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Alzheimer’s Fingerprick Blood Biomarkers: p-tau217 and GFAP Track Cognition

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A 2026 PROTECT study involving 174 older adults found that self-administered fingerprick p-tau217 correlated with episodic memory (r = 0.299, p < 0.001) and GFAP correlated with working memory (r = 0.183, p = 0.034), supporting remote Alzheimer's risk triage rather than a stand-alone dementia diagnosis. Research Highlights Fingerprick sampling reached 77% completion: 174 of …

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Female Body Size Judgments Depend on Lower-Body Visual Cues

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A 2-experiment BMC Biology study found that female body-size judgments did not require a full-body view: bottom-half views preserved accuracy in 99 women, while isolated inner- or outer-thigh views produced more perceptual error than whole-body views in a second 116-woman experiment.1 The result is relevant to body-image research because it points to lower-body feature integration, …

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NREM2 Dreaming Preserved Subjective Sleep Depth in 1,024 Awakenings

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A 2026 PLOS Biology study using 256-electrode EEG and 1,024 NREM2 awakenings found that immersive dreaming predicted deeper subjective sleep, beta = 0.277, while reflective thought predicted shallower subjective sleep, beta = −0.195.1 Deep-feeling sleep can include immersive conscious experience. Research Highlights Immersion predicted depth: Perceptual immersion in NREM2 dreams was positively associated with subjective …

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Parkinson’s Visual Hallucination Mouse Model Hit AUC 0.96

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A 2026 Parkinson’s disease mouse study reported that benzhexol hydrochloride induced a measurable hallucination-like behavior state in 6-OHDA parkinsonian mice, and an integrated behavior classifier separated that state from non-PDVH mice with AUC = 0.96 and Youden index = 0.875.1 The careful interpretation is behavioral modeling, not proof that mice had human visual hallucinations. Research …

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tDCS for Empathy: rTPJ Increased Other-Pain Signals, DLPFC Did Not

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A 2026 Psychological Medicine study involving 196 healthy adults found that transcranial direct current stimulation over the right temporoparietal junction increased cognitive empathy signals across pain and video tasks, while left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex stimulation produced narrower and less consistent effects.1 The useful finding is anatomical calibration: rTPJ looked more like an other-state representation target, …

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Ayahuasca Reversed Chronic Stress Markers in Zebrafish Model

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A zebrafish experiment found that one 1-hour ayahuasca exposure reversed several effects of 14 days of unpredictable chronic stress: impaired sociability, anxiety-like behavior, stress-related hyperlocomotion, elevated cortisol, and reduced whole-brain BDNF.1 The result is mechanistic animal evidence, not a clinical trial of ayahuasca for human depression or anxiety. Research Highlights 14 days of chronic stress …

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Alzheimer’s Plasma Protein Structure Panel Reached AUCs Above 0.93

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A 2026 Nature Aging study involving 520 participants found that plasma protein-structure signatures classified healthy control, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease groups with 83.44% three-way accuracy.1 The result is a serious biomarker signal, but it is not a clinic-ready replacement for established Alzheimer’s testing. Research Highlights Classification was strong: The plasma structural-proteomics panel reached …

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