Summary: A large series of experiments across 13 studies with more than 8,000 participants finds that people become substantially more likely to act dishonestly when they can delegate tasks to AI rather than perform them personally. The increase in dishonest behavior was largest when participants issued broad goals rather than detailed instructions, a setup that … Read more

Summary: Computer simulations helped identify where a class of anti-seizure drugs bind to their target receptor in the brain. Source: Carnegie Mellon University. New Insights into How Epilepsy Drugs Block Excess Brain Activity Up to one in four adults with epilepsy do not respond adequately to current medications, making development of better therapies a pressing … Read more

Summary: Researchers outline the practical and scientific obstacles they encounter when studying how cannabis affects brain and heart health. Source: American Heart Association As more U.S. states legalize marijuana for recreational and medical use, consumption has risen—but important questions remain about how cannabis affects the brain and the cardiovascular system. Scientists say the answers are … Read more

Summary: Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a novel, higher-order connectomics method to map brain activity and interactions. Unlike traditional pairwise network models, this approach extracts multi-region interaction patterns from fMRI signals to reveal how complex cognitive functions—such as language, attention and thought—emerge from coordinated activity across groups of brain regions. The technique … Read more

Summary: Researchers found that students learn better when their brain activity aligns with their classmates and teacher during real classroom lectures. Source: NYU New research shows that students whose brainwaves synchronize more closely with their peers and instructor tend to retain more information from class than students who show less “brain-to-brain synchrony.” Published in the … Read more

Summary: V2a interneurons derived from human stem cells show promise for repairing spinal cord injuries by restoring long-range connections that coordinate movement. Source: Gladstone Institute. Gladstone researchers report the first successful production of human stem cell–derived V2a interneurons, a cell type that could help restore motor function after spinal cord injury. Scientists at the Gladstone … Read more

Summary: New research shows that decision-related information derived from vision—carried by complex streams of feedforward and feedback signals along visual pathways—is broadcast broadly across the visual system, reaching many neurons including those not directly used to form the decision. Source: NIH Researchers at the National Institutes of Health report that when decisions rely on visual … Read more

Summary: A new international study led by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) shows that altered neuronal microexons trigger persistent hyperarousal and sleep loss in zebrafish. The researchers demonstrate that abnormal alternative splicing elevates intracellular cAMP signaling in forebrain neurons, effectively locking neural circuits into an overexcited state. These findings … Read more

Summary: Suppressing bodily sensations tied to emotions—such as the tightness in the chest or a lump in the throat that comes with sadness—can impede recovery from depression and increase the risk of relapse. Source: University of Toronto Sadness often brings vivid bodily sensations—a constricted chest, teary eyes and a raw throat—that can feel both intense … Read more

Summary: New mouse research shows that sleep deprivation can hide memories rather than erase them, and that those hidden memories can be recovered with drugs already approved for human use. The study presented at the FENS Forum 2024 reports that roflumilast, an anti-inflammatory medication used for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), restored social … Read more