Medical Xpress news

Medical Xpress / Common midlife vascular risk factors may cut dementia-free life by up to 13 years

A new study, published in Neurology Open Access, shows an association between three common vascular risk factors and the amount of dementia-free time people experience after age 55. The study hints that dementia is not inevitable ...

4 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Grid cells turn the brain's searchlight from broad scanning to target-focused search

For 20 years, the grid cell was the closest thing neuroscience had to a fixed point. May-Britt Moser and Edvard Moser found them in the rat brain in 2005, work that nine years later would carry them to the king's table in ...

3 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Scientists discover a brain cycle that may explain why learning eventually stalls

For many who have struggled to learn a new language or instrument, it's a familiar pattern: They make rapid progress at first, then hit a plateau that no amount of diligent practice or concentration seems to break.

3 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Discovery reveals aging human brains receive immune cell reinforcements from blood

The brain's immune system has long been thought to exist independently from the rest of the body, complete with its own specialized immune cells and a blood-brain barrier that limits what can travel into the brain.

4 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Fridge-free tetanus-diphtheria vaccine shows promise of reaching millions worldwide

The encouraging results of the world's first trial of a fridge-free tetanus-diphtheria vaccine could improve access worldwide to crucial treatments while reducing carbon emissions. Fridge-free vaccines have the potential ...

5 hours ago
Medical Xpress / ChatGPT can generate personality tests and predict people's responses before they take them

In iScience, scientists outline how they developed a method for generating personality assessment questionnaires with ChatGPT from any source text. To test the method, they applied it to both the DSM-5 and, as a deliberately ...

6 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Alzheimer's-linked tau disrupts mitochondria, reversing electron flow in nerve cells

A protein named tau, which has been strongly implicated in the world's No. 1 cause of dementia—Alzheimer's disease—and several other neurodegenerative disorders, may spur these diseases in a way that differs greatly from ...

6 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Human genome milestone opens door for personalized genomics

Scientists have reconstructed the complete genome of a real person, with full sets of chromosomes from each parent, a breakthrough expected to advance research, improve the diagnosis of genetic diseases and make personalized ...

6 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Why women need to be prioritized in longevity research

Why do women, on average, live longer than men yet often face a greater burden of chronic disease later in life? Why do some of the most fertile animals in nature, including queen bees and naked mole-rat queens, also live ...

6 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Bacterial supplements may boost female fertility

As women get older, their uterine environment changes. This includes a decrease in a beneficial bacterium called Lactobacillus gasseri, which may make conception—whether natural or via in vitro fertilization—difficult. In ...

6 hours ago
Medical Xpress / First complete marmoset genome will enable research on Alzheimer's and neurodegenerative diseases

To study complex diseases like Alzheimer's, scientists and clinicians analyze how genes change and malfunction in other species. Marmosets, a species of tiny monkey from South America, have become an important animal model ...

6 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Map of tonsil's genetic 'spaghetti' yields insights into immunity

About 2 meters (6.6 feet) of genetic material must fit into the nucleus of each of most of our trillions of cells, coiling and winding to form what looks like a tangled mess. But when genes are used, how they are used and ...

8 hours ago