ScienceDaily: Mind & Brain News

A new study finds brain function boosted by daily exercise in middle-aged and older adults.

When it comes to coping with climate change, there may be two types of people: those who take action to try to improve the environment and those who don't bother because they don't believe their actions will make a difference. Knowing who's who could help policymakers communicate more effectively about environmental issues, new research suggests.

Researchers developed a technique in laboratory animals to consistently and reproducibly open the blood-brain barrier. This barrier serves as a barricade securing the brain from the external world blocking out certain environmental toxins, but also prevents drug therapies from reaching their intended targets. The new technique is based on a routine procedure for removing clots from the brain's arteries in patients. Their paper essentially provides a roadmap for other researchers to develop and test new therapies for brain diseases.

The priming of glioblastoma with a burst of radiation increased dramatically the uptake of extracellular vesicles-based immunotherapy by the tumor and the surrounding microenvironment, halting tumor growth, inducing anti-tumor immunity, and prolonging survival in animal models. In glioblastomas primed with radiation, extracellular vesicles allowed the immunotherapy to cross the blood-brain barrier, recruiting immune cells to the tumor site and reversing the expression of PD-L1, the protein responsible for immunosuppression of the larger tumor environment.

Computers could mimic neural networks in the brain -- and be much more energy efficient -- with a new computer component that mimics how the brain works by acting like a synaptic cell. It's called an electrochemical random access memory (ECRAM), and researchers have developed materials that offer a commercially-viable way to build these components.

People like to take the path of least resistance when it comes to cognitive effort -- a common assumption in cognitive psychology. Researchers have now come to a different conclusion: once people receive a reward for their effort investment, they later choose challenging tasks even if they no longer receive a reward.