Brain Injury News

June 20, 2025

Top Headlines

The Hunger Switch in Your Nose: How Smells Tell Your Brain to Stop Eating

June 12, 2025 — A team of scientists has discovered a direct link between the smell of food and feelings of fullness at least in lean mice. This brain circuit, located in the medial septum and triggered by food odors, helps animals eat less by making them feel ...

Brain-Computer Interface Restores Real-Time Speech in ALS Patient

June 12, 2025 — A team at UC Davis has made a major leap in neurotechnology, enabling a man with ALS to speak again through a brain-computer interface that converts thoughts into speech in real time. Unlike prior systems that translated neural signals into text, ...

Scientists Found the Brain Glitch That Makes You Think You’re Still Hungry

June 11, 2025 — A team of scientists has identified specialized neurons in the brain that store "meal memories" detailed recollections of when and what we eat. These engrams, found in the ventral hippocampus, help ...

Brain Training Game Offers New Hope for Drug-Free Pain Management

June 3, 2025 — A trial of an interactive game that trains people to alter their brain waves has shown promise as a treatment for nerve pain -- offering hope for a new generation of drug-free ...

Newly Identified Group of Nerve Cells in the Brain Regulates Bodyweight

May 30, 2025 — Obesity is a global health problem that affects many people. In recent years, very promising anti-obesity drugs have been developed. Despite these successes, there are patients who do not respond to these drugs or suffer from side effects. ...

A Switchboard With Precision: How the Brain Licenses Movements

May 29, 2025 — Neurons deep in the brain not only help to initiate movement -- they also actively suppress it, and with astonishing precision. The findings are especially relevant for better understanding neurological disorders such as Parkinson's ...

Overlooked Cells Might Explain the Human Brain's Huge Storage Capacity

May 28, 2025 — Researchers have a new hypothesis for how brain cells called astrocytes might contribute to memory storage in the brain. Their model, known as dense associative memory, would help explain the brain's massive storage ...

Clinical Trial Shows Improvements for Spinal Cord Injuries

May 21, 2025 — Researchers demonstrated unprecedented rates of recovery for spinal cord injuries. Individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury safely received a combination of stimulation of a nerve in the neck with progressive, individualized rehabilitation. ...

Depression Linked to Physical Pain Years Later

May 21, 2025 — Middle-aged and older adults who experience pain are more likely to have had worsening symptoms of depression up to eight years before the pain began, according to a new ...

How Serious Is Your Brain Injury? New Criteria Will Reveal More

May 20, 2025 — Trauma centers nationwide will begin to test a new approach for assessing traumatic brain injury (TBI) that is expected to lead to more accurate diagnoses and more appropriate treatment and follow-up for patients. The new framework expands the ...

New Research on ALS Opens Up for Early Treatment

May 20, 2025 — Using the gene scissors CRISPR and stem cells, researchers have managed to identify a common denominator for different gene mutations that all cause the neurological disease ALS. The research shows that ALS-linked dysfunction occurs in the energy ...

How Molecules Can 'Remember' and Contribute to Memory and Learning

May 20, 2025 — Researchers have discovered how an ion channel in the brain's neurons has a kind of 'molecular memory', which contributes to the formation and preservation of lifelong memories. The researchers have identified a specific part of the ion channel at ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:52am EDT

MRI Can Replace Painful Spinal Tap to Diagnose MS More Quickly, According to a New Study

May 20, 2025 — Experts have demonstrated that multiple sclerosis (MS) can successfully be diagnosed using an MRI scan, meaning patients no longer need to undergo a ...

Experimental Painkiller Could Outsmart Opioids -- Without the High

May 19, 2025 — A study shows a non-opioid pain reliever blocks pain at its source -- calming specific nerve signals that send pain messages to the brain. In mice, the compound SBI-810 eased pain from surgery, bone ...

Relieve Your Pain With a Psychologist or an App

May 17, 2025 — Psychological treatment can relieve pain. New research now shows what happens in the brain -- and what specific treatments psychologists, doctors and patients can turn ...

Can the Brain Be Targeted to Treat Type 2 Diabetes?

May 16, 2025 — Successfully treating type 2 diabetes may involve focusing on brain neurons, rather than simply concentrating on obesity or insulin resistance, according to a new study. For several years, ...

Vision Loss, Damage Could Be Tied to Eye Pressure, Study Finds

May 15, 2025 — One of the world's leading causes of irreversible vision loss could begin with elevated eye pressure, according to a recent ...

Cyberbullying in Any Form Can Be Traumatizing for Kids

May 15, 2025 — New research shows that cyberbullying should be classified as an adverse childhood experience due to its strong link to trauma. Even subtle forms -- like exclusion from group chats -- can trigger ...

Energy and Memory: A New Neural Network Paradigm

May 14, 2025 — Listen to the first notes of an old, beloved song. Can you name that tune? If you can, congratulations -- it's a triumph of your associative memory, in which one piece of information (the first few ...

Scientists Discover New Way the Brain Learns

May 14, 2025 — Neuroscientists have discovered that the brain uses a dual system for learning through trial and error. This is the first time a second learning system has been identified, which could help explain ...

Hormone Cycles Shape the Structure and Function of Key Memory Regions in the Brain

May 13, 2025 — Hormone levels fluctuate like the tides, ebbing and flowing according to carefully orchestrated cycles. These hormones not only influence the body, ...

Lower Tackle Height Changing Face of Women's Rugby, Study Says

May 12, 2025 — Lowering the legal tackle height in women's rugby is proving effective in reducing head contacts between players, a new study suggests. Changes to the tackle height law in women's community rugby in ...

Vitamin Supplements Slow Down the Progression of Glaucoma

May 8, 2025 — A vitamin supplement that improves metabolism in the eye appears to slow down damage to the optic nerve in glaucoma. The researchers behind the study have now started a clinical trial on ...

Piecing Together the Brain Puzzle

May 7, 2025 — Our brain is a complex organ. Billions of nerve cells are wired in an intricate network, constantly processing signals, enabling us to recall memories or to move our bodies. Making sense of this ...

Neuroscientists Pinpoint Where (and How) Brain Circuits Are Reshaped as We Learn New Movements

May 7, 2025 — Brain researchers have identified a bridge between the thalamus and the cortex as the key area that is modified during motor learning functions. They found that such learning does much more than ...

New Chronic Pain Therapy Retrains the Brain to Process Emotions

May 6, 2025 — Researchers have created an effective therapy for chronic pain that reduces pain intensity by focusing on emotional ...

Study Finds One Protein That Mitigates Huntington's Disease, and One That Exacerbates It

May 5, 2025 — Researchers found that inhibiting GSK-3 led to less defects in the axonal transport process and less neuronal cell death, while inhibiting ERK1 led to more transport problems and more cell ...

PTSD Patients Show Long-Term Benefits With Vagus Nerve Stimulation

May 5, 2025 — In a recent clinical study, patients with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder were symptom-free up to six months after completing traditional therapy paired with vagus nerve ...

Our Ability to Recognize Objects Depends on Prior Experience

May 2, 2025 — New findings suggest neurons have much more functional dexterity than scientists previously ...

Molecular Double Agent: Protein 'Eato' Plays Surprising Role in Protecting the Brain

May 1, 2025 — A team of researchers has made a discovery in fruit flies that could change the way we understand brain diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in humans. The scientists found that Eato ...

Study Links Childhood Trauma to Increased Substance Use and Unexpected Effects on Heart Rate and Blood Pressure in Adolescents

Apr. 30, 2025 — Childhood trauma significantly increases the likelihood of engaging in harmful alcohol consumption, smoking and illicit drug use, by the age of ...

Age, Previous Sports Experience, Stronger Predictors of Performance in Children Than Previous Concussions

Apr. 29, 2025 — A new study may offer reassuring news for parents whose children have a history of concussion, but want to get back to playing sports. Researchers spent more than a decade scouting fields, rinks and ...

Updated Equestrian Helmet Ratings System Adds Racing and High-Speed Events

Apr. 28, 2025 — Falling off a horse at high-speed changes the impact to the rider's head and the parameters for a quality helmet, according to new research. The findings indicate that head impacts during falls ...

Dopamine Signals When a Fear Can Be Forgotten

Apr. 28, 2025 — A new study shows how a dopamine circuit between two brain regions enables mice to extinguish fear after a peril has ...

Remembering the Cold: Scientists Discover How Memories Control Metabolism

Apr. 23, 2025 — New multidisciplinary research shows that the brain forms memories of cold experiences and uses them to control our metabolism. The study shows that cold memories form in the brain -- and map out how ...

Building 'Cellular Bridges' for Spinal Cord Repair After Injury

Apr. 21, 2025 — Capitalizing on the flexibility of tiny cells inside the body's smallest blood vessels may be a powerful spinal cord repair strategy, new research ...

Nontraditional Risk Factors Shed Light on Unexplained Strokes in Adults Younger Than 50

Apr. 17, 2025 — Among adults ages 18-49 (median age of 41 years) who were born with a hole in the upper chambers of their heart known as patent foramen ovale (PFO), strokes of unknown cause were more strongly ...

Police Officers Face Twice the Risk of Traumatic Brain Injuries and PTSD, Survey Finds

Apr. 11, 2025 — Police officers are more than twice as likely to have traumatic brain injuries compared to the general ...

AI Models of the Brain Could Serve as 'Digital Twins' in Research

Apr. 9, 2025 — In a new study, researchers created an AI model of the mouse visual cortex that predicts neuronal responses to visual ...

Researchers Identify Safer Pathway for Pain Relief

Apr. 8, 2025 — Scientists have helped identify a novel drug compound that selectively activates pain-altering receptors in the body, offering a potentially safer alternative to conventional pain ...

Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Improve Chronic Low Back Pain

Apr. 7, 2025 — Eight weeks of mindfulness or cognitive behavioral therapy were associated with improved pain, physical function and quality of life and reduced daily opioid dose in adults with chronic low back pain ...

Brain's Own Repair Mechanism: New Neurons May Reverse Damage in Huntington's Disease

Apr. 7, 2025 — New research shows that the adult brain can generate new neurons that integrate into key motor circuits, findings that may point to a new way to treat neurogenerative ...