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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have enrolled the first participants in an international clinical trial designed to prevent Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurological disorder that primarily affects older adults, leading to memory loss, cognitive decline, and behavioral changes. It is the most common cause of dementia. The disease is characterized by the buildup of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain, which disrupt cell function and communication. There is currently no cure, and treatments focus on managing symptoms and improving quality of life.

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A new study suggests that creativity maps onto a common brain circuit and that injury and neurological disease have the potential to unleash creativity. Researchers analyzed 857 participants across 36 fMRI brain imaging studies to identify a common brain circuit for creativity.

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Many foods are marketed for their antioxidant benefits, which help neutralize reactive oxygen species.

A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.

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Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!

Raise your hand if you’re exhausted by the firehose of information coming from every direction. Yeah, me too.

At TechCrunch, we’re focused on helping readers (that’s you!) become informed; that’s different than blasting information your way. Instead, we work to answer the “Why should I care?” question and provide important context.

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Join Nobel Laureate, Venki Ramakrishnan, to question whether mortality is an inevitable part of human existence.

Watch the Q&A here (exclusively for our Science Supporters): • Q&A: In search of immortality — with…
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @theroyalinstitution.

This lecture was filmed on 9 April 2024 in association with Digital Science.

Buy Venki’s book ‘Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality’ here: https://geni.us/LgdVG3Y

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An international team of physicists has successfully measured the size of a certain type of neutrino to a certain degree. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes experiments they conducted that involved measuring the radioactive decay of the element beryllium.

Neutrinos are subatomic particles with a mass very close to zero. They also have a half-integral spin and rarely react with normal matter. To date, three kinds of neutrinos have been identified, each by association with an electron, muon or tau particle. Physicists have become more interested in neutrinos over the past several years because it is thought better understanding them may lead to a better understanding of why there is more matter than antimatter in the known universe.

One of the first questions that needs to be answered about neutrinos is their size. This is important because it allows building the right size and shape of neutrino detectors. Currently, they are very large, which allows for what is believed to be their largest possible theoretical size—several meters—though it is believed they are smaller. In this new effort, the research team conducted experiments with beryllium to measure the size of an electron-associated neutrino.

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Two studies published in the latest issue of Science have revealed that birds, reptiles, and mammals have developed complex brain circuits independently, despite sharing a common ancestor. These findings challenge the traditional view of brain evolution and demonstrate that, while comparable brain functions exist among these groups, embryonic formation mechanisms and cell types have followed divergent evolutionary trajectories.

The pallium is the region where the neocortex forms in mammals, the part responsible for cognitive and complex functions that most distinguishes humans from other species. The pallium has traditionally been considered a comparable structure among mammals, birds, and reptiles, varying only in complexity levels. It was assumed that this region housed similar neuronal types, with equivalent circuits for sensory and cognitive processing.

Previous studies had identified the presence of shared excitatory and , as well as general connectivity patterns suggesting a similar evolutionary path in these vertebrate species.

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A study led by Prof. Li Hai from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has revealed that the balance between habitual and goal-directed decision-making strategies is influenced by the availability of working memory resources.

The findings, published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, provide a new framework for understanding how sequential decisions are made.

Everyday decisions often involve a series of choices aimed at reaching a goal-whether selecting a restaurant or deciding on the route. People vary in how they make decisions: some rely on habits, while others adjust based on new information and changing goals.

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