Summary: Researchers have identified a new role for the hippocampus in rapid decision making: specific neurons known as “time cells” respond to odors and help drive fast go/no‑go choices. The study shows that mice learned to link fruity odors with a sweet reward, which allowed them to make quicker, more reliable decisions. By tracking odor‑evoked … Read more

Summary: Researchers found that the human brain processes spoken language through a temporal sequence of computations that closely mirrors the layered transformations inside large language models. Electrocorticography (ECoG) recordings taken while participants listened to a 30-minute podcast show early neural responses matching early AI model layers and later brain activity corresponding to deeper model layers, … Read more

Chronic Middle-Ear Infections and Unilateral Conductive Hearing Loss Can Impair Speech Recognition Summary: Untreated ear infections and other conditions that cause long-term hearing loss in one ear can lead to nerve damage. This damage may cause lasting difficulties with speech recognition and processing, particularly in noisy environments. Source: Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Key finding: … Read more

Summary: New research suggests that signs of autism can sometimes be detected much earlier than the typical diagnostic age of 3 to 5 years. A longitudinal study from the University of Missouri’s Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment found that parent-reported behaviors at 9 months—such as fussiness, trouble adapting to new situations, sleep difficulties, and … Read more

Summary: Scientists at the Salk Institute have developed a rigorous, information-theory-based method to quantify synaptic strength, the precision of synaptic plasticity, and the amount of information a single synapse can store. Applying this approach to hippocampal synapses reveals that individual synapses can hold roughly ten times more information than prior estimates suggested. These results sharpen … Read more

Summary: New research suggests that long-term use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs)—medications commonly prescribed for acid reflux—may be associated with an increased risk of dementia. The observed relationship reflects an association, not proven causation, and applies to prescription PPI use over approximately 4.4 years. People taking PPIs should not stop treatment without consulting their physician. … Read more

Summary: Higher blood levels of the antioxidants lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-cryptoxanthin were associated with a lower risk of developing dementia decades later, according to a long-term study. Source: AAN People who had higher concentrations of certain antioxidants in their blood were less likely to develop dementia over the following years, a study published in Neurology … Read more

Summary: Scenes of justified and unjustified violence in films engage different brain regions in adolescents. Unjustified violence activates the lateral orbital frontal cortex (lOFC), while violence perceived as justified engages the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Source: Frontiers Overview: Since the PG-13 rating was introduced in 1984, on-screen gun violence in popular films targeted to children … Read more

Summary: A Michigan State University study finds that preschool peers can influence one another’s personalities, suggesting that environment and social interaction—not just genes—play a major role in how personality develops. When preschoolers spend time together, they often begin to adopt each other’s personality traits, a new study from Michigan State University reports. Researchers at Michigan … Read more

Summary: A network connecting the medial prefrontal cortex and the brainstem plays a central role in the development and expression of compulsive drinking. Activity in this circuit can predict which individuals will progress from binge drinking to compulsive alcohol use. Source: Vanderbilt University Overview: Occasional binge drinking is common, yet a substantial subset of people—roughly … Read more