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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.

Exercise Supercharges Hormone Transport to the Brain

Physical exercise triggers extracellular vesicles (EVs)—tiny particles in the blood—to act as temporary transport shuttles for key hormone precursors. During vigorous exercise, levels of the hormone precursor POMC attaching to EVs increase fourfold, suggesting a newly uncovered mechanism for how stress, energy balance, and mood may shift after movement.

Neurons Use a Fast Structural Signal to Stabilize Communication

Neurons can rapidly rebalance their communication using a structural signal rather than electrical activity, overturning long-held assumptions about how synapses maintain stability. When receptors on the receiving side of a synapse were blocked, they physically reorganized, triggering the sending neuron to increase neurotransmitter release and preserve steady signaling.

Cancer Disrupts the Brain’s Internal Clock

Breast cancer can rapidly derail the brain’s day-night regulation of stress hormones, even before tumors are detectable. In mice, the disease flattens normal corticosterone rhythms by altering hypothalamic neuron activity, which may worsen outcomes and mimic symptoms often seen in cancer patients, such as insomnia and anxiety.

Second-Hand Gifts Are Becoming the New Status Symbol

New research shows that buying second-hand gifts is typically a thoughtful, intentional decision rather than an impulsive one. Consumers are motivated by fair prices, the thrill of finding rare items, and the desire to shop sustainably. Survey results from a major online marketplace reveal that intentions often translate directly into purchases—especially for items that are easy to evaluate, such as books.

Tiny Gut Imposters Could Be Driving Multiple Sclerosis

New research reveals that when gut bacteria closely resemble the myelin sheath that protects nerve fibers, the immune system can become confused and attack both — accelerating multiple sclerosis. In mouse experiments, bacteria engineered to mimic myelin triggered faster disease progression by activating aggressive immune cells that infiltrated the nervous system.

Neurology News Articles

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

Blood Transfusions May Accelerate Alzheimer’s Progression

New research shows that blood from older animals can speed up Alzheimer’s-related changes in the brain, while young blood may slow them down. In a long-term experiment, mice engineered to develop Alzheimer’s symptoms received weekly blood infusions from either young or old donors.

AI Turns Simple EEG Scans Into Accurate Dementia Detectors

New research shows that deep learning can use EEG signals to distinguish Alzheimer’s disease from frontotemporal dementia with high accuracy. By analyzing both the timing and frequency of brain activity, the model uncovered distinct patterns: broader disruption across multiple regions in Alzheimer’s and more localized frontal and temporal changes in frontotemporal dementia.

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.

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.

AI Brain Model Reveals How Fear Works in Real Life

Researchers have developed an AI-driven brain model that can track fear as it unfolds in real-world situations, offering a major shift from traditional lab-based approaches. Classic fear studies often rely on static images, but these do not reflect how the brain processes fear in dynamic contexts.

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.

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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.

Psychology News Articles

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

Study Challenges Myths About Self-Centeredness

A large international study of more than 45,000 people shows that narcissism is a universal personality trait—not one concentrated in any single country. Although nations differed somewhat, the five highest-scoring countries were Germany, Iraq, China, Nepal, and South Korea, with the United States ranking 16th.

Stress Levels Predict Cannabis Use

New research shows that rats with naturally higher baseline stress hormone levels are significantly more likely to self-administer cannabis vapor. Over several weeks, rats were allowed to nose-poke for cannabis, and those with elevated corticosterone displayed the strongest drug-seeking behavior.

Positive Imagining Changes the Brain in Seconds

Vividly imagining a positive interaction with someone can increase how much you like them — and even alter how your brain stores information about that person. During imagined encounters, participants developed stronger preferences, and brain scans revealed activity patterns similar to those seen when people learn from real rewarding experiences.

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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.

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.

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Many Autism Cases May Be Preventable

A new study proposes that autism arises when genetic vulnerability, an early environmental trigger, and prolonged activation of the cellular stress response align during critical developmental windows. This “three-hit” metabolic model reframes autism as a disorder of disrupted cellular communication and energy metabolism rather than an inevitable genetic outcome.

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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.

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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.

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.

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