Intelligence News

May 8, 2026

Top Headlines

Boosting One Protein Helps the Brain Fight Alzheimer’s

May 2, 2026 Scientists have discovered a way to help the brain clean itself of harmful Alzheimer’s plaques by activating its own support cells. By increasing a protein called Sox9, researchers were able to boost the activity of astrocytes, star shaped cells ...

This Hidden Kind of Stress May Be Damaging Your Memory as You Age

Apr. 27, 2026 A new study reveals that internalizing stress—especially feelings of hopelessness—may significantly speed up memory decline in older Chinese Americans. Surprisingly, factors like community support didn’t show the same impact. Researchers say ...

Fish Oil May Be Hurting Your Brain, New Study Finds

Apr. 26, 2026 Fish oil has long been praised as brain-boosting, but new research suggests the story may be more complicated. Scientists found that in people with repeated mild head injuries, a key omega-3 fatty acid in fish oil—EPA—may actually interfere with ...

These 80-year-olds Have the Memory of 50-year-olds. Scientists Now Know Why

Apr. 23, 2026 A rare group of adults over 80, known as SuperAgers, are rewriting what we thought was possible for the aging brain. With memory abilities comparable to people decades younger, their brains either resist or withstand the damage typically linked to ...

Doing This Throughout Life May Cut Alzheimer’s Risk by 38%

Apr. 15, 2026 A lifetime of mental stimulation—like reading, writing, and learning new skills—may help protect the brain as we age. People with the highest levels of cognitive enrichment had a much lower risk of Alzheimer’s and experienced symptoms years ...

Lonely People Have Worse Memory but Don’t Decline Faster, Study Finds

Apr. 14, 2026 Loneliness may quietly affect how well older adults remember things—but it might not be speeding up mental decline after all. A large European study tracking over 10,000 people for seven years found that those who felt lonelier started off with ...

This “Rotten Egg” Brain Gas Could Be the Key to Fighting Alzheimer’s Disease

Apr. 8, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a surprising new player in Alzheimer’s disease: a protein called CSE that helps produce tiny amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas in the brain. In experiments with genetically ...

Scientists Link Childhood Stress to Lifelong Digestive Issues

Mar. 17, 2026 Early life stress may set the stage for long-term digestive problems by disrupting the gut-brain connection. Studies in both mice and thousands of children found links to symptoms like pain, constipation, and IBS. Scientists discovered that ...

ADHD Brains Show Sleep-like Activity Even While Awake

Mar. 17, 2026 Researchers have identified a surprising brain pattern that may help explain why people with ADHD often struggle to stay focused. Even while awake, their brains can slip into brief episodes of “sleep-like” activity during demanding tasks. These ...

Cannabis Study Finds THC Can Create False Memories

Mar. 11, 2026 THC doesn’t just blur memories—it can create new ones that never happened. In a controlled experiment, cannabis users were much more likely to recall words that were never shown and struggled with tasks like remembering to do something later. ...

ChatGPT as a Therapist? New Study Reveals Serious Ethical Risks

Mar. 2, 2026 As millions turn to ChatGPT and other AI chatbots for therapy-style advice, new research from Brown University raises a serious red flag: even when instructed to act like trained therapists, these systems routinely break core ethical standards of ...

Scientists Discover Hidden Brain Cells That Help Heal Spinal Cord Injuries

Feb. 13, 2026 Scientists at Cedars-Sinai have uncovered a surprising repair system in the spinal cord that could open new doors for treating paralysis, stroke, and diseases like multiple sclerosis. They found that special support cells called astrocytes—located ...

Latest Headlines

updated 7:35am EDT

Scientists Found the Brain Doesn’t Start Blank, It Starts Full

May 3, 2026 The brain’s memory center may begin life more like a crowded web than an empty canvas. Researchers discovered that early neural networks in the hippocampus are dense and seemingly random, then ...

Are Your Memories Real? Physicists Revisit the Boltzmann Brain Paradox

May 3, 2026 A new analysis of the “Boltzmann brain” paradox suggests our memories and sense of reality could, in theory, be random illusions born from cosmic chaos. By uncovering circular reasoning in how ...

The Surprising Reason You’re So Productive One Day and Not the Next

Apr. 15, 2026 Feeling mentally “on” isn’t just in your head—it can significantly boost what you accomplish. Researchers found that sharper thinking on a given day leads people to set bigger goals and ...

These Overlooked Brain Cells May Control Fear and PTSD

Apr. 4, 2026 Astrocytes, once thought to be mere brain “support cells,” are now revealed to be key players in fear memory. Researchers found they actively help form, recall, and weaken fear responses by ...

Scientists Just Solved a Major Mystery About How Your Brain Stores Memories

Mar. 24, 2026 Scientists have found that your brain separates memories into “what” and “where/when” using two different groups of neurons. One set responds to specific objects or people, while another ...

Intelligence Emerges When the Whole Brain Works as One

Mar. 3, 2026 For decades, scientists have mapped attention, memory, language, and reasoning to separate brain networks — yet one big mystery remained: why does the mind feel like a single, unified system? ...

Why Some Kids Struggle With Math Even When They Try Hard

Feb. 15, 2026 A new Stanford study suggests math struggles may be about more than numbers. Children who had difficulty with math were less likely to adjust their thinking after making mistakes during number ...

Psychedelics May Work by Shutting Down Reality and Unlocking Memory

Feb. 15, 2026 Psychedelics can quiet the brain’s visual input system, pushing it to replace missing details with vivid fragments from memory. Scientists found that slow, rhythmic brain waves help shift ...

Scientists Discover Protein That Rejuvenates Aging Brain Cells

Feb. 12, 2026 A newly identified protein may hold the key to rejuvenating aging brain cells. Researchers found that boosting DMTF1 can restore the ability of neural stem cells to regenerate, even when age-related ...

Just 5 Weeks of Brain Training May Protect Against Dementia for 20 Years

Feb. 11, 2026 A simple brain-training program that sharpens how quickly older adults process visual information may have a surprisingly powerful long-term payoff. In a major 20-year study of adults 65 and older, ...

A Bonobo’s Pretend Tea Party Is Rewriting What We Know About Imagination

Feb. 10, 2026 A bonobo named Kanzi surprised scientists by successfully playing along in pretend tea party experiments, tracking imaginary juice and grapes as if they were real. He consistently pointed to the ...

Scientists May Have Found the Brain Network Behind Parkinson’s

Feb. 8, 2026 A new international study points to a specific brain network as the core driver of Parkinson’s disease. Scientists found that this network becomes overly connected, disrupting not just movement but ...

Two-Month-Old Babies Are Already Making Sense of the World

Feb. 5, 2026 At just two months old, babies are already organizing the world in their minds. Brain scans revealed distinct patterns as infants looked at pictures of animals, toys, and everyday objects, showing ...

Alzheimer’s Scrambles Memories While the Brain Rests

Feb. 1, 2026 When the brain rests, it usually replays recent experiences to strengthen memory. Scientists found that in Alzheimer’s-like mice, this replay still occurs — but the signals are jumbled and poorly ...

This Brain Discovery Is Forcing Scientists to Rethink How Memory Works

Feb. 3, 2026 A new brain imaging study reveals that remembering facts and recalling life events activate nearly identical brain networks. Researchers expected clear differences but instead found strong overlap ...

AI That Talks to Itself Learns Faster and Smarter

Jan. 28, 2026 AI may learn better when it’s allowed to talk to itself. Researchers showed that internal “mumbling,” combined with short-term memory, helps AI adapt to new tasks, switch goals, and handle ...

Menopause Linked to Grey Matter Loss in Key Brain Regions

Feb. 7, 2026 A major study suggests menopause is linked to changes in brain structure, mental health, and sleep. Brain scans revealed grey matter loss in areas tied to memory and emotional regulation, while many ...

Middle Age Is Becoming a Breaking Point in the U.S.

Feb. 1, 2026 Middle age is becoming a tougher chapter for many Americans, especially those born in the 1960s and early 1970s. Compared with earlier generations, they report more loneliness and depression, along ...

Researchers Tested AI Against 100,000 Humans on Creativity

Jan. 25, 2026 A massive new study comparing more than 100,000 people with today’s most advanced AI systems delivers a surprising result: generative AI can now beat the average human on certain creativity tests. ...

Massive Brain Study Reveals Why Memory Loss Can Suddenly Speed Up With Age

Jan. 14, 2026 A massive international brain study has revealed that memory decline with age isn’t driven by a single brain region or gene, but by widespread structural changes across the brain that build up over ...

The Secret to Human Intelligence? It Might Be in Our Gut

Jan. 5, 2026 New research shows gut bacteria can directly influence how the brain develops and functions. When scientists transferred microbes from different primates into mice, the animals’ brains began to ...

A Natural Aging Molecule May Help Restore Memory in Alzheimer’s

Jan. 25, 2026 Researchers have found that a natural aging-related molecule can repair key memory processes affected by Alzheimer’s disease. The compound improves communication between brain cells and restores ...

Scientists Reverse Alzheimer’s in Mice and Restore Memory

Dec. 24, 2025 Alzheimer’s has long been considered irreversible, but new research challenges that assumption. Scientists discovered that severe drops in the brain’s energy supply help drive the disease—and ...

Why Consciousness Can’t Be Reduced to Code

Dec. 24, 2025 The familiar fight between “mind as software” and “mind as biology” may be a false choice. This work proposes biological computationalism: the idea that brains compute, but not in the ...

Science Says We’ve Been Nurturing “gifted” Kids All Wrong

Dec. 21, 2025 A major international review has upended long-held ideas about how top performers are made. By analyzing nearly 35,000 elite achievers across science, music, chess, and sports, researchers found that ...

Neurons Aren’t Supposed to Regrow but These Ones Brought Back Vision

Dec. 19, 2025 After injury, the visual system can recover by growing new neural connections rather than replacing lost cells. Researchers found that surviving eye cells formed extra branches that restored ...

Stressed Rats Keep Returning to Cannabis and Scientists Know Why

Dec. 11, 2025 Rats with naturally high stress levels were far more likely to self-administer cannabis when given access. Behavioral testing showed that baseline stress hormones were the strongest predictor of ...

The Brain Switch That Could Rewrite How We Treat Mental Illness

Dec. 13, 2025 Scientists exploring how the brain responds to stress discovered molecular changes that can influence behavior long after an experience ends. They also identified natural resilience systems that help ...

New Research Reveals How Everyday Cues Secretly Shape Your Habits

Dec. 10, 2025 Researchers uncovered how shifting levels of a brain protein called KCC2 can reshape the way cues become linked with rewards, sometimes making habits form more quickly or more powerfully than ...

The Human Brain May Work More Like AI Than Anyone Expected

Jan. 21, 2026 Scientists have discovered that the human brain understands spoken language in a way that closely resembles how advanced AI language models work. By tracking brain activity as people listened to a ...