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Psychopathy, Empathy, and Cortical Structure in 804 Incarcerated Men

Psychopathy is not a simple “low empathy equals abnormal brain scan” story. In 804 incarcerated men, psychopathy factors tracked empathic concern, perspective taking, cortical thickness, surface area, and cortical organization—but self-reported empathy scores did not map cleanly onto cortical structure.1 Research Highlights The sample was unusually large for forensic MRI. Radecki et al. analyzed 804 …

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Schizophrenia MRI Subtypes Split 3,958 Patients Into 2 Patterns

MHD featured image for schizophrenia MRI cortical-gradient subtypes.

A 2026 ENIGMA structural MRI preprint involving 3,958 people diagnosed with schizophrenia and 5,489 controls found 2 cortical-alteration subtypes rather than 1 uniform brain pattern.1 The result maps heterogeneity: anterior-cingulate and temporoparietal network patterns may separate patients, but the result is not a diagnostic MRI test. Research Highlights Large MRI base: The analysis included 3,958 …

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Psilocybin First Use Changed Brain Signals for 1 Month

MHD featured image for first-time psilocybin use, brain entropy, MRI changes, and psychological insight.

A 2026 mechanistic study involving 28 healthy adults found that a single 25 mg psilocybin session changed acute brain entropy, psychological insight, well-being, cognitive flexibility, and some MRI-derived white-matter signals for up to 1 month. Research Highlights Acute brain entropy rose clearly: 25 mg psilocybin increased Lempel-Ziv complexity (LZc; a measure of signal irregularity) at …

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Late Chronotype MRI Signal Vanishes After Strict Correction

Stylized illustration of an early-morning sky and a late-night sky meeting over a brain in profile, representing the structural neuroimaging question about chronotype in healthy young adults.

Popular coverage of chronotype neuroimaging usually claims that late chronotypes (evening types, often called “night owls”) show smaller cortical regions and faster brain aging than early chronotypes (morning types). A 2026 multimodal structural MRI analysis from Beheshti and Elkana ran the comparison in 136 healthy young adults using strict whole-brain correction, and the group differences …

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Psychiatric Brain Biomarkers Lack Clinical Use: 441-Study Map

Psychiatric brain biomarkers have produced a large research literature but little routine clinical use. A 2026 evidence map found 441 primary studies and 27 systematic reviews of neuroimaging or neurophysiologic biomarkers for mental-health disorders, yet the field still looks too small, cross-sectional, and depression-heavy for ordinary diagnostic or treatment decisions.1 Research Highlights Large map, weak …

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White Matter Hyperintensity Penumbra MRI Links Hidden Damage to Cognition

MHD featured image for white matter hyperintensity penumbra MRI and cognition.

A 245-person BeLOVE MRI analysis found that tissue immediately surrounding white matter hyperintensities already carried measurable injury: magnetization transfer saturation was lower inside lesions than contralesional white matter, β = −0.48, p < 0.001, and the gradient extended into normal-appearing tissue around the lesion border. The cognitive signal was narrower but clinically interesting: higher perilesional …

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TRD MRI Coupling Classified Depression Resistance Above 0.88 AUC

A 2026 multimodal MRI study found that treatment-resistant depression had lower coordination between brain structure and brain activity than non-treatment-resistant depression in frontal, parietal, motor, and temporal regions. Machine-learning models using those structure-function coupling measures classified treatment-resistant vs. non-treatment-resistant depression with AUC values from 0.886 to 0.950 in the primary atlas analysis.1 Research Highlights TRD …

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