August 11, 2025
(New York Times) – As products like weed gummies proliferate, more children and teens are suffering symptoms including seizures and life-threatening breathing problems. As legalization and commercialization of cannabis have spread across the United States, making marijuana edibles more readily … Read More
August 7, 2025
(NBC News) – Gefen and her colleagues at the Mesulam Center have autopsied nearly 80 SuperAger brains and compared them to those of their “neurotypical” peers. They focused on two indicators of Alzheimer’s: protein buildups in the brain called amyloid … Read More
August 7, 2025
(CBS Evening News) – A chatbot is a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to simulate human conversation. For the lonely, a chatbot can be a companion, as Meg Oliver reports in tonight’s “Eye on America.”
August 7, 2025
(New York Times) – How political red tape and a drug company’s thirst for profits limited the reach of a drug that experts believe could have reduced the opioid epidemic’s toll. In the years that followed, as the epidemic grew, … Read More
August 6, 2025
(Associated Press) – The NFL is banning the use of “smelling salts” during games, saying the products aren’t proven to be safe and also could mask signs of a concussion. The league sent a memo to teams on Tuesday explaining … Read More
August 5, 2025
(Straight Arrow News) – A growing body of research shows intense grief can impact the body but a new study suggests those effects may last far longer than we thought. Researchers in Denmark tracked bereaved relatives and found those with … Read More
August 4, 2025
(Nature) – When people viewed virtual avatars with coughs or rashes, their brains triggered an immune response. The brain activates front-line immune cells in response to the mere sight of a sick person, mimicking the body’s response to an actual … Read More
August 1, 2025
(Reuters) – Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink said on Thursday it will launch a clinical study in Great Britain to test how its chips can enable patients with severe paralysis to control digital and physical tools with their thoughts. … Read More
August 1, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Hundreds of thousands of veterans with PTSD have been prescribed simultaneous doses of powerful psychiatric drugs. The practice, known as “polypharmacy,” can tranquilize patients to the point of numbness, cause weight gain and increase suicidal thoughts … Read More
July 31, 2025
(New York Times) – But by artificially circulating blood and oxygen, the procedure can reanimate a lifeless heart. Some doctors and ethicists find the procedure objectionable because, in reversing the stoppage of the heart, it seems to nullify the reason … Read More
July 30, 2025
(NBC News) – Acute necrotizing encephalopathy is deadly in more than a quarter of kids diagnosed with the inflammatory brain disease. Severe flu seasons in recent years have brought to light a little-known danger of influenza infections in kids: a … Read More
July 30, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Shooter at NFL headquarters believed he was suffering from CTE, caused by repeated head trauma Shortly after Shane Tamura was identified as the shooter at the NFL’s Park Avenue headquarters building in New York on Monday, … Read More
July 30, 2025
(Wired) – Once dismissed as just snoring, sleep apnea is now emerging as an early warning sign for serious conditions like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and depression. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is one of the most common types of apnea, affecting … Read More
July 30, 2025
(Wired) – Stress, isolation, and uncertainty appear to have caused the brain to age quicker for those who lived through the crisis. More than five years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are still discovering the after-effects of … Read More
July 30, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Ultrapotent nitazenes, mostly from China, are easy to smuggle and mix into heroin, recreational drugs and gray-market pharmaceuticals Fentanyl fueled the worst drug crisis the West has ever seen. Now, an even more dangerous drug is … Read More
July 29, 2025
(CNN) – Maida’s cognition showed additional improvement, however, after she completed a total of 40 weeks of intensive lifestyle changes, said principal investigator Dr. Dean Ornish, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and creator … Read More
July 23, 2025
(KFF Health News) – More states are passing laws to protect information generated by a person’s brain and nervous system as technology improves the ability to unlock the sensitive details of a person’s health, mental states, emotions, and cognitive functioning. … Read More
July 23, 2025
(Wired) – Summer. For teens not at work, it’s hot, it’s boring, and it’s an ideal time to close the door and spend about every waking moment watching, playing, texting, streaming—anything but talking—on the phone. With almost half of teenagers … Read More
July 22, 2025
(NBC News) – The stress of lockdowns, fear and social isolation appear to have left a mark on our brains. Experts say it may be possible to counteract the changes. Brain aging may have sped up during the pandemic, even … Read More
July 21, 2025
(Wired) – Millions of people suffer debilitating reactions in the presence of certain scents and chemicals. One scientist has been struggling for decades to understand why—as she battles the condition herself. In 1997, Miller proposed a career-defining theory of how … Read More
July 21, 2025
(Wired) – Unlike Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface, Synchron’s doesn’t require open-skull surgery, and it has an OpenAI chatbot baked in. While Musk envisions a transhumanist fusion of mind and machine, Synchron is focused on meeting the immediate needs of people … Read More
July 21, 2025
(Comment) – But what if the creation of language and its communication are fundamentally different from what LLMs are doing? What if language use is not just one more skill among many? What if LLMs are subtly altering how we … Read More
July 16, 2025
(New York Times) – When it comes to mental health, most treatments for conditions like depression or anxiety come with caveats. Medications work for some symptoms, but can exacerbate others. Cognitive behavioral therapy is effective for many patients, but not … Read More
July 16, 2025
(Forbes) – Some professionals have warned against the excessive use of YouTube Shorts. For example, ChoosingTherapy.com, an outline site for mental health articles, released a report in 2023 describing how the compulsive urge to watch videos on YouTube can lead … Read More
July 16, 2025
(The Guardian) – Do you scream when you stub your toe? Could you play a grand final with a shattered jaw, or work all day as your belly fills with blood? When it comes to suffering, perspective is everything Each … Read More