Summary: Noradrenaline reduces immune effectiveness by blocking leukocyte movement through tissues. Source: Cell Press The neurotransmitter noradrenaline, a central mediator of the sympathetic “fight-or-flight” response, can rapidly weaken immune defenses by stopping the movement of multiple types of white blood cells within tissues, researchers report in the journal Immunity. In mouse models of infection and … Read more

Summary: A new study from Kindai University demonstrates that oral arginine, a naturally occurring amino acid and clinical chemical chaperone, can substantially inhibit amyloid-β (Aβ) aggregation in laboratory and animal models of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers report that arginine prevents Aβ42 from forming toxic aggregates, reduces plaque burden, and diminishes neuroinflammation in both fruit fly … Read more

Summary: A new study finds that people are more likely to treat statements as true when those statements align with their existing worldview, driven by rapid, involuntary mental processes. Source: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Study Finds Rapid, Involuntary Bias Toward Agreeable Statements Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), in collaboration with colleagues … Read more

Summary: A new neuroimaging study finds that people with obsessive‑compulsive disorder (OCD) experience stronger distress and show greater activation in emotion‑related brain regions when viewing OCD‑triggering images than their unaffected siblings. Siblings showed less distress but recruited attention‑related brain areas more strongly, suggesting compensatory brain mechanisms that could protect against developing OCD. Source: Elsevier People … Read more

Summary: A large Swedish registry study finds an association between deliberate self-harm and an increased risk of violent criminal conviction. Source: Karolinska Institutet Self-harm Is Linked with Higher Risk of Violent Criminality, Swedish Registry Study Finds Researchers at Karolinska Institutet report a significant association between deliberate self-harm and subsequent violent criminal convictions in a population-based … Read more

Summary: Memory difficulties that can begin in midlife may reflect a shift in the type of information the brain prioritizes when forming and retrieving memories, rather than a straightforward loss of brain function. Source: McGill University. Research offers new insight into what healthy brain aging looks like. For many people, occasional lapses in remembering specific … Read more

Summary: A new study finds that losing a single night’s sleep can make junk food more appealing. Source: SfN One night without sleep raises the appeal of junk food, a study of healthy-weight young men published in the Journal of Neuroscience reports. Researchers led by Julia Rihm combined behavioral economics, hormonal measurements, and brain imaging … Read more

Summary: A large meta-analytic review explores the psychological profile of people who endorse conspiracy theories, finding that their beliefs are linked to specific motivations and personality characteristics rather than to widespread mental illness. Analyzing data from 170 studies with more than 158,000 participants, researchers found that conspiratorial thinking is most strongly associated with perceiving threats … Read more

New research finds vascular damage in mice with ALS contributes to early development of the neurodegenerative disease, while repairing damage delays disease progression. Neuroscientists at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have identified a vascular contribution to early amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) pathology in mice and shown that repairing that damage can delay motor … Read more

Summary: Researchers using a lightweight, head-mounted eye-tracking system recorded natural eye and head movements in freely moving mice and identified both parallels and clear differences with human eye movement patterns. Source: Sainsbury Wellcome Center Overview: In a study published in Current Biology, Arne Meyer, John O’Keefe and Jasper Poort introduced a miniature eye-tracking system made … Read more