Although the brain is our most complex organ, the ways to treat it have historically been rather simple.
Typically, surgeons lesioned (damaged) a structure or a pathway in the hope that this would “correct the imbalance” that led to the disease. Candidate structures for lesioning were usually found by trial and error, serendipity or experiments in animals.
While performing one such surgery in 1987, French neurosurgeon Alim-Louis Benabid noticed that the electrical stimulation he performed to locate the right spot to lesion had effects similar to the lesion itself.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that is usually diagnosed in its late stage on the basis of clinical symptoms, mainly motor disorders. By this point, however, the brain is already severely and irreparably damaged. Moreover, diagnosis is difficult and often incorrect because the disease takes many forms, and symptoms overlap with other disorders.
Researchers from the PRODI Center for Protein Diagnostics at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and the biotech company betaSENSE have now discovered a biomarker in the spinal fluid that facilitates a reliable diagnosis at an early stage and can shed light on the progression of the disease and the effect of a therapy. They report their findings in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine from April 25, 2025.
Karolinska Institutet researchers report that children born before 34 weeks of gestation show persistent deficits in cognitive abilities at ages 9 to 10. Impairments appear independent of socioeconomic status, genetic predisposition, and prenatal or child-specific risk factors. Lower scores were observed in vocabulary, working memory, episodic memory, and recall tasks. Children born late preterm (34–36 weeks) or early term (37–38 weeks) performed comparably to those born full term.
Preterm birth affects approximately 13 million infants worldwide each year and remains a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. Although advances in perinatal care have increased survival, cognitive deficits in these children continue to present major public health concerns.
Critical brain development processes that occur between 24 and 40 weeks of gestation may be disrupted by premature birth. Prior research has mostly focused on extremely or very preterm infants, often overlooking those born moderately or late preterm, who constitute a large portion of preterm births.
The mammalian brain is known to produce mental representations of the spatial environment, known as cognitive maps, that help humans and animals navigate their surroundings. A subpopulation of neurons in the CA1 area of the hippocampus, which are referred to as place cells (PCs), have been found to become active when animals visit specific places or locations in their environment.
The activation of these cells was previously linked to the encoding of space-and goal-related information, which was predicted to support the creation of cognitive maps. While numerous past studies explored the function of PCs and their contribution to the creation of cognitive maps, the role of experience in shaping the creation of these maps has not yet been elucidated.
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine recently shed new light on the mechanisms through which experience could influence the encoding of information by PCs. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that experiences produce an adjustment of synaptic input in the mouse brain, which in turn affects the activity of PCs, enabling the production of flexible cognitive maps.
Brain cell-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the blood, carrying diverse cargoes, represent a valuable source of predictive, diagnostic, prognostic, disease-monitoring and treatment-response biomarkers for neurological disorders. This Review summarizes key aspects of EV biology and provides a critical overview of EV biomarker research and therapeutic development in neurology.
The first genetically engineered synapses have been implanted in a mammal’s brain. Chemical brain signals have been bypassed in the brains of mice and replaced with electrical signals, changing their behaviour in incredible ways. Not only did they become more sociable, they were also less anxious and exhibited fewer OCD-like symptoms. This work has sparked hope that one day we could use this technology to help humans with mental health conditions. But would you want someone making permanent edits to your brain?
For the first time, climate scientists can now link specific fossil fuel companies to climate-related economic damages in particular places. A new method has been developed that can show the exact impact these companies are having on our environment — which the world’s top five emitters linked to trillions of dollars of economic losses. Find out how scientists have managed to piece this together — and whether these companies are about to face massive lawsuits.
As we reflect on the death of Pope Francis, we explore his legacy on scientific issues and his transformative stance on climate change. As the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics, he became an influential figure in advocating for better care to be taken of our planet. Will his legacy continue with the next Pope?
Chapters: 00:00 Intro. 00:28 First brain engineering in a mammal. 10:57 Landmark in fossil fuel lawsuits. 19:33 Climate legacy of Pope Francis.
Hosted by Rowan Hooper and Penny Sarchet, with guests Alexandra Thompson, James Dinneen, William Schafer, Chris Callahan, Justin Mankin and Miles Pattenden. – Learn more ➤ https://www.newscientist.com/podcasts.
CINCINNATI (WKRC) — A commonly prescribed sleeping pill could be a powerful tool in preventing Alzheimer’s disease, according to recently published research.
The study, published in Annals of Neurology, was born from the long-standing scientific belief that poor sleep increases a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s. This belief came from the fact that sleep clears out wasteful proteins like amyloid-beta and tau, which Alzheimer’s patients often have a high build up of.
The study examined suvorexant, a sleeping pill regularly prescribed for insomnia, and observed its effects on clearing those waste proteins.
Imagine if our computers could think more like us—learning from experience, adapting on the go, and doing all this while using just a fraction of the energy. That’s not science fiction anymore. Welcome to the world of Neuromorphic Computing 🧠—a field that’s redefining how machines process information by taking inspiration from the most powerful processor we know: the human brain.
A study led by Pompeu Fabra University reveals which brain mechanisms allow psychosis to remit. The results of this pioneering research could have important clinical implications for exploring new intervention strategies in patients with psychosis. The study was carried out in collaboration with one of the main psychiatry groups at Lausanne University Hospital (Switzerland).
The study examines differences in the neural connectivity patterns of patients who have recovered from psychosis and subjects who have not. Identifying these differences using computational models has enabled determining which patterns of neural connectivity facilitate the remission of the disease.
The results of the research have recently been published in an article in the journal Nature Mental Health. Its principal author is Ludovica Mana, a doctor and neuroscientist of the Computational Neuroscience group at the UPF Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC). The main co-investigators are Gustavo Deco and Manel-Vila Vidal, director and researcher with the same research group, respectively.
Researchers have identified a key enzyme driving forms of Parkinson’s disease, and have shown how blocking it restores normal function in animal and cell models, offering a promising new drug target for the condition.
In Parkinson’s, a protein known as alpha-synuclein builds up in clumps called Lewy bodies in nerve cells in the brain. These clumps of protein stop these cells from functioning normally, eventually leading the cells to die.
