Summary: A new study finds that people who follow a more restricted, plant‑rich diet tend to have more diverse gut microbiota, and that prior dietary habits can influence how effectively a new diet changes the microbiome. Source: Cell Press. Your existing gut microbiota can shape how well a new diet works. A paper published December … Read more

Summary: A new neurolinguistics study finds that when listeners can identify a foreign accent, their brains process that accented speech more accurately in real time. Source: Penn State. Recognition of a foreign accent improves the brain’s real-time processing of accented speech, researchers report. According to Janet van Hell, professor of psychology and linguistics and co-director … Read more

Summary: A recent article in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences examines why magic that depends only on sound is so uncommon, despite the abundance of auditory illusions in daily life. The authors argue that fundamental differences in how the brain treats sight and sound—especially the way vision is tied to the current state of … Read more

Oxytocin Improves Brain Function in Children with Autism Preliminary results from a large-scale, ongoing study at Yale School of Medicine indicate that oxytocin — a naturally occurring hormone and neurotransmitter produced in the brain and throughout the body — can boost activity in brain regions involved in social processing in children and adolescents with autism … Read more

A new study led by biologist R. Thomas Zoeller of the University of Massachusetts Amherst provides the strongest evidence to date that endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — once widely used in flame retardant cloth, paints, adhesives and electrical transformers — can interfere with thyroid hormone action during pregnancy and may cross the … Read more

Summary: New findings identify genes that influence nerve sensitivity and may point to future drug targets for pain management. Source: Indiana University Genes that influence nerve sensitivity in fruit flies may highlight potential drug targets for human pain management. Researchers at Indiana University have identified a set of genes present in both fruit flies and … Read more

Summary: A large register-based study from Karolinska Institutet finds that adults with ADHD face an elevated risk of many physical illnesses — notably disorders of the nervous system, respiratory system, musculoskeletal system, and metabolism. The study also observed modestly increased risks for Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and cardiovascular disease. Source: Karolinska Institutet A comprehensive Swedish register … Read more

A new study by University of Arizona doctoral student Jay Sanguinetti shows that the human brain can extract the meaning of objects that we never consciously notice, challenging current models of visual perception. Jay Sanguinetti, a doctoral candidate in the UA Department of Psychology, is the lead author of a study published in the journal … Read more

Summary: A new study identifies a genetic mutation that may influence the severity of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Source: Boston University School of Medicine. Researchers identify a genetic variation in TMEM106B that may affect CTE severity and risk of dementia Researchers have reported a genetic variation in the gene TMEM106B that appears to influence the … Read more

Summary: A major new study challenges long-standing assumptions about how children acquire language, revealing that language development and general cognitive skills are closely interconnected. Source: NTNU Traditional linguistic theory has often treated language comprehension and speech as largely independent from broader cognitive functions such as spatial reasoning, working memory and sensory perception. New research led … Read more