
New research has revealed how acute stress can affect the connectivity of different brain regions, leading to increased neural activity and changes in behavior.
New research has found that sleep has a crucial role in preparing the body to fight off infections. During sleep, the immune system produces cytokines, which help in fighting infections, inflammation, and stress. In contrast, sleep deprivation can weaken the immune system and increase the likelihood of getting sick. The study also found that sleeping for longer periods before an infection occurs can improve the chances of fighting it off.
A research team has found that people with chronic pain in multiple parts of the body had a higher risk of dementia and experienced broader and faster cognitive decline, including memory, executive function, learning, and attention.
Researchers have discovered how changes in blood vessels in the eye can be used to predict the progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. The researchers used high-resolution imaging techniques to measure the density of blood vessels in the retina of patients with AMD. They found that decreased blood vessel density in certain areas of the retina was associated with the progression of the disease.
A new study has identified changes in the levels of certain proteins in the blood of women with perinatal depression (depression during pregnancy or after childbirth).
A new brain connection discovered by researchers can explain how early-life stress and adversity trigger disrupted operation of the brain’s reward circuit, offering a new therapeutic target for treating mental illness. Impaired function of this circuit is thought to underlie several major disorders, such as depression, substance abuse and excessive risk-taking.
A study at the University of Tsukuba in Japan has found that routine exercise helps prevent cognitive impairment in older adults, with exercising alone being beneficial, but exercising with others having an even greater positive effect.
Although investigators have made strides in detecting signs of Alzheimer’s disease using high-quality brain imaging tests collected as part of research studies, a research team has developed an accurate method for detection that relies on routinely collected clinical brain images. The advance could lead to more accurate diagnoses.
Finally, this week, seizures can be predicted more than 30 minutes before onset in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, opening the door to a therapy using electrodes that could be activated to prevent seizures from happening, according to new research.