Summary: New research finds that fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone across the menstrual cycle can alter the memory systems women use, influencing verbal recall and spatial navigation strategies. Source: Concordia University Spatial navigation and memory vary across the menstrual cycle Many people have observed that women sometimes describe shifts in memory and problem-solving ability at … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified a newly discovered gene therapy pathway that could help protect against dementia and cancer by preserving genomic health. Source: University of Sheffield Scientists at the University of Sheffield report the discovery of a previously unrecognized gene therapy pathway that reveals an important regulatory mechanism for maintaining genome integrity. This pathway has … Read more

Summary: A large cross-cultural study suggests people around the globe share more similar everyday experiences than previously believed. Source: UCR The foundation of discrimination often rests on the assumption that people from other races or countries live and react to situations in fundamentally different ways. What if empirical evidence showed that assumption is largely incorrect? … Read more

Summary: New research shows that human olfactory perception is far faster and more temporally precise than long assumed. Rather than averaging chemical information across an entire sniff, the human nose can detect rapid changes in odor composition within a single inhalation. Using a sniff-triggered delivery system with millisecond precision, researchers presented pairs of odors in … Read more

Effects of violent video games on aggression are similar for adults with and without autism, study finds In the years after the 2012 Newtown shooting, public debate and some media coverage questioned whether autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was associated with violent behavior and whether violent video games might provoke aggressive acts among people with autism. … Read more

Summary: A large, nationally representative analysis finds that obesity is linked to a higher risk of chronic diarrhea, independent of diet, physical activity, or other measured health conditions. People with obesity were about 60% more likely to report ongoing diarrhea than those of normal weight. Low-grade inflammation associated with obesity is suggested as a possible … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified a crucial role for the protein Frazzled (DCC in mammals) in forming and maintaining the fast electrical connections that let fruit flies react in milliseconds. Without Frazzled, neurons lose key gap junctions, slowing neural transmission and weakening muscle responses. Restoring the protein’s intracellular domain rescued wiring and signal speed, showing that … Read more

Summary: New research shows that college students today experience far greater pressure to be perfect than students a generation ago. The review pooled data from 307 studies conducted between 1989 and 2024, covering more than 82,000 students in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The analysis links this steady rise in perfectionism to … Read more

Summary: Researchers monitored real-time brain activity in mice to reveal how the hippocampus stores and organizes spatial information. Source: Zuckerman Institute. Scientists monitor brain-cell activity in mice in real time, revealing how the brain maps locations and encodes goals Columbia University researchers have identified a key mechanism in the brain’s internal GPS system that helps … Read more

Summary: Analysis of Fitbit data from more than 2,500 medical interns shows that mood follows a clear daily cycle: it tends to be lowest near 5 a.m. and highest around 5 p.m. The study finds that this circadian pattern is present even without sleep loss, while sleep deprivation independently deepens low moods and increases mood … Read more