Summary: We often credit muscles, lungs, and heart for fitness gains, but a new study co-led by UT Southwestern researchers shows the brain plays a central role: specific neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) program and sustain improvements in physical endurance. The team identified a population of VMH neurons defined by the protein steroidogenic factor-1 … Read more

Summary: Levodopa remains the leading therapy for Parkinson’s disease, and catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitors (COMT-Is) are routinely prescribed to enhance levodopa’s effect. New research from Yale reveals an unexpected drug–microbiome interaction: COMT-Is can act like antibiotics in the gut, killing beneficial microbes and enabling a levodopa-degrading bacterium, Enterococcus faecalis, to expand and metabolize the medication before it … Read more

Summary: For decades, vision textbooks emphasized “parallel processing”—the idea that the retina separates a scene into distinct channels for color, motion, and contrast that remain isolated. A new Yale study overturns that view, showing these channels are linked by an electrical network and identifying a specific bipolar cell type, BC6, that coordinates activity across the … Read more

Summary: The hippocampus is often described as the brain’s “GPS,” but new research from the University of Chicago shows it does much more than map space. The study reveals the hippocampus flexibly changes how it organizes activity depending on whether events match our expectations. When sequences unfold as predicted, activity flows smoothly along the structure. … Read more

Summary: Neurons face an enormous logistical challenge: they must deliver specific proteins to exact locations along long, highly polarized cells. A major new study reveals how kinesin motor proteins distinguish which cargo to carry, showing that kinesin-2 assembles into distinct molecular subtypes that determine cargo selectivity. By forming a specific KIF3B/B/KAP3 complex, the motor selectively … Read more

Summary: In AI research, larger models are often assumed to be better, but that approach drives up energy use and computational cost. Taking inspiration from human brain development, a research team has introduced a brain-inspired “selective pruning” framework for spiking neural networks (SNNs) that reduces network size while improving continual learning across perception, motor control, … Read more

Summary: For decades, “mental wellbeing” has been used widely but defined inconsistently. A new international consensus study has clarified what positive mental health means by identifying specific dimensions that describe how people feel, function, and connect. Researchers surveyed 122 experts across 11 disciplines—from economics and medicine to theology—and reached agreement on a common taxonomy. The … Read more

Summary: Can a developing baby sense time before birth? A new study captures when the fetal “biological clock” starts to tick and how it becomes aligned with the mother’s daily cycle while still in the womb. Using bioluminescent proteins that glow when core clock molecules are active, researchers tracked circadian activity in fetuses and found … Read more

Summary: Even an animal with only 302 neurons can perform precise navigation. A comprehensive study mapped the full sensorimotor arc of the nematode C. elegans, tracking activity across nearly every neuron while the worm moved toward or away from odors. The researchers found that these worms do not wander by chance. Instead, they follow a … Read more

Summary: As fossil-fuel power plants give way to solar and wind, electrical grids are becoming more intermittent and harder to control. Researchers at the University of Vaasa developed a brain-inspired solution that uses Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to predict and adapt to rapid changes in supply, improving stability and lowering hardware costs. Hussain Khan’s doctoral … Read more