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MS Memory Loss: 7-Day Recall Finds What 30-Minute Tests Miss

Photoreal illustration representing memory and forgetting in multiple sclerosis, with imagery of a fading word list and brain consolidation pathways.

Standard memory testing can tell a multiple-sclerosis (MS) patient that recall is normal after 30 minutes while missing a deficit that appears days later. Jansen et al. tested that exact blind spot in 62 MS patients and 65 matched controls: 7-day/30-minute recall ratios were lower in MS on both verbal-list recall (0.64 vs. 0.78, p …

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PTSD Trauma Memories Are Encoded in Hippocampal Semantic Maps

Photoreal illustration of the hippocampus with semantic encoding pathways highlighted, representing trauma memory processing in PTSD.

A 2026 fMRI study of 79 women with interpersonal-violence-related PTSD found that the hippocampus does encode the meaning of autobiographical trauma narratives, t(140) = 4.05, p < 0.001, even though average hippocampal encoding did not rise for trauma vs. neutral memories. Research Highlights Hippocampal semantic encoding was significant: Cisler et al. analyzed 3,928 narrative sentences …

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Resting Brain Connectivity Predicts Fear Extinction Learning

Photoreal illustration of brain network connections in the fear-extinction circuitry, with imagery linking amygdala and prefrontal regions.

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 …

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Chronic Pain Plus Depression Alters Brain Structure

Photoreal illustration of brain regions affected by overlapping pain and depression networks, conveying comorbid neural signature.

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 …

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Ketamine Increases Amygdala Volume in Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) (2024 MRI Study)

Depression is a complex mental health condition that significantly affects an individual’s emotional and physical well-being. Recent advances in neuroimaging have provided deeper insights into how major depressive disorder (MDD) alters brain structures, particularly the hippocampus and amygdala, and how treatments like ketamine can potentially reverse these changes. A new study using 3T and 7T …

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Myo-Inositol for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Targeting BATF2 for Epigenetic & Transcriptomic Changes (2024 Study)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains one of the most challenging conditions for modern neurology, carrying a wide range of long-term consequences that can significantly impair an individual’s quality of life. In a new study, researchers analyzed the epigenetic landscape post-TBI, revealing significant DNA methylation changes in the hippocampus—a crucial area for memory and learning. The …

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T2943 Treats Depression via Epigenetics: HDAC5 Inibitor in Hippocampus (2024 Study)

Depression remains one of the most pervasive and challenging mental health conditions, affecting millions worldwide with a significant number not responding to traditional treatments. Emerging research underscores the role of histone modifications in depression, pointing towards epigenetic mechanisms as potential targets for novel antidepressants. Specifically, a compound known as T2943 (a histone deacetylase-5 (HDAC5) inhibitor), …

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