Brain and Nervous System News

April 5, 2024 — Investigators have created the first images that accurately depict facial distortions experienced by people with PMO, a rare visual disorder that is often mistaken for mental illness.

March 29, 2024 — The CDC is warning health care providers in the United States to be on the watch for a rare bacterial illness that can lead to meningitis and possibly death.

January 10, 2024 — A new study from Harvard University’s Massachusetts Eye and Ear offers groundbreaking insight into the role the brain plays in tinnitus – and its surprising significance.

December 27, 2023 — People who lived alone with pets had slower rates of cognitive decline based on those test results when compared to people who lived entirely alone.

November 6, 2023 — Older people enrolled in tai chi classes showed improved performance on memory tests, especially if they took a more challenging form of the exercise, says a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

November 2, 2023 — We know being creative is good for your brain and mental health -- and you can get better at it. Here are eight ways.

October 12, 2023 — New sensors can transform earbuds into powerful health monitors that track brain activity and lactate levels in sweat. They could help doctors diagnose, monitor, and treat disease.

July 19, 2023 — In a three-year study of how diet affects brain health, subjects on a diet to improve brain health did not show significant improvement over subjects on a less restrictive diet.

July 12, 2023 — Mind-altering drugs could open the brain to a state of childlike learning, aiding recovery from psychological trauma, brain injury, or paralysis.

July 10, 2023 — After three family members from three different generations died of ALS, I took the chance on a clinical trial to see if I had a greater risk of developing the disease.

June 20, 2023 — A person’s brain gradually shrinks with age, but a new study suggests that people who regularly take short, daytime naps may thwart that aging process by the equivalent of 2 to 6 years.

June 13, 2023 — Researchers have discovered why light to moderate alcohol consumption may be linked to a reduced risk of heart problems. Brain imaging revealed that the area of the brain associated with stress response was different in light to moderate drinkers, compared to people who drank very little or abstained.

June 2, 2023 — The number of brain abscesses in children rose sharply last winter, along with the number of respiratory infections, the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Thursday.

June 1, 2023 — The shape of the brain might play a greater role on our thoughts, feelings, and actions than traditionally believed, according to a new study in the journal Nature.

May 30, 2023 — A new study adds to the growing body of evidence that consuming certain nutrients may help the brain stave off the effects of aging. This latest indication, from researchers at Columbia and Harvard universities, shows that older people who had a diet low in flavanols boosted their scores on memory tests by 16% after taking a flavanol pill for one year.

May 25, 2023 — Older people who took a daily multivitamin for 1 year appeared to stave off the equivalent of 3 years of age-related decline in mental skills, according to a new study.

May 5, 2023 — In a first-of-its-kind in-utero surgery, researchers have successfully repaired a vein of Galen malformation, which often leads to heart failure, severe brain injury, or possibly death soon after birth.

May 3, 2023 — The drug maker Sarepta Therapeutics is seeking FDA approval to treat a rare form of muscular dystrophy with what would be the first gene therapy OK’d through the agency’s accelerated approval process.

May 2, 2023 — It’s an increasingly common trend: U.S. adults who are taking a stimulant medication, together with other drugs that target the central nervous system, such as antidepressants, opioids, and anti-anxiety medications.

April 27, 2023 — In identifying sounds and syllables under noisy conditions, older musicians did better than older non-musicians – and equaled young non-musicians.

April 26, 2023 — Adolescents who ate walnuts for at least 100 days were better able to think and reason on their feet and had fewer symptoms of ADHD – they could pay more attention in class and be less hyperactive.

April 26, 2023 — The FDA has approved the first treatment that takes a genetics-based approach to slowing or stopping the progression of a rare form of ALS, the debilitating and deadly disease for which there is no cure.

April 18, 2023 — Boys born to mothers with COVID-19 could face brain-development issues at a rate twice that of others, a new study found.

April 14, 2023 — For adults with hearing loss, using hearing aids could reduce the risk of developing dementia by 42%, a new study suggests.

April 13, 2023 — A small new study suggests that obstructive sleep apnea may cause problems with thinking skills.

April 3, 2023 — No one likes to sit in traffic. Now, new research finds that toughing out rush hour may also present significant brain health risks you never knew about.

March 31, 2023 — Earworms are usually harmless, except when they’re not.

March 22, 2023 — Teens experience many of the same symptoms of concussions as adults, but they may be worse, and take longer to end.

March 14, 2023 — The vast majority of concussion research has used male lab animals and men as subjects, although concussions are common in women too

March 10, 2023 — The differences in visual memory between former football players with the highest and lowest reported concussion symptoms were equivalent to differences in cognitive performance between a typical 35-year-old and a typical 60-year-old.

February 27, 2023 — The brain’s grid cells help us track other people’s movements, scientists report. This could shed light on why some become disoriented in crowds.

February 23, 2023 — In some cases, encephalitis, which can be difficult to diagnose, can lead to mental health issues, including thoughts of self-harm and suicide.

February 8, 2023 — The brains of nearly all NFL players studied showed signs of the impact-induced brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), researchers at Boston University announced.

February 6, 2023 — People in a study recalled the positions of dozens of objects with good if not perfect accuracy, a finding that expands our understanding of spatial and temporal memory.

February 2, 2023 — A new study suggests that following a healthy lifestyle is linked to slower memory decline in older adults, even in people with the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) gene—one of the strongest known risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

January 24, 2023 — People hospitalized with viral infections like the flu are more likely to have disorders that degrade the nervous system, like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, later in life, a new analysis shows

January 19, 2023 — Medical research on the benefits of smell in virtual reality may start to move faster, thanks to breakthroughs in the entertainment industry.

January 4, 2023 — Losing your teammate or player to a potentially career-ending – or fatal – injury can weigh heavy.