Exercise might pump up our neurons as well as our muscles. Plus, the source of a rare side effect of some COVID vaccines and the ‘phantom pain’ that can be felt when biodiversity is lost.
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Some neurons in mice become more easily activated after multiple exercise sessions, a study has found.Credit: Dr Gopal Murti/SPL
Repeated exercise sessions on a treadmill strengthen the wiring in a mouse’s brain, making certain neurons quicker to activate. Researchers found that this ‘rewiring’ was essential for mice to gradually improve their running endurance, which suggests that the brain is actively involved in the improvement of a physical ability with practice. “Exercise is not just about muscles breaking down and building up,” says neuroscientist and study co-author Nicholas Betley. “It’s changing your whole brain.”
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Neuron paper
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revoked the ‘endangerment finding’ — the conclusion that it can regulate greenhouse gases because they endanger public health and wellbeing. At the same time, it repealed emissions standards for vehicles — something that, by several estimates, will add billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere in the coming decades. Rules for power plants might be next. Many environmental groups plan to sue but “regardless of how the law views it in the end, several years of regulatory action will be lost”, says legal scholar Adam Orford.
Nature | 8 min read
Can social media be addictive to young people? A jury in California is being asked to decide — even though the question still divides researchers. The young woman at the centre of the case alleges that she became addicted to social-media platforms as a child, causing the anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia that she lives with today. Scholars expect to see a “a battle of the experts” to debate ‘dopamine hits’ of intermittent reinforcement, how our brains respond to positive social interactions and the vulnerability of young people’s developing brains.
Nature | 7 min read
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