ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News

Depressive disorders are among the most frequent illnesses worldwide. The causes are complex and to date only partially understood. The trace element lithium appears to play a role. The distribution of lithium in the brains of depressive people is different from the distribution found in healthy humans.

Single-cell gene studies are clarifying the roles of the brain's specialised immune cell in Alzheimer's disease and offer new avenues for treatment of this incurable condition.

Taking more steps per day, either all at once or in shorter spurts, may help you live longer. The benefits of more daily steps occurred with both uninterrupted bouts of steps (10 minutes or longer) and short spurts such as climbing stairs.

Latinx young adults who experience heart-focused anxiety could be at greater risk for mental health disorders. New research indicates that heart-focused anxiety among that group is a statistically significant predictor for general depression and overall anxiety.

Young children who practice visual working memory and reasoning tasks improve their math skills more than children who focus on spatial rotation exercises, according to a large study. The findings support the notion that training spatial cognition can enhance academic performance and that when it comes to math, the type of training matters.

Two experimental drug approaches that target vulnerabilities in cancer cell metabolism may extend survival and enhance the effectiveness of standard chemotherapies for a highly aggressive type of pediatric brain cancer.

Scientists have discovered that the way in which neurons are connected within regions of the brain, can be a better indicator of disease progression and treatment outcomes for people with brain disorders such as epilepsy.

Researchers have found that dendritic spine structural plasticity, a key process underlying learning and memory, requires the linkage of cell adhesion molecules and polymerizing actin by shootin1a. Their findings suggest that the disruption of this coupling may be a causative factor in many neurological disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer's disease, and might lead to the identification of new drug targets for these disorders.