Summary: New research overturns a 75-year-old conclusion from the classic prisoner’s dilemma: cooperation can arise and stabilize naturally without special rules, policing, or kin relationships. Using mathematical analysis, statistical mechanics, and simulations of neural-network populations, the study shows that simple memory and recognition of individual opponents are enough to make cooperation an emergent and robust … Read more

Summary: A new study shows that hibernation produces rapid, reversible changes in the brain’s visual cortex—demonstrating a form of neuroplasticity that allows neurons to withstand extreme metabolic shifts. By mapping how specific neuron types in ground squirrels respond during deep torpor and brief arousal, researchers uncovered a mechanism that fully reverses within 90 minutes of … Read more

Summary: A new study reveals how the human brain rapidly reorganizes its neural circuitry to preserve walking stability when vision is degraded. Using Bangerter™ occlusion foils to simulate low-quality vision in healthy adults, researchers combined pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials (PR-VEPs) with resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) to measure immediate brain changes after walking. The findings show … Read more

Summary: A national electronic health record analysis shows how quickly public attention can change real-world medical practice before large randomized trials confirm a treatment’s benefit. Reviewing records for more than 838,000 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), researchers identified a dramatic rise in prescriptions for leucovorin (folinic acid), an off-label treatment sometimes used for autism, … Read more

Summary: A new study identifies dopamine dysfunction as a previously unrecognized driver of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease. Focusing on the entorhinal cortex—the brain’s gateway to hippocampal memory processing—researchers found dopamine levels drop to under 20% of normal in an Alzheimer’s mouse model, causing memory circuits to fail. Importantly, restoring dopamine signaling either with optogenetic … Read more

Summary: Researchers have received funding to develop an innovative multi-organ “organ-on-chip” device. The GlucoBrain project is a three-year pilot study that will physically connect living human cellular models of the gut, pancreas, and brain inside a miniature biochip. By monitoring real-time molecular signaling and cellular responses to varying glucose and hormone levels, the project aims … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified a promising drug target for Fragile X syndrome, the most common genetic cause of autism and intellectual disability. The study shows that loss of the FMR1 gene triggers an abnormal, widespread increase of a synapse-localized protein called EPAC2 across multiple brain cell types. In mouse models of Fragile X, blocking EPAC2—either … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified the world’s first documented “neural switch” that actively selects recent memories over older ones. The study describes a specific circuit linking the medial septum (MS) and the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) that determines whether the brain uses up-to-date information or falls back on established behavioral patterns. This discovery clarifies a mechanism … Read more

Summary: A new structural biology study resolves a decades-old question in neuroscience: how the brain’s learning receptors distinguish calcium from magnesium to enable memory formation. Using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) combined with powerful computational analysis, researchers assembled and analyzed more than 50,000 high-resolution microscopic movies of the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) channel to capture ions and … Read more

Summary: A new study shows that hibernation produces rapid, reversible changes in the brain’s visual processing centers, revealing how neural circuits adapt to extreme metabolic shifts. Researchers mapped structural changes in the visual cortex of ground squirrels and found that specific neuron populations shrink during deep torpor and fully recover within about 90 minutes after … Read more