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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.

Machine learning uses gene neighborhoods to identify harmful poultry bacteria

When it comes to identifying harmful bacteria, it helps to look at the company their genes keep.

12 Aug 2026

One cognitive ability stood out in a study of Western diets and Alzheimer’s risk genes

A Western dietary pattern was associated with faster attention decline among older adults carrying the APOE ε4 allele, while no significant cognitive associations emerged for a Prudent dietary pattern. However, the Western diet association lost statistical significance after excluding participants with possible baseline cognitive impairment, making the finding exploratory.

11 Aug 2026

Harnessing neuroplasticity to improve cochlear implant adaptation

Cochlear implants have transformed what is possible for people with profound hearing loss. But the next major advance may depend less on the device itself than on the brain's ability to learn how to use it.

10 Aug 2026

Accelerating life science computing with AI-ready infrastructure

Discover how computing is transforming life science research through AI infrastructure, GPU acceleration, and genomics.

From Advantech 10 Aug 2026

Medical reassurance often stops patients from seeking treatment

Doctors may think they're saying "Don't panic." But many patients hear "Don't bother" instead.

10 Aug 2026

Simple biological age score flags higher cognitive decline risk in older adults

A study of 4,818 middle-aged and older Chinese adults found that higher light BioAge was associated with greater risks of cognitive impairment, episodic memory decline, and reduced mental intactness. The simple measure, based on age, creatinine, glucose, and CRP, added modest predictive information but requires further validation before clinical use.

10 Aug 2026

Targeting small group of brain cells may reduce opioid addiction risk

Researchers at Duke University School of Medicine are investigating how to keep opioids' pain-relieving benefits while reducing their addictive potential. In a study published in Nature, they report a step toward that goal.

7 Aug 2026

Birdsong study reveals shared foundations of complex communication

The songs produced by birds share similarities with the structure of human language, a study shows.

7 Aug 2026

Researchers use AI to design functional bacteriophage genomes from scratch

Using AI, researchers have designed complete, functional bacteriophage genomes from scratch and tested them against bacteria that had evolved resistance to a natural bacteriophage.

7 Aug 2026

Brain's extracellular matrix controls learning windows and memory stability

For many who have struggled to learn a new language or instrument, it's a familiar pattern: they make rapid progress at first, then hit a plateau that no amount of diligent practice or concentration seems to break.

6 Aug 2026

Study reveals treatment gaps for atypical Alzheimer's disease patients

Many people with less common forms of Alzheimer's disease may not qualify for newer anti-amyloid treatments designed to slow the disease, according to a study published August 5, 2026, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

5 Aug 2026

Neural stem cells split early into distinct neuron lineages

The cerebral cortex is densely packed with different nerve cells that enable us to perceive, think and act. Yet how these cell types arise while the brain develops is still not fully understood.

5 Aug 2026

People with eczema face higher risk of developing shingles

An analysis in JDDG: Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft found that people with eczema (also known as atopic dermatitis) face an elevated risk of developing shingles (or herpes zoster).

5 Aug 2026

Complex ophthalmology letters may hinder patient understanding, study suggests

Letters to patients from ophthalmology services--the highest volume outpatient specialty in UK healthcare-include too much complex language and medical terminology which patients are likely to find hard to understand, reveals an analysis of more than 4 million letters from one large hospital trust, published in the open access journal BMJ Health & Care Informatics.

4 Aug 2026

Broader autism definition may lead to confusion and possible misdiagnosis

The definition of autism may have become so wide that it risks confusion and even misdiagnosis, according to a new editorial by UCL Professor Dame Uta Frith, whose pioneering research in the 1960s and 70s lay the foundations for how we understand autism.

3 Aug 2026

Linguistic style in children predicts future mental health problems

Linguistic models that analyzed the words children used when talking about stressful events proved better at predicting future mental health problems than a panel of human experts.

31 Jul 2026

Looking babies in the eyes may help them learn

Research reveals that direct eye contact enhances language learning in infants through adult-to-infant neural connectivity, highlighting its social relevance.

30 Jul 2026

New CapuchinAI system automates cognitive testing of wild primates

Scientists created an AI system that uses facial recognition and real-time, touchscreen testing to automate cognitive studies of capuchin monkeys in the wild.

29 Jul 2026

UH psychologist receives NIH grant to evaluate remote parenting program for premature infants

A University of Houston psychologist has received a $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to lead the first randomized clinical trial testing whether a remotely delivered parenting program can improve healthy infant brain development to support long-term mental health outcomes for babies born prematurely.

29 Jul 2026

The everyday habits linked to better grades in teenagers

Researchers found that regular meals, Mediterranean diet adherence, sufficient sleep, and limited television viewing were independently associated with better grades among 974 adolescents. Meeting more healthy lifestyle recommendations was consistently associated with stronger performance across first, second, and third languages.

29 Jul 2026