Comment

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 10:20am

And in trials where the target never crossed the middle of the field of view, these handoff dynamics were not apparent in the measurements.

The study shows that the brain is not simply tracking objects in one hemisphere and then just picking them up anew when they enter the field of view of the other hemisphere.

"These results suggest there are active mechanisms that transfer information between cerebral hemispheres," the authors wrote. "The brain seems to anticipate the transfer and acknowledge its completion."

But they also note based on other studies that the system of interhemispheric coordination can sometimes appear to break down in certain neurological conditions including schizophrenia, autism, depression, dyslexia and multiple sclerosis. The new study may lend insight into the specific dynamics needed for it to succeed.

Matthew B. Broschard et al, Evidence for an active handoff between hemispheres during target tracking, The Journal of Neuroscience (2025). DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0841-25.2025

Part 3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 10:20am

To conduct the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the researchers measured both the electrical spiking of individual neurons and the various frequencies of brain waves that emerge from the coordinated activity of many neurons. They studied the dorsal and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in both hemispheres, brain areas associated with executive brain functions.

The power fluctuations of the wave frequencies in each hemisphere told the researchers a clear story about how the subject's brains transferred information from the "sending" to the "receiving" hemisphere whenever a target object crossed the middle of their field of view. In the experiments, the target was accompanied by a distractor object on the opposite side of the screen to confirm that the subjects were consciously paying attention to the target object's motion and not just indiscriminately glancing at whatever happened to pop up on to the screen.

The highest frequency "gamma" waves, which encode sensory information, peaked in both hemispheres when the subjects first looked at the screen and again when the two objects appeared. When a color change signaled which object was the target to track, the gamma increase was only evident in the "sending" hemisphere (on the opposite side as the target object), as expected.
Meanwhile, the power of somewhat lower frequency "beta" waves, which regulate when gamma waves are active, varied inversely with the gamma waves. These sensory encoding dynamics were stronger in the ventrolateral locations compared to the dorsolateral ones.

Meanwhile, two distinct bands of lower frequency waves showed greater power in the dorsolateral locations at key moments related to achieving the handoff. About a quarter of a second before a target object crossed the middle of the field of view, "alpha" waves ramped up in both hemispheres and then peaked just after the object crossed. Meanwhile, "theta" band waves peaked after the crossing was complete, only in the "receiving" hemisphere (opposite from the target's new position).

Accompanying the pattern of wave peaks, neuron spiking data showed how the brain's representation of the target's location traveled. Using decoder software, which interprets what information the spikes represent, the researchers could see the target representation emerge in the sending hemisphere's ventrolateral location when it was first cued by the color change. Then they could see that as the target neared the middle of the field of view, the receiving hemisphere joined the sending hemisphere in representing the object, so that they both encoded the information during the transfer.

Taken together, the results showed that after the sending hemisphere initially encoded the target with a ventrolateral interplay of beta and gamma waves, a dorsolateral ramp up of alpha waves caused the receiving hemisphere to anticipate the handoff by mirroring the sending hemisphere's encoding of the target information. Alpha peaked just after the target crossed the middle of the field of view, and when the handoff was complete, theta peaked in the receiving hemisphere as if to say, "I got it."
Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 10:17am

The brain splits up vision without you even noticing

The brain divides vision between its two hemispheres—what's on your left is processed by your right hemisphere and vice versa—but your experience with every bike or bird that you see zipping by is seamless. A new study by neuroscientists  reveals how the brain handles the transition.

It's surprising to some people to hear that there's some independence between the hemispheres, because that doesn't really correspond to how we perceive reality. In our consciousness, everything seems to be unified.

There are advantages to separately processing vision on either side of the brain, including the ability to keep track of more things at once, researchers have found, but neuroscientists have been eager to fully understand how perception ultimately appears so unified in the end.

Researchers measured neural activity in the brains of animals as they tracked objects crossing their field of view. The results reveal that different frequencies of brain waves encoded and then transferred information from one hemisphere to the other in advance of the crossing and then held on to the object representation in both hemispheres until after the crossing was complete.

The process is analogous to how relay racers hand off a baton, how a child swings from one monkey bar to the next, and how cell phone towers hand off a call from one to the next as a train passenger travels through their area. In all cases, both towers or hands actively hold what's being transferred until the handoff is confirmed.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 10:12am

Our actions are dictated by 'autopilot' not choice, finds study

Habit, not conscious choice, drives most of our actions, according to new research . 

The research, published in Psychology & Health, found that two-thirds of our daily behaviors are initiated "on autopilot", out of habit.

Habits are actions that we are automatically prompted to do when we encounter everyday settings, due to associations that we have learned between those settings and our usual responses to them.

The research also found that 46% of behaviors were both triggered by habit and aligned with conscious intentions, suggesting that people form habits that support their personal goals, and often disrupt habits that conflict with them.

The study found that 65% of daily behaviors were habitually initiated, meaning people were prompted to do them out of routine rather than making a conscious decision.

For people who want to break their bad habits, simply telling them to 'try harder' isn't enough. To create lasting change, we must incorporate strategies to help people recognize and disrupt their unwanted habits, and ideally form positive new ones in their place.

The researchers recommend that initiatives designed to help people adopt new behaviors, like exercising or eating healthier, should focus on building new, positive habits.

Amanda L. Rebar et al, How habitual is everyday life? An ecological momentary assessment study, Psychology & Health (2025). DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2025.2561149

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 9:38am

Over 60,000 died in Europe alone from heat during 2024 summer: Study

More than 60,000 people died from heat in Europe during last year's record-breaking summer, a benchmark study said this week, in the latest warning of the massive toll climate change is having on the continent.

With Europe heating up twice as fast as the global average, the Spain-based researchers suggested an emergency alert system could help warn vulnerable people—particularly the elderly—ahead of dangerous heat waves.

Europe experienced an exceptionally deadly summer in 2024 with more than 60,000 heat-related deaths, bringing the total burden over the past three summers to more than 181,000,  said the study in the journal Nature Medicine.

Tomáš Janoš, Heat-related mortality in Europe during 2024 and health emergency forecasting to reduce preventable deaths, Nature Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-03954-7. www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03954-7

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 9:26am

Nanoparticles supercharge vinegar's old-fashioned wound healing power

Wounds that do not heal are often caused by bacterial infections and are particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with diabetes, cancer and other conditions. Acetic acid (more commonly known as vinegar) has been used for centuries as a disinfectant, but it is only effective against a small number of bacteria, and it does not kill the most dangerous types.

New research has resulted in the ability to boost the natural bacterial killing qualities of vinegar by adding antimicrobial nanoparticles made from carbon and cobalt. The findings have been published in the journal ACS Nano.

The acidic environment from the vinegar made bacterial cells swell and take up the nanoparticle treatment.

Once exposed, the nanoparticles appear to attack dangerous bacteria from both inside the bacterial cell and also on its surface, causing them to burst. Importantly, this approach is nontoxic to human cells and was shown to remove bacterial infections from mice wounds without affecting healing.

Adam Truskewycz et al, Cobalt-Doped Carbon Quantum Dots Work Synergistically with Weak Acetic Acid to Eliminate Antimicrobial-Resistant Bacterial Infections, ACS Nano (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5c03108

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 7:16am

Sara L. Loo et al, Scenario Projections of COVID-19 Burden in the US, 2024-2025, JAMA Network Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.32469

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 7:15am

COVID-19 models suggest universal vaccination may avert over 100,000 hospitalizations

US Scenario Modeling Hub, a collaborative modeling effort of 17 academic research institutions, reports a universal COVID-19 vaccination recommendation could avert thousands more  hospitalizations and deaths than a high-risk-only strategy.

Nine independent teams produced projections under six scenarios that combined two immune escape rates, 20% and 50% per year. An immune escape rate is the annual reduction in protection against infection that occurs as new SARS-CoV-2 variants evolve. Projections covered the United States population of 332 million with an estimated 58 million aged 65 years.

Three vaccine recommendation strategies were tested. No recommendation, recommendation for high-risk groups only, or recommendation for all eligible individuals. Annually reformulated vaccines were assumed to match variants circulating on June 15, 2024, to be available on September 1, 2024, and to be 75% effective against hospitalization at the time of release.

Teams calibrated their models to weekly hospitalizations and deaths reported by the National Healthcare Safety Network and the National Center for Health Statistics.

In the worst case scenario, defined by high immune escape with no vaccine recommendation, projections reached 931,000 hospitalizations with a 95% projection interval of 0.5 to 1.3 million and 62,000 deaths with a 95% projection interval of 18,000 to 115,000.

In the best case defined by low immune escape with a universal recommendation, the ensemble projected 550,000 hospitalizations with a 95% projection interval of 296,000 to 832,000 and 42,000 deaths with a 95% projection interval of 13,000 to 72,000.

Severe outcomes clustered in older populations. Across scenarios, adults aged 65 years and older accounted for 51% to 62% of hospitalizations and 84% to 87% of deaths.

Vaccination of high-risk groups was only projected to avert 11% of hospitalizations under low immune escape and 8% under high escape, along with 13% and 10% of deaths. A universal recommendation increased the effect with 15% fewer hospitalizations under low immune escape and 11% fewer under high, with 16% and 13% fewer deaths.

Under high immune escape, a high-risk-only strategy averted 76,000 hospitalizations with a 95% CI of 34,000 to 118,000 and 7,000 deaths with a 95% CI of 3,000 to 11,000. Expanding to a universal recommendation prevented 104,000 hospitalizations with a 95% CI of 55,000 to 153,000 and 9,000 deaths with a 95% CI of 4,000 to 14,000.

Additional indirect benefits accrued to older adults under a universal strategy. Compared with high-risk-only vaccination, universal recommendations prevented about 11,000 more hospitalizations and 1,000 more deaths in those aged 65 years and older.

Observed national patterns diverged in timing from projections. A marked summer 2024 wave was followed by a smaller peak in January 2025, while projections anticipated the heaviest burden from late December 2024 to mid January 2025. Ensemble coverage for weekly deaths remained strong, with 95% intervals closely matching observed values.

Authors conclude that vaccines remain a critical tool to limit COVID-19 burden in 2024–2025, with universal recommendations offering added direct and indirect protection and the potential to save thousands more lives, including among older adults.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 7:12am

 Jacques E. Rossouw et al, Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Cardiovascular Diseases in Women With Vasomotor Symptoms, JAMA Internal Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.4510

Deborah Grady et al, Hormone Therapy for Menopausal Vasomotor Symptoms—Better Understanding Cardiovascular Risk, JAMA Internal Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.4521

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on September 23, 2025 at 7:11am

Hormone therapy eases hot flashes while leaving heart risk unchanged in younger women

Researchers report that menopausal hormone therapy relieved vasomotor symptoms without raising cardiovascular risk in younger women, but increased risk was evident in women aged 70 years and older.

Concerns about the safety of hormone therapy have discouraged many women and clinicians from using it to treat hot flashes and night sweats. Some previous studies have suggested increased risk of coronary heart disease linked to hormone use, particularly in older women. At the same time, vasomotor symptoms remain among the most common and distressing consequences of menopause, and effective treatment options have been limited.

In the study, "Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Cardiovascular Diseases in Women With Vasomotor Symptoms: A Secondary Analysis of the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Clinical Trials," published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed outcomes from two hormone therapy trials to assess the safety of treatment in women experiencing vasomotor symptoms.

A total of 27,347 postmenopausal women  aged 50 to 79 years were enrolled from 40 clinical centers across the United States. Among them, 10,739 had undergone hysterectomy and were randomized to receive conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) or placebo, while 16,608 with an intact uterus were randomized to CEE plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) or placebo.

Women were followed for a median of 7.2 years in the CEE trial and 5.6 years in the CEE plus MPA trial. Vasomotor symptoms were assessed at baseline and year one, with nearly all women who reported moderate or severe symptoms recalling onset near menopause.

CEE alone reduced vasomotor symptoms by 41% across all age groups. CEE plus MPA also reduced symptoms but with age-related variation, showing strong benefit in women aged 50 to 59 years and diminished or absent benefit in women 70 years and older.
Analysis of cardiovascular outcomes found neutral effects of both CEE alone and CEE plus MPA in women aged 50 to 59 years with moderate or severe symptoms. No clear harm was observed in those aged 60 to 69 years, although risk estimates were elevated for CEE alone.

Women aged 70 years and older had significantly higher rates of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with hazard ratios of 1.95 for CEE alone and 3.22 for CEE plus MPA, corresponding to 217 and 382 excess events per 10,000 person-years, respectively.

Investigators concluded that hormone therapy can be considered for treatment of vasomotor symptoms in younger women aged 50 to 59 years, while initiation in women aged 60 to 69 years requires caution. For women 70 years and older, the findings argue against the use of hormone therapy due to substantially increased cardiovascular risk.

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