgery and found that putative dopamine-neuron firing was higher after a prior reward, while the next response was modestly faster. Key Findings Direct human recordings: R…
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TL;DR: A 2026 study in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy built a Parkinson’s visual hallucination mouse model and found that a combined behavior map identified hallucination-like episodes better than any single movement measure. Key Findings Model: Rese…
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TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in Neuropsychopharmacology found that brain iron deficiency made an opioid-responsive striatal pathway unusually sensitive to D1 dopamine receptor stimulation, pointing to a possible circuit mechanism for restless legs syndrome and op…
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TL;DR: A 2026 npj Parkinson’s Disease study used brain transcriptome data and genome-scale metabolic modeling to predict Parkinson’s metabolite biomarkers, including dopamine-related changes, and separated 104 postmortem samples into three metabolic clusters.…
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TL;DR: A 2026 double-blind trial in Psychopharmacology found that methylphenidate reduced cheating in healthy adults compared with placebo, contrary to survey respondents’ expectations about smart drugs. Key Findings Methylphenidate reduced dishonesty vs place…
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