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brain research

Research articles and news stories tagged with brain research

·June 10, 2025·4 min read

How the Brain’s RNA Rings Are Formed

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are stable, ring-shaped molecules that play crucial roles in brain development, cognition, and long-term cellular regulation. Unlike typical RNA, they form closed loops that resist degradation, making them ideal for neurons.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 10, 2025·6 min read

Baby Talk Enhances Infant Speech Learning

A new meta-analysis confirms that adults exaggerate vowel sounds when speaking to infants, a feature known as vowel hyperarticulation in infant-directed speech (IDS). By analyzing 55 studies across at least 10 languages, researchers found consistent evidence for this speech pattern, though its strength varied depending on language, method, and sample size.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience Psychology

·June 10, 2025·6 min read

Genetic Sensitivity to Environment May Shape Mental Health Traits

A large international study of over 21,000 identical twins has identified genetic variants that influence how individuals respond to life experiences, affecting traits such as anxiety, depression, and autistic traits. By analyzing genetic differences in identical twins, researchers discovered that certain genes make people more or less sensitive to environmental exposures.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Pain

·June 10, 2025·3 min read

How Acetaminophen Silences Pain Before It Reaches the Brain

Paracetamol (acetaminophen) doesn’t just work in the brain—it also shuts off pain at its source in the peripheral nerves. The study found that after taking paracetamol, the body produces a compound called AM404 directly in pain-sensing nerve endings.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 10, 2025·3 min read

Stress-Linked Brain Pathway Disrupts Sleep and Memory

New research reveals a stress-sensitive neural pathway that impairs both sleep and memory in male mice. Scientists activated neurons in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus, known for their role in stress response, which caused sleep loss and poor memory performance.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 10, 2025·4 min read

Psilocybin Elevates Spiritual Awareness

Psilocybin significantly enhances psychological well-being and spiritual insight among clergy members across major world religions. Participants reported lasting positive changes in religious practice, personal beliefs, and vocational effectiveness after two guided psilocybin sessions.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Psychology

·June 10, 2025·5 min read

Late-Life Mood Disorders May Foreshadow Alzheimer’s

Late-life depression and bipolar disorder may be more than psychiatric conditions—they could be early warning signs of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Using advanced brain imaging and postmortem tissue analysis, researchers found that half of the participants with late-onset mood disorders showed signs of tau accumulation, a key hallmark of neurodegeneration.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·June 10, 2025·2 min read

Sticky Molecules May Hold the Key to Preventing Vision Loss in AMD

A new study reveals how sticky molecules called heparan sulfate (HS) may trap lipoproteins in the eye and trigger early age-related macular degeneration (AMD). These fat-protein particles, similar to HDL, accumulate between retinal layers, forming drusen that damage vision over time.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 9, 2025·2 min read

Sleep Quality Shapes Jealousy in Insecure Relationships

A new study reveals that poor sleep quality is linked to increased jealousy in people with high relationship anxiety. Anxious attachment, marked by insecurity and low self-esteem in relationships, was associated with worse sleep quality.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience

·June 9, 2025·4 min read

Why Some People Hear Better in Noise Than Others

A large-scale international study has confirmed that the ability to detect background sounds varies significantly from person to person and depends on the preceding noise. By replicating a 10-year-old study with 149 participants across 25 labs in 10 countries, researchers found consistent results supporting the original findings.

Neuroscience

·June 9, 2025·7 min read

Gut Microbiota Transplants May Cause Long-Term Imbalance

New research warns that fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) can lead to long-lasting mismatches in gut regions, causing metabolic and behavioral shifts. While FMT aims to restore gut health by transplanting stool microbes from healthy donors, most microbes come from the colon and may colonize unintended regions like the small intestine.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 9, 2025·6 min read

Aphantasia: Why Some Minds Are Blind to Images

Scientists have uncovered how the brains of people with aphantasia, those who cannot visualize mental images, process visual information differently. Although key visual and memory-related brain regions still activate during mental imagery tasks, they show weaker connectivity compared to individuals with typical visualization.

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