Medical Xpress news

Medical Xpress / Observing synapses in action: Images capture real-time neurotransmitter release

It takes just a few milliseconds: A vesicle, only a few nanometers in size and filled with neurotransmitters, approaches a cell membrane, fuses with it, and releases its chemical messengers into the synaptic cleft—making ...

Dec 17, 2025 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Learning to play music can improve older people's brain function, study suggests

Improvising music could help to improve older people's cognitive skills, such as learning and memory, according to research from the University of Sheffield and Western Sydney University.

Dec 17, 2025 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Disappointment alters brain chemistry and behavior, mouse study shows

From work meetings to first dates, it's essential to adjust our behavior for success. In certain situations, it can even be a matter of life or death. So how do we switch our behavior when situations change?

Dec 17, 2025 in Psychology & Psychiatry
Medical Xpress / Brain on jazz: Musical improvisation moves beyond pure inspiration to dynamic reconfiguration

An international research team investigated the brains of 16 jazz pianists while they played a piece from memory, improvised based on the melody, and freely improvised based on the chord changes. The analysis of how different ...

Dec 17, 2025 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / How an antiviral defense mechanism may lead to Alzheimer's disease

One of the main proteins that contributes to Alzheimer's disease is called phospho-tau (p-tau). When p-tau gets too many phosphate groups attached to it (a process called hyperphosphorylation), it starts to stick together ...

Dec 17, 2025 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / A built-in odometer: New study reveals how the brain measures distance

Whether you are heading to bed or seeking a midnight snack, you don't need to turn on the lights to know where you are as you walk through your house at night. This hidden skill comes from a remarkable ability called path ...

Dec 17, 2025 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Microbiome may aid in healthy pregnancies by training maternal immune system

Gut microbes may play a key role in training a mother's immune system to adapt to the developing fetus during pregnancy, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

Dec 17, 2025 in Obstetrics & gynaecology
Medical Xpress / Deep-brain recording reveals how a crucial relay station shapes human visual signals

Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience have become the first to fully characterize cell activity from a little relay station in the center of the human brain. This aids our understanding of how the brain ...

Dec 17, 2025 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Alzheimer's disease more prevalent in older people than previously thought

New research, published in Nature, has provided the first ever population-based data on the frequency of Alzheimer's disease neuropathological changes (ADNC)—a key causal factor behind the development of dementia—and ...

Medical Xpress / New evidence about dopamine delivery explains why current Parkinson's treatments succeed—and their limitations

A McGill-led study is challenging a popular theory about how dopamine drives movement, a discovery that could shift how scientists think about Parkinson's disease treatments.

Dec 17, 2025 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / RNA-based molecule enhances therapies against pancreatic cancer

A research group at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) has identified a candidate molecule that could improve current therapies against pancreatic cancer. The team designed the new molecule, ...

Dec 17, 2025 in Oncology & Cancer
Medical Xpress / How disabling one gene protects mice against Type 1 diabetes

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have uncovered a possible way to protect key cells in the pancreas that are targeted during the development of Type 1 diabetes.

Dec 17, 2025 in Genetics