Research
Latest scientific findings about intelligence, IQ, and cognition.
Max Entropy Principle Predicts Neural Network Structure Better Than Training
New research shows that maximum entropy, not just training, shapes neural connections. The principle predicts network structure observed in gradient descent across multiple learning regimes.
Machine Psychometrics: a new science to measure AI minds
Researchers propose Machine Psychometrics, a measurement science to assess AI behavior using tools from mathematical psychology, avoiding both over-anthropomorphism and mind-blindness.
Thalamic Oscillation: A Biological Signature of Consciousness Found
Researchers discovered a rapid 20-45 Hz oscillation in the thalamus that only appears when we are awake or in REM sleep, offering a biological signature for conscious states.
New Compounds May Block Alzheimer's Brain Inflammation Linked to APOE4 Gene
USC researchers identified experimental compounds that selectively inhibit the cPLA2 enzyme, reducing brain inflammation tied to Alzheimer's, especially in APOE4 carriers.
Growing a Neural Network in Breadth, Depth, and Time
A new study shows that neural networks can trade off breadth, depth, and time like resources, and their processing time mirrors human reaction times.
Astrocytes Fine-Tune Sodium Levels to Match Nearby Neurons, Upending Decades of Dogma
New research reveals that sodium concentrations in astrocytes are not uniform but vary by location to support local synaptic activity, overturning a long-held assumption in neuroscience.
Brain Protein Menin Decline Drives Aging, Reversed by Supplement in Mice
Declining levels of the brain protein Menin in the hypothalamus trigger inflammation, memory loss, and physical aging in mice. Restoring Menin or supplementing with D-serine reversed cognitive decline.
Heart Attack Toxin Methylglyoxal Damages Brain, Causing Depression and Cognitive Decline
A new study reveals that after a heart attack, the toxic byproduct methylglyoxal surges into the brain, driving depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline. A peptide therapy may trap this toxin.
Long COVID Brain Inflammation Naturally Decreases Over Time, Study Finds
A new neuroimaging study shows that widespread brain inflammation in Long COVID peaks early and fades within 16 months, shifting focus from anti-inflammatory drugs to emotional regulation therapies.
Vitamin B12 guidelines may be too low for brain health, UCSF study finds
Older adults with 'normal' but low-active B12 show slower thinking and more white matter damage, suggesting current guidelines may miss hidden brain risks.
Serotonin Reduces Belief Stickiness: New Hope for OCD Treatment
A new study shows serotonin reduces 'belief stickiness'—the tendency to cling to outdated ideas—offering a fresh understanding of OCD and a targeted treatment window.
175 Vicious Mental Health Loops Mapped in New Study
A new study maps 175 self-reinforcing loops connecting 29 factors that trap young adults in poor mental health.
How attractor networks emerge from the free energy principle
Researchers show that attractor neural networks naturally emerge from the free energy principle, favoring orthogonalized patterns for efficient learning and inference.
Broken Sleep Rhythms: The Glymphatic Link to Dementia
A new study proposes that stress, depression, aging, and heart disease all increase dementia risk by disrupting a sleep-dependent brain rhythm that clears toxic proteins.
Personalized Machine Learning Lifestyle Coaching Doubles Depression Remission Rates
A clinical trial using smartwatch data and machine learning to personalize lifestyle coaching achieved a 55% depression remission rate, nearly doubling standard therapy outcomes.
Structured Lifestyle Programs Slow Biological Aging, Study Finds
A major clinical trial shows that structured, multi-domain lifestyle interventions with coaching and accountability significantly reduce biological frailty and protect cognitive function.
Large Rewards Accelerate Learning by Extending Dopamine Signals
Bigger rewards don't just feel better—they physically lengthen dopamine signals in the brain, enabling faster skill acquisition with fewer repetitions.
Why Alzheimer's Risk Hits Women Harder: New Study on Sex Differences
A UC San Diego study of over 17,000 adults found that common dementia risk factors, like hypertension and obesity, damage women's brains more strongly than men's, suggesting tailored prevention could reduce Alzheimer's.
How Instruction-Tuned AI Models Reveal Brain-Aligned Task Representations During Movie Watching
Study finds instruction-tuned multimodal LLMs align with brain activity better than non-tuned models, suggesting task-specific representations in the brain.
Hidden Alzheimer’s Trigger IDOL: New Enzyme Target Could Clear Plaques
Scientists at Indiana University discovered that removing an enzyme called IDOL from neurons reduces amyloid plaques and may help the brain resist Alzheimer’s damage.
Quantum Physics Equations Used to Map How Emotions Distort Memories
Researchers use quantum formalism to model how emotional events warp the order and precision of memories, explaining why some moments remain sharp while others slip out of sequence.
Real-Time Memory Test Predicts Alcohol Blackouts While Drinking
A new 15-minute memory test can spot alcohol-induced blackouts as they happen, allowing friends to intervene before harm occurs.
Severe CHD8 Mutations Overcome Female Autism Shield
First direct evidence shows that severe genetic mutations can override the natural biological protection females have against autism spectrum disorder, causing pronounced abnormalities in both sexes.
Quitting Smoking Slashes Dementia Risk 16%, but Weight Gain Over 22 Pounds Erases Benefits
A 10-year study finds that quitting smoking lowers dementia risk by 16%, but gaining 22+ pounds afterward cancels the benefit. Weight maintenance is key.
Zero-Shot Decoding of Handwriting from Brain Activity Achieves 64% Accuracy
Researchers achieve 64% hits@3 in decoding unseen handwritten characters from neural activity, suggesting motor cortex uses shared kinematic primitives.
How Action-Focused AI Models Mirror Your Brain During Gameplay
Vision-language and action models align differently with human brain activity during gameplay, with action-specialized models reorganizing representations toward motor-planning regions.
Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors With a Human Makes You More Random
New study shows that facing a human opponent can make your moves more unpredictable than facing a random generator, suggesting randomness is socially shaped.
Context Changes How Your Brain Represents Objects: Study
Objects activate different brain networks depending on whether they are passive or action targets, reshaping how they are represented.
Sparse Autoencoders Reveal How LLMs Mirror Brain's Semantic Map
New research shows that sparse autoencoders can extract semantic features from LLMs that map onto the brain's cortical semantic topography, explaining why intermediate LLM layers best predict brain responses.
Adult Brain Recycles Prenatal Genetic Playbook for Memory
New research shows adult neuroplasticity reuses the same molecular toolkit from embryonic development, revealing a shared genetic playbook for learning and memory.
Scientists Discover Brain Region Behind Abstract Thought and Creativity
New research pinpoints the ventral premotor cortex as the neural engine for recombining familiar symbols into novel ideas, revealing how your brain thinks creatively.
Synaptic Efficiency Explained by Information Theory
New research from James Stone shows synapses naturally operate at signal-to-noise ratios that maximize bits per joule, explaining why efficiency drops when conductance deviates.
AI Passes Turing Test: What It Means for Human Cognition
In a first, a large language model convinced people it was human 73% of the time. This milestone reveals how AI mimics personality and what it tells us about our own minds.
Mathematical Model Reveals How Temporal Interference Stimulation Activates Neurons
Researchers used math and simulations to show how two intersecting electrical fields can trigger or silence a single neuron, depending on amplitude and beat frequency.
Self-Supervised Learning Rules Uncover Hidden Hierarchical Structure in Data, Rivaling Backpropagation
Researchers found that layerwise self-supervised learning rules can match backpropagation's data efficiency in learning hierarchical structures, while remaining biologically plausible.
Why AI Says Naturalistic Experiments Are Key to Understanding Your Brain
A new paper from arXiv argues that naturalistic stimuli in cognitive science uncover mental processes that artificial lab tasks miss.
Virtual Reality and Cognitive Training Boost Brain Function in Parkinson's
A randomized clinical trial found that immersive virtual reality combined with adaptive cognitive training improved cognition and daily function in Parkinson's patients with mild cognitive impairment.
New Brain Model Unites Structure and Function for Deeper Cognitive Insights
Researchers propose functional whole-brain models (fWBMs) that combine realistic brain structure with task performance, aiming to bridge computational neuroscience and AI.
Von Economo Neurons Key to Reliable Social Skill Learning, AI Study Finds
A computational model shows that Von Economo neurons act as scaffolds for social skill acquisition, with implications for autism and frontotemporal dementia.
Hibernation Triggers Rapid, Reversible Brain Changes That Could Aid Stroke Recovery
A study reveals that hibernation causes rapid, reversible structural changes in visual neurons of squirrels, completely reversing within 1.5 hours of arousal and leaving no long-term deficits, offering insights for stroke recovery.
Parkinson's Drug Levodopa Reverses Memory Loss in Alzheimer's Study
New research identifies dopamine collapse in the entorhinal cortex as a hidden driver of Alzheimer's memory loss — and shows that the Parkinson's drug Levodopa can restore cognitive function in mice.
New Drug Target EPAC2 Reverses Fragile X Syndrome Symptoms in Mice
UCLA researchers found that blocking the overactive synaptic protein EPAC2 corrected brain circuit activity and reversed core behavioral symptoms in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome.
Neural Switch for Recent Memory Retrieval Discovered
A newly identified neural circuit between the medial septum and medial entorhinal cortex actively selects recent memories over past ones, offering insights into dementia and cognitive flexibility.
Cooperation Evolves Naturally When We Recognize Others, Study Finds
New research overturns 75 years of game theory; cooperation emerges spontaneously when individuals can recognize and remember past interactions.
Brains and AI Show Similar Patterns When Processing Sentence Constructions
EEG study finds that human brains and artificial neural networks represent linguistic constructions in strikingly similar ways, supporting a shared 'Platonic' representational space.
New algorithm scales spiking neural networks to thousands of GPUs
Scientists developed a method to build brain-like spiking neural networks on up to thousands of GPUs, enabling more realistic simulations of cortical circuits.
Flawed Math Overstates Alzheimer's Drug Benefit 29-Fold
A new study reveals that quantile aggregation, a statistical method used to evaluate Alzheimer's drugs, can exaggerate the link between amyloid removal and cognitive improvement by 29 times.
Grid and Place Cells Co-Emerge in a Simple Sensory Prediction Model
A new model shows grid and place cells can emerge together from a single sensory prediction objective, without separate supervision.
Anxiety linked to low brain choline in landmark study
A meta-analysis of brain scans found that people with anxiety disorders have 8% lower choline levels in the prefrontal cortex, suggesting nutrition may play a key role.
Cannabis and Tobacco Together Triple Psychosis Risk in High-Risk Youth
A study of over 1,000 teens and young adults found that combining cannabis and tobacco nearly triples the risk of developing schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders among those already at clinical high risk.
Even Low Air Pollution Levels Linked to Cognitive Decline, Brain Damage
Long-term exposure to low levels of air pollution, even within clean air standards, is linked to worse memory, comprehension, and processing speed, plus visible brain damage on MRI.
Brain Health Shields Memory from Early Alzheimer's, Study Finds
New research shows that maintaining overall brain health can protect memory and thinking from early Alzheimer's pathology, even before symptoms appear.
Memory Loss Reversed by Boosting Brain Cell Energy Factories
Scientists restored memory in dementia-like mice by temporarily boosting mitochondrial activity, suggesting energy failure may drive cognitive decline before neurons die.
Single Psilocybin Dose Rapidly Reduces Depression Symptoms in New Trial
A phase 2 clinical trial finds that a single 25 mg dose of psilocybin, with therapy, rapidly reduces depression symptoms, with 53% remission at 6 weeks.
Alcohol Causes 60+ Diseases; Some Harms Reversible With Abstinence
A new review confirms alcohol is a direct cause of over 60 diseases, including liver cirrhosis and dementia. While some cardiovascular and brain damage can partially reverse with abstinence, chronic conditions like cirrhosis are permanent.
How Chickadees Store Thousands of Locations: A Geometric Phase Transition in Hippocampal Memory
Food-caching chickadees achieve extreme spatial memory through a rigid, crystalline neural geometry in the hippocampus, offering over 100x capacity vs non-caching birds.
New AI Method Reveals What Each Brain Region Actually Sees
Researchers introduce MINE, a framework that uses AI to pinpoint which visual features activate each millimeter-scale brain region, revealing finer selectivity than previously known.
Rogue Antibodies Cause Tau Tangles by Overexciting Neurons
A direct causal link: patient-derived anti-IgLON5 antibodies trigger neuronal hyperactivity, causing Tau proteins to detach and form toxic aggregates.
Feature Visualization Reveals How AI Models Match Brain Visual Areas
New research shows that feature visualization can recover known brain selectivity from AI encoder models, revealing progression from V1 to higher areas.
How RNNs Switch Brain Rhythms: Multiple Mechanisms Revealed
A new study shows that neural networks use multiple strategies—population turnover, baseline shifts, and phase reorganization—to switch between brain rhythms like theta, alpha, beta, and gamma.
Why 90% of People Are Right-Handed: Bipedalism and Brain Growth
New research links human right-handedness to bipedalism and brain expansion, solving an evolutionary puzzle.
Consciousness as Uncommon Self-Knowledge: A Synergistic Information Theory
New theory proposes consciousness is synergistic self-information that disappears when you break a system apart, separating it from metacognition.
Childhood Adversity Blunts the Social Benefits of Intelligence
New research shows that higher IQ does not equally boost trust for everyone: childhood disadvantage cuts the effect of intelligence on social trust in half.
How Visual Cortex Neurons Organize Synaptic Inputs: Key Rules Discovered
MIT neuroscientists discovered three rules governing how visual cortex neurons organize thousands of synaptic inputs, revealing distance, clustering, and orientation selectivity shape brain wiring.
Brain-Stimulating Contact Lenses Show Promise Against Depression in Mice
New contact lenses deliver mild electrical signals to the brain via the retina, restoring connectivity and raising serotonin levels by 47% in mice — matching the effects of Prozac.
Your "Um" and Pauses Could Reveal Early Dementia Risk
New research shows that subtle speech habits like pauses and filler words are linked to executive function, and AI can predict cognitive performance from natural conversation.
Behavioral Geometric Supervision Aligns Video Models with Human Social Perception
A new method called behavioral geometric supervision (BGS) uses human odd-one-out judgments to train video AI models to perceive social interactions like humans do.
APOE2 Gene Protects Neurons by Repairing DNA Damage, New Study Finds
Buck Institute researchers discovered that the APOE2 gene variant helps neurons repair DNA and resist aging, offering a new target for Alzheimer's therapies.
Moderate Coffee Intake Linked to 35% Lower Dementia Risk
A 43-year study of 131,821 people found that 2-3 cups of coffee daily reduced dementia risk by 35% in those under 75, with benefits leveling off at higher intake.
Single Brain Synapse Pinpointed as the Starting Point of Vocal Learning
Scientists found that a single type of synapse in the basal ganglia is the origin of vocal learning. Disabling it makes birds revert to babbling.
Neurofeedback Trains Brain to Stop Depressive Rumination
Real-time fMRI neurofeedback gamifies brain training to reduce depressive rumination by targeting the neural coupling between self-referential and goal-directed brain regions.
Brain Signal Predicts and Restores Attention in Children
Researchers identified a neural signature that predicts attention lapses milliseconds before they occur. Targeted stimulation at that exact moment restored focus in children with ADHD and epilepsy.
Genetic Risk for Schizophrenia Alters Teen Brain Growth
A new study of over 6,000 children shows that high genetic risk for schizophrenia causes frontal brain surface area to shrink in early adolescence, while peers' brains grow.
LinCx: Biological "Bypasses" Restore Brain Circuits
Researchers engineered proteins that act as biological wires to reconnect broken brain circuits, altering behavior in mice without drugs or electrodes.
New Gene PTCHD1-AS Specifically Affects Autism Social and Repetitive Behaviors, Not Cognition
Researchers identify PTCHD1-AS, a long non-coding RNA gene that regulates social interaction and repetitive behaviors without affecting learning or memory, offering a precision target for autism traits.
Three Genetic Pathways Link Cannabis Use Disorder to Psychosis Risk
New research identifies over 500 genetic markers and three distinct biological pathways that explain how cannabis use disorder may lead to psychosis, offering a foundation for risk prediction and targeted treatments.
How Hormones Shape Hearing: Why Men and Women Process Sound Differently
New research reveals that hormonal fluctuations cause sex-dependent differences in hearing, challenging male-centric medical models and calling for precision audiology.
How the Timing of Trauma Shapes Brain Development and Behavior
A new study reveals that when trauma occurs—childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood—determines which brain regions are affected and which behaviors emerge, opening doors for personalized treatments.
Spatiotemporal AI Reveals How Brain's Motion Maps Self-Organize
New research shows that direction-selective maps in the brain's MT area emerge from a trade-off between task-driven learning and spatial smoothness, unifying visual stream theories.
Decoding Visual Neurons with Language: A New AI Method
Researchers used AI to translate monkey visual neurons into human-readable descriptions, correctly predicting neuron responses 96% of the time.
Finding the Sleep Sweet Spot for Slower Biological Aging
Sleeping less than 6 or more than 8 hours speeds aging across 17 organ systems, finds a new study of 500,000 people. The optimal sleep window is 6.4–7.8 hours.
First Brain Map of Histamine System Links Molecule to ADHD and Depression
Researchers created the first multiscale map of the brain's histamine system, revealing its role in ADHD, depression, and schizophrenia.
How Circadian Rhythm Disruption Turns Brain Clean-Up Cells Against You
Dysregulated sleep-wake cycles can turn microglia from protectors into malfunctioning cells that fail to clear amyloid plaques, accelerating dementia risk. A new EV therapy aims to prevent this shift.
New Tools Map Millions of Aging Brain Cells, Reveal Inflammatory Hotspots
Researchers developed IRISeq and EnrichSci to map millions of aging brain cells, revealing inflammatory clusters in white matter and ventricle-specific inflammation.
Cerebellum-Inspired Module Boosts Neural Network Temporal Learning
Researchers augmented RNNs with a cerebellar-like feedforward module, achieving faster learning and higher performance on temporal tasks compared to standard recurrent networks.
Homological Brain: How Your Brain Turns Complex Searches into Simple Navigation
The Homological Brain framework uses topology to explain how the brain transforms slow, complex searches into fast, automatic navigation via 'topological condensation.'
GLP-1 Drugs Quiet 'Food Noise' Better Than Therapy Alone, Study Shows
New research finds GLP-1 medications dramatically reduce intrusive food thoughts—far more than behavioral therapy alone—offering a neurobiological explanation for their weight loss success.
How the Brain Preserves Memories While Adapting to New Contexts
New research identifies joint sparse coding and temporal dynamics as key mechanisms that help the brain retain prior knowledge while flexibly adapting to new contexts.
Bipolar Disorder's Cognitive Decline Linked to Insulin Resistance
New research identifies a specific pathway where insulin resistance leads to gray matter loss and cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder patients, offering potential for targeted treatments like GLP-1 agonists.
Predictive vs. Feedback Signals in Language Learning: fMRI Study
New fMRI study reveals predictive signals drive group-level language learning, while feedback signals explain individual differences.
Brain stimulation cuts procrastination by boosting reward valuation, not reducing task dread
New research shows stimulating the left DLPFC with HD-tDCS reduces real-world procrastination for up to 6 months by increasing perceived value of task outcomes.
Visceral Fat Drives Brain Atrophy; Glucose Control Is Key
A 16-year MRI study of 533 people found that sustained lower visceral fat, mediated by glucose control, preserves brain volume and cognitive function in late midlife—independent of weight loss.
3D-Printed Brain Electrodes Custom-Fit Your Unique Neural Landscape
Researchers created 3D-printed hydrogel electrodes that mold to individual brain folds, enabling safer, higher-quality neural monitoring.
Daily Mental Sharpness Influences Productivity by 80 Minutes
A 12-week University of Toronto study finds that day-to-day fluctuations in mental sharpness can create up to an 80-minute productivity gap between your best and worst days.
Primary Cilium: The Brain's Hidden Architect and Protein Factory
New research reveals the primary cilium is a protein-making 'antenna' that shapes brain development, with implications for disorders like Filippi syndrome.
Digital Networking Rewires Your Brain to Forget Content
New research shows forming online connections shifts mental focus from learning content to tracking social ties, with a 40% drop in content recall.
Brain Stimulation Boosts Willpower to Quit Smoking, Study Finds
A new study shows that noninvasive brain stimulation targeting the self-control center reduces smoking by 11 cigarettes per day, offering a precision-medicine approach to addiction.
Discovery Challenges Brain Hierarchy, Redefines Natural Intelligence
New research finds decision-making signals in the primary somatosensory cortex, showing the brain relies on bidirectional feedback loops, not a simple hierarchy.
Why Bigger AI Models Learn Better: A Physicist's Answer
Physicists used a toy model to show that high-dimensional fluctuations stabilize learning, explaining why massive AI neural networks generalize better rather than overfitting.
Brain's Arousal 'Dial' Found: Implications for Parkinson's and Addiction
Researchers discovered that the anterior cingulate cortex acts as a 'dial' controlling the intensity of fight-or-flight responses, with potential treatments for Parkinson's and alcohol use disorder.