Summary: Research in experimental models suggests that a sudden drop or loss of the placental hormone allopregnanolone (ALLO) during pregnancy increases the likelihood that offspring will develop autism-like brain changes and behaviors. In these preclinical models, a single prenatal injection of ALLO prevented the brain abnormalities and social deficits linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). … Read more

Summary: An international team led by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has identified how three previously uncharacterized genes contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders by disrupting the spliceosome, the cellular machinery that processes pre-mRNA. This discovery clarifies molecular pathways underlying developmental delay, intellectual disability and autism, and highlights potential targets for future therapies. Using … Read more

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Toronto report that a computer system can tell real from faked expressions of pain more reliably than human observers. The study, titled “Automatic Decoding of Deceptive Pain Expressions,” appears in the current issue of Current Biology. It demonstrates that machine-vision techniques can detect … Read more

Summary: Researchers have made a significant advance in understanding how obesity alters mitochondrial function. A new study shows that a high-fat diet causes mitochondria in fat cells to fragment into smaller, less efficient units through a process controlled by a single gene. Removing that gene protected mice from diet-induced weight gain, pointing to a potential … Read more

Summary: Researchers identify the FMNL2 gene as a link between cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Altered FMNL2 activity associated with vascular damage appears to impede the brain’s ability to clear toxic protein aggregates, potentially driving Alzheimer’s pathology. Source: Columbia University For more than two decades, clinical studies have shown that people with hypertension, diabetes, high … Read more

Summary: Understanding how the brain distinguishes new visual information from familiar scenes has long challenged neuroscientists. New research clarifies the mechanisms behind visual recognition memory (VRM), revealing how the brain prioritizes novel inputs and suppresses familiar ones. This study resolves prior conflicting results by showing that brief, pronounced bursts of neural activity—visually evoked potentials (VEPs)—mark … Read more

Summary: Rett syndrome is usually treated as a single disorder caused by defects in the MECP2 gene. New research using patient-derived 3D human brain organoids shows that different MECP2 mutations produce fundamentally different cellular and network-level changes. These differences require distinct, targeted interventions rather than a one-size-fits-all treatment. Researchers grew cortical “minibrains” from cells donated … Read more

Summary: Despite the enormous processing power of modern AI, young children still outperform machines when it comes to learning language. A new constructivist framework helps explain why: unlike AI systems that learn mainly from vast amounts of passive text, children learn through multisensory exploration, social interaction, and self-driven curiosity. Children’s language development is active, embodied, … Read more

Researchers identify mda-9/syntenin as a promising therapeutic target in glioblastoma A new study offers hope for targeted therapies against glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor. For the first time, investigators have shown that the gene melanoma differentiation associated gene-9, also known as mda-9/syntenin, plays a central role in GBM’s invasive … Read more

New technique could yield knowledge useful to understanding the human brain. Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a novel method that lets them identify which neural connections were active during a specific sensory experience or behavior in the fruit fly. By using engineered fluorescent tags that reveal synaptic activity in distinct colors, the team can … Read more