Arkansas Neuropsychology and Behavioral Health

03/12/2026

Emerging evidence suggests that chronic exposure to micro‑ and nanoplastics in our air, food, and water may contribute to Parkinson’s risk by promoting gut–brain inflammation and protein misfolding.


Scientists issue warning on hidden factor that could increase risk of Parkinson's: 'Emerging evidence suggests'

"May intersect with key biological processes."

03/09/2026

The biggest heart‑health win isn’t “low‑carb vs low‑fat” it’s diet quality. A massive new study (~200k people, 30 years) found that both low‑carb and low‑fat diets cut heart disease risk only when they were built around whole, mostly plant‑based foods (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, healthy fats) and low in ultra‑processed foods, added sugars, refined grains, and processed meats. In other words, you can go lower‑carb or lower‑fat and still protect your heart, as long as it’s a high‑quality, Mediterranean‑style pattern you can stick to.

03/05/2026

Consistently challenging your brain with reading, writing, and learning across your entire life is associated with a 38% lower Alzheimer’s risk and a 5–7 year delay in symptoms.


Simple Lifelong Habits Can Cut Your Alzheimer's Risk by 38%, Study Finds : ScienceAlert

A lifetime of engaging with language and the written word – including reading books, writing, and learning languages – could be one of the best ways to keep your mind sharp and delay or prevent dementia, according to a new study.

03/02/2026

Children who need mental health care shouldn’t be warehoused in juvenile detention because there are no treatment beds available. Our systems are failing kids when a diagnosis becomes a pathway to a cell instead of to care. We need investment in community services, crisis response, and residential treatment so detention stops being the default “placement” for vulnerable youth.

Kids who'd qualify for mental health care are being held in juvenile detention, report finds : NPR https://share.google/LTsgcuCprFN03GNCo

02/26/2026

New research on a popular “sugar‑free” sweetener is raising red flags.Erythritol, common in keto and sugar‑free foods, has been shown in lab and human studies to:

Damage cells that protect the brain’s blood Vessels, increase oxidative stress and reduce nitric oxide, making vessels less able to relax, Boost blood clotting activity, which is linked to higher risks of heart attack and stroke.

It’s still early science and more studies are needed, but if you have heart or stroke risk factors, it may be wise to check your labels and cut back on erythritol‑loaded “diet” products.



Common Sweetener May Damage Critical Brain Barrier, Risking Stroke : ScienceAlert

Found in everything from protein bars to energy drinks, erythritol has long been considered a safe alternative to sugar.

02/23/2026

Rising psychosis rates in younger cohorts raise complex questions about risk exposure, neurodevelopmental vulnerability, and system-level detection.

New data from a population-level study suggest that psychotic disorders (including schizophrenia‑spectrum conditions) are being diagnosed more often in teens and young adults than in previous generations. This isn’t “kids these days” hysteria, it’s a signal we need to take seriously.

Multiple factors are probably in play: earlier detection via coordinated specialty care and early psychosis programs, shifting diagnostic practices, and real changes in risk exposure (e.g., high‑potency cannabis, polysubstance use, sleep disruption, social stressors). None of this means psychosis is “everywhere” or inevitable, but it does mean we should be far more proactive about prevention, early identification, and access to evidence‑based treatment.

If you work with youth, coach, teach, or parent, the takeaway isn’t panic, it’s literacy. Learn the early warning signs (functional decline, social withdrawal, unusual thought content, marked changes in behavior), normalize help‑seeking, and push for systems that don’t make young people fight for care. Early intervention changes trajectories.

02/19/2026

AI model reads brain MRIs in seconds, with reported accuracy up to 97.5%, but it is a triage and decision-support tool, not a replacement for neuroradiologists or clinicians.



AI Model Reads Brain MRIs in Seconds, Hitting up to 97.5% Accuracy

An AI-powered model developed at the University of Michigan can read a brain MRI and diagnose a person in seconds, a study suggests. The model detected neurological conditions with up to 97.5% accuracy and predicted how urgently a patient required treatment.

02/16/2026

Maternal perinatal depression (during pregnancy and shortly after birth) has been linked to an increased likelihood of autism‑related traits in toddlers, with a stronger effect in girls.

Researchers following over 23,000 mother–child pairs in Japan found that higher maternal distress scores around the perinatal period were associated with more autistic‑related behaviors in daughters, and with more difficulties in mother–infant bonding.

While this doesn’t prove that depression causes autism, it highlights how crucial it is to identify and treat perinatal depression early, and to support bonding and mental health for both mother and child.Prioritizing maternal mental health is child neurodevelopment care.


Maternal Perinatal Depression May Increase the Risk of Autistic-Related Traits in Girls

A research team from the Department of Psychiatry at Tohoku University, led by Dr. Zhiqian Yu and Professor Hiroaki Tomita, has uncovered compelling evidence that maternal perinatal depression—psychological distress occurring during pregnancy or postpartum—elevates the risk of autistic-related t...

02/12/2026

Headlines claiming “Gen Z is officially less intelligent than millennials” are doing violence to both the data and basic psychometrics.

The sources behind this piece are a Senate hearing and a handful of cohort studies showing small declines on some cognitive tests since the mid‑2000s, alongside gains in others. That is a far cry from a global decree that an entire generation is “less intelligent” than the last.

IQ is a norm‑referenced, domain‑specific construct, not a moral ranking of age cohorts, and even the researchers involved caution against simplistic “people are getting dumber” narratives. If we actually care about kids’ cognition, we should talk in terms of specific skills, environments, and policies, not lazy, click‑driven claims that an entire generation is dumber than their parents.


Gen Z is officially less intelligent than millennials, first recorded intergenerational IQ drop, expert says

Gen Z has become the first generation to record lower intelligence levels than both their parents and millennials, with experts pointing to a noticeable drop in IQ scores as a worrying global trend.

02/09/2026

Two-day-old newborns are already tracking the beat. A new EEG study found that 48-hour-old babies show brain signatures of rhythm prediction when listening to Bach, even though melodic prediction isn’t there yet. Rhythm may be one of the brain’s earliest organizing principles for sound and movement, long before language or deliberate attention.


Two-Day-Old Babies Show Brain Signs of Rhythm Prediction, Study Finds

Babies are born with the ability to predict rhythm, according to a study published February 5 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Roberta Bianco from the Italian Institute of Technology, and colleagues.

02/05/2026

Young-donor f***l transplants are starting to show that “rejuvenating” the gut microbiome can partially reverse age-related decline in older mice, including intestinal repair and broader aging hallmarks in gut, eye, brain, and metabolic health.

“P**p from young donors just reversed an age-related decline in the guts of older mice, adding to a growing body of animal data that ‘rejuvenating’ the microbiome can dial back hallmarks of aging in gut, brain, and metabolism—but in humans this is still experimental and nowhere near ready as an anti-aging therapy.” ***ltransplant

P**p From Young Donors Reverses Age-Related Decline in The Guts of Older Mice : ScienceAlert

Supplementing the guts of older mice with p**p from younger ones has revealed the key role microbes play in intestinal stem cell function.

02/05/2026

Neuroscientists suggest you can speed up learning by pairing short, focused practice with lots of easy “background exposure” to the same skill throughout your day. When I’m learning something new, I: do deliberate practice in short blocks, then surround myself with the same language/sounds/visuals in the background, podcasts, videos, music, or match footage, so my brain keeps tuning itself between sessions.


Neuroscientists say a simple trick will help you learn any new skill a lot faster - Upworthy

​Learning a new skill? Here's how to quickly level-up.