Dementia News and Research

Latest Dementia News and Research

Heart structure changes in midlife linked to long-term disease risk

Higher left atrial end-systolic dimension (LASD), an increased measurement of the left upper chamber of the heart, and left ventricular mass (LVM), a clinical measurement of the weight of the heart's left ventricular myocardium, are well-established indicators of cardiovascular damage that are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the short-term (less than 10 years).

28 Mar 2026

Hospital delirium associated with increased likelihood of future dementia

Older adults who develop delirium during a hospital admission face a substantially higher risk of dementia in later years, even if they had no prior health conditions, according to a major new population study.

27 Mar 2026

Mentally active sitting linked to reduced risk of dementia

New research distinguishing between passive and mentally active sitting in association with dementia has found that adults who engaged in extended durations of mentally passive sedentary behaviors had a higher risk of dementia.

26 Mar 2026

New brain atlas reveals how the human neocortex forms over time

In a bid to better understand, and potentially treat, a host of conditions that affect early cognition, neurodevelopment and the brain later in life, investigators at Johns Hopkins Medicine and colleagues throughout the world have been mapping the molecular construction of the human brain.

25 Mar 2026

Stroke may trigger younger brain patterns in unaffected regions

In a new study published in The Lancet Digital Health, scientists at the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) have discovered that the brains of people who experience severe physical impairment after a stroke may reorganize themselves in unexpected ways, showing signs of "younger" brain structure in undamaged regions as they adapt to injury.

25 Mar 2026

Massive clinical trial investigates brain training to delay dementia onset

An expansive clinical trial led by USF researchers and aimed at delaying the onset of dementia continues to receive major federal support for addressing a public health crisis.

25 Mar 2026

Passion fruit molecule may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease progression

Four years ago, a research group at the University of Oslo made what would turn out to be a major discovery.

25 Mar 2026

Severe infections linked to higher dementia risk independent of coexisting illnesses

Severe infections increase the risk of dementia independently of other coexisting illnesses, according to a new study published March 24th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Pyry Sipilä of the University of Helsinki, Finland, and colleagues.

24 Mar 2026

Home cooking may help prevent dementia in seniors

Preparing a home cooked meal at least once a week may cut older people's risk of dementia by 30%, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

24 Mar 2026

Walking patterns help distinguish Lewy body dementia from Parkinson’s

Doctors often struggle to distinguish early dementia with Lewy bodies from early Parkinson's disease.

24 Mar 2026

Cerebrospinal fluid marker enhances accuracy in diagnosis of Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia

An international consortium has achieved a major breakthrough in the diagnosis of neurological diseases. In a recent publication in the scientific journal Nature Medicine, they describe the discovery of a new quantitative biomarker in lumbar fluid (cerebrospinal fluid) that is helping doctors to diagnose Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia more accurately.

24 Mar 2026

New protein atlas identifies distinct subtypes of neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases form a tangled biological web with overlapping molecular signatures and symptoms. To decode this complexity, a multi-institute collaboration led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists developed the pan-neurodegeneration atlas (PanNDA).

23 Mar 2026

Higher meat intake may slow cognitive decline in older adults with APOE ε4

In older Swedish adults, higher meat intake was associated with slower cognitive decline and lower dementia risk among people carrying APOE ε3/ε4 or ε4/ε4, but not among other genotype groups. A higher processed-to-total meat ratio was linked to worse dementia outcomes, while unprocessed red meat and poultry showed no substantial difference.

22 Mar 2026

Oral semaglutide fails to slow early Alzheimer’s decline in two phase 3 trials

Two large phase 3 trials found that oral semaglutide 14 mg did not slow cognitive or functional decline over 104 weeks in people with early symptomatic, amyloid-positive Alzheimer’s disease. Semaglutide was generally consistent with its known safety profile and showed some biomarker changes, but these did not translate into clinical benefit.

22 Mar 2026

‘How low can you go?’ The shifting guidelines for blood pressure control

The patient initially came to see Mark Supiano in 2017 because her family was concerned about her short-term memory loss.

20 Mar 2026

Brain age from sleep patterns may signal future dementia risk

A machine-learning analysis of brain waves recorded during sleep may help identify people at high risk of developing dementia, according to a study led by UC San Francisco and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

19 Mar 2026

Brain lesions in Down syndrome show unexpected reversible changes

What has long been interpreted as permanent and irreversible vascular damage may not be exclusively so.

19 Mar 2026

Genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease may be modified by higher meat intake

Older people with a genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease did not experience the expected increase in cognitive decline and dementia risk if they consumed relatively large amounts of meat.

19 Mar 2026

Siemens Healthineers launches brain health research portfolio with first biomarker assays now available

Siemens Healthineers announced today its offerings for brain health research are expanding, with the brain-derived, fully automated Atellica IM Phosphorylated tau 217 (pTau217) and Atellica IM Brain Derived Tau (BDTau) assays now available for 1.

From Siemens Healthineers 19 Mar 2026

Menopause may raise women’s Alzheimer risk earlier than doctors once thought

This review argues that women’s higher Alzheimer disease risk may be shaped in part by midlife neuroendocrine aging, especially the menopause transition, rather than by longevity alone. It highlights early menopause, bilateral oophorectomy, vasomotor symptoms, and midlife cognitive changes as underinvestigated but potentially important risk markers, while calling for sex-specific, biomarker-driven prevention strategies.

18 Mar 2026