Cortex News and Research

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Mapping vulnerability or resilience in Alzheimer's through imaging and genetics

It's been recognized for some time that Alzheimer's disease affects brain regions differently and that tau - a protein known to misbehave - plays an important role in the disease.

9 Jul 2025

Understanding the human brain architecture through gene coexpression analysis

In a comprehensive Genomic Press Interview published in Brain Medicine, Dr. Michael C. Oldham shares his unconventional journey from advertising executive to computational neuroscientist and his groundbreaking contributions to understanding the human brain's cellular and molecular architecture through gene coexpression analysis.

8 Jul 2025

Brain stimulation and coaching help older adults increase physical activity

A study published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A reports that a novel combination of brain stimulation and personalized coaching significantly increased physical activity in older adults and held steady for months.

8 Jul 2025

Developmental timing shapes fluoxetine’s effects on brain energy and mood behavior

Researchers have found that the timing of when fluoxetine (commonly known by its brand name, Prozac) is administered is vital in determining the impact it has on long-lasting mood behavior and accompanying changes in the prefrontal cortex.

7 Jul 2025

Real time imaging reveals how visual experience rewires the brain

Scientists have long known that the brain's visual system isn't fully hardwired from the start-it becomes refined by what babies see-but the authors of a new MIT study still weren't prepared for the degree of rewiring they observed when they took a first-ever look at the process in mice as it happened in real-time.

4 Jul 2025

Electrical stimulation boosts math skills in people with weaker neural links

The strength of certain neural connections can predict how well someone can learn math, and mild electrically stimulating these networks can boost learning, according to a study published on July 1st in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Roi Cohen Kadosh from University of Surrey, United Kingdom, and colleagues.

2 Jul 2025

Prebiotics may boost brain GABA through gut microbiota

GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid, is an amino acid functioning as the principal inhibitory neurotransmitter that can act on the brain to slow or stop the reception of certain signals to the brain, leading to a calmer and more relaxed state.

1 Jul 2025

Brain stimulation restores synaptic plasticity in Alzheimer’s mouse model

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative condition that affects a significant proportion of older people worldwide. Synapses are points of communication between neural cells that are malleable to change based on our experiences.

30 Jun 2025

Aging brain adapts to read ambiguous facial expressions

Because aging weakens cognitive skills, older people can struggle to read difficult social cues. A brain region involved in attention and arousal-the locus coeruleus (LC)-helps with complex tasks, and its connections to the cortex may adapt as humans age to support cognition.

30 Jun 2025

Exploring neural responses to mental exhaustion in healthy adults

In experiments with healthy volunteers undergoing functional MRI imaging, scientists have found increased activity in two areas of the brain that work together to react to, and possibly regulate, the brain when it's "feeling" tired and either quits or continues exerting mental effort.

27 Jun 2025

New study reveals how diverse brain cells unite to guide decisions

Every decision begins invisibly. Long before someone acts, the brain is already hard at work gathering evidence, weighing options, and gradually committing to a choice.

27 Jun 2025

Sleep deficiency worsens pain mechanisms in migraine sufferers

The mechanisms in the brain that should reduce pain don’t work as well in people with migraine when they haven’t gotten enough sleep.

26 Jun 2025

Tirzepatide rewires appetite and slashes calorie intake in new obesity trial

A 6-week randomized trial found that tirzepatide significantly reduced energy intake, appetite, and cravings in adults with overweight or obesity, outperforming liraglutide and placebo. Brain imaging revealed that tirzepatide also lowered neural responses to high-fat, high-sugar food cues, offering mechanistic insight into its potent weight-loss effects.

25 Jun 2025

Grip strength offers new clues to early psychosis

Psychosis often begins not with characteristic disturbances of the mind – delusions like paranoia or hallucinations – but with disturbances in the way we move our body.

25 Jun 2025

Study uncovers how the brain amplifies pain from multiple sources

When pain strikes from multiple sources-such as a paper cut followed by contact with hot water-the experience can feel disproportionately intense. But is this agony merely additive, or does the brain integrate these signals in a way that amplifies suffering?

25 Jun 2025

Unhealthy teen diets reshape the brain and drive lifelong eating habits, study finds

Adolescent diets high in fat and sugar disrupt the development of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, impacting cognition, memory, and impulse control. These brain changes can promote unhealthy eating behaviors and obesity risk that persist into adulthood.

24 Jun 2025