Non-coding genes cause diabetes in babies, study reveals

Bi-allelic variants in the non-coding RNA genes RNU4ATAC and RNU6ATAC were identified as causes of syndromic monogenic autoimmune neonatal diabetes in 19 children. These mutations disrupt splicing and affect the expression of approximately 800 genes, many involved in immune function, highlighting the pathogenic potential of non-coding genomic regions in rare autoimmune diabetes.

Matthew B. Johnson et al, Bi-allelic variants in the non-protein-coding minor spliceosome components RNU6ATAC and RNU4ATAC cause syndromic monogenic autoimmune diabetes, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2026.02.017

Non-coding genes cause diabetes in babies, study reveals

Bi-allelic variants in the non-coding RNA genes RNU4ATAC and RNU6ATAC were identified as causes of syndromic monogenic autoimmune neonatal diabetes in 19 children. These mutations disrupt splicing and affect the expression of approximately 800 genes, many involved in immune function, highlighting the pathogenic potential of non-coding genomic regions in rare autoimmune diabetes.

Matthew B. Johnson et al, Bi-allelic variants in the non-protein-coding minor spliceosome components RNU6ATAC and RNU4ATAC cause syndromic monogenic autoimmune diabetes, The American Journal of Human Genetics (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2026.02.017

People use the same neurons to see and imagine objects, study shows

Why can images of things we have seen seem so real when we later recall them from memory? A new study led by Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators sheds light on the answer. The research shows that the same brain neurons are activated when we imagine something and when we perceive something. The research, led by Cedars-Sinai, is the first to provide a detailed understanding of the shared mechanism that underlies visual perception and creation of mental images in the human brain. It was published in the journal Science.
Visual perception and imagination activate overlapping populations of neurons in the human fusiform gyrus, with about 40% of visually responsive neurons reactivating during mental imagery using the same neural code as during perception. This shared neural mechanism underlies the vividness of visual imagination and may inform understanding of psychiatric disorders involving altered mental imagery.
We generate a mental image of an object that we have seen before by reactivating the brain cells we used to see it in the first place.
The new study revealed the code that we use to re-create the images.
The findings provide a biological basis for visual imagination, a process that is also critical for creative arts.

"Further insight into this neural process has the potential to open pathways toward developing new therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other mental conditions that involve uncontrolled vivid imagery.
To conduct the study, investigators asked 16 adults with epilepsy, who had electrodes temporarily implanted in their brains for diagnosing their seizures, to view a series of images of faces and objects.

After viewing them, a subset of the participants were asked to imagine those same images from memory. Meanwhile, researchers recorded the electrical activity of hundreds of individual neurons in each participant's brain.

When the patients viewed the images, neurons were activated in their fusiform gyrus, an area of the brain essential for high-level visual processing, particularly for faces. For 80% of the visually responsive neurons recorded in the study, the researchers uncovered the aspects of the images they reacted to, thereby revealing their neural code.
When the patients later imagined the images, about 40% of these neurons reactivated using the same code, thereby recreating the pattern of activity that occurred during the initial viewing of the images.

V. S. Wadia et al, A shared code for perceiving and imagining objects in human ventral temporal cortex, Science (2026). DOI: 10.1126/science.adt8343. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt8343