Summary: An international consortium has produced the first consensus-based framework and standardized taxonomy for vocal biomarkers, establishing clear definitions and a hierarchical model to advance clinical, regulatory, and research applications of voice-based health technologies. A multi-stage Delphi process convened 24 experts from Europe and North America through the eVoiceNet and NIH Bridge2AI-Voice consortia to resolve … Read more

Summary: A new study shows that primary brain tumors called gliomas respond well to targeted drug delivery using focused ultrasound (FUS) combined with microbubbles, and that an MRI-based approach can precisely track blood-brain barrier (BBB) opening and drug transport inside the tumor microenvironment. Researchers developed a high-resolution MRI protocol to visualize how focused ultrasound opens … Read more

Summary: The first U.S. clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for military veterans with treatment‑resistant post‑traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has shown a favorable safety profile and substantial clinical benefit. In an 11‑week open‑label pilot, intensive psychotherapy combined with two synthetic psilocybin dosing sessions produced high remission rates and large reductions in clinician‑rated PTSD symptoms. Over the … Read more

Summary: A new study shows that learning in neural networks is driven mainly by adjusting the strengths of existing connections rather than by continuously expanding or reorganizing the underlying network structure. Researchers trained artificial neural networks on language tasks while gradually increasing the amount of training data. Although model performance improved substantially with more data, … Read more

Summary: A systematic review and meta-analysis finds that controlled breathing interventions significantly reduce substance cravings across a range of drug classes, including alcohol, nicotine, opioids, stimulants and polysubstance use. This synthesis pooled data from 20 studies involving 1,249 participants to evaluate the effectiveness of various breathwork approaches. Overall, breathing-based interventions produced modest but statistically significant … Read more

Summary: Researchers identified a neural signature in mice that encodes the intrinsic value of information, separate from physical rewards. In a series of experiments, laboratory mice actively sought advance knowledge about upcoming outcomes—even when obtaining that information reduced the amount of physical reward they received. Concurrent population neural recordings revealed that roughly 20% of decision-related … Read more

Summary: Research highlighted by Karen Barrett of the Institute for Health & Aging at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) shows that musical improvisation engages brain networks differently than playing memorized music. Building on foundational neuroimaging work by Charles Limb, studies show that when experienced jazz musicians improvise, they reduce activity in the dorsolateral … Read more

Summary: A new study assessed the long-term cognitive effects of reduced sugar exposure in early life by taking advantage of the historical end of World War II sugar rationing in the United Kingdom. Researchers compared later-life dementia outcomes among people born before and after rationing ended. The analysis included 64,737 individuals born around the time … Read more

Summary: A new mathematical framework explains when organisms depend on memory versus immediate sensory cues to make decisions, revealing a sharp resource-driven shift from reactive to memory-based strategies and showing that memory is most beneficial at moderate levels of sensory uncertainty. Researchers modeled the tradeoff between decision accuracy and the bioenergetic cost of maintaining memory … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified the tRNA-binding protein TRNAU1AP as a critical driver of glioblastoma (GBM) stem cell survival and tumor progression. A multidisciplinary team showed that elevated TRNAU1AP expression in tumors correlates with poorer clinical outcomes for glioblastoma patients. TRNAU1AP organizes into liquid-like intracellular clusters that selectively enhance the translation of selenoproteins. These selenoproteins, which … Read more