Summary: A recent study shows that the apparent motor-skill gap between our two hands is not an inborn trait. Using high-resolution 3D motion capture to separate basic limb movement from interaction with objects and tools, researchers found that both arms have essentially equal baseline capability. The strong asymmetry we commonly call “handedness” emerges from years … Read more

Summary: New research indicates that a common, inexpensive sleep supplement—melatonin—could change how chronic pain is treated. The study found melatonin significantly lowers musculoskeletal pain, producing relief on par with some conventional pain medicines. Analyzing data from more than 2,000 adults across 23 randomized controlled trials, researchers show melatonin addresses the two-way relationship between sleep disruption … Read more

Summary: Creatine is widely known as a popular gym supplement sold in tubs to support muscle growth and athletic performance. Because the brain and skeletal muscle share similar cellular bioenergetics, scientists have increasingly asked whether creatine’s ability to boost cellular energy could also help treat mood disorders such as depression. A new systematic review rigorously … Read more

Summary: For more than fifty years, research on artificial vision and artificial touch developed in parallel but separately—vision teams working in ophthalmology and touch teams in motor-rehabilitation and robotics—leading the scientific community to assume these approaches were fundamentally different. A new comprehensive review overturns that assumption: advanced brain-computer interface (BCI) architectures for visual cortical prostheses … Read more

Summary: Retinal vascular diseases, including diabetic retinopathy, affect millions worldwide and are a leading cause of blindness. The retina functions as an extension of the central nervous system and is protected by a highly selective blood–retina barrier that tightly controls what can enter or leave retinal tissue. This barrier depends on a specialized inner layer … Read more

Summary: The emotional and psychological bond formed between a mother and her infant in early months lays the neurological foundation for the child’s long-term cognitive, social, and behavioral development. A clinical phenomenon called mother-to-infant bonding difficulties (MIBD) can disrupt this vital connection. MIBD often shows as sudden emotional indifference, emotional distance, or hidden anger during … Read more

Summary: Patients who survive severe traumatic brain injuries can enter prolonged states of reduced responsiveness, described clinically as Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness (PDoC) or Locked-In Syndrome (LIS). For decades, standard bedside diagnostics have depended largely on visible motor responses—eye tracking, reflexive movements, or simple physical command following—to judge awareness. When the neural pathways that connect … Read more

Summary: Animals actively move to improve the quality of the sensory information they receive. Cognitive scientists call this behavior “active sensing.” A precise form of active sensing—infotaxis—occurs when an animal plans its movements to maximize information gain. Although rodents are central to neuroscience research, their poor vision has left open the question of whether they … Read more

Summary: Lip-reading is a demanding cognitive skill that requires the brain to interpret speech from visible mouth movements rather than from sound. While researchers have long measured overall lip-reading accuracy, the specific pattern of errors made by lip-readers has been less clear. Historically, many studies assessed errors through an auditory lens—focusing on phonemes (spoken sounds)—instead … Read more

Summary: Parkinson’s disease affects more than 10 million people worldwide and is second only to dementia among major neurodegenerative disorders. Pathologically, it is defined by progressive loss of dopamine-producing neurons, which leads to tremor, impaired movement, stiffness, balance problems and cognitive decline. Until now, most animal models have relied on genetic manipulation or injections of … Read more