Dementia News and Research

Latest Dementia News and Research

Lifelong health: The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 enters a new era of aging research

One of the world’s most extensive birth cohorts is now entering later adulthood. At the University of Oulu in Finland, the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) is launching a major new follow-up combining decades of biological, social, and environmental data with modern digital health tools to examine how lifelong exposures and the genome shape health and aging.

22 Jan 2026

Red light therapy may protect athletes' brains from repetitive impacts

Punch-drunk syndrome, boxer's madness, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The name has changed over the years, but the cause is clear: repeated impacts can affect long-term brain health, with symptoms ranging from confusion to memory loss and potentially dementia.

21 Jan 2026

Pandemic linked to lasting drops in diagnosis rates for major conditions

There has been a lasting and disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on diagnosis rates for conditions including depression, asthma and osteoporosis.

21 Jan 2026

Long-term air pollution exposure raises motor neuron disease risk

Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution was associated with a higher risk of developing motor neuron disease and poorer prognosis after diagnosis in a large nationwide Swedish study. Higher particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide exposure were also linked to faster functional decline and increased likelihood of invasive ventilation.

21 Jan 2026

Shingles vaccination is linked to slower biological aging in older adults

This population-based study of U.S. adults aged 70 and older found that shingles vaccination was associated with slower epigenetic and transcriptomic aging, as well as lower systemic inflammation. No significant associations were observed for neurodegeneration or cardiovascular biomarkers, highlighting domain-specific molecular effects rather than broad clinical changes.

21 Jan 2026

Exercise-triggered mitochondrial transfer offers hope for stroke and dementia

Physical rehabilitation and symptom management still remain the mainstay of treatment for stroke, as clot removal or dissolution is effective only within a narrow time frame after the stroke.

21 Jan 2026

The neuroscience of motivation-driven memory retention

Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), and Duke University have proposed a neuroscience framework explaining how different types of motivation fundamentally reshape what and how the brain remembers.

21 Jan 2026

Tracing the decline in American heart disease mortality

Following a five-year upward trend likely impacted by the COVID pandemic, the number of heart disease and stroke deaths has declined, yet, heart disease and stroke still kill more people in the U.S. each year than any other cause, according to data reported in the 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of U.S. and Global Data From the American Heart Association.

21 Jan 2026

New AI framework mirrors human physiology to understand emotional experiences

Emotions are a fundamental part of human psychology-a complex process that has long distinguished us from machines.

20 Jan 2026

Shingles vaccination may slow biological aging in older adults

Shingles vaccination not only protects against the disease but may also contribute to slower biological aging in older adults, according to a new USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study.

20 Jan 2026

Adding lean pork to a plant-forward diet supports healthy aging biomarkers

A randomized crossover feeding trial in adults aged 65 years or older found that plant-forward diets incorporating either minimally processed lean pork or lentils produced similar short-term improvements in cardiometabolic and neuroactive biomarkers. Both diets supported metabolic health and functional stability, with no overall adverse biomarker effects attributable to including minimally processed red meat within a Dietary Guidelines–aligned pattern.

19 Jan 2026

Understanding the trends of various neurological disorders in the Chinese population

Neurological disorders represent a mounting public health crisis in China, exacerbated by rapid population aging.

19 Jan 2026

Elevated tau in Long COVID patients raises risk for neurodegenerative diseases

A study of 227 individuals who experienced neuro cognitive difficulties post COVID-19 infection – such as headaches, vertigo, balance dysregulation, changes in taste/smell, and brain fog – displayed a significant increase in their blood plasma of a crucial protein called tau, which is found in nerves and especially in the brain.

19 Jan 2026

Super agers' resilience against Alzheimer's disease linked to protective gene variant

The gene variant posing the greatest genetic risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is called APOE-ε4. A different variant of the same gene, APOE-ε2, is thought to confer protection against AD.

19 Jan 2026

Majority of older adults in Ireland have poorly controlled high blood pressure

High blood pressure becomes more common after age 40years yet new research from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin shows that many people in Ireland with hypertension are still not optimally diagnosed or treated based on European Gudelines.

16 Jan 2026

Study finds growing long-term antipsychotic prescribing in elderly dementia patients

When agitated dementia patients wander or shout through the night, families and caregivers understandably feel the need to treat this frightening and potentially dangerous behavior. Antipsychotic medications are often resorted to with such patients, contributing to increases in antipsychotic treatment rates among older people.

16 Jan 2026

Experts issue strong call for overhaul of UK dementia prevention strategy

A national panel of experts has issued the strongest call yet for the Department of Health and Social Care to overhaul how it approaches dementia prevention, pointing to vital evidence that dementia risk can be reduced and providing a framework for the development of new government policy that could improve brain health for millions.

16 Jan 2026