Summary: Researchers have identified a clear connection between accelerated biological aging and the rising incidence of early-onset cancers (diagnosed at age 55 or younger) in recent generations. The study analyzed biomedical and molecular data from more than 154,000 people in the UK Biobank and over 10,000 participants from the NIH’s All of Us Research Program … Read more

Summary: A new study identifies a crucial gene–environment interaction that shapes early brain and cognitive changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease long before clinical symptoms appear. Researchers investigated the aquaporin‑4 (AQP4) gene, which supports the brain’s glymphatic system—the nightly fluid flow that helps clear metabolic waste and toxic proteins. The study found that specific AQP4 variants … Read more

Summary: A large longitudinal study shows that when children are exposed to screens matters as much as how much they use them. Researchers tracked 502 children from age 1 through age 8 and assessed viewing habits at six time points. Higher screen use during infancy (around 12 months) and again at school entry (around 6 … Read more

Summary: Researchers have resolved a long-standing question about “adaptive efficiency” — how the brain allocates limited neural energy when processing predictable versus unexpected events. The study shows the brain uses a dual-strategy framework to balance speed and accuracy within milliseconds, favoring rapid responses for expected input while dedicating extra resources to encode surprising events in … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified an evolutionarily ancient neural circuit in the brainstem that functions as a core “attentional selection engine.” Longstanding views placed selective spatial attention—the ability to prioritize important visual information while filtering distractions—primarily in the primate prefrontal cortex. That model could not explain how many nonmammalian vertebrates such as birds, fish and reptiles … Read more

Summary: Loss of smell and taste causes emotional, social, and psychological harm on a scale comparable to some of the world’s most serious chronic illnesses. A comprehensive review of clinical evidence measured quality-of-life metrics across many long-term conditions and found that chemosensory disorders carry a far larger burden than commonly assumed. Contrary to the widespread … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified a naturally occurring lipid molecule, erucamide, as a key coordinator of the retina’s protective response to injury. The team found that endogenous erucamide levels fall sharply as light-sensing photoreceptors degenerate, and that restoring erucamide stabilizes the retinal neurovascular unit. Rather than acting directly on photoreceptors, erucamide binds to the TMEM19 protein … Read more

Summary: A large UK trial demonstrates that people living with both psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can safely and effectively recover using an integrated, trauma-focused therapy. The STAR (Study of Trauma And Recovery) trial is the largest multi-site randomized controlled study to date examining trauma-focused treatment for this population. Across five sites and five … Read more

Summary: New research identifies a key gene–environment interaction that shapes early brain structure and cognitive changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease long before clinical symptoms appear. The study centers on the aquaporin‑4 (AQP4) gene, which helps regulate fluid flow through the brain’s glymphatic system—the nightly clearance pathway that removes metabolic waste and neurotoxic proteins. Researchers found … Read more

Summary: A new study presents robust molecular evidence that early-life adversity leaves a durable, body-wide imprint on the epigenome. Researchers compared decades of detailed life-history data from 237 free-ranging rhesus macaques on Cayo Santiago with DNA methylation patterns measured in 12 different adult tissues. Using precise, tissue-specific epigenetic clocks that estimate chronological age to within … Read more