An NIH-funded partnership called the PsychAD Consortium has published the largest single-cell map of the human prefrontal cortex, drawing on sequencing data from more than six million cells from nearly 1,500 people. The findings appear across eight studies, including three papers in Nature, and detail gene activity in neurons, immune cells and vascular cells in this brain region tied to planning and emotional regulation.
nature.com
· 2026-09-23
Researchers analyzed prefrontal cortex tissue from 284 neurotypical donors aged 0 to 97, drawn from the NIMH HBCC and Mount Sinai NIH Neurobiobank collections, to build a single-cell transcriptomic atlas. Donors were screened using neuropathology criteria such as CERAD and Braak scores to exclude Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and cognitive impairment, and were grouped into developmental, young, middle and late adulthood categories.
nature.com
· 2026-09-23
Stanford scientists genetically engineered mice lacking a functioning cortex, then implanted human neurons derived from reprogrammed skin cells into the empty space. The transplanted cells multiplied from a few hundred to several million and wired themselves into the mouse brain, with the animals behaving largely normally despite the human tissue making up nearly half their brain volume by some measures. The findings were published in Nature.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-20
Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine identified a small population of cortical inhibitory neurons, called Sst-Chodl cells, that make up about one percent of the cortex's inhibitory neurons. Activating these cells in mice was enough to induce sleep, showing the cortex itself can generate slow-wave sleep rhythms rather than merely responding to signals from deeper brain regions. The team spent years developing a genetic labeling method precise enough to isolate this rare cell type from more abundant, similar neurons.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-18
Researchers recording brain activity directly from six people found two adjacent regions in the orbitofrontal cortex that compete during risky decisions, described in a Nature Neuroscience study published September 15. One region activates when a person leans toward pursuing a reward, while the other activates when they lean toward avoiding risk, with signals rapidly alternating between the two before a final choice is made.
nature.com
· 2026-09-17
A developer reprogrammed the firmware of IK Multimedia's iRig HD X USB audio interface to run NAM A2-Lite, a compact neural amp-modeling engine, directly on the device's built-in 500 MHz NXP Cortex-M7 processor. Instead of streaming guitar audio to a computer or phone for amp simulation, the interface now processes a 5150-with-OD808 amp model in real time internally, fitting the engine into 128 KiB of FlexRAM and measuring performance close to the original NAMCore software.
playtaurus.com
· 2026-09-16
Researchers grafted lab-grown human brain tissue into mice that were bred without a cortex, and the transplanted tissue integrated and took root in the animals' brains. The study demonstrates that human neural tissue can survive and develop within a living rodent brain that lacks its own corresponding structure.
nature.com
· 2026-09-16
Researchers analyzed post-mortem human fetal brain tissue collected across periods 13 to 24 weeks post-conception, sourced from multiple US and UK tissue banks under ethical approval, to study how the prefrontal cortex becomes distinct from motor regions. They identified a self-regulating retinoic acid signaling loop active during the mid-fetal stage that appears to guide this regional specialization as the cortical plate consolidates and thalamocortical connections form.
nature.com
· 2026-09-16
Scientists at the Salk Institute and collaborators combined multiple detection techniques to identify over 4,300 previously unrecognized 'microproteins' in postmortem brain tissue from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, comparing samples from people with and without Alzheimer's disease. Dozens of these tiny proteins, each under 150 amino acids, showed altered levels in Alzheimer's patients, and the findings were published in Nature Aging on September 14.
nature.com
· 2026-09-16
A review published in Consciousness and Cognition by Derek Arnold, Loren Bouyer, Blake Saurels and Samuel Schwarzkopf argues that mental imagery is not simply visual perception run backward through the primary visual cortex. Drawing on cases of aphantasia—a lifelong inability to form mental images—and patients who retain imagery despite losing visual cortex tissue, the authors contend that imagination arises from cooperation among frontal and other distributed brain regions rather than a single visual 'screen.'
dailyneuron.com
· 2026-09-14
Palo Alto Networks acquired Console, a two-year-old startup using AI agents to automate IT help desk tasks, for roughly $500 million in cash and stock, according to people familiar with the deal. The company had only raised $29 million and was last valued at $157 million, meaning investors—including Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora, an early angel backer—saw a swift and substantial return. Neither company disclosed financial terms publicly.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-02
Scientists isolated cells from developing human cortex tissue between 15 and 24 weeks gestation, fixing and preserving them for later analysis. They then used fluorescence-activated cell sorting with antibody markers like SOX2, EOMES, HOPX, OLIG2 and PU.1 to separate specific cell populations, including radial glia and oligodendrocyte precursor/microglial cells, for downstream genomic study.
nature.com
· 2026-09-02
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