https://phys.org/ en-us Latest news from Society for Neuroscience Adults vary in how easily they learn new languages. While previous studies suggest this variability may be due to the distribution of groups of brain areas involved in attention, control and memory, a direct link has been lacking. Using a large sample of participants (101 people), Gangyi Feng, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and colleagues explored whether individual differences in the organization of these brain systems can explain variability in language learning in adulthood. This work was published in JNeurosci. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-brain-scans-fast-adults-languages.html Education Mon, 15 Jun 2026 13:00:04 EDT news700731601 Most breast cancers are worsened by estrogens. To combat the recurrence of these cancers, clinicians treat patients with inhibitors for estrogen production, like letrozole. But many patients do not adhere to this treatment due to negative side effects. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-side-effects-breast-cancer-treatment.html Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:00:07 EDT news699869341 Cocaine produces strong euphoric effects, but many users experience unpleasant effects after the rewarding aspects of the drug wear off, which serve as a "brake" for continued use. Research suggests that those who go on to misuse cocaine may not have as sensitive a natural brake on their use of the drug. Is there a genetic cause for this variability? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-06-heritable-cocaine-rats.html Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:00:02 EDT news699866921 Over half of the people carrying HIV experience chronic pain at some point, which is difficult to treat. In a new JNeurosci paper, Hui-Lin Pan, from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues used mice to explore how HIV leads to chronic pain. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-link-hiv-chronic-pain.html Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:00:02 EDT news699263221 The vagus nerve connects the brain to major organs throughout the body and plays important roles in many bodily functions. For people with mobility issues participating in physical therapy, stimulating the vagus nerve with a noninvasive technique—transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS)—is emerging as an additional treatment intervention. But researchers have not assessed how taVNS interacts with motor systems during movement, which could inform treatment strategies for those with mobility issues. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-vagus-nerve-treatment-movement.html Mon, 25 May 2026 13:00:02 EDT news698671322 Understanding how hibernation affects neurons sheds light on how neurons adapt to changing states and can inform treatment strategies for conditions in which neurons are damaged or impaired. In a new JNeurosci paper, researchers led by Hendrikje Nienborg, from the National Eye Institute, used squirrels to assess how hibernation alters neuron structure in a brain area that responds to visual information from the eyes. Why focus on this visual brain area? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-hibernation-visual-brain-area-squirrels.html Mon, 18 May 2026 13:00:10 EDT news698324404 Whether people are mulling over the pros and cons of a purchase or assessing their interactions with new people, they may show a bias in placing more value on perceived positive or negative information. In a new JNeurosci paper, Ulrike Basten and colleagues, from RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau and the University of Amsterdam, explored whether individual differences in processing benefits and costs are linked to psychological resilience. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-losses-link-decision-bias-resilience.html Mon, 11 May 2026 13:00:06 EDT news697717969 In a new JNeurosci paper, a Boston College research team led by John Christianson explored how a pathway between two areas of the brain—the insular cortex and prefrontal cortex—supports social decisions in male rats. Why did the researchers choose to assess the insular cortex and prefrontal cortex of rats? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-rats-comfort-shun-brain-pathway.html Mon, 04 May 2026 13:00:09 EDT news697095961 Clinicians use electroencephalography (EEG) to assess brain activity in epilepsy and sleep pathologies, and this powerful tool has shown promise for other conditions. Emerging evidence suggests that brain development, age, and the time of day affect EEG signals measured during sleep. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-brain-age-eeg-patterns-shift.html Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:00:07 EDT news696237689 On Earth, people grip objects to ensure they don't fall. In space, this process changes: When astronauts hold an object without moving it and then let go, the object doesn't fall because there is no gravity. But when astronauts move the object any which way, inertia takes the object up, down, left, or right if the hand grip is not steady. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-astronauts-transitioning-earth-space.html Space Exploration Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:00:07 EDT news695892962 Combating the opioid crisis relies on identifying new prevention strategies for problematic fentanyl use. In a collaboration between Washington State University and Washington University in St. Louis, researchers led by Jose Moron tested whether enriching a rat's environment can reduce fentanyl use and relapse. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-environmental-enrichment-lowered-stress-hormones.html Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:00:03 EDT news695281612 Some blind people use returning echoes from their own mouth clicks to perceive external surroundings, or echolocation. New from eNeuro, Haydee Garcia Lazaro and Santani Teng, from Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, explored how the human brain creates representations of external surroundings using echolocation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-04-people.html Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:00:01 EDT news694428481 What is the optimal way to learn something new? In a JNeurosci paper, John Byrne and colleagues, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, bring us a step closer to answering this question by using Aplysia, or sea slugs. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-sea-slugs-strategies.html Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:00:05 EDT news694078261 Erica Periandri and Gabor Egervari, from Washington University in St. Louis, led a study to explore how alcohol exposure in male mice influences gene expression and mechanisms that regulate gene function—or epigenetics. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-brain-markers-affected-lengthy-exposure.html Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:00:01 EDT news694079131 During intensive care after preterm births, babies can experience low oxygen in their tissue and cells—or hypoxia. Hypoxia is linked to poor brain health outcomes and life-long memory issues, but the mechanisms are unclear. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-mild-hypoxia-premature-birth-disrupt.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 13:00:18 EDT news693488521 In a study published in eNeuro, Lena Ting, from Emory University, and colleagues explored how brain and muscle activity during balance recovery change due to aging and Parkinson's. Previously, Ting's research group revealed that when they pulled a rug out from under young adults to trigger balance recovery, these individuals experienced an immediate involuntary brainstem and muscle response followed by a second wave of activity in the brain and muscle in more difficult balance disturbances. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-exploring-recovery-people-parkinson-disease.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 13:00:13 EDT news693467693 Preclinical studies on animals have identified brain pathways that drive quick, protective fear responses to "scary" sounds. Emmanouela Kosteletou-Kassotaki and colleagues, from the University of Barcelona, expand on this work by exploring whether humans also have a brain pathway enabling quick fear responses to certain sounds. Findings have been published in JNeurosci. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-brain-pathway-people-quickly-scary.html Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:00:08 EDT news692626921 Elaine Pinggal from Monash University, and colleagues assessed how sleep-like brain activity in awake adults influences sustained attention during a task. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-differences-brain-adhd-neurotypical-adults.html Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:00:01 EDT news692603135 In a collaboration between Tianjin University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, researchers led by Xiangbin Teng used behavioral and brain activity measures to explore whether people can discern between AI-generated and human speech. The researchers also assessed whether brief training improves this ability. This work is published in eNeuro. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-03-people-distinguish-ai-generated-human.html Security Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:00:02 EDT news692264641 The prevalence of congenital heart disease points to the need for a better understanding of how it influences neurodevelopment. Jung-Hoon Kim and Catherine Limperopoulos, from Children's National Hospital, led a study examining brain network disruptions that may be linked to congenital heart disease. The findings have been published in JNeurosci. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03-babies-congenital-heart-disease-brain.html Mon, 09 Mar 2026 13:00:01 EDT news692261680 People with alcohol use disorders tend to prioritize alcohol over alternative rewards, and the neural underpinnings of this are unclear. In a study appearing in JNeurosci, researchers led by Nathan Marchant, from Amsterdam Medical University Center, used rats to explore the role of a brain region involved in planning and making decisions in pursuing alcohol or socializing with peers. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-exploring-people-alcohol-rewards.html Neuroscience Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:00:02 EST news691316761 Elena Mainetto, from Radboud University, Margaret Westwater, from the University of Oxford, and colleagues at the University of Cambridge explored whether they could change how much people enjoy beverages containing sugar or artificial sweeteners by manipulating previous expectations about the drinks. The work is published in JNeurosci. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-artificial-sweeteners-affect.html Health Mon, 02 Mar 2026 13:00:01 EST news691318621 Research shows that as individuals learn and acquire a new skill, their brain structure and activity changes. But how do more complex skills involving multiple learning processes influence the brain? In a study appearing in JNeurosci, researchers led by Erik Wing, from Baycrest Hospital, compared the brains of 29 expert birders with 29 age- and sex-matched beginners. Because birding requires a keen eye, attention, and strong memory, this work may have implications for experts of skills using similar processes. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-expert-birders-compact-attention-brain.html Neuroscience Mon, 23 Feb 2026 13:00:06 EST news690797341 Presbycusis is a prevalent form of age-related hearing loss that also hinders speech recognition. While scientists have linked hearing loss to an increased risk of cognitive decline, the biological "bridge" between the two has remained unclear. Now researchers at Tiangong University and Shandong Provincial Hospital, led by Ning Li, have explored the link between these symptoms in people. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-loss-cognitive-decline-presbycusis-linked.html Neuroscience Mon, 16 Feb 2026 13:00:01 EST news690133343 Led by Mathieu Beraneck, researchers at the University of Paris Cité/CNRS and the University of Barcelona explored the strength of the relationship between a type of inner hair cell in the ear and balance. Their work is published in eNeuro. Says Beraneck, "After 200 years of research on this system, still no one has demonstrated the quantity of hair cells necessary for balance, so our study is a first step in answering this long-standing question." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-ear-hair-cells-affects.html Neuroscience Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:00:07 EST news689599866 Hyesang Chang and colleagues, from Stanford University, explored why some children struggle to learn math compared to their peers in a new JNeurosci paper. Children selected which numbers were bigger than others across different trials, with quantities represented as numerical symbols or as clusters of dots. The researchers created a model based on how much performance varied over time. The model suggested that children with difficulties in learning math struggled to update their thinking approach as they continued to get different types of trials wrong. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-exploring-children-struggle-math.html Mathematics Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:00:05 EST news689599857 Mary Schneider and Alexander Converse, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led an interdisciplinary study to explore how prenatal alcohol and stress exposure affect rhesus monkey offspring in adulthood. Their findings have been published in JNeurosci. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-pregnancy-linked-maladaptive-adult-patterns.html Neuroscience Mon, 02 Feb 2026 13:00:05 EST news688889029 The loss of social connectedness as people age increases the odds of cognitive-related disorders and can worsen health outcomes in older populations. But is there a direct relationship between social behavior and cognition? Subhadeep Dutta Gupta, Peter Rapp, and colleagues, from the National Institute on Aging, developed a rat model to probe social cognition in the aging brain. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-aging-rats-social-choices-healthy.html Neuroscience Mon, 02 Feb 2026 13:00:01 EST news688888981 As people age, structural brain changes influence their ability to adapt to the environment. Tatiana Wolfe and colleagues at the University of Arkansas characterized changes in the brain across two periods of adulthood that may correspond to changes in adaptive behavior. They have published their findings in eNeuro. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-exploring-environment-difficult-people-age.html Neuroscience Mon, 19 Jan 2026 13:00:01 EST news687688261 Following a stroke, some people experience a language disorder that hinders their ability to process speech sounds. How do their brains change from stroke? https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-speech-comprehension.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 29 Dec 2025 13:00:01 EST news685792604