Xie et al. demonstrate that systemic inflammation activates a subset of glutamatergic neurons in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG). Manipulating these vlPAG glutamatergic neurons and their projections to the nucleus tractus solitarius modulates inflammation-induced sickness behaviors and hypometabolic states, including hypothermia, cardiovascular depression, reduced locomotion, and appetite suppression.
Dr. James Giordano, Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program and Scholar-in-Residence in the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, speaks to cadets and faculty about how advancements in neuroscience and neurotechnology will impact the future of war. This event was hosted by the Modern War Institute at West Point.
The study also utilized blood samples collected at the beginning of the research period. The investigators measured several biomarkers of systemic inflammation, including C-reactive protein and white blood cell counts. These markers were combined into a composite inflammation score. This score allowed the team to test if inflammation in the body explained the link between diet and brain changes.
The results revealed a significant association between dietary habits and brain aging. Individuals who consumed the most pro-inflammatory diets had a larger brain age gap compared to those who ate anti-inflammatory diets. Specifically, those in the most pro-inflammatory group had brains that appeared about half a year older on average than those in the healthiest diet group. This suggests that poor dietary quality may accelerate the biological clock of the brain.
This association was dependent on the age of the participants. The link between a pro-inflammatory diet and older brain age was much stronger in adults aged 60 and older. In this older demographic, a pro-inflammatory diet was associated with an advanced brain age of nearly a full year. This implies that older adults might be more vulnerable to the negative effects of a poor diet.
Researchers discovered that the common amino acid arginine can block harmful Aβ aggregation and reduce its toxic effects in Alzheimer’s disease models. In flies and mice, oral arginine lowered plaque levels, reduced inflammation, and improved behavior. Its strong safety record and low cost make it a promising repurposing candidate. The findings hint at a surprisingly simple path toward more accessible AD therapies.
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered a natural mechanism that clears existing amyloid plaques in the brains of mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease and preserves cognitive function. The mechanism involves recruiting brain cells known as astrocytes, star-shaped cells in the brain, to remove the toxic amyloid plaques that build up in many Alzheimer’s disease brains.
Increasing the production of Sox9, a key protein that regulates astrocyte functions during aging, triggered the astrocytes’ ability to remove amyloid plaques. The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggests a potential astrocyte-based therapeutic approach to ameliorate cognitive decline in neurodegenerative disease.
“Astrocytes perform diverse tasks that are essential for normal brain function, including facilitating brain communications and memory storage. As the brain ages, astrocytes show profound functional alterations; however, the role these alterations play in aging and neurodegeneration is not yet understood,” said first author Dr. Dong-Joo Choi, who was at the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and the Department of Neurosurgery at Baylor while he was working on this project. Choi currently is an assistant professor at the Center for Neuroimmunology and Glial Biology, Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
If “Batman” appears on the scene, we immediately become more altruistic: in fact, research conducted by psychologists from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, shows that the sudden appearance of something unexpected—Batman—disrupts the predictability of everyday life and forces people to be present, breaking free from autopilot.
The study was published in the journal npj Mental Health Research, and was led by Francesco Pagnini, Full Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, Università Cattolica.
Prosocial behavior, or the act of helping others, is essential to social life, yet the spontaneous environmental factors that trigger such behavior remain little explored. This study tested the ability of an unexpected event, such as the presence of a person dressed as Batman, to increase prosocial behavior by interrupting routines and increasing people’s attention to the present moment.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, is one of the leading causes of dementia worldwide, and currently has no definitive cure. Although antibody-based therapies that target amyloid β (Aβ) have recently been developed, their clinical effectiveness remains limited. These treatments can be costly and cause immune-related side effects, highlighting the need for safer, affordable, and widely accessible approaches that can slow the progression of AD.
In a study, published online on October 30, 2025, in Neurochemistry International, researchers from Kindai University and collaborating institutions discovered that oral administration of arginine, a naturally occurring amino acid and safe chemical chaperone, effectively suppresses Aβ aggregation and its toxic effects in animal models of AD.
The researchers emphasized that although arginine is available as an over-the-counter dietary supplement, the dosage and administration protocol employed in this study was optimized for research purposes and does not correspond to commercially available formulations.
In the search for a way to measure different forms of a condition called sensory processing disorder, neuroscientists are using imaging to see how young brains process sensory stimulation.
Now, investigators at UC San Francisco have found a distinctive pattern for overwhelm in some children who are overly sensitive to sound, touch, and visual information. The finding could one day help clinicians refine treatments for kids who have strong emotional and behavioral reactions, such as tantrums, to their sensory environment.
Sensory processing disorder affects how the brain understands and responds to sensory information but still lacks an official medical diagnosis. The study appeared in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders on Nov. 21, 2025.