#naturecommunications — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #naturecommunications, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 18, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The human brain reorganizes itself at four distinct ages
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-human-brain-reorganizes-itself-at-four-distinct-ages/
The structural organization of the human brain changes non-linearly over a person’s life, shifting at four distinct ages. A large study identified major transitions in brain network architecture around ages nine, 32, 66, and 83. The research was published in Nature Communications.
The brain is essentially a network of connected regions. The architecture of this network, known as its topology, dictates how well different areas communicate. Researchers measure this topology using mathematical concepts like integration, segregation, and centrality. Different topological structures have different strengths related to cognition and behavior.
Integration describes how easily information travels across the entire brain. A highly integrated network has many short paths connecting distant regions, optimizing it for rapid communication. Segregation refers to how the network divides into specialized local groups. A highly segregated network has dense local connections that support specialized processing tasks, like vision or motor control. Centrality identifies specific regions that act as highly active hubs for information transfer, making the network more resilient to damage.
Past research has linked brain topology to cognitive function and mental health during specific life stages. But the underlying principles of how this organization shifts across an entire human life have remained unmapped. Alexa Mousley, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, wanted to identify if there are specific turning points when the brain enters a new phase of developmental change.
To map these lifespan changes, the researchers gathered brain imaging data from nine different datasets. The combined data included 4,216 participants ranging in age from zero to 90 years old. Because the sample exceeded 2,000 individuals, this qualifies as a large study.
The team used a specific type of magnetic resonance imaging that tracks the movement of water molecules to map the physical wiring of the brain. They then harmonized the data from the different sources to account for variations in scanning equipment. From there, the scientists calculated 12 different metrics to describe the topology of each participant’s brain network. The network densities were strictly controlled to allow for fair comparisons across different ages.
To make sense of this highly detailed data, the team used a mathematical technique to project the network metrics into three-dimensional spaces. This machine learning approach filters out overlapping information to reveal the fundamental mathematical structure of complex data. By tracing the average trajectory of brain development through these spaces, the researchers could pinpoint where the trajectory abruptly changed direction. They defined these spots as turning points.
The analysis revealed four major turning points in the human lifespan. These occur around ages nine, 32, 66, and 83. These four points separate human life into five distinct epochs of brain development, with each epoch featuring its own unique pattern of structural change.
The first epoch spans from birth to age nine. During this childhood phase, the brain’s global integration decreases while local segregation increases. The extent to which neighboring regions connect to each other is the strongest predictor of a child’s age during this period. The end of this epoch coincides roughly with the onset of puberty and a known biological phase where the brain actively eliminates unused neural connections.
The second epoch lasts from age nine to 32. This phase encompasses adolescence and early adulthood. Over these years, the brain network becomes increasingly integrated and less segregated on a global scale. The balance between global efficiency and local specialization becomes the most defining feature of brain development during this time.
The turning point at age 32 represents the largest structural shift in the entire lifespan. It aligns with the known peak of white matter volume, which is the insulated wiring that connects brain regions. Following this peak, the third epoch stretches across three decades of adulthood, from age 32 to 66.
This middle adulthood epoch is a relatively stable period characterized by slower changes in network architecture. During these years, global integration begins to decline while local efficiency increases. Changes in network segregation drive the relationship between age and brain topology during this long phase.
The fourth turning point arrives at age 66, marking the transition into older age. From 66 to 83, the brain network shows a distinct shift toward increasing modularity. Modularity means the network separates into highly interconnected subgroups. The researchers note this pattern suggests a simplification of the brain’s structural network, which corresponds with expected age-related degradation in white matter.
The final epoch covers ages 83 to 90. In this late stage of life, the relationship between age and brain topology is quite weak. The only metric that tracks with age during this period is the centrality of individual nodes, meaning certain localized hubs become increasingly important for connectivity.
The study has some limitations that affect how the results should be interpreted. The data is cross-sectional, meaning it compares different people of different ages rather than following the same individuals over their entire lives. This design makes it impossible to establish causality or temporal dynamics within a single person. It prevents researchers from tracking how an individual’s specific brain topology changes over time.
Additionally, the researchers used fixed network density thresholds for their main analysis to allow for fair comparisons between different ages. While they conducted secondary tests to verify their choices, this thresholding process might obscure some smaller individual differences in total brain connectivity. The analysis also did not separate the data by biological sex, leaving it unknown whether these major turning points happen at different ages for men and women.
Finally, the oldest age group contained just 93 participants, which lowered the statistical power of the analysis for that specific epoch. The associations in this late-aging epoch were mostly not statistically significant. It is also highly possible that the people in their late 80s who participated in these imaging studies are exceptionally healthy compared to their peers. This selection bias could skew the results for the oldest epoch, making their brains look more resilient than average.
The study, “Topological turning points across the human lifespan,” was authored by Alexa Mousley, Richard A. I. Bethlehem, Fang-Cheng Yeh, and Duncan E. Astle.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-human-brain-reorganizes-itself-at-four-distinct-ages/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BrainTopology #LifespanTurningPoints #Neuroscience #BrainDevelopment #AdultBrain #AgeAndBrain #Neuroimaging #WhiteMatter #BrainNetwork #NatureCommunications
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How to image a #wavefunction?
Fundamental particles, such as electrons, cannot be pinned down to one single location. Instead, a particle is described by its “wavefunction” – but imaging the wavefunction is a major challenge. Researchers @ our Uni managed to image the 3D wavefunction of a nanometer-sized organic molecule by combining state-of-the-art photoelectron spectroscopy with powerful mathematical algorithms: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=8252
Research in #NatureCommunications: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74308-1
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DATE: August 4, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Severe COVID-19 linked to anxiety in offspring via altered sperm RNA
Male mice that recover from a severe COVID-19-like infection can pass anxiety-like traits to their offspring by altering the RNA molecules inside their sperm. These findings suggest that a paternal viral infection prior to conception might alter the developmental trajectory of the next generation. The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Biologists once thought that parents only passed down genetic information through the fixed sequence of DNA in their sperm and egg cells. Researchers now recognize that environmental factors, such as stress or diet, can alter traits in offspring without changing the underlying DNA code. This process is known as epigenetic inheritance. One major pathway for epigenetic inheritance involves small noncoding RNAs, which are tiny molecular messengers that control how and when other genes turn on or off without building proteins themselves.
Past experiments have shown that exposing male mice to bacterial or parasitic infections alters the small noncoding RNAs in their sperm. This internal shift can alter the brain development and behavior of their future offspring. A team of scientists led by Elizabeth Kleeman and Anthony Hannan at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health wanted to know if a respiratory virus could produce similar intergenerational outcomes. They chose to study SARS-CoV-2 because hundreds of millions of people have contracted the virus globally since the start of the pandemic.
The researchers utilized a small study design relying on an established mouse model of SARS-CoV-2. They infected adult male mice with the virus and gave a control group a harmless mock infection. The infected animals experienced moderate to severe illness, marked by a temporary drop in body weight. Four weeks later, after the mice had fully cleared the virus, the researchers mated both groups with healthy female mice that had never encountered the pathogen.
When the offspring of these pairings reached adulthood, the researchers evaluated their behavior. They placed the mice in an enclosure featuring a brightly lit area and a concealed dark zone. Mice naturally prefer dark spaces, and spending less time in the light indicates higher levels of anxiety. The offspring of the fathers infected with SARS-CoV-2 spent much less time exploring the bright zone compared to the uninfected control group.
The male offspring in this group also hesitated much longer before entering the lit area at all. The researchers observed comparable results in an open field test, where the offspring of infected fathers avoided the exposed center of the testing arena. The researchers also subjected the mice to tests evaluating memory, sociability, and depression. The offspring of the infected fathers showed no differences in their ability to recognize novel objects or interact with unfamiliar mice, indicating that the primary behavioral shift centered on anxiety.
The scientists also examined the offspring’s brains, focusing on the hippocampus, a region involved in emotional regulation. They discovered altered gene expression profiles in the offspring of the infected mice. These alterations were particularly pronounced in the female offspring, who showed reduced activity in several genes linked to stress responses. Similar gene reductions frequently appear in rodent models of chronic stress.
To find out if these behavioral changes persisted across multiple generations, the team conducted a second breeding experiment. They took the male offspring from the first generation and mated them with a new group of healthy females. The resulting grand-offspring exhibited some early developmental differences, including slightly altered body weights. As these grand-offspring matured, they did not display the elevated anxiety traits seen in their parents, suggesting the behavioral effect faded after one generation.
The researchers then sought to uncover the biological mechanism driving the anxiety-like traits in the first generation. They collected sperm from the original groups of infected and healthy male mice four weeks after their initial exposure. An analysis of the sperm revealed modified levels of multiple small noncoding RNAs in the animals that had contracted SARS-CoV-2. Some clusters of these regulatory molecules were less abundant, while a few specific types were highly elevated.
Specifically, the researchers identified drops in the expression of PIWI-interacting RNAs, which are specialized molecules that protect the genome from mutations during sperm development. They also found elevated levels of certain microRNAs, which are known to influence early embryonic growth. To confirm that these specific RNA molecules caused the behavioral changes, the team designed a microinjection experiment. They extracted the small RNA cargo from the sperm of both the infected and the uninfected control mice.
Using microscopic needles, the researchers injected this extracted RNA directly into healthy, fertilized mouse eggs. They implanted these embryos into surrogate female mice and allowed the resulting offspring to grow into adulthood. The adult mice that developed from the eggs injected with the infected sperm RNA exhibited traits mimicking the naturally conceived offspring. In the light and dark box test, the male mice from this group showed heightened hesitation before entering the brightly lit zone.
While not every behavioral difference transferred perfectly, the presence of anxiety-like symptoms confirmed that the sperm RNA played a direct role in shaping the offspring’s brain development. The isolated molecular cargo was enough to recreate portions of the intergenerational effect. A few important caveats accompany these results. The study relied entirely on animal models, and biological responses in mice do not perfectly mirror human health outcomes.
The viral infection caused notable weight loss in the adult male mice, which presents a confounding variable. Severe metabolic stress and sudden weight loss can independently trigger epigenetic changes in sperm. It is difficult to separate the effects of the virus itself from the physical toll of a severe illness. Additionally, studying a dangerous pathogen required the researchers to conduct their behavioral assessments inside a highly restricted biosafety facility. Space limitations in this environment prevented the use of larger behavioral testing arenas.
The researchers noted that tracking human outcomes takes decades, making animal models a necessary starting point. Future studies will need to determine whether milder infections, antiviral treatments, or prior vaccinations modify the RNA content in sperm. Resolving these questions will help clarify if the global spread of SARS-CoV-2 might subtly influence the mental health of children conceived in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The study, “Paternal SARS-CoV-2 infection impacts sperm small noncoding RNAs and increases anxiety in offspring in a sex-dependent manner,” was authored by Elizabeth A. Kleeman, Carolina Gubert, Sonali N. Reisinger, Kathryn C. Davidson, Da Lu, Merle Dayton, Liana Mackiewicz, Bethany A. Masson, Pranav Adithya, Alexandra L. Garnham, Gemma Stathatos, Moira K. O’Bryan, Rikeish R. Muralitharan, Francine Z. Marques, Shanshan Li, Huan Liao, Shae McLaughlin, Emmet T. Keough, Michelle Y. Wheeler, Pamudika Kiridena, Marcel Doerflinger, Marc Pellegrini, and Anthony J. Hannan.
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Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PaternalSARSCoV2 #SpermRNA #EpigeneticInheritance #AnxietyInOffspring #NoncodingRNA #SARSCoV2Research #IntergenerationalEffects #MouseModel #Hippocampus #NatureCommunications
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Nature Communications aldizkarian argitalpen berria 🧠🔬
Achucarroko hainbat ikertzailek gidatutako nazioarteko ikerketa-talde batek MCT2 identifikatu du gai zuriaren osotasunaren erregulatzaile berri gisa.
Irakurri gehiago 👉 https://www.achucarro.org/news/2026-07-novel-metabolic-regulator-white-matter/
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US-Forschende zeigen: Säugetiere könnten Gliedmaßen regenerieren – nicht komplett „neu“, sondern verschüttet. Nach Amputation bei Mäusen lenkten sie mit FGF2 gegen Narbenbildung und mit BMP2 die Zellen zur Gewebe- und Knochenbildung. Spannend für künftige Regeneration 🧬🦶 #ScienceNews #Regeneration #Medizin #NatureCommunications https://t3n.de/news/studie-auch-bei-saeugetieren-koennen-gliedmassen-nachwachsen-1749629/
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"Um parasita comum no cérebro é muito mais ativo do que pensávamos"
Se vc é da área de biologia ou medicina e essa matéria não te deu um arrepio assustador, então leia de novo. O cisto é constituído por células com especialização. 😓 E sempre estiveram ativos, só não conseguíamos enxergar isso.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260127112124.htm
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French studies link common food preservatives with higher cancer, diabetes risk
The studies, which are based on the health data of more than 100,…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Frenchdiet #breastcancer #cancer #foodpreservatives #francais #france #French #frenchdiet #healthdata #NatureCommunications #observationalstudies #percentincrease #preservatives #prostatecancers #risks
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2482230/french-studies-link-common-food-preservatives-with-higher-cancer-diabetes-risk/ -
Elektroden auf der Hirnrinde liefern den Beweis. Eine Studie in Nature Communications zeigt, dass das menschliche Gehirn Sprache hierarchisch wie Transformer verarbeitet. Aktivität im Broca-Areal korreliert mit tiefen KI-Schichten. Das validiert LLMs als Modell für medizinische Forschung bei Aphasie. #NatureCommunications #LLM #PrincetonUniversity
https://www.all-ai.de/news/news26/menschen-chatgpt-nature -
🚀🎨 "Multiscale Aperture Synthesis Imager" is just a fancy way of saying "we can't decide on one size fits all, so let's try them all simultaneously." Meanwhile, Nature Communications is desperately begging you to upgrade your browser – because who needs CSS when you have an #imager that no one asked for? 😂
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65661-8 #MultiscaleApertureSynthesis #NatureCommunications #BrowserUpgrade #TechHumor #ScientificInnovation #HackerNews #ngated -
Nature Communications Studie: LLM-Verarbeitung gleicht menschlichen Neuronen.
Forscher fanden identische hierarchische Muster bei der Verarbeitung von Narrativen. "Drift" baut dabei kontinuierlich Kontext auf, während "Shift" abrupt auf Themenwechsel reagiert. Das widerlegt die These der reinen Stochastik. Modelle entwickelten diese Topologie autonom.
Deutet das auf logisches Verständnis oder nur optimale Datenkompression? #LLM #NatureCommunications #AI
https://www.all-ai.de/news/top-news24/papagei-gehirn-llm -
Forschenden der Uni Potsdam und des Leibniz-Instituts für Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung Gatersleben #LeibnizIPK gelang es, die entscheidende Rolle zweier Proteine bei der Steuerung des Hitzestress-Gedächtnisses in Gerste zu identifizieren. Die Ergebnisse ihrer gemeinsamen Studie sind in der renommierten Fachzeitschrift #NatureCommunications veröffentlicht worden: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/nachrichten/detail/2025-11-25-widerstandsfaehige-gerste-entscheidende-faktoren-fuer-die-hitzestress-toleranz
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Flexynesis: bridging multi-omics complexity with transparent AI for Cancer research and beyond
https://galaxyproject.org/news/2025-10-16-flexynesis-nature-comms/@galaxyfreiburg
#UseGalaxy #GalaxyProject #EOSC #UniFreiburg #NatureCommunications #ScientificResearch #deeplearning #precision_medicine #open_science -
Flexynesis: bridging multi-omics complexity with transparent AI for Cancer research and beyond
https://galaxyproject.org/news/2025-10-16-flexynesis-nature-comms/@galaxyproject
#UseGalaxy #GalaxyProject #EOSC #UniFreiburg #NatureCommunications #ScientificResearch #deeplearning #precision_medicine #open_science -
#NatureCommunications The maximum Tc of conventional superconductors at ambient pressure https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63702-w "Data suggest that the optimal Eliashberg function that maximizes Tc is unphysical. Theoretical materials Li2AgH6 and Li2AuH6 likely approach the practical limit".
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#NatureCommunications The potential bidirectional relationship between long COVID and menstruation https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62965-7 "Long COVID was associated with abnormal uterine bleeding, but not impaired ovarian function. Findings will instigate to explore new therapeutic strategies."
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#NatureCommunications Naiavirus: an enveloped giant virus with a pleomorphic, flexible tail https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63463-6 "This giant amoeba virus average 1350 nm has been isolated from a swamp biome in Brazil. It has nearly 1 million base pairs (Mbp), with a unique set of genes."
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I received this #award for my 2024 #NatureCommunications #paper, in which my co-authors and I performed an extensive comparison of 83 thermal performance curve models across the largest compilation of such datasets to date (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53046-2). 🧵2/12
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🧬⛰️ Un viaggio di 5.000 anni nella preistoria alpina: analizzato il DNA di 47 individui dal Mesolitico al Bronzo.
Ötzi, i primi agricoltori, i cacciatori-raccoglitori e le migrazioni dalle steppe raccontano la storia genetica delle Alpi orientali.👉 Scopri i dettagli su Storie & Archeostorie: https://wp.me/p7tSpZ-aee
#DNAantico #Ötzi #Preistoria #Archeogenetica #AlpiOrientali #EuracResearch #StoriaAntica #NatureCommunications
@euracresearch
https://storiearcheostorie.com/2025/09/12/dna-alpi-preistoria-otzi-migrazioni/
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Forschende aus Potsdam, Hamburg und Amsterdam konnten zeigen, dass sich die von einem Gold-Nanopartikel absorbierte Energie konzentrieren lässt. Die im @dfg_public - Sonderforschungsbereich 1636 an der Uni Potsdam entstandene Studie ist jetzt im Fachjournal #NatureCommunications erschienen. Mehr Infos unter: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/medieninformationen/detail/2025-09-03-energieeffiziente-chemie-lichtenergie-in-katalytisch-aktiven-metallen-buendeln
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Published in Nature Communications and checked for compliance with the #STRENDA Guidelines ✅
🔗 https://dx.doi.org/10.22011/strenda_db.HYQ0CA?M=y or www.beilstein-strenda-db.org/?M=y
Thanks to the authors Matti Myllykoski, Malin Lundekvam, Camilla Osberg, Solveig Siqveland Nilsen and Thomas Arnesen!
#NatureCommunications -
New #paper from our research group led by @johannakoechling.bsky.social and @jekoller.bsky.social on
the #carbon #perception gap in actual and ideal #CarbonFootprints across #wealth groups🎉
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#NatureCommunications
Identifying regions of importance in wall-bounded turbulence through explainable deep learning https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47954-6#ref-CR24
“For wall-bounded turbulence, new methodology based on explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) to gain knowledge of the flow physics. Based on a particular type of deep convolutional neural network (CNN), namely the U-net, and the Shapley additive explanation (SHAP) values. CNNs can effectively extract the spatial information in the flow data, both in 2D and 3D. The SHAP algorithm is a game-theoretic method that calculates the importance of each input feature on the U-net prediction.” -
Novel Screening Method Accelerates Design of Stable, High-performance Solid-State Batteries
#UBT #UniBayreuth #HongKongUniversity #Lithium #Battery #NatureCommunications
https://www.uni-bayreuth.de/en/press-release/solid-state-battery-design -
MICrONS consortium investigates brain cell structure and connections
Research @MICrONS (Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks) collaboration with many Institutes including our Uni, combining effort, expertise and data resources with cutting edge AI to drive neuroscience forward: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=7780
Research #Nature: 10.1038/s41586-025-08829-y #NatureCommunications: 10.1038/s41467-025-58763-w
#AllenInstitute #NaturePortfolio: www.nature.com/immersive/d42859-025-00001-w/index.html
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Oldest #meteorite impact crater on #Earth
#Pilbara region
Western #Australia
Formed more than 3.5 billion years ago
#NatureCommunications -
Ah yes, the revelation that counting rural folks is harder than counting sheep 🐑—groundbreaking stuff, truly. Apparently, the folks at 'Nature Communications' discovered that data doesn't just magically appear in remote areas; who knew? 🌾 Meanwhile, their website is stuck in the early 2000s, because, you know, #irony. 💻🤦♂️
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56906-7 #ruraldata #dataissues #naturecommunications #techhumor #HackerNews #ngated -
How did plants evolve to cope with such a challenging and changing habitat?
It turns out the answer is in 600 million years of stress! A research team led by our Uni compared algae and plants spanning million years of independent evolution. Using advanced bioinformatic methods, they pinpointed a shared stress response network: https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=7740
Research at #NatureCommunications: https://doi.org/n9m4
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🌿🤖 Scientists invent yet another way to make organic molecules, because nature's methods just aren't good enough. Meanwhile, Nature Communications can't even figure out how to display their website properly. 🚀🔍
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56374-z #organicchemistry #innovation #science #news #technology #NatureCommunications #HackerNews #ngated