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Neuroscience News is an independent open access science magazine. Since 2001, we have featured neuroscience research news from labs, universities, hospitals and news departments around the world. Topics include brain research, AI, psychology, neuroscience, mental health and neurotech.

Latest Neuroscience News

Science news articles cover neuroscience, neurology, psychology, AI, mental health, robotics, neurotechnology and cognitive sciences.

Blinking Drops When We Strain to Hear Speech

People blink less when working harder to understand speech in noisy environments, suggesting that blinking is tightly linked to cognitive effort. Across two experiments, blink rates consistently dropped during key moments of listening, especially when background noise made speech difficult to process.

AI-Powered Bionic Hand Restores Natural, Intuitive Grasping Ability

A new study shows that integrating artificial intelligence with advanced proximity and pressure sensors allows a commercial bionic hand to grasp objects in a natural, intuitive way—reducing cognitive effort for amputees. By training an artificial neural network on grasping postures, each finger could independently “see” objects and automatically move into the correct position, improving grip security and precision.

Key Brain Protein Controls How We Learn Reward Cues

Changing levels of the brain protein KCC2 can alter how reward associations form, reshaping the learning process that links cues to outcomes. Reduced KCC2 activity increased dopamine neuron firing and strengthened new cue–reward connections, offering insight into how addictions and maladaptive habits develop.

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Reading Habits Predict Hidden Biases Toward Autism

A new study shows that the newspapers people read are strong predictors of their automatic, unconscious biases toward autism—even after accounting for age, education, political views, and personal experience. Readers of right-leaning tabloid outlets showed more negative automatic biases, reflecting the more stereotyped and less frequent coverage of autism in these publications.

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Insufficient Sleep Strongly Predicts Shorter Life Expectancy

A new nationwide analysis shows that getting fewer than seven hours of sleep a night is one of the strongest predictors of shorter life expectancy across U.S. counties. Sleep sufficiency outperformed other behavioral factors—including diet, exercise, and loneliness—with only smoking showing a stronger association.

Neurology News Articles

Neurology news articles cover neurology, brain cancer, traumatic brain injuries, neurosurgery, neuroanatomy, brain research and neurological disorders.

Nicotine Withdrawal Makes Smokers More Sensitive to Pain

A new study shows that abstinent smokers experience heightened pain sensitivity linked to altered activity in specific brain regions. Compared to nonsmokers, abstinent smokers required more postoperative pain relief—especially opioids—and their pain sensitivity increased the longer they remained nicotine-free.

Blocking a Key Protein Greatly Reduces Alzheimer’s Damage

New findings show that removing Centaurin-α1, a protein elevated in Alzheimer’s disease, significantly reduces inflammation, plaque buildup, and cognitive deficits in a well-established mouse model. Eliminating this protein normalized several brain pathways, protected neural connections in the hippocampus, and improved spatial learning.

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Microplastics Accelerate Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Damage

A new review highlights five major ways microplastics can harm the brain, raising concerns that they may worsen neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. These tiny particles can trigger inflammation, disrupt the blood–brain barrier, generate oxidative stress, impair mitochondria, and damage neurons.

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Mutation in Key Enzyme Triggers Ferroptosis and Childhood Dementia

Researchers have identified how a single mutation in the GPX4 enzyme causes neurons to undergo ferroptosis, leading to severe early-onset dementia. The study provides the first molecular evidence that ferroptosis can directly drive neurodegeneration in the human brain.

Fungal Molecule Shows Promise Against Brain Cancer

For the first time, chemists have fully synthesized verticillin A, a notoriously complex fungal molecule with striking anticancer potential. The molecule’s fragile structure required a complete rethinking of its synthetic sequence, enabling researchers to not only recreate it but design more stable and potent derivatives.

AI News Articles

AI news articles cover science articles about artificial intelligence including ChatGPT, Bard, Dalle, neural networks, machine learning, LLMs, AGI and other AI related topics.

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Brain Uses AI-Like Computations for Language

The human brain processes spoken language in a step-by-step sequence that closely matches how large language models transform text. Using electrocorticography recordings from people listening to a podcast, researchers found that early brain responses aligned with early AI layers, while deeper layers corresponded to later neural activity in regions such as Broca’s area.

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AI Is Changing the Way Humans Grieve, Remember, and Face Death

Generative artificial intelligence is quietly reshaping how humans process grief, remembrance, and mortality. Digital reconstructions of the deceased may offer comfort, but they also risk blurring the natural boundary between presence and absence.

AI Watches Pianists and Reconstructs Their Muscle Signals

Researchers developed an AI system that can reconstruct fine hand muscle activity using only standard video footage. Traditionally, this type of measurement required intrusive electrodes attached to the skin, but the new method eliminates that need entirely.

AI Uncovers Hidden Stress Damage in the Body

Researchers developed an AI tool that detects chronic stress by measuring adrenal gland volume on routine chest CT scans. This biomarker aligns with cortisol levels, stress questionnaires, and future cardiovascular outcomes, offering the first imaging-based method to quantify stress load in the body.

AI Reveals Lions Don’t Just Roar, They Have a Second Call

A new study reveals African lions produce two types of roars, overturning long-held assumptions and opening the door to more precise wildlife monitoring. Using machine learning, researchers automatically distinguished between full-throated and newly identified intermediary roars with over 95% accuracy, eliminating much of the human bias in vocal identification.

Psychology News Articles

Science research articles cover psychology, depression, mental health, schizophrenia, mental disorders, happiness, stress, PTSD, autism, psychiatry and therapy.

PTSD Linked to Accelerated Brain Aging

A new study using advanced deep-learning brain age estimation shows that World Trade Center responders with PTSD exhibit signs of accelerated brain aging. Using BrainAgeNeXt, a model trained on more than 11,000 MRI scans, researchers found that responders with PTSD had “older” appearing brains than those without the disorder, especially among individuals with longer exposure at Ground Zero.

Warmth and Hugging Strengthen the Feeling of Being You

Changes in skin temperature play a key role in how strongly we experience our bodies as our own. Thermoception influences emotion, identity, and mental health by acting as a direct “skin-to-brain” pathway supporting bodily self-awareness.

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Growing Fear of Nature: Study Reveals Causes of Rising Biophobia

An increasing number of people experience fear, discomfort, or disgust toward nature—a phenomenon known as biophobia. The findings reveal that negative emotions form through both external factors such as urban environments and media portrayals, and internal factors like health and emotional traits.

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Mental Illness Can Also Bring Strengths

Mental illness is typically defined by its challenges, but growing evidence shows it is also linked to surprising strengths. Certain psychological conditions are associated with enhanced creativity, social sensitivity, emotional awareness, and resilience.

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Cognitive Profiles in Schizophrenia Are Being Ignored

A major scientific review reveals a deep knowledge gap in how cognition is affected when schizophrenia and personality disorders occur together. Despite the high prevalence and severe outcomes tied to this dual diagnosis, only a small number of rigorous studies have ever examined cognitive functioning in this group.

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Brain Learning Power Peaks at Specific Times of Day

A new study reveals that the brain’s responsiveness and capacity for learning shift with the time of day, governed by molecules like adenosine that link metabolism, sleep, and neural signaling. Using optogenetics, researchers found that identical stimuli activated brain cells differently at sunrise versus sunset, suggesting that neuronal excitability and plasticity follow daily rhythms.

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Supplement Mix Reverses Autism Traits

Researchers have made a major advance, discovering that a low-dose mixture of zinc, serine, and branch-chain amino acids (BCAAs) can successfully alleviate behavioral symptoms in three different mouse models of autism. This breakthrough lies in the synergy of the three common nutrients, which work together to restore normal neural communication and reduce hyperactivity in the brain's emotional center.

The Way You Drive Might Signal Mild Cognitive Impairment

Researchers found that long-term driving behavior can reveal early signs of cognitive decline years before clinical diagnosis. Older adults who later developed impairment showed gradual reductions in trip frequency, night driving, and route variety compared to cognitively healthy peers.

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Supplement Shows Promise in Blocking Amyloid in Alzheimer’s

A new study shows that oral arginine, a naturally occurring amino acid, can significantly suppress amyloid-β aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease models. Researchers found that arginine not only prevented Aβ42 from clumping but also reduced plaques and inflammation in mouse and fruit fly models carrying Alzheimer’s-related mutations.

Your Brain Quietly Rewires Itself at 9, 32, 66 and 83

Researchers identified five major phases of human brain wiring that unfold from birth to old age, marked by four major turning points at ages 9, 32, 66, and 83. Childhood and adolescence are periods of rapid reorganization, while adulthood brings a long plateau of structural stability.

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