Craving snacks after a meal? It might be food-seeking neurons, not an overactive appetite
People who find themselves rummaging around in the refrigerator for a snack not long after they’ve eaten a filling meal might have overactive food-seeking neurons, not an overactive appetite. UCLA psychologists have discovered a circuit in the brain of mice that makes them crave food and seek it out, even when they are not hungry. […]
Long COVID Patients, Advocates Rally for More Research, Funding, and Attention
WASHINGTON — Long COVID patients and allies rallied in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Friday — International Long COVID Awareness Day — to demand that the federal government spend more money on long COVID research and reinstate mask mandates in healthcare facilities, among other actions. “We need resources for every man, woman, and child […]
Memory helps us evaluate situations on the fly, not just recall the past: Widely known as crucial for long-term memory, hippocampus also supports short-term memory
Scientists have long known the brain’s hippocampus is crucial for long-term memory. Now a new Northwestern Medicine study has found the hippocampus also plays a role in short-term memory and helps guide decision-making. The findings shed light on how the hippocampus contributes to memory and exploration, potentially leading to therapies that restore hippocampal function, which […]
Fauci Will Reflect on Long Government Career in Upcoming Book
Anthony Fauci, MD, has a memoir coming out in June, a look back at his long career as an infectious disease expert and the many outbreaks he contended with, from HIV/AIDS to the COVID-19 pandemic that made him famous. Viking announced Thursday that Fauci’s “On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service” will be published […]
Cognitive Slowing May Be a Hallmark of Long COVID
Pronounced cognitive slowing distinguished people with long COVID from others, a cross-sectional study showed. On a 30-second task measuring simple reaction time, moderate-to-severe cognitive slowing was evident among long COVID patients compared with age-matched healthy individuals who had previous symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and recovered, reported Sijia Zhao, PhD, at the University of Oxford in England, […]
Long COVID Study Suggests Immune System Response At Root Of Symptoms
LOADINGERROR LOADING Scientists may be on the path to understanding long COVID after identifying a change in blood proteins found in people with extended symptoms from the virus. A study published by the journal, Science, on Thursday found that patients experiencing long COVID symptoms had proteins that indicated part of their immune systems remained active […]
Blood Protein Changes May Unravel Long COVID Mysteries
Long COVID was identified in blood proteins, an analysis of longitudinal data suggested. Blood samples from long COVID patients showed changes to blood serum proteins at 6 months that indicated activation of the immune system’s complement cascade, altered coagulation, and tissue injury, reported Onur Boyman, MD, of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and co-authors […]
Opinion | ‘They Had Habituated to Familiar Disgust Elicitors’: What We Heard This Week
“They had habituated to familiar disgust elicitors over a long period.” — Edwin Dalmaijer, DPhil, of the University of Bristol in England, discussing findings that health workers in care homes had lower levels of disgust than their peers. “I urge everybody to say that age is a number, not a quality.” — Nir Barzilai, MD, […]
Biden Administration Announces Actions to Strengthen the Drug Supply Chain
The U.S. must keep the supply chain for drugs and other commodities “stable and secure in the long term to keep preserving a little bit of breathing room for American families,” President Biden said Monday. Fortunately, the administration is making progress, the president noted in a press conference held in the Indian Treaty Room at […]
Guidance Focuses on Mental Health Symptoms in Long COVID
An interdisciplinary group of physicians has released the latest guidance in its series on long COVID, this time focusing on mental health symptoms. The guidance, published by the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (AAPM&R), discusses how to assess mental health systems in patients with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), or long COVID, […]