Sumary: High blood pressure and heart failure might be managed through the gut. New research has identified a direct communication line between gut bacteria, the brain, and the heart. The…
Category: Neuroscience
Chatbots Can Worsen Delusions and Mania
Summary: For many, AI chatbots are a helpful tool for productivity, but for those with severe mental illness, they may be a dangerous “echo chamber.” A new study warns that…
Moving Beyond Dopamine to Treat Schizophrenia
Summary: Schizophrenia treatment has been dominated by dopamine-targeting drugs for decades, but these often fail to address the debilitating cognitive and negative symptoms of the disorder. A comprehensive review synthesizes…
Prenatal Lead Exposure Affects the Aging Brain
Summary: The consequences of lead exposure may take six decades to fully manifest. A remarkable study has linked lead exposure during the second trimester of pregnancy to lower cognitive performance…
Could an “Exercise Pill” Help Treat Depression?
Summary: It’s a cruel irony of mental health: exercise is a powerful antidepressant, yet depression often robs people of the motivation and energy required to move. A new paper proposes…
OCD Brains Work Harder to Stay on Track
Summary: Getting dressed in the morning seems like a simple sequence, but for those with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the brain may be working overtime just to keep from “getting stuck.”…
Your DNA Might Be the Reason Music and Art Gives You Chills
Summary: Have you ever felt a sudden shiver or goosebumps while listening to a powerful piece of music or reading a moving poem? Scientists call this the “telltale tingle” or…
Teen Cannabis Use Doubles Psychosis and Bipolar Risk
Summary: A massive study of over 460,000 adolescents has confirmed that even occasional cannabis use during teenage years is a major risk factor for severe mental illness. The research followed…
Less Experience Leads to Faster Neural Adaptation
Summary: For over a century, the cornerstone of psychology has been the Pavlovian idea that we learn through repetition—the more a bell rings before food, the stronger the association. However,…
