All posts by : Felistas

The cerebral cortex, the outermost layer of the brain, is the central driver of various human capabilities, including decision-making, perception, language and memory. Understanding how the morphology (i.e., structure and shape) of people’s cerebral cortex is related to their mental health is a long-standing goal for many neuroscientists, as it could help to predict the risk that people will develop specific neuropsychiatric conditions while also contributing to their diagnosis and potentially informing their treatment.

The activity of the human brain is known to be closely connected to other physiological signals, such as heart rate and breathing. A study by researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and other institutes reveals that a global spatiotemporal pattern in the brain (i.e. a pattern in brain activity that repeats itself across the brain and over time) is a central component of these brain-body interactions.

For people with advanced heart failure, left ventricular assist devices, or LVADs, can be a literal lifesaver.

On June 11, 2025, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a slate of eight new members to serve on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on national vaccine policy.

SGLT2 inhibitors have become a major drug used to treat diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease. However, there have been questions as to whether it is safe to use these drugs in patients after a recent heart attack due to concerns about harming kidney function in potentially unstable patients.

Vaccinated patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who developed acute kidney injury had better outcomes than unvaccinated patients with the same condition, new research suggests. The study found vaccinated patients were less likely to stay on dialysis after discharge, and more likely to survive, than unvaccinated patients.

A newly published analysis reveals that individuals with severe depression who received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) were 34% less likely to die by suicide compared to those treated with standard alternatives such as anti-depressant medication.

There are more than 100,000 people on organ transplant lists in the U.S., some of whom will wait years to receive one—and some may not survive the wait. Even with a good match, there is a chance that a person’s body will reject the organ. To shorten waiting periods and reduce the possibility of rejection, researchers in regenerative medicine are developing methods to use a patient’s own cells to fabricate personalized hearts, kidneys, livers, and other organs on demand.

Earned sick leave—short-term, paid time off for employees who are sick or injured or must care for sick or injured family members—has been found to reduce the spread of infectious diseases in the workplace and increase employee access to preventive care.

Children exposed before birth to synthetic compounds called “forever chemicals” had higher blood pressure during their teenage years, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study was also presented at the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) Conference in Boston.