Practice may teach the brain a new movement, but what happens immediately afterward could determine whether that skill lasts.

Scientists have long known that repetition alone does not guarantee learning. A newly practiced movement must be stabilized through memory consolidation, a process that continues after training ends. New research in mice suggests that signals arriving from the body can help create the conditions needed for that transformation.

Researchers at Tohoku University who specialize in super-network brain physiology found that stimulating the vagus nerve after training produced stronger motor learning over the following days. The results reveal a potentially important role for communication between the internal organs and the brain in shaping long-term learning.

In autoimmune diseases, the immune system turns against the body through pathogenic high-affinity B cells or T cells, leading to severe organ damage. Multiple sclerosis (nervous system paralysis), type 1 diabetes (a strong risk factor for atherosclerosis requiring lifelong treatment) and rheumatoid arthritis (debilitating, excruciating joint deformities) are examples of clinically important autoimmune diseases.

Despite decades of international research efforts, no such defining criteria have been documented for atherosclerosis. Research by an international consortium—led by Professor Andreas Habenicht at LMU University Hospital and Professor Changjun Yin at Sun-Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China—now reports in Nature Cardiovascular Research that, according to its findings, atherosclerosis satisfies crucial defining criteria of an autoimmune disease.