Summary: Children whose mothers experienced depression during their early years show greater vulnerability to social-emotional problems and reduced neural empathy for others’ distress, according to a longitudinal study. Source: Elsevier Early and Chronic Maternal Depression Shapes Children’s Social and Neural Development Exposure to maternal depression during a child’s first years of life substantially raises the … Read more

Scientists at the University of Tübingen investigate how prior knowledge shapes our visual experience of color Color perception has long intrigued neuroscientists because the brain shapes what we see to such an extent that color can sometimes be considered an interpretation rather than a simple sensory fact. One persistent question is how the brain responds … Read more

Summary: New lamprey brain research pushes the origin of the cerebral cortex back to more than 500 million years ago, offering important insights into how the human brain evolved. Source: Karolinska Institute The study and its significance Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden report that detailed studies of the lamprey brain indicate the fundamental blueprint … Read more

Summary: A new study finds that long-term, low-dose caffeine intake may worsen neuropsychiatric symptoms linked to Alzheimer’s disease. In mouse models, caffeine increased neophobia and anxiety-like behaviors and reduced cognitive flexibility, while offering minimal benefits to learning and memory. Source: UAB. While memory loss is the best-known symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, neuropsychiatric symptoms often appear … Read more

Summary: A new research study finds that a brief, 10-minute guided meditation can improve attention and speed on simple cognitive tasks in novice meditators. College students who listened to a short mindfulness tape performed tasks more quickly and accurately than peers who heard a neutral control recording. Source: Yale. Brief mindfulness practice — even a … Read more

Summary: A study published in Acta Psychologica finds that context and individual sensitivity to offense shape how taboo words affect attention and memory. Source: University of Illinois New research shows that taboo words can alter readers’ attention and memory—but the effect depends on context and how likely a reader is to be offended. Researchers at … Read more

Summary: For the first time, researchers have trained a surgical robot to carry out procedures by watching hours of footage of expert surgeons. This advance in imitation learning allows robots to learn complex surgical tasks from video demonstrations instead of relying on hand-coded instructions for every movement, moving robotic surgery closer to practical autonomy. Using … Read more

Summary: Rare mutations in the gene for the serotonin 2C receptor are implicated in severe obesity and associated maladaptive behaviors in both people and animal models. Source: Baylor College of Medicine A collaborative study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Cambridge and the University of Exeter Medical School identifies the … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified a previously unrecognized neuron in the mouse retina that does not fit traditional categories of retinal interneurons. Source: UW Medicine. A newly described GluMI cell combines the anatomy of a monopolar interneuron with the excitatory behavior of bipolar cells, revealing an unexpected pathway for retinal signaling. Scientists studying the mouse retina … Read more

Summary: Blocking VCAM1 increased neurogenesis and reduced microglial reactivity in the hippocampus of older mice. Source: Stanford Overview: Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine report that disabling a single molecule on brain blood vessels improved memory and cellular function in aged mice. Published online May 13 in Nature Medicine, the study found that blocking … Read more