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Reference Terms
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Learning disability

In the United States and Canada, the term learning disability is used to refer to psychological and neurological conditions that affect a person's communicative capacities and potential to be taught effectively. The term includes such conditions as dysgraphia (writing disorder), dyslexia (reading disorder), dyscalculia (mathematics disorder) and developmental aphasia. In the United Kingdom, the term learning disability is used more generally to refer to developmental disability. Someone with a learning disability does not necessarily have low or high intelligence, nor any innate inability to learn. It just means this individual has an impairment to their ability due to a processing disorder, such as auditory processing or visual processing, that is detrimental to learning from traditional teaching methods. Learning disabilities are usually identified by school psychologists through testing of intelligence, academics and processes of learning.

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Mind & Brain News

January 1, 2026

Scientists studying Alzheimer’s in African Americans have uncovered a striking genetic clue that may cut across racial lines. In brain tissue from more than 200 donors, the gene ADAMTS2 was significantly more active in people with Alzheimer’s ...
New research reveals a brighter side of ADHD, showing that adults who recognize and use their strengths feel happier, healthier, and less stressed. People with ADHD were more likely to identify traits like creativity, humor, and hyperfocus as ...
Cannabis products with higher THC levels may slightly reduce chronic pain, particularly nerve pain, according to a review of multiple clinical trials. The improvement was small and short-lived, while side effects were more common. Products with ...
ADHD stimulants appear to work less by sharpening focus and more by waking up the brain. Brain scans revealed that these medications activate reward and alertness systems, helping children stay interested in tasks they would normally avoid. The ...
Tiny lab-grown brains are offering an unprecedented look at how schizophrenia and bipolar disorder disrupt neural activity. Researchers found distinct electrical firing patterns that could identify ...
Weight loss restored healthy metabolism in both young and mid-aged mice, but the brain told a different story. In mid-aged animals, slimming down actually worsened inflammation in a brain region tied to appetite and energy balance. While this ...
A major new review has put hundreds of alternative autism treatments under the microscope—and most didn’t hold up. Scientists analyzed decades of research and found little reliable evidence that popular approaches like probiotics, acupuncture, ...
A new study suggests temporal lobe epilepsy may be linked to early aging of certain brain cells. When researchers removed these aging cells in mice, seizures dropped, memory improved, and some animals avoided epilepsy altogether. The treatment used ...
A new study suggests that dementia may be driven in part by faulty blood flow in the brain. Researchers found that losing a key lipid causes blood vessels to become overactive, disrupting circulation and starving brain tissue. When the missing ...
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 restoring that balance can reverse damage, even in ...
MIT scientists have achieved the first-ever lab synthesis of verticillin A, a complex fungal compound discovered in 1970. Its delicate structure stalled chemists for decades, despite differing from related molecules by only two atoms. With the ...
New research suggests Alzheimer’s may start far earlier than previously thought, driven by a hidden toxic protein in the brain. Scientists found that an experimental drug, NU-9, blocks this early damage in mice and reduces inflammation linked to ...

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