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Language skills are essential to a child’s ability to communicate and develop. These skills enable children to engage with other people and learn from their surroundings and in the classroom.

Acupuncture regulates immune function through specific neural circuit activation

Traditional explanations of acupuncture often emphasize direct acupoint-organ relationships, focusing on local stimulation or endpoint physiological changes.

22 Apr 2026

Study reveals genetic factors influencing SYNGAP1 encephalopathy disease severity

SYNGAP1 encephalopathy is a rare genetic disorder for which there is no treatment, causing epilepsy, intellectual disability, psychomotor delay and, frequently, autism.

22 Apr 2026

New "plug-and-play" AI outperforms pathologists in lymph node metastasis detection

A research team led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed a pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) pathology analysis system that can accurately recognize multiple types of cancer using only a minimal number of samples-without requiring any additional training. This breakthrough significantly enhances the flexibility and efficiency of AI-assisted medical care, marking a major step forward toward the widespread adoption of intelligent pathology.

22 Apr 2026

AI chatbots give misleading health advice nearly half the time

Widespread inaccuracies in AI chatbot health responses pose public health risks, highlighting the urgent need for better oversight and cleaner training data.

21 Apr 2026

Study reveals what people ask AI chatbots about health most often

Researchers analyzed more than 500,000 de-identified Microsoft Copilot health conversations from January 2026 and found that health information queries were most common, while nearly one in five conversations involved personal symptoms or condition-related concerns. They also found that personal health queries were more common on mobile and at night, while desktop use was more often tied to research, paperwork, and academic support, highlighting how people use AI differently across contexts.

20 Apr 2026

Study reveals significant gaps in MMR vaccine knowledge among ER patients

Measles remains one of the most contagious infectious diseases, spread through coughing and sneezing, with even small declines in vaccination coverage leading to outbreaks. As of 2026, California has reported its highest annual measles case count in seven years. In response to this growing concern, researchers have begun examining gaps in measles-related knowledge and vaccination coverage.

20 Apr 2026

Teen cannabis use linked to slower growth in memory and thinking

Researchers from University of California San Diego have found that teenagers who begin using cannabis show slower gains in thinking and memory skills as they grow. The study, published on April 20, 2026 in Neuropsychopharmacology, analyzed data from more than 11,000 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest long-term study of brain development in U.S. youth.

20 Apr 2026

Research shows AI discourages social interaction for autistic users

When people ask ChatGPT and other AI models for advice, they often share deeply personal details in hopes of getting better answers: their age, their gender, their mental health history, even medical diagnoses like autism.

20 Apr 2026

What still drives childhood vaccine gaps in the United States

A nationwide analysis of provider-verified NIS-Child data from 2010 to 2023 found that US childhood vaccination coverage remained generally high but was consistently shaped by social and structural factors such as maternal education, income, insurance, language, and region. The study also showed that coverage of the combined seven-vaccine series rose over time, yet persistent disparities remained, especially for vaccines such as influenza, hepatitis A, and rotavirus.

19 Apr 2026

Your new therapist: Chatty, leaky, and hardly human

Vince Lahey of Carefree, Arizona, embraces chatbots. From Big Tech products to "shady" ones, they offer "someone that I could share more secrets with than my therapist."

17 Apr 2026

As US birth rate falls, feds’ response may make pregnancy more dangerous

The number of babies born in the United States fell again last year.

17 Apr 2026

US Medicaid data finds buprenorphine safe for long-term child development

Children born to mothers who used buprenorphine for opioid addiction during pregnancy do not have a greater risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as ADHD and autism, compared with children whose mothers took methadone, finds a large US study published by The BMJ today.

17 Apr 2026

Study finds popular AI chatbots often give problematic health advice

Researchers audited five popular public-facing AI chatbots across 250 health prompts and found that 49.6% of responses were problematic, with especially weak performance on open-ended questions and in nutrition and athletic performance. The study also found poor citation quality, difficult readability, and very few refusals to answer, raising concerns about the reliability of chatbots for everyday health information.

16 Apr 2026

Popular chatbots often provide inaccurate and incomplete medical information

A substantial amount of medical information provided by 5 popular chatbots is inaccurate and incomplete, with half of the answers to clear evidence based questions "somewhat" or "highly" problematic, show the results of a study published in the open access journal BMJ Open.

15 Apr 2026

Metabolic syndrome doubles worldwide over two decades

A global study reveals a sharp rise in metabolic syndrome prevalence from 2000 to 2023, highlighting urgent public health challenges and regional disparities.

15 Apr 2026

Behavioral design project aims to reduce benzodiazepine overuse

The widespread use of benzodiazepines - better known as sleeping pills or anxiety medication - among the population has become a serious public health issue.

14 Apr 2026

Study finds top AI models still struggle with clinical reasoning

Researchers tested 21 frontier large language models on 29 stepwise MSD Manual clinical vignettes and found that, although many models performed well on final diagnosis, they remained much weaker at differential diagnosis and diagnostic testing. They also introduced the PrIME-LLM score, a multidimensional benchmark designed to better capture balanced clinical reasoning across the full workflow rather than raw accuracy alone.

14 Apr 2026