Summary: Engineers and physicians have created a compact, wireless polygraph-like system worn as a soft, lightweight chest patch. Rather than focusing on lie detection, the device continuously monitors hidden physiological stress markers without needing biochemical samples, delivering objective, real-time data about a patient’s internal state. Streaming synchronized measurements of cardiac activity, respiration, sweat response, blood … Read more

Summary: A comprehensive new review underscores the heavy global health burden caused by alcohol. The analysis finds that more than 60 diseases and injuries are fully attributable to alcohol use. Although stopping or reducing drinking can reverse or slow some short-term and cardiovascular harms, the authors conclude that alcohol remains a leading cause of illness … Read more

Summary: A new evolutionary study provides a persuasive explanation for one of anthropology’s longest-standing puzzles—why roughly 90% of people prefer their right hand. Using comparative phylogenetic modelling across 41 primate species, researchers show that human handedness is a predictable result of two defining evolutionary changes: habitual bipedalism and substantial brain expansion. Key Facts Gradual evolutionary … Read more

Summary: Researchers have provided the first large-scale demonstration that genes encode a comprehensive molecular “wiring map” that guides neurons to their appropriate targets across the entire brain. Using a new machine learning framework named SPERRFY, the team showed that overlapping patterns of gene activity predict long-range neural connections. Their results validate and extend Roger Sperry’s … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified the key mechanism behind IgLON5 encephalitis (Anti-IgLON5 disease). Using antibodies taken from patients and applied to neuronal cell cultures and mice, the team demonstrated a direct causal connection between autoimmune attacks on the cell-surface protein IgLON5 and the harmful aggregation of Tau proteins inside neurons. This discovery shows that the disease … Read more

Summary: A large, population-based study provides reassuring evidence for pregnant women: taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in the first trimester does not appear to increase the risk of major birth defects. Researchers examined 264,858 singleton pregnancies recorded in the Southern Israeli Pregnancy Registry (SiPREG) from 1998 to 2018. Of these, 20,202 pregnancies (7.6%) had documented … Read more

Summary: A Phase 2 randomized clinical trial found that a single 25 mg dose of psilocybin, given with structured psychotherapeutic support, produced a rapid, statistically significant, and clinically meaningful reduction in symptoms of moderate to severe recurrent major depression. Antidepressant effects were evident as early as day 2 by patient self-report, and by day 8 … Read more

Summary: A new study from the Picower Institute at MIT mapped the rules neurons use to organize thousands of synaptic inputs in the primary visual cortex. By imaging both neuronal cell bodies (somas) and individual synapses on dendritic spines in awake mice, the researchers identified consistent organizing principles that determine how inputs are integrated to … Read more

Summary: A new comprehensive review reaffirms the significant burden alcohol places on global health. The analysis identifies more than 60 diseases and injuries that are entirely attributable to alcohol, and it highlights widespread, systemic harms that outweigh any potential benefits of drinking. Although some short-term harms and certain cardiovascular markers can improve after reducing or … Read more

Summary: Materials scientists have developed a wearable, drug-free contact lens that treats depressive symptoms in mice by delivering mild electrical stimulation through the retina. The device uses targeted temporal interference to activate mood-related brain circuits non-invasively, producing effects comparable to the antidepressant fluoxetine in preclinical tests. In a study published May 14 in Cell Reports … Read more