Neuroscience News

Decades of Financial Hardship Linked to Faster Brain Aging

Long-term financial stress accelerates age-related cognitive decline. Image credit: Thomas Breher.
Jul 28, 2026 by Natali Anderson

A large British study spanning more than 70 years has found that people who experience chronic money struggles over their working lives show measurable declines in memory and processing speed by their 50s, along with signs of accelerated brain shrinkage decades later — with men, those raised in poorer households, and carriers of a key Alzheimer’s risk gene (APOE-ε4) appearing most vulnerable. Long-term financial stress accelerates age-related...

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Zheng et al. uncovered a link between higher levels of daytime light exposure and a lower risk of dementia. Image credit: Zheng et al., doi: 10.1002/gps3.70039.

Getting Enough Bright Light during the Day May Help Protect against Dementia

Jun 25, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers at Guangzhou Medical University tracked nearly 88,000 people for over eight years, finding a significant link between daytime light exposure...

Testing situation and hunters with their dogs -- examples from each of the four non-WEIRD societies: (a) pointing test in Mongolia, (b) unsolvable problem test in Vanuatu, (c) showing test in Mongolia, (d) Vanuatu, (e) Mongolia, (f) Madagascar, (g) Peru. Image credit: Bräuer et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-57657-1.

Human-Dog Bond is Ancient, Universal and Strikingly the Same Everywhere: Study

Jun 23, 2026 by News Staff

New research spanning five continents and vastly different cultures — from the steppes of Mongolia to the rainforests of the Pacific — shows...

Lauren Scott & Brittany Florkiewicz show that cat facial signals correspond to different social functions, which have likely been influenced by domestication. Image credit: Sci.News / Makieni777 / Rise-a-mui / Alexas_Fotos / Dorothe / Vaclav Zavada / Artem Makarov / Daga Roszkowska / Birgit / Pasi Mammela.

Domestic Cats Age Like Humans, New Study Shows

Jun 23, 2026 by News Staff

Domestic cats (Felis catus) develop the same patterns of brain shrinkage and neurological decline as aging humans, and scientists think that makes them...

Levin et al suggest that we could have more in common with our extraterrestrial neighbors than initially thought. Image credit: Fernando Ribas.

Consciousness is Not Exclusive to Earth’s Biology, Philosophers Argue

Jun 17, 2026 by Natali Anderson

University of California, Riverside’s Professor Eric Schwitzgebel and University of Lisbon postdoctoral researcher Jeremy Pober argue that consciousness...

Using the APP/PS1 mouse model of familial Alzheimer’s disease, Pyun et al. investigated the effect of Cu(ATSM) on brain microvascular abundance and function of P-glycoprotein and the associated effects on exogenous amyloid-beta clearance, brain amyloid burden, and cognitive function. Image credit: Pyun et al., doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.6c00252.

Experimental Copper-Based Drug Clears Alzheimer’s Plaques and Boosts Memory in Mice

Jun 15, 2026 by News Staff

Copper diacetyl bis(4-methyl-3-thiosemicarbazone), or Cu(ATSM), restored a key waste-removal system in the brain, reducing toxic amyloid-beta buildup and...

Reconstruction of Homo erectus.

Upright Walking and Larger Brains May Explain Why 90% of Humans Favor Their Right Hand

May 22, 2026 by News Staff

New research from the University of Oxford and the University of Reading suggests bipedalism and expanding brain size helped drive the overwhelming dominance...

Rehn et al. performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the cognitive and behavioral effects of diet reversal in rodent models. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Sugary Diets May Cause Long-Term Memory Problems Even after Eating Improves

May 19, 2026 by News Staff

An analysis of 27 animal studies found that switching to a healthier diet improved memory performance, though the effects were far weaker after diets high...

Manzi et al. tested house crickets (Acheta domesticus), among the most widely farmed insects on Earth, for what is thought a key behavioral hallmark of pain: flexible, site-directed self-protection. Image credit: Matthew Lindsey / CC BY 2.0.

Insects May Feel Pain, New Study Suggests

May 18, 2026 by Natali Anderson

When an antenna of the house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is touched with a heated probe, something curious happens: the insect turns its attention to the...

Participants with intracranial electrodes listened to two competing, spatially separated conversations. Their neural signals were recorded and fed into a real-time processing system. The system uses a linear regression model to reconstruct the temporal envelope of the attended speech from low-frequency (LF) and high-gamma (HF) neural features. The reconstructed envelope is then compared to the envelopes of the two conversations to determine the listener’s focus, which in turn drives the selective amplification of the attended speaker. Image credit: Choudhari et al., doi: 10.1038/s41593-026-02281-5.

Scientists Build ‘Mind-Reading’ Hearing System for Noisy Environments

May 11, 2026 by News Staff

A team of U.S. researchers has demonstrated, for the first time in human trials, a device that reads brain signals to automatically amplify the voice a...

A cross section of a mouse nose. Image credit: Datta Lab, Harvard Medical School.

Researchers Create Detailed Map of Smell Receptors in Mouse Nose

May 7, 2026 by News Staff

By mapping millions of smell-sensing neurons in mice, scientists discovered precise striped patterns inside the nose, overturning decades-old assumptions...

Scatterty et al. used a combination of self-report and biological measures to demonstrate that infrasound can have irritant, and aversive properties on humans. Similarly, infrasound appears to influence increases in negative affective evaluation.

Infrasound Can Subtly Raise Stress and Discomfort, New Study Finds

Apr 27, 2026 by News Staff

New research suggests that infrasound — very low-frequency sound below 20 Hz — can increase cortisol levels and irritability, offering a scientific...

Boscaini et al. reveal previously unrecognized effects of coffee on the microbiota-gut-brain axis, suggesting that microbiome profiles could potentially predict coffee consumption patterns and highlighting a close association between coffee intake and gut microbial composition. Image credit: Sci.News.

New Study Links Coffee Intake to Microbiome Changes and Improved Mental Well-Being

Apr 21, 2026 by News Staff

New research led by University College Cork scientists suggests that both caffeinated and decaf coffee reshape the gut microbiome in ways tied to lower...

Vitamin D3 may be effective in the treatment of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure, myocardial infarction, vasculopathy, stroke and diabetes. Image credit: Aloísio Costa Latgé.

Higher Vitamin D in Midlife May Be Associated with Lower Levels of Alzheimer’s Biomarker Years Later

Apr 2, 2026 by News Staff

In new research, University of Galway’s Dr. Martin David Mulligan and his colleagues followed nearly 800 participants from the Framingham Heart Study...

Extra-virgin olive oil, a major component of the Mediterranean diet, protects against cognitive decline. Image credit: Steve Buissinne.

Virgin Olive Oil Tied to Slower Cognitive Decline through Gut Microbiome Changes

Feb 24, 2026 by Natali Anderson

A large prospective cohort study finds that older adults who eat more virgin olive oil — a key component of the Mediterranean diet — have slower...

Kanzi the bonobo. Image credit: Ape Initiative.

Bonobos Demonstrate Imaginative Ability in New Experiments

Feb 5, 2026 by News Staff

The consistent performance of Kanzi the bonobo in pretend play experiments suggests that the mental capacity to imagine nonexistent objects may trace back...

Weekend recovery sleep doesn’t prevent weight gain or reduce insulin sensitivity. Image credit: Wok & Apix.

Night Owls and Early Birds Aren’t Enough: Scientists Identify Five Distinct Sleep-Wake Profiles

Feb 3, 2026 by News Staff

New research led by McGill University scientists suggests human sleep patterns (chronotypes) fall along a broader biological spectrum — with each...

DeCasien et al. provide the first empirical data showing the direct role the gut microbiome plays in shaping differences in the way the brain functions across different primate species. Image credit: DeCasien et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2426232122.

Gut Microbes Played Role in Evolution of Human Brain, New Study Suggests

Jan 5, 2026 by News Staff

Compared to other primates, humans have remarkably large brains relative to their body sizes. The resultant high demands for glucose may have been supported...

Severity of Alzheimer’s disease correlates with NAD+ homeostasis dysregulation. Image credit: Chaubey et al., doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102535.

New Research Reveals Potential Path to Alzheimer’s Recovery by Targeting Cellular Energy Deficits

Dec 30, 2025 by News Staff

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is traditionally considered irreversible. However, a team of scientists led by Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals...

Mousley et al. compared the brains of 3,802 people between zero and ninety years old using datasets of MRI diffusion scans, which map neural connections by tracking how water molecules move through brain tissue. Image credit: Mousley et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-65974-8.

Neuroscientists Identify Five Major Epochs of Brain Structure over Course of Human Life

Dec 2, 2025 by News Staff

Neuroscientists have detected five broad phases of brain structure in the average human life, split up by four pivotal turning points between birth and...

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