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Category: neuroscience

Scientists are looking at ways to tackle Alzheimer’s and dementia from all kinds of angles, and a new study has identified the molecule hevin (or SPARCL-1) as a potential way of preventing cognitive decline.

Hevin is a protein naturally produced in the brain by cells called astrocytes. These support-worker cells look after the connections or synapses between neurons, and it’s thought that hevin plays a role in this essential work.

In this new study, researchers from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the University of São Paulo in Brazil boosted hevin production in the brains of both healthy mice and those with an Alzheimer’s-like disease.

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You stayed up too late scrolling through your phone, answering emails or watching just one more episode. The next morning, you feel groggy and irritable. That sugary pastry or greasy breakfast sandwich suddenly looks more appealing than your usual yogurt and berries. By the afternoon, chips or candy from the break room call your name. This isn’t just about willpower. Your brain, short on rest, is nudging you toward quick, high-calorie fixes.

There is a reason why this cycle repeats itself so predictably. Research shows that insufficient sleep disrupts hunger signals, weakens self-control, impairs glucose metabolism and increases your risk of weight gain. These changes can occur rapidly, even after a single night of poor sleep, and can become more harmful over time if left unaddressed.

I am a neurologist specializing in sleep science and its impact on health.

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A major medical breakthrough is giving new hope to those with Parkinson’s disease. Stem cell transplants into the brain are showing impressive results, leading to long-term improvements in motor symptoms for the first patients treated… Read more

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Our brains begin to create internal representations of the world around us from the first moment we open our eyes. We perceptually assemble components of scenes into recognizable objects thanks to neurons in the visual cortex.

This process occurs along the ventral visual cortical pathway, which extends from the primary at the back of the brain to the temporal lobes.

It’s long been thought that specific neurons along this pathway handle specific types of information depending on where they are located, and that the dominant flow of visual information is feedforward, up a hierarchy of visual cortical areas. Although the reverse direction of cortical connections, often referred to as feedback, has long been known to exist, its functional role has been little understood.

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People who have damage to a specific part of their brains are more likely to be impulsive, and new research has found that damage also makes them more likely to be influenced by other people.

In a new study published in PLOS Biology, a research team found that damage to distinct parts of the (mPFC) was linked to being influenced by impulsive decision-making by others, while another region was causally linked with choosing a smaller reward earlier rather than waiting for a larger prize.

The team from the University of Birmingham, University of Oxford and Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg worked with participants with brain damage to assess whether they were more likely to be influenced by other people’s preferences.

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A new study published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging has found that adolescents with major depressive disorder display unusual eye movement patterns, which are linked to cognitive problems such as memory and attention deficits. The researchers used eye-tracking technology to compare the visual behavior of adolescents with and without depression during different visual tasks. They found that certain eye movement characteristics were significantly different in adolescents with depression and were associated with poorer performance on cognitive tests.

Major depressive disorder often begins during adolescence, a period of intense emotional, social, and cognitive development. Depression in teenagers is not only becoming more common but also tends to recur and interfere with many areas of life, including school, family relationships, and social functioning. In many cases, even when mood symptoms improve with treatment, cognitive difficulties—like trouble with memory, attention, and understanding social cues—can persist. These problems can make it hard for adolescents to return to normal daily activities and may contribute to poor treatment outcomes and higher relapse rates.

In recent years, researchers have become interested in using eye-tracking technology as a non-invasive way to study how the brain processes information. Eye movements, including how often people look at certain parts of an image or how well they can follow a moving object, are known to reflect underlying cognitive processes. For example, smooth and coordinated eye movements require good attention control, while frequent or erratic eye movements might indicate difficulty with focus or information processing. Since brain areas involved in eye control also play a role in cognitive functioning, the researchers wanted to explore whether eye movement patterns could serve as indicators of cognitive problems in depressed adolescents.

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When the brain is under pressure, certain neural signals begin to move in sync—much like a well-rehearsed orchestra. A new study from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) is the first to show how flexibly this neural synchrony adjusts to different situations and that this dynamic coordination is closely linked to cognitive abilities.

“Specific signals in the midfrontal brain region are better synchronized in people with higher cognitive ability—especially during demanding phases of reasoning,” explained Professor Anna-Lena Schubert from JGU’s Institute of Psychology, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

The researchers focused on the midfrontal area of the brain and the measurable coordination of the so-called theta waves. These brainwaves oscillate between four and eight hertz and belong to the group of slower neural frequencies.

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Understanding the electrical activity of neurons is key to unlocking insights into neurological diseases. Yale researchers have unveiled a high-throughput automated method that captures the electrical activity of large numbers of neurons simultaneously and without bias.

This cutting-edge approach provides a powerful “functional fingerprint” of neuron populations in their natural state, opening new doors to understanding and treating neurological diseases. The work was published June 13 in Nature Protocols.

The patch-clamp technique has long been a gold standard for studying the electrical activity of neurons, the fundamental units of the nervous system. However, the manual execution of this approach is slow and labor-intensive. Recent advances in robotic patch-clamp technologies have improved speed and efficiency, but they are limited to artificially grown neurons rather than neurons in their native unmanipulated state.

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