A 2026 multi-cohort Alzheimer’s disease study found that MRI radiomics from the hippocampus and amygdala linked plasma pTau217 and smell identification to cognitive impairment — with more added cognitive signal than simple regional volume. The result is useful because it points to a possible bridge between blood biomarkers and brain-circuit damage, but it is still …
A 2026 resting-state fMRI study of 800 adults found intra-thalamic hypoconnectivity across schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression, but schizophrenia showed far broader subcortical dysconnectivity than bipolar disorder or depression.1 The calibrated read is that these diagnoses may share a thalamic vulnerability while diverging in striatal and limbic circuitry. Research Highlights Shared thalamic deficit: In …
The endogenous opioid system has been a candidate target for novel anxiety treatments, but a 2026 placebo-controlled crossover fMRI study in 38 healthy volunteers ran opposite the hypothesis: instead of increasing threat-related distress and amygdala reactivity, 50 mg oral naltrexone reduced subjective distress during cognitive reappraisal (p = 0.044, d = 0.57) and shifted ventromedial …
A 2026 fMRI study of 1,006 healthy young adults found that emotional pictures were remembered better than neutral pictures, but the brain signal split after arousal was modeled: amygdala and insula effects dropped out, while negative and positive valence kept separate cortical encoding patterns.1 Research Highlights Emotional pictures had the recall advantage: in the full …
A 2026 Nature mouse study found that basolateral amygdala astrocyte Ca2+ signals tracked fear retrieval and extinction, then showed causality: 3 mg/kg CNO manipulations of astrocyte DREADDs pushed early-extinction freezing in opposite directions while both disrupting later extinction retrieval.1 Research Highlights Astrocytes tracked fear state: after 3 tone-shock pairings and 2 days of 25 cue-only …
A 2026 multimodal MRI analysis of 509 healthy adults found that fear acquisition, extinction learning, and renewal were not predicted by one generic “fear circuit” score: functional connectivity predicted acquisition, structural connectivity predicted extinction, and effective connectivity was the only renewal signal.1 The extinction result is the clinically interesting piece because exposure therapy depends on …
A 2026 UK Biobank MRI preprint involving 71,214 adults found that chronic pain plus current depression had a structural brain profile that was more than chronic pain plus depression pasted together. The 1,377-person comorbid group showed widespread lower cortical volume, lower bilateral thalamic and hippocampal volume, lower left accumbens volume, and broad white-matter microstructure differences …