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Category: neuroscience – Page 53

A common biomarker of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder revealed

For decades, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) were treated as distinct and unrelated psychiatric disorders. Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized by altered thinking and emotional patterns, hallucinations, false or irrational beliefs (i.e., delusions), cognitive deficits, and disorganized speech. BD, on the other hand, is marked by extreme mood swings, ranging between periods of high-energy (i.e., mania or hypomania) and depressive episodes.

While the symptoms of schizophrenia and BD are markedly different, many patients diagnosed with either of these conditions experience psychosis at least once in their lifetime. Psychosis is a mental state that causes people to lose touch with reality, experiencing hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, and irrational thinking patterns.

More recently, studies found that patients diagnosed with schizophrenia and BD sometimes share other overlapping symptoms, as well as common patterns in their genes and brain organization. This inspired the idea that these disorders are part of a shared psychosis spectrum, which would explain their common features and characteristics.

A spatial and projection-based transcriptomic atlas of paraventricular hypothalamic cell types

Li et al. present a spatial transcriptomic atlas of the mouse paraventricular hypothalamus (PVH) and provide molecular markers for parabrachial-and spinal cord-projecting PVH populations. They further show that Brs3-expressing PVH neurons regulate satiety, as they co-express Mc4r, cause weight gain when silenced, and reduce food intake via parabrachial projections.

Brain inspired machines are better at math than expected

Neuromorphic computers modeled after the human brain can now solve the complex equations behind physics simulations — something once thought possible only with energy-hungry supercomputers. The breakthrough could lead to powerful, low-energy supercomputers while revealing new secrets about how our brains process information.

Processing Speed Impairment in Schizophrenia: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Meta-analysis of 115 studies evaluating cognitive function in people with Schizophrenia confirms that processing speed, especially as measured by symbol coding tasks, remains among the most impaired cognitive domains compared to controls.

This impairment was reliably more severe than that observed in most other tested cognitive domains, suggesting processing speed may be central to broader cognitive deficits in this population and may relate to altered brain connectivity.

This meta-analysis provides an updated review of the evidence for a central processing speed impairment in people with schizophrenia.

C9orf72 in myeloid cells prevents an inflammatory response to microbial glycogen

Factors that promote inflammation in C9ORF72 mutation carriers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or frontotemporal dementia (FTD) have remained elusive. McCourt et al. identified pro-inflammatory forms of glycogen in gut contents of people with ALS/FTD and demonstrate that targeting glycogen in a C9orf72 mouse model extends lifespan and reduces neuroinflammation.

Blood-based tests show strong promise for dementia diagnosis—but population diversity matters

In a study published today, Friday, February 13, 2026, in the journal Nature Aging, researchers show that blood-based biomarkers can support accurate dementia diagnosis across diverse populations when integrated with cognitive and neuroimaging measures. Blood-based biomarkers are emerging as one of the most promising advances for the global diagnosis of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. These tests offer a more accessible, scalable, and cost-effective alternative to traditional diagnostic tools such as brain imaging or cerebrospinal fluid analysis.

However, most blood-based biomarkers have been developed and validated primarily in relatively homogeneous populations. Genetic background, overall physical health, and environmental and social exposures can substantially influence biomarker levels, raising concerns about how well these tests perform across diverse populations worldwide.

Convergent molecular pathways across distinct genetic forms of autism

The new study, published in the journal Nature, provides new insights by demonstrating that while different mutations affect the developing brain in initially distinct ways, they increasingly impact overlapping molecular pathways as development progresses.

Researchers monitored the gene expression of the organoids over 100 days as they developed, which allowed researchers to observe how genetic changes affect brain during the critical early development windows.

Early in development, each genetic form showed distinct molecular signatures. However, as the organoids matured, these different mutations increasingly affected similar biological processes, particularly those involved in neuronal maturation and synapse formation.

The researchers identified a network of genes involved in regulating gene expression and chromatin remodeling, which is the process by which DNA is packaged and made accessible for reading. This network appears to play a central role in this convergence. Using CRISPR technology to individually reduce the activity of these regulatory genes in neural cells, the team confirmed that many of them control downstream pathways were previously linked to autism.

Notably, the study found few consistent molecular changes in organoids derived from individuals with idiopathic autism, likely reflecting the highly complex genetic architecture of autism that doesn’t involve major mutations. This finding underscores the need for much larger studies to understand the more common, polygenic forms of autism. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.

The researchers have created a comprehensive map showing how eight different genetic mutations associated with autism spectrum disorder affect early brain development, providing new insights into the ways diverse genetic causes may lead to shared features and symptoms of the disorder.

Continue reading “Convergent molecular pathways across distinct genetic forms of autism” | >

Evaluation of Preexisting Humoral Immunity to Measles and Varicella Zoster in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Initiating Anti-CD20 Therapy

This case report describes mogamulizumab-associated Kaposi sarcoma in 2 patients with primary cutaneous T-cell lymphomas.

📄Read the full report.

Corresponding Author: Emilie Holder, MD, Service de Dermatologie, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital Lyon Sud, F-69495 Oullins-Pierre-Bénite, France ([email protected]).

Published Online: February 11, 2026. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2025.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Dalle reported grants from Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Pierre Fabre, and Regeneron, and his spouse is an employee of Sanofi outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

From the lab to the living room: Decoding Parkinson’s patients’ movements in the real world

Scientists have traditionally studied how the brain controls movement by asking patients to perform structured tasks while connected to multiple sensors in a lab. While these studies have provided important insights, these experiments do not fully capture how the brain functions during everyday activities, be it walking to the kitchen for a snack or strolling through a park.

For people living with Parkinson’s disease, this gap between laboratory research and real-world behavior has limited efforts to improve gait symptoms outside of the clinic.

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