Brain, intellect, IQ

New research suggests a high-fat diet can turn the vagus nerve into a microbial highway, allowing gut bacteria to breach the brain.

Experiences of cognitive problems such as memory loss or difficulty concentrating, known as 'brain fog', may not predict relapse in depression, according to a new study that has confounded researchers' expectations.

Our brains need to adapt quickly to meet the challenges of our digital world, but a rigorous new book by a neuroscientist brings hope that we can do it, says Graham Lawton

In the final stages of his dementia, a long-lost memory from childhood returned, perfectly formed. What was going on in his brain?

Researchers identify TNF driven injury pathways in brain death donors and test anti-TNF therapy to improve kidney graft quality before transplantation.

MIT neuroscientists have uncovered a surprising secret hidden in the adult brain: millions of “silent synapses,” dormant connections that lie in wait until new learning calls them into action. Once thought to exist only in early development, these inactive links make up about 30% of synapses in the adult cortex and can be rapidly activated to form fresh memories.

A new study from the University of Virginia reveals that a widely used class of weight-loss drugs does more than suppress appetite-it directly alters brain circuits that control motivation and reward.

Early in life, neural networks in the brain's memory center are highly connected, and they are only later refined into precise systems, a mouse study finds.

A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study has found that an emerging class of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs suppress eating for pleasure, or hedonic feeding, in mice by modulating a reward circuit deep within the brain.

In a new National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study, scientists at Cleveland Clinic discovered that hormones associated with male development may play a key role in limiting the growth of brain tumors in men.

Millions of students worldwide have long relied on self-paced learning through pre-recorded video lectures, a model that forms the backbone of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and large-scale online education. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, dependence on video-based online learning has increased significantly, with learner participation rising sharply. However, this expansion has also been accompanied by a widespread decline in student engagement, undermining overall learning outcomes.

A finger prick blood test combined with online brain testing - all done from home - could one day effectively identify people's risk of developing dementia, according to a new study.

A study of people who underwent surgery to treat epilepsy suggests the hippocampus may process words and speech when people are under general anesthesia, even though the study participants didn’t remember them

Researchers at UC San Francisco and Imperial College London have shown that a single dose of psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms, causes likely anatomical brain changes that last for up to a month after the experience.

A new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals the surprising neurological landscape of fish brains. Harvard researchers map the internal structures of ray-finned fishes' brains in 3D detail, discovering brain size and shape, as well as the endocasts, vary far more than expected.

The results of a study carried out in human volunteers given a single dose of psilocybin link changes in brain entropy to insight and suggest that the psychedelic trip itself is important to the drug’s longer term therapeutic effects. The post Psilocybin-Induced Brain Changes May Explain Therapeutic Effects appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

For decades, scientists have sought to explain the so-called "Cambrian Explosion," a pivotal period over 500 million years ago when a remarkable diversity of animal life appeared in the fossil record. But rather than a sudden burst of innovation, new research suggests this diversification was the result of a gradual, multi-stage process, driven in large part by the evolution of the brain.

Scientists gave people a “heroic” dose of psilocybin and then looked at their brain. Here’s what happened

While some of us enjoy curling up with a good book, others prefer watching a series or playing video games. But from the perspective of neuroscience, reading is much more than just entertainment. This is especially true for children and teenagers. In the young brain, reading stimulates specific cognitive processes that can make a major difference in adult life.

The secret behind insects' lightning-fast reactions could offer a blueprint for more energy-efficient robots and self-driving cars, according to a new study challenging our understanding of how brains process information. Published in Nature Communications, the University of Sheffield research shows that house flies and fruit flies do not process visual information passively, as previously believed. Rather than simply watching the world, insects twitch their bodies in sync with what they see. These tiny, jerky movements, such as rapid movements of the eyes called saccades, help their brains receive clearer, faster information about the world around them.

If a small stroke in one corner of the brain can tip a previously healthy person into mania or set off obsessions and compulsions where none existed before, then the circuit connected to that lesion is telling us something rare in psychiatry.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is already FDA approved for major depressive disorder. Researchers think it could offer drug-free relief for moms.

In a new study, researchers from North Carolina State University show that itch sensations in the face are perceived differently from those in the body due to differences in signaling between trigeminal (located in the brain) and spinal pain pathways.

Scientists have identified a protective brain pathway that may help slow the progression of Parkinson's disease by strengthening the brain's own dopamine‑producing neurons, but the positive effect was only observed in females.

Trump's boasts of cognitive test superiority draw ridicule, as critics stress such exams detect neurological issues, not intellect, with his inconsistent stories fuelling scepticism.

Traumatic experiences can cause memory problems, and estrogen may be a key factor that shapes the brain's resilience against such stressors, a mouse study finds.

A randomized controlled trial correlates 4 weeks of probiotics to positive microstructure and function changes in several brain regions of people with IBS.

Mary Elizabeth Baugh, a research scientist with Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health Mentored Research Scientist Development Award to study how metabolic health influences the brain systems that shape what and how we eat.

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered something that experienced ballroom dancers have long known: When dancers are in tune with each other, their brains may sync up, helping them move as one.

Call neurosurgery for head trauma with falling GCS (especially 15 mm or subdural > 10 mm.

Inflammation in the brain is thought to be important in the progression of neurodegenerative conditions, disruptive to cell and tissue function. Understanding why the other features of neurodegenerative disease activate chronic inflammation in the brain is a necessary first step on the long road to the development of therapies capable of selectively suppressing this harmful inflammation while only minimally interfering in the normal, necessary inflammatory response to pathogens and injury. The protein called STING normally functions as part of the immune system's early-warning system. In the brains of people with Alzheimer's, the team discovered that STING undergoes a chemical modification known as S-nitrosylation (or SNO, a reaction involving sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen) that promotes its overactivation. Blocking this chemical change to STING in a mouse […]

Children of mothers with pregestational diabetes may have an increased risk of developing subsequent neuropsychiatric disorders.

Drugs designed to clear amyloid beta from the brain—once seen as a promising path to slowing Alzheimer’s—may not actually help patients in any meaningful way, according to a major review of over 20,000 participants. Even more concerning, they may increase the risk of brain swelling and bleeding, sometimes without obvious symptoms.

Coffee doesn’t just energize—it actively reshapes the gut and mind. Researchers found that both caffeinated and decaf coffee altered gut bacteria in ways linked to better mood and lower stress. Decaf even improved learning and memory, while caffeine boosted focus and reduced anxiety. Together, they show coffee works through multiple pathways beyond just caffeine.

The next big wearable trend may not count steps or calories at all—it may try to score your focus, fatigue, and readiness.

The brain’s memory center may begin life more like a crowded web than an empty canvas. Researchers discovered that early neural networks in the hippocampus are dense and seemingly random, then become more organized by shedding connections over time. This pruning process creates a faster, more efficient system for linking experiences and forming memories. It challenges the idea that the brain starts from scratch.

A new analysis of the “Boltzmann brain” paradox suggests our memories and sense of reality could, in theory, be random illusions born from cosmic chaos. By uncovering circular reasoning in how physicists think about time and entropy, the study raises fresh doubts about what we can truly know about the past.

Donald Trump's latest rally riff about a doctor calling him a 'mad genius' after a brain test has intensified focus on his age, health and his need to prove he remains mentally sharp.

Nothing rivals the human brain’s complexity. Its 86 billion neurons and 85 billion other cells make an estimated

Learning a new language or relearning speech after a stroke requires coordinated movements that are controlled by networks

Just like vertebrates, cephalopods—such as octopuses and squid—have elaborate brains. Neuroscientists are flocking to them for insights into how intelligence evolved.

Scientists have uncovered a surprising link between simple body movement and brain health: every time you tighten your abdominal muscles—even slightly—your brain may gently sway inside your skull. This subtle motion, triggered by pressure changes in connected blood vessels, appears to help circulate cerebrospinal fluid around the brain, potentially flushing out harmful waste.

Scientists have discovered a way to help the brain clean itself of harmful Alzheimer’s plaques by activating its own support cells. By increasing a protein called Sox9, researchers were able to boost the activity of astrocytes, star shaped cells that help maintain brain health. In mice that already showed memory problems, this approach reduced plaque buildup and preserved cognitive function over time.

Epilepsy is best known for seizures, but many people with the condition also experience much more frequent and subtler disruptions.

During brain development, neurons can regulate their movement until they reach their final destination thanks to a "molecular switch" involving the protein Teneurin 4 (Ten4).

Some evidence suggests that deubiquitylases are relevant to aging. These enzymes remove ubiquitin from proteins; recall that the decoration of a protein with ubiquitin enables it to be broken down into raw materials for further protein synthesis by a proteasome. Alongside autophagy, the ubiquitin-proteasome system is one of the important processes by which a cell maintains quality control and otherwise manages its contents. Managing which proteins are flagged by ubiquitin necessarily involves removal, not just addition, and thus the existence of deubiquitylases. Here, researchers provide evidence for rising levels of oxidative stress in the aging brain to impair the activity of deubiquitylases. As is usually the case in these matters, it is unknown as to the relative importance of this issue versus all of the […]

Changing glucose levels in the developing brain act as a metabolic switch, directing when progenitor cells divide or mature into myelin‑forming oligodendrocytes, with implications for early‑life vulnerability, according to a recent study in mice. The post Brain Glucose Levels Act as a Metabolic Switch for Myelin Formation appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

Imagination may have more to do with the brain activity it silences than the activity it creates. The post How Does Imagination Really Work in the Brain? New Theory Upends What We Knew appeared first on SingularityHub.

For nearly 25 years, scientists believed they knew what caused the most severe form of narcolepsy. A new UCLA Health study now suggests they were only half correct.

A new study shows that frequent epilepsy-related brain bursts, once thought to be random, follow predictable patterns that may be detectable before they begin, raising the possibility of preventing abnormal activity linked to impaired memory and language. The post Advanced Neural Probes Reveal Predictable Patterns in Epileptic Brain Activity appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

The study identifies critical windows of metal exposure via baby teeth, revealing impacts on brain development and behavior in children and adolescents.

A new non-invasive brain stimulation technique known as accelerated continuous theta burst stimulation (a-cTBS) improves social communication at one month follow up and has a favorable safety profile in children with autism, finds a trial from China published by The BMJ today.

The AHA scientific statement calls for a life-course approach to brain health that integrates cognitive, emotional, behavioral, vascular, environmental, inflammatory, sleep, microbiome, and social factors. It highlights how early-life exposures, mental health, pollution, chronic inflammation, poor sleep, gut dysbiosis, and socioeconomic adversity may shape brain resilience and later-life cognitive decline.

Brain tumors cannot always be successfully treated with conventional therapies. A team from Empa and the hospital network HOCH Health Ostschweiz is therefore developing nanozymes that can attack cancer cells directly in the brain during tumor surgery.

Researchers at the Leibniz Institute on Aging - Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI) in Jena found that oxidative stress in the aging brain inhibits the activity of deubiquitylases.

Astronauts take time to adjust how firmly they grip and handle objects when moving between Earth and space, because the brain continues making predictions based on whichever gravitational environment it has most recently adapted to. Research from the Université catholique de Louvain reveals that this adjustment process works in both directions and sheds new light on how the brain anticipates and manages the risk of making mistakes.

Dogs have long been known to have smaller brains than the wolves they descended from. But when they started to shrink has been a matter of some debate. New research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, which compared ancient and modern canid skulls, puts the date at around 5,000 years ago.

Scientists have known for more than a century that a single-celled organism with no nerve cells—much less a brain—can behave in ways that resemble learning. But those observations only went so far. How the organism did that was a mystery.

A systematic review reveals adolescent cannabis use alters brain structure, elevates addiction risk, and impacts cognitive outcomes during critical development.

Motif Neurotech just got FDA approval to trial a tiny brain implant for treating depression, and the whole thing can be implanted in just 20 minutes.

A headset recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration uses a weak electric current to shock the brain. Some researchers hope it could challenge the current pill-centric paradigm.

A headset recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration uses a weak electric current to shock the brain. Some researchers hope it could challenge the current pill-centric paradigm.

Studying cognition by averaging data from many people's brain scans hides how individuals use their brains, new Stanford Medicine research has shown.

Brain health isn't determined only by genetics or what happens later in life. A growing body of research shows that a range of factors-from mental health and sleep to environment, lifestyle and social conditions-play a powerful role in shaping how the brain functions and ages.

New brain imaging data on patients with long COVID showed an association with Alzheimer’s disease-related changes.

Scientists at MIT discovered that chaotic laser light can spontaneously form a highly focused beam instead of scattering—if the conditions are just right. This “pencil beam” enabled them to image the blood-brain barrier in 3D at speeds 25 times faster than existing techniques. The method also lets researchers watch how drugs move into brain cells in real time. It could dramatically accelerate the development of treatments for neurological diseases.

A startup is experimenting with data centers powered by lab-grown human neurons, testing whether living cells can offer a more efficient alternative to traditional computing.

The brain is more mechanically connected to the body than previously appreciated, scientists reported today (April 27) in Nature Neuroscience. Through a study using mice and simulations, the team found a potential biological mechanism underlying why exercise is thought to benefit brain health: abdominal contractions compress blood vessels connected to the spinal cord and the brain, enabling the organ to gently move within the skull.

Every stroke begins with a sudden interruption of blood flow in the brain. But what happens afterward—why neurons continue to lose function and die over the following days—has remained one of the most important unanswered questions in neuroscience.

Clinicians use electroencephalography (EEG) to assess brain activity in epilepsy and sleep pathologies, and this powerful tool has shown promise for other conditions.

In neurological intensive care, it is quickly learned that the brain cannot wait. As the most sensitive organ in the human body, it can sustain irreversible damage after just a few minutes of severe hypoxia.

The communication network in the developing brain builds when neurons partner up to form contact points called synapses, allowing signals to pass form one cell to another.

Pharma is especially interested in using human-based models to screen for drugs that effectively cross the blood-brain barrier, as animal models often fail to predict what happens in humans. The post Pencil Beam Laser Could Help Researchers Design Brain-Targeted Therapies appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

Pharma is especially interested in using human-based models to screen for drugs that effectively cross the blood-brain barrier, as animal models often fail to predict what happens in humans. The post Pencil Beam Laser Could Help Researchers Design Brain-Targeted Therapies appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

Researchers examining the brains of living people found that they differed more substantially than Neanderthals' brains differed from modern humans', calling into question the reason our evolutionary cousins mysteriously disappeared.

A new study from the University of Victoria (UVic) has identified a segment of traumatic brain injury survivors who are using psychedelics to self-medicate for cognitive, mood and somatic symptoms such as headaches.

Deep within the brain, scientists have uncovered a hidden “switch” that may decide whether pain fades away—or lingers for months or even years. Researchers found that a small, little-known region called the caudal granular insular cortex (CGIC) acts like a command center, telling the body to keep pain signals alive long after an injury has healed. In animal studies, shutting down this pathway not only prevented chronic pain from forming but could even erase it once it had taken hold.

Data from mice and computer simulations suggest that abdominal contractions act like a pump to influence brain movement and cerebrospinal fluid dynamics, potentially aiding harmful neural waste clearance. The post Abdominal Contractions May Drive Brain Fluid Flow, Aiding in Neural Waste Clearance appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

MIT researchers discovered a paradoxical phenomenon in optical physics that could enable a new bioimaging method that's faster and higher-resolution than existing technology. They discovered that, under the right conditions, a chaotic mess of laser light can spontaneously self-organize into a highly focused "pencil beam."

Scientists have made a major advance in developmental neuroscience, creating the very first detailed atlas of how the

Differences in brain connectivity are linked to several neurodevelopmental disorders, yet scientists still struggle to determine what changes are shared or unique to each condition.

SUNDAY, April 26, 2026 — When it comes to olive oil, not all are created equal. Extra virgin olive oil — the centerpiece of a Mediterranean diet — has benefits for your belly and your brain, new research shows. Refined olive oil, which is generally...

Fish oil has long been praised as brain-boosting, but new research suggests the story may be more complicated. Scientists found that in people with repeated mild head injuries, a key omega-3 fatty acid in fish oil—EPA—may actually interfere with the brain’s ability to repair itself. Instead of helping recovery, it appears to weaken blood vessel stability, disrupt healing signals, and even contribute to harmful protein buildup linked to cognitive decline.

Psychiatric disorders affect millions worldwide, but their diagnosis still relies on clinical observation instead of standard biological tests.

Scientists at UCLA have created one of the first cellular-resolution molecular maps detailing how Down syndrome alters human brain development before birth - a resource that resolves longstanding contradictions in the field and could lay the groundwork for future therapeutic strategies.

A new research paper was published in Volume 18 of Aging-US on April 7, 2026, titled "Association of epigenetic age acceleration with MRI biomarkers of aging and Alzheimer's disease neurodegeneration."

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai report that early-life exposure to common environmental metals may influence brain development and behavioral health more than a decade later.

Some brains resist Alzheimer's, even when the disease is already present. Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have found that this likely depends on how specific brain cells, known as immature neurons, respond to damage caused by the disease.

A cellular-resolution map of prenatal brain development in Down syndrome has been developed, revealing disrupted neuron production timing, altered cell types, and shared mechanisms with other disorders. The post Single-Cell Atlas of the Prenatal Brain Reveals How Down Syndrome Reshapes Development appeared first on GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

Doctors are pulling out new techniques and drugs in an effort to cure devastating brain infections.

FRIDAY, April 24, 2026 — Picking up an instrument. Taking a trip abroad. Going out to dinner with friends.All of these are pleasant activities that add spice to life.And they are also some of the most powerful ways to boost brain power and reduce o...