A 2026 longitudinal study found reassuring cognitive trajectories after mild-to-moderate COVID-19: Alpha/Delta and Omicron groups both improved by follow-up, and neither group showed persistent neuropsychological test deficits vs. population norms. Psychiatric symptoms and fatigue were also broadly similar across variants.1 Research Highlights 55 adults were assessed: 27 were infected during the Alpha/Delta era and 28 …
A 2026 behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia MRI study found that simple visual ratings of orbitofrontal and frontoinsular brain atrophy helped separate probable from possible bvFTD, with baseline left orbitofrontal atrophy predicting 3.77-fold higher odds of probable bvFTD classification.1 Research Highlights 143 people were rated: the study included 93 probable bvFTD cases, 15 possible bvFTD cases, and …
A 2022 Nature Communications study used non-contrast 3D T2-FLAIR magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to map human brain lymphatic signals in living people, including apparent channels from cranial nerves and skull-base structures toward cervical lymph nodes. Research Highlights Non-contrast MRI visualized lymphatic-like brain drainage: Albayram et al. identified dorsal dural signals near venous sinuses and ventral …
Coffee is widely framed as cognitively friendly, but a 2026 prospective study from Boscaini et al. published in Nature Communications used shotgun metagenomics, metabolomics, and cognitive testing in 62 healthy adults to show that coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers differ on the gut microbiome, key neurotransmitter-related metabolites, and behavioral measures — with coffee drinkers showing …
A 2026 medRxiv preprint involving 65 early subacute stroke survivors found that a composite cerebral small-vessel disease MRI score predicted 90-day cognitive recovery more reliably than any single input marker.1 Lower baseline burden predicted higher follow-up Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores (β = −0.19; p = 0.009) and remained associated after baseline cognition was included (β …
A 2026 Clinical Epigenetics study tracked DNA methylation biological age in 894 older adults and found that each 1-SD higher biological-age slope predicted 17-28% higher all-cause mortality risk across 5 epigenetic clocks.1 The clocks moved more slowly than calendar time over 8.1 years, but participants with higher methylation-age slopes had worse survival than participants with …
A 2026 quantitative MRI preprint reanalyzed 138 healthy adults and found that multivariate modeling detected coordinated age-related shifts across myelin-sensitive, iron-sensitive, and water-sensitive brain maps.1 The signal was broad, but split-half validation weakened the result enough to keep it in the measurement-method lane rather than the clinical-test lane. Research Highlights 138 adults were reanalyzed: The …