https://medicalxpress.com/neurology-news/ en-us Latest medical news and research in Neurology Our hands may do more than complement what we say. They can also help our brains process grammar. In a new neuroimaging study published in PNAS, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (MPI) in Nijmegen show that gestures can make it easier to process negative sentences ("I did not sleep"), providing the first neurocognitive evidence that gestures influence grammatical processing. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-gestures-brains-grammar.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:20:06 EDT news708882301 Researchers from the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have developed a new, noninvasive way to examine how blood flow and cellular organization align across the layers of the living human brain. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-mri-reveals-blood-brain-cells.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:00:05 EDT news708868067 Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with more than 1,200 risk genes, raising a fundamental question: Do these diverse genetic changes affect the brain in entirely different ways, or do they converge on shared biological mechanisms? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-autism-mutations-reveal-opposing-patterns.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:20:07 EDT news708879661 Deep in the brainstem sits a small but important cluster of neurons known as the locus coeruleus (LC), Latin for "blue place." It makes up a tiny fraction of the brain's cells but plays an important role by releasing the chemical messenger norepinephrine (NE). NE activates the body's response to stress or excitement, affects attention and learning, and affects heart rate. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-scientists-brain-mysterious-blue-longest.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:00:27 EDT news708877321 The eyes are more than lenses to the outside world; they can also be windows that offer a glimpse into what's happening inside our bodies. What if the eyes could help us understand how attention shifts from one moment to the next? Scientists are now testing whether tiny changes in pupil size can serve as a physiological marker of these fluctuations in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-children-pupils-reveal-shifting-attention.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 15:10:01 EDT news708875735 A new clinical trial led by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience has found that exercise has a significant effect on mood and lab-based measures of new brain cell formation in healthy middle-aged participants. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-clinical-physical-trial-mood-neuron.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 14:40:03 EDT news708870541 Dizziness, fatigue, brain fog and a racing heart. They're commonly associated with long COVID, but new Adelaide University research suggests that for some people, these symptoms may also be indications of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a debilitating and difficult-to-diagnose condition. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-heart-reveal-overlap-covid-pots.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:40:25 EDT news708865621 The aging brain is often viewed through a lens of cognitive decline, with older adults seen as compensating for their fading memory. New research in Perspectives on Psychological Science challenges that view. Drawing evidence from molecular biology and neuroimaging, researchers at the University of Arizona argue that late-life cognition is a natural phase of human development, one that prioritizes wisdom over details. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-aging-brain-declining.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:40:01 EDT news708865802 Chronic pain, including arthritis pain, affects more than one-third of U.K. adults. Current painkillers such as methotrexate and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) work by damping down the immune system, which is overproducing inflammatory agents that cause pain, but relief is often short-lived and incomplete, and they can leave patients more vulnerable to infection. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-body-warmth-sensor-secretly-pain.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:20:07 EDT news708863822 Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and collaborators have identified candidate treatment targets and potential prognostic markers for high-grade glioma, an aggressive brain cancer, in children, adolescents and young adults. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-tumor-profiling-reveals-enzyme-candidate.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:00:15 EDT news708794762 The foundations of brain development are laid during a crucial period of pregnancy, and a common household plasticizer called DEHP may be quietly interfering with this process. Scientists have now found that prenatal exposure to DEHP is linked to higher autism spectrum disorder (ASD)- and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related symptoms at ages 2 and 4. The effects could be traced back to changes in gene networks that play a key role in brain development. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-plasticizer-exposure-pregnancy-linked-autism.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 10:00:02 EDT news708856331 An existing anti-seizure drug slows the growth of a devastating group of childhood cancers, new Stanford Medicine-led research has shown. The tumors, called diffuse midline gliomas, strike the brain and spinal cord. They affect 300 to 400 U.S. children per year and have a five-year survival rate of about 1%. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-anti-seizure-drug-aggressive-childhood.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 05:00:03 EDT news708794221 A simple change in when people eat may offer a promising new approach for Huntington's disease, according to research led by Oregon Health & Science University. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-intermittent-fasting-huntington-disease.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 05:00:01 EDT news708776821 Many women say the same thing during pregnancy: They walk into a room and forget why, misplace their keys or struggle to follow a conversation. This phenomenon, often called "pregnancy brain" or "momnesia," has long lacked a clear biological explanation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-momnesia-real-scientists-biological-explanation.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:00:01 EDT news708795421 Researchers at DZNE and Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin are working on a targeted therapy for neurological autoimmune diseases. So far, they have successfully tested their approach in mouse studies involving two such conditions. Their concept is based on deliberately modified immune cells, so-called CAAR T cells, designed to eliminate only the immune cells responsible for causing disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-caar-cell-therapy-route-neurological.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 17:20:06 EDT news708790441 Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that individuals with bulimia nervosa have structural differences in brain regions involved in reward and motivation, as well as social and sensory processing, and that more frequent binge eating is associated with more widespread differences in brain structure, according to research published today in JAMA Psychiatry. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-binge-widespread-brain-differences-bulimia.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 17:00:08 EDT news708790201 Virtually all high-grade, aggressive gliomas in adults accumulate massive amounts of a metabolite called guanidinoacetate (GAA) that overstimulates nearby neurons and promotes tumor growth, according to new research from scientists at Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) published in Cell. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-metabolite-buildup-reveals-aggressive-brain.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:40:06 EDT news708790141 Executive function encompasses a suite of cognitive processes that enable individuals to regulate their behavior, thoughts and emotions. These skills are essential for tasks such as following instructions, controlling impulses and adapting to changing situations. Early childhood is a critical period for the development of executive function, and differences in these abilities have been linked to future academic success, social competence and long-term health and life outcomes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-eye-window-function-prefrontal-early.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:20:04 EDT news708789241 Scientists at the University of Galway have taken part in a first-in-human study of stroke patients using a thin wire fitted with sensors to assess and map their clots. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-human-trial-blood-clots.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:40:06 EDT news708780661 Stanford Medicine scientists have chalked up a major advance in growing human brain cells outside the human brain—and outside laboratory glassware. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-mice-human-brain-organoids-space.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 11:40:03 EDT news708775982 Losing muscle as we age could be an important warning sign for dementia, according to new Curtin University research. Researchers analyzed more than 80 studies examining the links between body weight, body fat, muscle health and dementia, finding people with sarcopenia—the loss of muscle mass and strength—had a 42% higher risk of dementia. Sarcopenia is a condition in which people lose muscle mass, strength and physical function, often as they get older. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-dementia-muscles.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 08:00:01 EDT news708762962 Our cells have their own internal "garbage collection" system that gathers up everything that is defective, worn out or foreign. Acting as a sort of "cellular stomach," the so-called lysosomes are responsible for this recycling process. However, the breakdown products must also be transported out of the organelles again; otherwise, there is a risk of neurological disorders, some of which can be severe. A research consortium led by the MHH has now discovered how this works, using sulfate in brain and kidney cells as an example. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-slc26a11-enables-recycling-brain-kidney.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 18:00:03 EDT news708704941 Learning can change how the brain organizes sensory information, but researchers are still working out what those changes look like across large groups of neurons. One possibility is that the brain stores a familiar smell as a single, stable pattern of neuronal activity. Another possibility is that patterns are not fixed. Instead, learning changes the range of patterns the brain can produce, making important smells easier to distinguish by reshaping what scientists call the "geometry" of neuronal activity. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-neural-patterns-distinguish-important.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 17:20:08 EDT news708704282 Exposure to stress during critical developmental windows significantly increases the risk of developing mood and anxiety disorders in adulthood. While women and sexual- and gender-minority groups experience higher rates of adversity and stress-related disorders, the underlying biological mechanisms driving these sex-influenced vulnerabilities remain poorly understood. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-trauma-brain-differ-significantly-males.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 17:00:04 EDT news708702724 A new discovery by neuroscientists at Brown University's Carney Institute for Brain Science challenges long-held beliefs in neurobiology about how neurons extend axons to reach their targets. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-neuron-cell-bodies-gene-axons.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 16:40:04 EDT news708702707 In two Indigenous communities living preindustrial lifestyles in the Bolivian Amazon, dementia is remarkably uncommon. However, a new longitudinal study reveals why earlier estimates told only part of the story. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-dementia-indigenous-bolivians.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:40:14 EDT news708692461 An unhealthy Western-style diet was associated with faster cognitive decline in people with a genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease, according to new research led by Murdoch University and Alzheimer's Research Australia. The study, Dietary patterns and cognitive decline in older adults: Findings from the Western Australia Memory Study, appears in the journal Nutrients. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-unhealthy-western-diet-linked-faster.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:20:10 EDT news708688621