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Neonatal Brain MRI Shows Gyri Are Connectivity Hubs by 38-44 Weeks

MHD featured image for neonatal MRI, cortical gyri, sulci, and early brain connectivity.

A 2026 developing Human Connectome Project analysis of 438 full-term neonates found that the newborn cortex already had an adult-like folding hierarchy: gyri connected most strongly to other gyri, sulci connected most weakly to other sulci, and structure-function coupling shifted near 41 to 42 weeks postmenstrual age.1 Research Highlights Gyri were already high-connectivity hubs: across …

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Residual Sleepiness in Treated Sleep Apnea Linked to Memory Deficits

Stylized sleep-apnea treatment scene with CPAP, daytime sleepiness testing, and memory-task circuitry, representing cognitive deficits linked to residual sleepiness despite PAP adherence.

Some sleep apnea patients stay sleepy even when their CPAP is used 6+ hours a night and apnea events have been driven back to normal range. A 2026 cross-sectional study of 65 PAP-adherent adults found those residually sleepy patients performed measurably worse on global cognition, memory, executive function, attention, and processing speed than their well-rested …

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Child and Adult Adversity Doubled Frailty in UK Biobank

Editorial card showing a life-course timeline with biological aging biomarkers, illustrating how cumulative childhood and adult adversity stack on the frailty index.

A 2026 UK Biobank analysis by Aas et al. in BMC Medicine tests the “adversity leaves a fixed biological scar” framing against five biological aging markers in 153,557 middle-aged and older adults — and the marker that moves most reliably isn’t telomere length or any metabolomic clock.1 Research Highlights 153,557-participant test: Aas et al. measured …

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AI Levodopa Timing Improved UPDRS 4.4 Points in 5 Parkinson Patients

MHD featured image for AI-guided levodopa dosing in Parkinson's disease.

A 2026 open-label feasibility trial involving 5 Parkinson’s disease patients found that app-randomized levodopa timing was associated with a mean 4.4-point improvement on the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale, but the signal missed conventional statistical significance at p = 0.063.1 The narrow conclusion is feasibility: this was a dosing experiment that justified a blinded controlled …

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Non-Invasive Prehabilitation Shifted Brain Tumor Language Networks

MHD featured image for non-invasive prehabilitation, brain tumors, and language-network plasticity.

A 2026 brain tumor prehabilitation study involving 26 surgical patients found that language-targeted non-invasive stimulation plus intensive language training shifted fMRI language activation away from the stimulation target, while measured language and cognition stayed stable. Research Highlights Language-targeted prehabilitation moved the fMRI signal: the group-by-time interaction for stimulation-target overlap was significant, F(1,23) = 4.61, p …

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Migraine With PFO: Lower Indoleacrylic Acid, 211 Metabolite Changes

MHD featured image for migraine with PFO metabolomics and indoleacrylic acid.

A 2026 iScience metabolomics study found 211 differentially expressed metabolites in migraine patients with patent foramen ovale; in a 220-person validation cohort, lower indoleacrylic acid plus hs-CRP reached AUC 0.722 for distinguishing migraine with PFO from controls.1 Research Highlights Metabolomics found a broad signal: The discovery cohort included 30 migraine-with-PFO patients and 17 controls, with …

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Autistic Children Matched Navigation Tasks but Rated Their Ability Lower

MHD featured image for autistic children navigation confidence research.

A 2026 medRxiv preprint found that 26 autistic children performed similarly to 25 typically developing children on objective SPACE navigation tasks, contrary to the prediction, while autistic children rated their own navigation ability lower on the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction scale.1 Research Highlights Objective performance did not separate groups: 26 autistic children and 25 …

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