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Category: neuroscience – Page 8

Strangers whose brains respond alike to movie clips often become friends later, study finds

People often bond with strangers over the books they read or the movies they watch and build friendships that last. Scientists may now have some insight into why this happens. A study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that participants who responded similarly to the same movie clips even before meeting were more likely to become friends later.

As part of the experiment, MRI brain scans were taken of 41 graduate students who had never met each other before, while they were shown clips of movies based on science, food, sports, environment, and .

A total of 214 were analyzed—200 cortical regions associated with functions, such as movement, perception, and sensory processing, and 14 subcortical regions that control movement, autonomic functions, and emotions.

Your Eye Movements Could Be Hiding Signs of a Failing Memory

The ways our eyes explore the world change subtly over time, affected by age and illness.

A new study now suggests some of those changes could be used to identify problems with memory and cognition.

Researchers from Canada and the West Indies built on previous work by searching for variations in eye viewing patterns in people with and without a diagnosis for a brain health issue.

Potentiation of mitochondrial function by mitoDREADD-Gs reverses pharmacological and neurodegenerative cognitive impairment in mice

Activation of Gs signaling at mitochondria by mitoDREADD-Gs increases mitochondrial metabolism, leading to better memory in mouse models of dementia, directly linking brain mitochondrial deficits to cognitive symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases.

Gut neurons help body fight inflammation with immune-regulating molecule

Neurons in the gut produce a molecule that plays a pivotal role in shaping the gut’s immune response during and after inflammation, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings suggest that targeting these neurons and the molecules they produce could open the door to new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease and other disorders driven by gut inflammation.

Hundreds of millions of neurons make up the enteric nervous system, the “second brain” of the body, where they orchestrate essential functions of the gut such as moving food through the intestines, nutrient absorption and blood flow. While this system is known for regulating these fundamental processes, its role in controlling intestinal inflammatory responses has remained far less clear.

In their study, reported August 15 in Nature Immunology, the investigators focused on group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), immune cells that reside within the linings of the gut. Their previous work revealed that ILC2s are a major source of a tissue-healing growth factor called amphiregulin and have the capacity to receive neuronal signals that modulate their function and can impact disease progression and recovery.

Prefrontal cortex astrocytes modulate distinct neuronal populations to control anxiety-like behavior

Whether and how prefrontal astrocyte Ca2+ signaling modulates different neuronal populations in aiding or inhibiting anxiety-like behavior remains not fully understood. Here authors show that prefrontal astrocytes encode anxiogenic cues and modulate excitatory and inhibitory neurons differently. Silencing prefrontal astrocytes heightens anxiety-like behavior and induces proteomic changes in astrocytes and neurons.

This Incredible Brain Implant Can Decode Inner Thoughts Into Speech

Scientists are making significant strides forward in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, and a newly developed system can translate our thoughts into text or sound.

It’s essentially an inner speech decoder, developed by researchers from institutions across the US. In tests on four volunteers with severe paralysis, the decoder hit an accuracy rate of up to 74 percent in translating thoughts into audible speech.

The potential here is for a BCI that can help those with speech or motor impairments to communicate more effectively than ever before, though there’s still work to be done improving how accurate and personalized the system is.

Tiny protein dismantles the toxic clumps behind Alzheimer’s

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. (2025, August 23). Tiny protein dismantles the toxic clumps behind Alzheimer’s. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 23, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250822073817.htm.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “Tiny protein dismantles the toxic clumps behind Alzheimer’s.” ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250822073817.htm (accessed August 23, 2025).

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