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Air pollution exposure during early life can have lasting effects on the brain’s white matter

Exposure to certain pollutants, like fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), during pregnancy and childhood is associated with differences in the microstructure of the brain s white matter, and some of these effects persist throughout adolesc…

Brain development: extracellular vesicles facilitate cellular communication

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are tiny bubbles released by cells, acting as cargo vessels through which cells exchange signals and thus communicate. A paper has demonstrated that this form of cellular exchange also plays a key role in the development of…

Encoding human experience: Study reveals how brain cells compute the flow of time

A landmark study has begun to unravel one of the fundamental mysteries in neuroscience — how the human brain encodes and makes sense of the flow of time and experiences.

Psychedelics excite cells in hippocampus to reduce anxiety

A classic psychedelic, similar to LSD, psilocybin and mescalin, was found to activate a cell type in the brain that silences other neighboring neurons, a result that provides insight into how such drugs reduce anxiety, according to a new study.

How the brain processes the number zero

Despite its importance for mathematics, the neuronal basis of the number zero in the human brain was previously unknown. Researchers discovered that individual nerve cells in the medial temporal lobe recognize zero as a numerical value and not as a sep…

Common brain network detected among veterans with traumatic brain injury could protect against PTSD

Researchers analyzed 193 patients from the Vietnam Head Injury Study with penetrating traumatic brain injury to determine if the location of shrapnel damage to their brains influenced risk of developing PTSD. Damage to areas connected to the amygdala w…

Lengthened consonants mark the beginning of words

Speech consists of a continuous stream of acoustic signals, yet humans can segment words from each other with astonishing precision and speed. To find out how this is possible, a team of linguists has analysed durations of consonants at different posit…

How the brain integrates pain prediction and stimuli

A study has uncovered new insights into how the brain processes and integrates pain information. The research goes beyond identifying brain areas that respond to pain, revealing the mechanisms behind the brain’s integration of pain-related information….

Study of former NFL players finds 1 in 3 believe they have CTE

A study of nearly 2,000 former NFL players shows one-third believe that they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Those individuals were more likely to report cognitive symptoms, and 25% of them also reported suicidal thoughts. The players who …

Social media posts may provide early warning of PTSD problems

Scientists have analyzed millions of tweets to identify COVID-19 survivors living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — demonstrating the effectiveness of using social media data as a tool for early screening and intervention.