Summary: A long-term cohort study of 23,149 adults from Finland and the UK shows that modest, sustained weight loss in early midlife is linked to clear, long-lasting health benefits. Over follow-ups ranging from 12 to 35 years, overweight participants who lost an average of 6.5% of their body weight and maintained the loss experienced lower … Read more

Summary: New research suggests astrocytes—long considered primarily support cells—may substantially expand the brain’s memory storage capacity. Although astrocytes do not generate electrical action potentials like neurons, they influence synaptic activity through calcium signaling and release of gliotransmitters, enabling them to participate in information processing. Using a computational framework inspired by dense associative memory, researchers propose … Read more

Summary: The Dallas Lifespan Brain Study (DLBS) has released its complete, decade-long dataset, offering an unusually detailed longitudinal view of brain and cognitive changes across adulthood. The project tracked nearly 500 healthy adults, ages 21 to 89, across three assessment waves over roughly 10 years, combining MRI and PET imaging, comprehensive cognitive testing, and health … Read more

Summary: A randomized controlled trial found that when caregivers sing more often to their infants, both babies and their caregivers show measurable improvements in wellbeing. The study involved 110 caregiver–infant pairs who took part in a four-week music enrichment program delivered by smartphone and used frequent, brief in-the-moment surveys to track mood and behavior. Across … Read more

Summary: A recent study finds that GPT-4o, a prominent large language model, exhibits behavior similar to human cognitive dissonance. After being prompted to write essays either supporting or opposing Vladimir Putin, GPT-4o’s expressed “attitudes” shifted to match the position it had just written—an effect that was stronger when the model appeared to have freely chosen … Read more

Summary: A new study shows that domestic cats can tell their owner’s scent from that of a stranger using smell alone. When offered scent samples from a familiar person, an unfamiliar person, and an empty control, cats spent significantly more time investigating the unfamiliar human odor. This behavior indicates cats use olfaction to recognize and … Read more

Summary: New research shows that neurons in the basal ganglia do more than initiate movement—they also suppress it with striking precision. The study demonstrates that individual neurons in the Substantia Nigra pars reticulata (SNr) switch dynamically between activation and inhibition depending on the exact phase of a movement, a finding that challenges the traditional view … Read more

Summary: A large, long-term study of more than 2,500 toddlers found no meaningful clinical differences in autistic traits between males and females at the time of early diagnosis. Over two decades, researchers used a wide range of standardized assessments—covering language, motor skills, cognitive functioning, adaptive behaviors, and social attention—to compare boys and girls diagnosed with … Read more

Summary: Young zebra finches learn their species’ song by watching and copying adult “tutor” birds, but they do not learn from every adult equally. New research shows juvenile finches favor tutors that sing longer phrases but do so less frequently, indicating that social preferences influence which models young birds choose to imitate. When researchers removed … Read more

Summary: Researchers have found that nitrous oxide can safely enhance gene therapy delivery to the brain by increasing blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability when combined with focused ultrasound (FUS). Using nitrous oxide allowed opening the BBB with far lower microbubble concentrations and reduced ultrasound pressure compared with conventional methods, lowering the risk of tissue injury. In … Read more