Research
People with Alzheimer’s disease may retain their ability to empathise, despite declines in other social abilities, new research has found. The researchers found that people with Alzheimer’s disease scored slightly higher on a measure of empathy than peers of the same age with mild cognitive impairment, despite scoring worse on other measures of social cognition [...]
A single dose of a psychedelic compound can enhance the brain's ability to adapt to changing circumstances for weeks after administration, potentially paving the way for new treatments for depression, PTSD, and neurodegenerative diseases. A recent study demonstrates that mice treated with a single dose of 25CN-NBOH, a seletive serotonin 2A receptor agonist, showed markedly [...]
A pair of popular glucose-lowering medications may have protective effects against the development of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in patients with Type 2 diabetes, new research has found. University of Florida researchers studied Medicare claims data of older adults with Type 2 diabetes to assess the association among glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1RAs, [...]
Digital technologies are associated with reduced cognitive decline, new research from the US has found. The study was sparked by the ongoing concern about the passive activity of digital technologies and their relation to accelerating risks of dementia. Study co-authors are Jared F. Benge, Ph.D., clinical neuropsychologist and associate professor of neurology at Dell Medical [...]
A new collaboration between two US universities aims to give stroke patients the ability to "speak" by detecting and interpreting brain signals, using the world's smallest computers linked up to the world's most biocompatible sensors. The Marcus Foundation has announced a $29.7 million grant, led by Stanford University, that would benefit victims of aphasic stroke, [...]
New regulations for running clinical trials in the UK have now been signed into law. A 12-month roll-out began on Friday (Apr 11) to deliver the most significant update to UK clinical trials regulation in two decades – with the aim of strengthening patient safety, accelerating approvals, enabling innovation and helping more people benefit from [...]
Customised training can reveal and enhance the socio-emotional skills of individuals with multiple disabilities, eye-tracking research has found. Although these patients are often considered ‘‘untestable’’, nine young people have undergone personalised training over a period of one year, with promising results in terms of their ability to socialise. This work opens the way to new [...]
A new analysis of the UK clinical trials landscape has revealed a concentration of research in certain disease areas and opportunities for increased representation of certain patient groups. The research was conducted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the University of Liverpool. The MHRA is using the insights to [...]
Scientists have discovered a new mechanism that acts via an immune cell and points toward a different way of treating chronic pain. Female hormones can suppress pain by making immune cells near the spinal cord produce opioids, a new study has found. This stops pain signals before they get to the brain. The discovery could [...]
The first-of-its-kind in-depth bacterial evolutionary map could pave the way for the development of precision treatments for certain antibiotic-resistant infections, such as urinary tract infections. Researchers in the UK and Norway have developed a new way of using large-scale long-read sequencing data to investigate circular genetic structures called plasmids in the most commonly studied microbe, [...]
