Dementia rates in the US, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, France, and several other high-income countries have been falling for decades, despite population aging. The standard explanation — improved cardiovascular care, more education, and less smoking in later-born cohorts — is real but incomplete. Research Highlights Dementia incidence has been falling about 13% per decade in Western …
A 2026 medRxiv meta-analysis of 27 trials found that transcranial direct current stimulation added to cognitive training improved global cognition immediately after treatment by SMD 0.36 compared with cognitive training alone.1 The signal was small, short-term, and rated very low certainty, so it is not evidence that tDCS is a durable cognitive-rehabilitation shortcut. Research Highlights …
A preprint in 84 older adults with epilepsy found that abnormal Alzheimer's-related blood biomarkers were common, but the biomarker categories did not line up neatly with cognitive impairment. Research Highlights Only 32.1% had normal biomarkers: 27 of 84 older adults with epilepsy were A−T−N− using blood-based amyloid, tau, and neurodegeneration markers.1 AD-continuum profiles were common: …
A 2026 review argues that neurovascular-unit dysfunction may precede amyloid-beta generation in Alzheimer’s disease and then synergize with amyloid deposition, tau pathology, inflammation, and neuronal loss.1 The model is vascular biology plus amyloid biology: blood vessels, barrier integrity, and amyloid deposition can amplify each other early enough to affect dementia risk and progression. Research Highlights …
A 2026 medicinal-chemistry study found that thymol carbamate TC-6 inhibited human butyrylcholinesterase at 3.6 nM, showed more than 2,500-fold selectivity over human acetylcholinesterase, crossed a blood-brain-barrier screening assay, and improved spatial-memory behavior in amyloid-β-injected mice. Research Highlights TC-6 hit BuChE hard: Wu et al. reported human butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) inhibition at 3.6 nM, compared with 9,320 …
A 2026 ADNI/A4 validation study found that Alzheimer’s plasma-biomarker machine-learning models still ranked amyloid PET status well across cohorts, but the practical rule-out number moved hard: negative predictive value fell from 0.831 inside ADNI to 0.644 when the ADNI-trained model was applied to A4.1 Research Highlights 1,707-person ADNI/A4 test: researchers trained amyloid PET prediction models …
Lecanemab blood biomarkers may rebound much faster than amyloid PET after treatment stops: a 2026 PK/PD model estimated that half of the Aβ42/40 treatment effect is lost within 0.5 years, compared with 12.1 years for amyloid PET signal.1 Research Highlights 0.5-year rebound for Aβ42/40: Bhagunde et al. estimated that half of the Aβ42/40 treatment effect …