Summary: People judge moral decisions made by humanoid robots as less ethically acceptable than identical decisions made by humans or by robots with a clearly mechanical appearance. Source: University of Helsinki Moralities of Intelligent Machines is a research project examining how people perceive moral choices made by artificial intelligence and autonomous machines. In the latest … Read more

Summary: Patterns of brain activity in the frontal cortex encode prior beliefs and shape how we perceive and act under uncertainty. Source: MIT Overview: For decades, research has shown that perception is not a passive recording of sensory input but is shaped by expectations—so-called prior beliefs—formed from past experience. These priors help the brain interpret … Read more

Summary: Female rats that experienced severe early-life neglect developed altered connections between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, revealing sex-specific brain changes linked to anxiety-like behavior. Source: Northeastern University Background: In the early 1990s more than 100,000 children in Romania lived in overcrowded, under-resourced orphanages where severe neglect and minimal caregiver contact were common. That profound … Read more

Buck Institute study reveals a link between ApoE4 and the anti‑aging protein SirT1, pointing to new therapeutic directions for Alzheimer’s disease The leading genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is ApoE4, a variant of the cholesterol‑carrier apolipoprotein E that roughly one quarter of the population carries and that appears in about two‑thirds of people … Read more

Study Finds Little Evidence That Adolescent “Gaming Addiction” Necessitates Clinical Treatment Summary: New research finds scant evidence that obsessive gaming in adolescents, often labeled “gaming addiction,” on its own warrants medical or psychiatric intervention. Source: Oxford University Research led by Oxford University in collaboration with Cardiff University and published in Clinical Psychological Science reports that … Read more

New findings may help neuroscientists pinpoint better targets for anti-anxiety treatments. Anxiety disorders — including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), social phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) — affect millions of adults each year. Current pharmacological treatments for anxiety are often broad in their action, can produce unwanted side effects, and do not reliably relieve symptoms for … Read more

Summary: A new computational model pinpoints genes linked to autism and can predict the degree of intellectual disability in people with ASD by analyzing rare mutations in genes implicated in the disorder. Source: Baylor College of Medicine Researchers estimate that hundreds of genes may play roles in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but distinguishing disease-causing mutations … Read more

Summary: New research from the University of Delaware shows that, in male animals, certain medications given at the time of early-life mistreatment can prevent or reduce epigenetic marks and improve later behavior. These benefits have not yet been observed in females, highlighting the importance of sex-specific research and treatments. Source: University of Delaware. Early-life adversity … Read more

Summary: Researchers transferred regeneration-associated genes from simple, highly regenerative animals into fruit flies, improving intestinal stem cell function and reducing age-related intestinal decline. The findings point to new avenues for stem cell rejuvenation and anti-aging strategies. This study indicates that genes unique to animals capable of whole-body regeneration can influence tissue maintenance and longevity-related processes … Read more

Abnormal Metabolism Drives Growth in Aggressive Mesenchymal Glioblastoma Subtype Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) have identified a metabolic pathway that fuels tumor growth in a specific glioblastoma subtype. The discovery points to a potential new therapeutic … Read more