As people age, their brains do, too. But if a brain ages prematurely, there is potential for age-related diseases such as mild cognitive impairment, dementia, or Parkinson's disease. If "brain age" could be easily calculated, then premature brain aging could be addressed before serious health problems occur ..read more

Immigrants to Canada who have spent a greater proportion of their lives in Canada have a greater risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) than people who have spent a smaller proportion of their lives there, according to a study published in the April 24, 2024, online issue of Neurology. The study does not prove that an increased proportion of life in Canada causes MS; it only shows an association ..read more

People who take acid-reducing drugs may have a higher risk of migraine and other severe headache than people who do not take these medications, according to a study published in the April 24, 2024, online issue of Neurology Clinical Practice. The acid-reducing drugs include proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole and esomeprazole, histamine H2-receptor antagonists, or H2 blockers, such as cimetidine and famotidine, and antacid supplements ..read more

A new study led by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers has found that a brain network condition called "explosive synchronization" could be the cause of extreme pain crises in people with sickle cell disease ..read more

Neuroscientists have revealed that recency bias in working memory naturally leads to central tendency bias, the phenomenon where people's (and animals') judgements are biased towards the average of previous observations. Their findings may hint at why the phenomenon is so ubiquitous ..read more

Social isolation has been linked to faster cognitive decline and an increased risk of developing dementia, although the biological mechanisms of this association are not well understood ..read more

Researchers have created a thin film that combines an electrode grid and LEDs that can both track and produce a visual representation of the brain's activity in real-time during surgery—a huge improvement over the current state of the art. The device is designed to provide neurosurgeons with visual information about a patient's brain to monitor brain states during surgical interventions to remove brain lesions including tumors and epileptic tissue ..read more

In a proof-of-concept study, researchers demonstrated the effectiveness of a potential new therapy for Timothy syndrome, an often life-threatening and rare genetic disorder that affects a wide range of bodily systems, leading to severe cardiac, neurological, and psychiatric symptoms as well as physical differences such as webbed fingers and toes ..read more

Conditions such as diabetes, heart attack, and vascular diseases commonly diagnosed in people with spinal cord injuries can be traced to abnormal post-injury neuronal activity that causes abdominal fat tissue compounds to leak and pool in the liver and other organs, a new animal study has found ..read more

Scientists have long known that our brains are organized into specialized areas, each responsible for distinct tasks. The visual cortex processes what we see, for instance, while the motor cortex governs movement. But how these regions form—and how their neural building blocks differ—remain a mystery ..read more