Aggregator
Ozempic may have revealed the brain’s hidden “craving center”
Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding experiences. Packed with GLP-1 receptors, it may act as a crucial control point between thinking about a reward and feeling compelled to pursue it. The discovery could open new approaches to treating addiction as well as obesity.
Scientists discover a hidden brain rhythm that could improve Parkinson’s treatment
Scientists have pinpointed a brain network—and its distinctive electrical rhythm—that appears to drive the benefits of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease. The discovery could lead to more precise, personalized stimulation settings and better results for patients.
3,500-year-old skeletons challenge what scientists thought they knew about syphilis
Ancient remains from Vietnam suggest diseases like yaws may have been passed from mother to child thousands of years ago, a form of transmission often assumed to indicate syphilis. The discovery could overturn how scientists interpret ancient infections and complicate the long-running mystery of syphilis’s origins.
Arson attack jolts Italy’s bid to host the Einstein Telescope
A scientist’s car was burned at the proposed Sardinian site, in what researchers say was an attempt to intimidate supporters of the gravitational-wave observatory
The adult brain can repair itself better than scientists thought
The adult brain may be far better at repairing itself than scientists once believed. In mice, researchers discovered a special group of support cells called astrocytes that respond to damaged brain tissue by rebuilding lost cellular networks. Rather than simply moving into the injured area, these cells perform a remarkable maneuver: they create new nuclei and send them traveling through long cellular extensions to repopulate damaged regions.
Scientists turn sheep’s wool into a material that helps regrow bone
Keratin extracted from sheep’s wool helped damaged bone regenerate in animals, producing tissue that was more organized and structurally similar to healthy bone than tissue grown with conventional collagen scaffolds. The discovery could turn an abundant agricultural byproduct into a promising new material for regenerative medicine.
New telescope reveals a missing link in the cosmic recycling of matter
With a lens array in Chile, astronomers capture clumps of gas from a dying star returning to the Galaxy
Normative age-related changes in resting-state EEG alpha power and theta/alpha ratio across eyes-open and eyes-closed conditions
Resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) provides a sensitive measure of large-scale neural dynamics and has been widely used to characterize age-related changes in brain function. However, many prior studies have relied on relatively small samples or single-condition recordings, limiting the generalizability of findings. In this study, we investigated normative age-related trajectories of EEG spectral features across eyes-closed (EC) and eyes-open (EO) conditions in a large cohort of healthy...
Latent profile analysis and analytical model construction based on heterogeneity of intrinsic capacity in Chinese older adults
CONCLUSION: This study delineates two IC profiles among Chinese older adults. The XGBoost-based model was explored for rapid IC profile classification. These findings highlight heterogeneity in IC and support the feasibility of a simplified digital approach, with external validation warranted.
Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease and Risk of Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults
CONCLUSION: This study shows that the presence of MASLD is significantly associated with an increased risk of a worse depression trajectory. In subgroup analysis, this relationship was particularly pronounced amongst females and among individuals with key cardiometabolic morbidities such as dyslipidaemia.
Circular RNAs outperform established Alzheimer disease biomarkers
No abstract
Plasticity of human microglia and brain perivascular macrophages in aging and Alzheimer's disease
Myeloid cells, including microglia and perivascular macrophages, are central to Alzheimer's disease (AD) neurobiology, yet their role remains incompletely understood. We profiled 832,505 human myeloid cells from the prefrontal cortex of 1,607 donors spanning the lifespan and showing varying degrees of AD neuropathology. We delineated six subclasses comprising 13 transcriptionally distinct subtypes and identified adaptive changes associated with aging and AD progression. Here we show that a...
Exploring the link between body physiology and cognition: the role of the brain and aging
Epidemiological links between cognition and body physiology in aging are well established, but their strength and drivers remain unclear. Which physiological systems - from body composition to cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, hepatic, immune, metabolic, and musculoskeletal - best predict cognition, and to what extent are cognition-body associations linked to brain variation across aging? We examined 19 physiological phenotypes alongside three neuroimaging modalities in over 30,000 UK Biobank...
Plasticity of human microglia and brain perivascular macrophages in aging and Alzheimer's disease
Myeloid cells, including microglia and perivascular macrophages, are central to Alzheimer's disease (AD) neurobiology, yet their role remains incompletely understood. We profiled 832,505 human myeloid cells from the prefrontal cortex of 1,607 donors spanning the lifespan and showing varying degrees of AD neuropathology. We delineated six subclasses comprising 13 transcriptionally distinct subtypes and identified adaptive changes associated with aging and AD progression. Here we show that a...