Brain & Aging
92 stories
Under Propofol, the Hippocampus Still Sorts Nouns From Verbs and Leans Toward the Next Word
Recordings from 651 neurons in seven anesthetized patients show the hippocampus learning tones and tracking word meaning, and a German trial suggests that what reaches those ears can change how much opioid a patient needs afterward.
Brain & AgingWhen the Shocks Stopped, People With Insomnia Got More Aroused, Not Less
In a third analysis of the same Boston volunteers, people with insomnia grew more aroused once the shocks stopped. The signal showed up only after engineers modeled the slow background sweat, and the next-day test missed significance.
Brain & AgingIn Lab Tests, the Alzheimer's Fragment Labeled 'Non-Amyloidogenic' Builds Amyloid Faster Than Amyloid Beta
For decades the alpha pathway was billed as the safe way to cut the Alzheimer's precursor protein. Its leftover fragment, p3, builds fibrils in less than half the time amyloid beta needs in lab tests, forms ring-shaped pores, and turns up in plaques where a common antibody stain can't tell the two a
Brain & AgingFeeling Fine in Pregnancy Was No Shield Against Dirty Air's Link to Postpartum Depression
Among 475 Mexico City mothers, each 5 microgram per cubic meter rise in fine-particle pollution during pregnancy tracked with 2.67 times the risk of depression symptoms that first appeared after birth. The link was stronger in women who reported little stress.
Brain & AgingIn a Toronto Husky Study, Owners Moved First More Than Twice as Often as Their Dogs
Earlier sensor studies had the dog moving and the owner following. Among 22 synchronized Toronto owner-dog pairs, the human led in 10 and the dog in 4, and bedsharing showed no significant link to owners' measured sleep.
Brain & AgingD-Serine Helped Old Mice in the Maze and Did Nothing for Their Skin or Bones
Restoring the protein menin in one patch of hypothalamus gave 20-month-old mice thicker skin, more bone and better learning. D-serine, the amino acid now in the headline, improved only the learning, and the one trial in healthy older adults that both news stories cite gave each person a single dose
Brain & AgingThe Eye's 'Hidden Cleanup System' Has So Far Been Mapped Only in Mice
Toronto and UBC researchers traced a tracer from the back of a mouse eye to the neck in 20 minutes. The coverage aimed it at glaucoma patients. Nobody has looked for the pathway in a human eye yet, and a space agency helped pay for the work.
Brain & AgingA Protein That Should Surge Before Birth Went Flat in Pregnancies Later Linked to Childhood ADHD
Each standard-deviation drop in third-trimester placental growth factor came with 2.6 times the odds of a later ADHD diagnosis, and the signal held even after researchers accounted for preeclampsia, growth restriction, and early preterm birth.
Brain & AgingAlzheimer's Drugmakers Bet on Raising This Brain Sugar. Glucosamine May Be Overfeeding It.
In UF Health records, people with mild cognitive impairment who took the joint supplement were 25 percent more likely to slip into dementia. Glucosamine feeds the same brain chemistry a failed Alzheimer's drug was built to raise.
Brain & AgingBlood Pours Into the Mouse Cortex Seconds Before REM, Then the Neurons Run Low on Fuel Anyway
About 50 seconds before REM sleep starts, blood volume surges across a sleeping mouse's cortex. Then the neurons' usable energy drops sharply anyway, and no one can yet say what they are burning it on.
Brain & AgingI Track My REM Sleep Every Night. This Study Made Me Stop Trusting the Number.
The viral headline says more REM sleep guards you against 83 diseases. But a brain sliding toward Parkinson's shreds REM years before diagnosis, and the study's own two-year exclusion test quietly agrees.
Brain & AgingA Bendable Fiber Thinner Than Six Hairs Records, Doses, and Stimulates a Mouse Brain at Once
Silicon brain probes scar the tissue they're built to read. A soft optical fiber from Denmark records, doses, and stimulates neurons at once, in mice, with a pharma foundation and pending patents behind it.
Brain & AgingThe 'Supplement Reverses Aging' Headline Skips the Brain Surgery on the Mouse
The mouse study now going around as an anti-aging supplement win leaves out the part where the real reversal took a virus carrying a gene, injected into the hypothalamus.
Brain & AgingFreeze a Brain Cell Fast Enough and Its Bare Wires Turn Out to Be Strings of Pearls, Not Smooth Tubes
The bumps along the brain's thinnest fibers were written off as damage for a century. Johns Hopkins froze the tissue fast enough to catch them intact, and to watch them swell when the neuron fires hard.
Brain & AgingThe Cell Mistakes Its Own Broken DNA for a Virus, and the Panic Helps Wreck a Fast-Aging Fish
For decades the broken DNA got the blame. In fast-aging fish carrying a DNA-repair disorder, a major driver turned out to be the cell's own inflammatory overreaction, and silencing the sensor eased the ruin.
Brain & AgingSame Genes, Different Fold: A Fly Wing Regrows Only When Distant DNA Touches
Disturb the way the DNA folds after an injury, and the fruit fly still builds a normal wing but loses much of its power to repair one. The instructions to heal weren't only in the genes. They were in the shape.
Brain & AgingUSC Scanned 459 Aging Brains Across India. The Wiring Just Under the Cortex, Not the Gray Matter, Tracked Who Stayed Sharp.
In 459 older adults across India, healthier short-range wiring just beneath the cortex was tied to a weaker link between gray matter loss and cognition, and the tie was strongest in people with the least schooling.
Brain & AgingScientists Quieted Aging Inflammation in Mice by Starving Zombie Cells, Not Killing Them
For years the anti-aging plan was to hunt down and kill the senescent cells driving inflammation. A Mayo and Sanford Burnham team quieted that inflammation in mice instead, by blocking the carrier that feeds their mitochondria the acetyl-CoA used to pry open inflammatory genes.
Brain & AgingFour Times the Odds of Losing Bowel Control: An ADHD Gut Signal Tangled Up With the Medication
Stimulants list constipation, nausea, and stomach pain among their common side effects. Most of the 23 studies pooling 1.9 million people never separated the medicated from the unmedicated, so the gut signal and the drug effect sit tangled together.
Brain & AgingA Kinesiologist Argues Aging Has a Third Clock, and It Fades First
Georgia Southern's Li Li argues aging has a third clock, movement span, that starts narrowing before any disease shows up. A compelling reframe with one catch: it's an opinion paper carrying zero new data.
Brain & AgingThe Sea Squirt That Reverses Aging Is a Mouse Study From 2022. The Capsules Are Already on Amazon.
The mice got 300 milligrams per kilogram by feeding tube, five days a week, for two months. The human trials used about a milligram a day, most were funded by the companies selling the capsules, and the largest could not beat placebo.
Brain & AgingStatins and Dementia: A Benefit the Registries Keep Finding and the Trials Never Do
A Danish registry of 132,000 diabetics reports early statin use lowers dementia risk by 15 percent. The randomized trials that could confirm it, covering tens of thousands of patients, found nothing.
Brain & AgingA Salsa Class, a Grocery List, and 38 Check-Ins Beat Health Advice on Memory by 55%
Across 11 Latin American countries, a coached program of exercise, an adapted MIND diet, and cognitive training improved older adults' thinking 55 percent more than periodic health advice, with no infusion chair and no $26,500-a-year drug.
Brain & AgingDirty Air Is Linked to 16 Percent More Inflammation in Your Blood. Does That Damage Reach Your Brain?
Each step up in long-term fine-particle exposure is tied to nearly 16 percent higher inflammation in older adults' blood, and a CHARLS analysis asks whether that same signal is what wears down the aging brain.