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Parkinson’s Speech Pauses Track Sentence Complexity and MoCA Scores

MHD featured image for Parkinson's speech pauses, sentence complexity, MoCA scores, and dysarthria.

A 2026 connected-speech study found that people with Parkinson’s disease produced more silent pauses than older controls while reading aloud: 2.185 vs. 1.595 mean pauses, while long sentences produced 2.676 pauses vs. 1.033 in short sentences.1 Within the Parkinson’s group, MoCA scores correlated with total pause count (rs = −0.502, p = 0.005). Research Highlights …

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Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis Added 670,000 Rat Dentate Neurons

MHD featured image for adult hippocampal neurogenesis and dentate gyrus neuron turnover.

A 2026 rat study estimated that adult hippocampal neurogenesis added 670,000 dentate gyrus granule neurons from 2 to 18 months of age, but the total dentate gyrus population grew by only 385,000 cells because older developmentally born neurons were also being lost.1 The result makes adult neurogenesis look numerically larger than the usual “tiny trickle” …

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Fibromyalgia Costs in Saudi Arabia: $2,560 Annual Direct Medical Cost

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A 2026 Saudi tertiary-hospital study estimated that adults treated for fibromyalgia — chronic widespread pain with fatigue, sleep disruption, cognitive symptoms, and overlapping mood or medical problems — generated SAR 9,601.2 (USD 2,560.3) in annual direct medical costs per patient, with specialist visits and diagnostic procedures accounting for 96.3% of recorded spending.1 Research Highlights Annual …

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Clomipramine Improved Alzheimer’s Mouse Memory by Blocking Itch in 45 Days

Editorial card showing clomipramine, Itch signaling, and Alzheimer's mouse-memory rescue with a molecular neuroscience background.

A 2026 iScience study found that 45 days of clomipramine improved spatial, working, and reference memory in female APP/PS1 Alzheimer’s-model mice, apparently by blocking the E3 ubiquitin ligase Itch rather than by clearing amyloid plaques.1 Research Highlights 45-day clomipramine signal: 6-month female APP/PS1 mice received 25 mg/kg clomipramine every other day for 45 days, then …

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tDCS Failed Visual Working Memory as Distraction Increased Orientation Bias

Editorial card showing visual working memory, tDCS electrodes, and distraction-linked orientation bias in a cognitive neuroscience task.

A 2026 two-experiment study found no visual-working-memory benefit from parietal or occipital transcranial direct current stimulation, while distraction unexpectedly made the cardinal-over-oblique orientation advantage stronger than it was without distraction: the pooled distraction-by-angle interaction had BFinc = 1021.671.1 Research Highlights Distraction strengthened the bias: pooled data from 68 analyzed adults showed a strong distractor-by-angle interaction, …

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Closed-Loop Subgaleal ISP Reduced Epilepsy Seizure Incidence 80%

Editorial card showing subgaleal electrode strips, closed-loop seizure detection, and focused neurostimulation for therapy-resistant epilepsy.

A 2026 first-in-human medRxiv preprint reported that closed-loop subgaleal intersectional short-pulse stimulation shortened stimulated seizures by 52% on average and reduced seizure incidence by 80.9% after 48 hours in 5 high-frequency therapy-resistant epilepsy patients. The signal is promising because it combines responsive seizure detection with electrode strips placed under the scalp rather than electrodes implanted …

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Statins and Dementia Risk: No Long-Term Signal in 322,358 Patients

Statins do not look like a dementia-prevention drug, but they do not look like a dementia hazard either. In 322,358 Kaiser Permanente Northern California patients followed for an average of 11.8 years, dementia diagnoses rose right after statins were started, then flattened: after the first year, the hazard ratio for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias …

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