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The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.

Estrogen fluctuations reshape brain connections, new study finds

A new study out of the University of Delaware shows that fluctuations in estrogen influence the brain, helping reshape connections between neurons.

18 Aug 2026

Early-onset epilepsy tied to lower academic achievement

Childhood epilepsy is linked to significantly poorer exam grades and long term educational attainment, with the lowest levels of academic prowess among those whose neurological disorder started when they were very young, finds a large, long term Danish study, published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

18 Aug 2026

Leisure-time exercise linked to lower dementia risk

For years, scientists have known that regular physical activity can help lower the risk of dementia. But new USC research suggests that it's not only the amount but also the activity's context - for work or for leisure - that makes a difference.

18 Aug 2026

Racism shapes grief and bereavement experiences, major UK study finds

Racism directly impacts how people experience grief and bereavement, according to the largest study of its kind.

18 Aug 2026

Paying attention to your body may change how an acute skin inflammation unfolds

Voluntary attention to inflammation-related bodily sensations reduced the magnitude of histamine-induced skin inflammation and promoted faster resolution compared with distraction in healthy adults. The findings point to complementary sensory-dependent and top-down autonomic pathways, although the precise neural and immune mechanisms remain unresolved.

18 Aug 2026

UC Irvine researchers develop framework to make CAR T-cell therapy safer

CAR T-cell therapy has transformed cancer care, offering new hope to patients with aggressive blood cancers who once had few treatment options.

18 Aug 2026

Shifting expectations of unpredictability could help treat schizophrenia delusions

New research has found that improvements to the severity of delusions in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder recovering from an acute psychotic episode were significantly associated with reductions in volatility priors—someone's expectations about the unpredictability of their environment.

18 Aug 2026

UVA researchers find how postoperative delirium may set the stage for dementia

UVA Health researchers have discovered how a form of delirium that often strikes older patients after surgery may set the stage for dementia – and identified a drug that could reverse the underlying brain changes.

18 Aug 2026

Music activates brain networks for imagination and meaning

In a new paper appearing Aug. 18 in Nature Communications, Princeton University researchers show how music produces distinct patterns in the regions of the brain associated with imagination and meaning, similar to those prompted by spoken narratives.

18 Aug 2026

Five-week training program helps college students regulate their emotions

A five-week training intervention taught college students to better regulate their emotions in response to negative events, a new study finds.

18 Aug 2026

Leicester-led research reveals long COVID’s lasting impact on healthcare workers

Major research has found that long COVID continues to affect a substantial proportion of healthcare workers, with serious consequences for their health, work and home lives, and NHS workforce overall.

18 Aug 2026

Deep-learning tissue clocks reveal how organs age and leave disease-linked signals in blood

Deep learning applied to more than 25,000 histopathology slides revealed tissue-specific structural signatures of biological aging that tracked telomere attrition, pathology, comorbidity, and molecular changes more closely than chronological age alone.

18 Aug 2026

Laser treatment may extend survival in glioblastoma patients

For patients facing a diagnosis of glioblastoma - one of the most aggressive and devastating forms of brain cancer - the standard path forward has long meant an invasive open-skull surgery and a daunting prognosis.

17 Aug 2026

New microfluidic chip predicts personalized glioblastoma treatment responses

Even for the same brain tumor treated with the same anticancer drug, the effect can differ from patient to patient.

17 Aug 2026

Severe mental illness may accelerate dementia and stroke vulnerability

People living with severe mental illness face a substantially higher risk of dementia throughout adulthood, as well as a significantly elevated risk of stroke in early and middle adulthood, according to a large new study based on health records from Catalonia, Spain.

17 Aug 2026

AI can recreate food convincingly, but there is one thing it still struggles to trigger

AI-generated food images matched real food images in perceived healthiness and estimated calorie content but were rated as less realistic and elicited lower willingness to eat. A subset of hyperrealistic AI images received stronger appetitive ratings, suggesting that perceived realism may shape how synthetic food imagery is evaluated.

17 Aug 2026