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ADHD Drugs May Ease Subjective Brain Fog in Perimenopause

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Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

An estimated 44–60% of perimenopausal women report cognitive changes such as forgetfulness and difficulty concentrating (brain fog). No FDA-approved pharmacological intervention exists. A scoping review suggests ADHD medications may help. Results will be presented at the 2026 Annual Meeting of The Menopause Society in San Diego, 20–24 October 2026.

The menopause transition involves a significant decline and fluctuation in oestrogen that mediates catecholaminergic signalling in the prefrontal cortex. This produces quantifiable deficits in working memory, attentional control and processing speed that overlap with ADHD symptom domains.

Researchers reviewed original studies of lisdexamfetamine (LDX) and atomoxetine (ATX) in biological women aged 45–60 with last menstrual period <10 years ago (exclusions included transgender women, disordered sleep, surgical menopause, primary ovarian insufficiency, premature/early menopause and prior/current cancer). Both stimulant (LDX) and non-stimulant (ATX) agents significantly improved self-reported executive function, shown by marked reductions in total Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scale (BADDS) scores versus placebo. Neuroimaging in a subset taking LDX supported these findings.

Improvements were confined to subjective brain fog; objective measures (working memory, sustained attention) showed little or no significant change. Cross-sectional data linked higher baseline ADHD symptom severity to greater perimenopausal symptom burden, though the impact of a formal ADHD diagnosis on somatic and psychological complaints was inconsistent.

The authors conclude that these agents may improve subjective executive function (but not objective cognition) by modulating catecholaminergic pathways disrupted in the menopause transition. Findings open a potential non-hormonal option for perimenopausal executive dysfunction, but larger studies are required before clinical recommendation.

“Many women at perimenopause notice changes in focus, memory and organisation that look a lot like ADHD, and the two can be hard to tell apart. Our review found early signs that ADHD medications may help women feel more on top of their daily lives. While it’s too early to recommend these medications, a quick screen for ADHD symptoms is a simple step that could help women get the right care,” said Jennifer Tat (University of Tennessee Health Science Center).

“For most women, brain fog at menopause is a temporary condition that does not lead to permanent cognitive changes or dementia. However, it can last long enough to disrupt work and daily routines and cause significant stress and anxiety. That’s why studies like this are important in helping to identify additional options for symptoms,” said Dr Stephanie Faubion (medical director, The Menopause Society).

Details: “Brain Fog or ADHD? Executive Dysfunction in Perimenopause: A Scoping Review of the Role of ADHD Medications.” More information: www.menopause.org.

Source: The Menopause Society via EurekAlert!

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SA’s Health Insurance Market Surges as Medical Scheme Costs Rise

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With high annual increases, medical schemes are becoming less affordable, but SA’s health insurance market is bringing in previously uninsured South Africans into private healthcare for the first time.

Photo by Cottonbro on Pexels

19 OCTOBER 2026, Johannesburg: South Africa’s biggest medical schemes are increasing rates by 7% to 9% for 2027, more than double the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) guideline, pushing medical scheme cover further out of reach for working South Africans. Meanwhile, a different part of the private health insurance market is growing, reaching South Africans who have never had private cover before.

According to the CMS, medical scheme membership has held steady at nine million lives for more than a decade, slipping from about 17% of South Africans a decade ago to under 15% today. Over the same period, health insurance has grown to approximately 1.5 to two million lives, according to industry estimates.

Depending on the options selected, health insurance may provide access to defined primary healthcare, medication and specified accident or emergency benefits. These insurance offerings are deliberately different from medical schemes, which must cover prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs), and offer additional benefits depending on their rules and benefit options.

Kaelo, which provides health insurance, gap cover, and other employee benefits primarily through employers, says demand has risen sharply. Its membership has grown by more than 30% per year over the past two years, and over the same period it has quoted on cover for nearly 1.5 million lives.

“Health insurance and medical schemes are largely two distinct markets,” says Jordan Bortz, actuary at Kaelo. “The typical health insurance member has never been on a medical scheme. Several of our largest clients are employers whose staff earn around R10,000 a month or less. Many cannot afford the monthly cost of medical scheme cover.”

“Some of the employees may never buy private cover on their own, but when the employer provides it, or subsidises a portion of the cost, a significant number of people gain access to private healthcare for the first time,” says Bortz.

For lower-income earners, the affordability gap keeps widening. Health insurance products can cost as little as R300 per month, while entry-level medical scheme cover starts at approximately R1,500. Because health insurance premiums have risen more slowly than medical scheme contributions, that gap grows each year. “Every year, medical scheme cover moves a little further away from what many working South Africans can afford,” says Bortz. “After the latest increases, the gap is wider than it’s ever been. Health insurance gives those employees a way into private healthcare that they otherwise wouldn’t have.”  

Group-based cover can cost up to half the price of the same benefits bought by individuals. Employers can also subsidise all or part of the cost of health insurance.

For employers, the business case goes beyond price. Workers without cover often go untreated for everyday illnesses and chronic conditions, and lose working hours queuing for care. So, employers face reduced productivity and increased absenteeism.

Access to primary healthcare and chronic medication supports improved attendance, wellbeing and workplace productivity. “Based on Kaelo’s internal modelling, the value to employers may be many multiples higher than programme spend, depending on factors such as the industry and utilisation. Even if the employer subsidises only a portion of the premium, they get almost the full benefit,” says Bortz.

Kaelo’s health insurance plans range from accident and emergency cover to a comprehensive offering covering 27 chronic conditions, GP consultations, dentistry and optometry through the Prime Cure network. Kaelo Gap and Western Gap cover address the other side of rising increases: as schemes contain price rises by narrowing hospital networks and tariff limits, gap cover may pay qualifying medical expense shortfalls and co-payments, subject to the policy terms. Direct-to-consumer demand for both health and gap cover is growing at a similar double-digit pace.

The focus on mental health also differentiates Kaelo, as it has been built into Kaelo’s gap, health and life products for close to two decades. “We consider the whole person,” says Bortz. “Mental health has a knock-on effect on mortality and morbidity, and on how people perform at work.”

Health insurance does not replace medical scheme cover, but it does offer a first step into private healthcare for those who have never had it. “For most of the people we cover, the choice was never medical scheme or health insurance,” says Bortz. “It was health insurance or nothing.”

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Experimental Brain Implants are on the Rise. What Happens After the Trials are Over?

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AI image created with Grok

Nathan Higgins, Monash University

In 2024, Elon Musk’s Neuralink put its first brain implant into a human amid doubt from scientists and allegations of animal cruelty.

Two and a half years later, that first patient is one of more than 20 “neuralnauts” who use their implants to participate in the online world.

Brain implants are becoming smaller, more compatible with human bodies, and dramatically more capable. People with paralysis can use brain-computer interfaces to produce speech almost instantaneously. Earlier this year, researchers in the United Kingdom showed volunteers wearing a headset could control robotic limbs and their natural ones at the same time.

As the industry takes off, we will see more and more clinical trials of devices that are implanted in the brain. In a recent study, my colleagues and I tried to address an increasingly important question: when a clinical trial of an experimental neural device ends, what does that mean for the human participants?

Tough questions

There is no simple answer. Some participants may be able to continue using an implanted device “off-label” as part of a special access scheme, or if the trial sponsor enrols participants into a follow-up study.

But if the trial sponsor is funded by a research grant or venture capital, they may not be able to cover the costs of potentially lifelong device support.

Participants may need to have their device removed at the end of the trial, even if they have benefited from it.

These scenarios are not hypothetical.

This is becoming a significant issue in Australia, where a new generation of neurotech companies is taking off.

Last year, Melbourne-based company EpiMinder received FDA authorisation to market their continuous seizure monitoring system for epilepsy.

Synchron has raised well over A$300 million for its “minimally invasive” endovascular brain-computer interface and has recently commenced its latest Australian clinical trial.

No rules, yet

Yet Australia currently has no rules about how trial organisers should be required to support participants for the long term.

Nor are there rules about how participants should be supported when trials are suspended or devices discontinued.

Current guidance offers little direction on what ethical arrangements should involve.

The Australian clinical trial handbook requires researchers to “clearly explain” whether participants will have continued access. However, this is difficult in practice.

Trials of implantable systems often last several years. This makes it difficult for participants to anticipate what their future needs and preferences will be once the trial comes to a conclusion.

Asking the experts

We brought together an expert panel of 24 clinicians, bioengineers, consultants, bioethicists and research governance professionals to develop recommendations on post-trial responsibilities in Australia.

If the sponsor is able to give participants the option of post-trial use, we recommend giving participants and their loved ones a realistic picture of what continued use will look like.

Which clinical and technical supports will remain available, and who will provide them? Will surgery and maintenance be covered by public healthcare or private health insurance? What costs might participants face themselves?

Years may pass before a device receives regulatory approval or becomes eligible for reimbursement. Participants should be provided with updates on changes to funding, regulatory status or manufacturers’ commercial plans that could affect their ongoing care.

This does not always happen in neurotechnology research. Transparency helps participants assess their participation and plan for life after the trial.

Geographic barriers

Geographic and socioeconomic factors also bear on continuing access to device support. Trials are often run from metropolitan teaching hospitals. Some participants may need to make repeated visits to the trial site for outpatient care or inpatient stays.

Flights and accommodation may need to be arranged for participants who must travel interstate, particularly as laws around psychosurgery vary between states. This can complicate access to local care.

We recommend anticipating barriers to continuing device use that may disproportionately affect some participants. During recruitment and study design, research teams should engage participants’ primary treating physicians to discuss what aspects of post-trial support can be safely (and lawfully) taken on locally.

Some procedures will still require specialist expertise, but sharing post-trial support could reduce travel costs and dependence on the original research team. Better treatment for pioneersThe end of a clinical trial should not mean losing access to a device when better planning and coordination between trial organisers could have made continued use possible.

Ultimately, these trial participants are pioneers who put their brains in researchers’ hands to help develop promising new treatments.

Nathan Higgins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Monash Bioethics Centre, Monash University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Indigo Light Might Prevent and Treat Myopia

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Graphical abstract, Cell Reports Medicine (2026).

As technology use increases and children spend less time outdoors, researchers have noticed an epidemic increase in myopia over the past six decades also known as the ‘myopia boom’. Myopia, or nearsightedness, has become a major health problem across the world, largely impacting children and adolescents.

“It is projected that nearly half of the world’s population could be myopic by 2050,” said Rafael Grytz, PhD, professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. “Myopia results in higher risk to develop glaucoma, retinal detachments and other blinding disease later in life.”

However, a new study published in Cell Reports Medicine suggests that controlled exposure to the indigo light, wavelengths that are abundant in sunlight but mostly absent indoors, could be an effective treatment for myopia. Partnering with researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, this study poses a new treatment and prevention strategy that could impact current ophthalmologic practices and environment lighting standards.

The right wavelengths for developing clear vision

Myopia develops in children and can be defined as the condition when the eye is deemed too long. This extended length causes the light that enters the eye to focus in front of the retina. This results in distant objects’ appearing blurry and out of focus. While standard glasses and contact lenses may improve sight and mitigate myopia symptoms, they do not slow the development of the condition.

Grytz, lead author of the paper, says indigo light can likely be used to slow the progression of myopia in children because it has proved to be composed of just the right wavelengths to completely suppress myopia development in juvenile animal models.

“If we can implement indigo light into our indoor environment or provide it directly to the eye, we may slow the progression of myopia and even work to prevent it from developing at all,” Grytz said.

While the sun is abundant in indigo wavelengths, the modern age of increased indoor time and exposure to white LED light via technology use and modern lighting design present a clear correlation to the myopia boom.

The indigo wavelengths were found by optimizing opsin 5 activation while accounting for light that is filtered out by the ocular lens. OPN5 is a protein that exists in the retina that serves as a light sensing receptor.

Earlier work in animal models that rely on night vision suggested that violet light could suppress myopia by activating OPN5. But violet wavelengths did not work in different animal models that rely on daytime vision with an eye very similar to that of humans, because the ocular lens blocks most violet light below about 400 nanometers.

Corresponding author Richard Lang, Ph.D., director of research in the Division of Ophthalmology at Cincinnati Children’s, says that “human lenses don’t transmit a lot of light in the ultra-violet spectrum.”

Based on this finding, Grytz predicted the optimal wavelength that could stimulate OPN5 in the animal model eye. This prediction led the team to explore slightly longer wavelengths, including indigo wavelengths. Ultimately, the team established a new metric, called the μ-opic, that can quantify how effectively different light wavelengths may protect against myopia.

“We found that indigo light from 419 to 446 nanometers were the most effective wavelengths,” Lang said. “So, if indigo light can suppress myopia in these tests, then it should also be quite effective in humans.”

The future of myopia treatment

Grytz founded Electric Indigo, a UAB startup that focuses on developing ways to practically manage myopia. This startup was founded with the support of UAB’s Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. HIIE offers the infrastructure necessary to help UAB faculty, staff, and students bring new ideas and technologies to market across the region and beyond.

“At Electric Indigo, we have developed eyewear with LEDs in the frame that emit indigo light at controlled conditions to the eye to effectively treat and slow myopia progression in children,” Grytz said.

Grytz says this approach offers a simpler and new strategy that could surpass current treatment options, which may have difficult side effects and limited efficacy levels.

Compared to the increasingly popular red-light therapy, Indigo Eyewear presents an easier approach to treatment by offering a practical method of exposure.

“If our hypothesis is confirmed that absence of indigo light indoors caused the myopia boom, our eyewear will be the first treatment that attacks the root cause of this epidemic,” Grytz said.

Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Categories : Neurodegenerative DiseasesTags : Leave a comment

Synaptic Vesicles Shed Light on Parkinson’s Disease

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Neurotransmitters at a synapse. Credit: Scientific Animations CC4.0

Brain cells that release dopamine package it into tiny membrane-bound sacs called synaptic vesicles. And these vesicles differ from vesicles used by brain cells that release other neurotransmitters, a study led by Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators shows.

The study, published in Science Advances, could lead to better understanding of Parkinson’s disease, a movement disorder that causes dopamine-releasing brain cells to progressively die. The death of these cells leads to the movement problems that characterise the disease.

“Our research sheds light on the different ways brain cells release chemical messengers, which the cells use to communicate with each other,” said Katlin Silm, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Sciences and Neurology and senior author of the study. “We identified key differences between brain cells that release dopamine and those that release other brain chemicals.”

Synaptic vesicles help brain cells to communicate by fusing with the cell membrane and releasing their contents into the space between cells. In the brains of laboratory mice, investigators found that dopamine-containing synaptic vesicles carry a distinct set of proteins compared to those containing other messenger chemicals.

“Our findings show that a vesicle’s composition is critical to determining how brain messenger chemicals are released,” said Silm, also a research scientist in the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute. “The differences we identified help explain the unique properties of dopamine release and lay the groundwork to explore how this affects the long-term stability of dopamine-producing brain cells.”

Source: Cedars Sinai

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Breaking Down AI-Generated Physician Deepfake Scams

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And should robotics be used for nursing care?

Photo by Anna Shvets

Scammers now use generative AI technologies to create deepfakes of physicians to sell products, extract sensitive data, and more. MD-MBA candidate Tejas S Athni, PhD analyses the types of these scams in “Classifying Physician Deepfakes: The Many Faces of AI-Powered Medical Deception“, asking: “How do they deceive and mislead audiences, and to what ends? And what are the potential clinical impacts?”

Athni identifies four ways in which deepfakes are used so far to exploit online users – commercial endorsement, engagement farming, medical misinformation, and phishing – then notes the potential risk for deepfakes to facilitate fraudulent professional communications (like interviews, presentations, and lectures) and to directly sabotage their subjects’ reputations.

Where Nursing Can be Automated, And Where It Can’t

Can – and should – bedside nursing tasks be performed by robots? Health writer and ICU nurse Jenna Congdon reviews the data in “The Robot at the Bedside: How Robotics Could Change the Future of Nursing Care”. Though one study found that a majority of bedside nursing tasks could technically be performed by robotic systems, another argued that research in laboratory settings can’t capture the complexity and flexibility of real life clinical settings, pointing to a need for human involvement. But though autonomous robots aren’t yet ready (or wanted) for most hands-on tasks, some robotics may be valuable for home care support, auxiliary nursing support, and patient independence; aiming “to reduce repetitive physical tasks, decrease time spent on nonclinical activities, and allow nurses to focus on assessment, education, and relationship building”, writes Congdon.

Source: JMIR Publications, EurekAlert!

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79 Deaths a Day: South Africa’s Diabetes Crisis Needs a New Strategy

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Photo by Wes Dissy on Unsplash

Patrick Ngassa Piotie, University of Pretoria

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) recently released its report on deaths that occurred in 2024. The headline findings contain a sobering, recurring truth: diabetes was once again the country’s leading underlying natural cause of death.

In 2024 alone, 28 767 people died from complications caused by diabetes, accounting for 6.1% of all deaths nationwide. That is an average of nearly 79 deaths every day.

Diabetes also claimed the top spot in 2022 and 2023. These numbers cannot be accepted as South Africa’s new normal. Behind every data point is a human life, a grieving family and, all too often, years of encounters with a health system that missed opportunities to diagnose, treat and support people in time.

As a public health specialist and chairperson of the non-profit organisation Diabetes Alliance, I view this three-year trend as an unacceptable tragedy. Diabetes is manageable. With timely support, people can lead long, healthy lives free from preventable complications. Acknowledging this crisis is the start, but recognition must give way to political action. The Department of Health must establish a national diabetes strategy with clear targets for prevention and care. The finance minister must resource it. And the Presidency must lead a coordinated, whole-of-government response.

The broader health landscape is equally stark. Noncommunicable diseases accounted for 60.7% of all recorded deaths in 2024. The top three causes of natural death – diabetes, hypertensive diseases and cerebrovascular diseases – frequently overlap in the same individuals. Managing these interconnected conditions through isolated disease programmes makes little sense for primary care clinics or the patients navigating them.

Reading beyond the numbers

At first glance, the 2024 total is 800 deaths higher than the revised 2023 figure of 27,967 (5.8% of recorded deaths). Stats SA compiles these mortality figures from death notification forms filed through the Department of Home Affairs. Medical practitioners record the cause of death, which Stats SA then classifies using international coding standards. Late death registrations and administrative backlogs are processed retroactively; this leads to revision or updating of prior years’ totals.

The updated count for 2022 stood at 33,126, higher than diabetes deaths recorded in 2023 and 2024. Diabetes has remained South Africa’s single largest natural killer for three consecutive years.

The diabetes burden is also deeply unequal:

  • Women bear the heaviest loss: diabetes was the leading recorded natural cause among women, claiming 17,429 lives (7.9% of all female deaths) and 11,334 or 4.5% of all male deaths.
  • Working-age adults are hard hit: it ranked first among people aged 45-64, accounting for 9,364 deaths (7.9% of deaths in this group).
  • Geographic split: diabetes ranked as the top natural cause in five provinces, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Gauteng, while hypertensive diseases led in the remaining four provinces. These provincial rankings are not a measure of individual care quality or residency. They are a starting point for region-specific questions about access and system performance.

The geographic split shows the need to investigate whether access to diagnosis, treatment and good quality care differs between and within provinces.

A death certificate is only the final chapter

Mortality statistics record the primary cause listed on a death notification, but remain blind to what happened along the way.

They cannot tell us how many South Africans live with undiagnosed diabetes. They cannot show whether a patient had consistent access to insulin and testing supplies, whether their blood sugar was adequately controlled, or whether a simple follow-up could have prevented a fatal complication. Nor do they capture the full toll of diabetes when another condition is listed as the underlying cause.

Those are the questions we must answer while patients are still alive.

In my work on strengthening diabetes care, including the Tshwane Insulin Project – a nurse-led programme that helped people with type 2 diabetes start and adjust insulin treatment in primary care, with follow-up support at home – I have seen where care pathways break down, and where they succeed. Survival rarely hinges on high-tech interventions. It depends on the links in primary healthcare:

  • a trained clinic nurse with the time to act
  • a reliable supply chain for medicines and diagnostics
  • routine follow-up mechanisms when a patient misses an appointment
  • regular screening for kidney, eye and vascular (blood vessel) complications
  • support systems that respect the economic reality of a person’s daily life.

We need real-time clinical data that helps a facility respond today, not a national death tally published two years later.

Turning policy into frontline care

South Africa already has a framework: the National Strategic Plan for Non-Communicable Diseases and its 90-60-50 targets. This cascade aims to ensure that 90% of adults know their blood pressure and blood glucose status, 60% of those with elevated levels receive treatment, and 50% of those receiving care achieve clinical control.

The challenge is making policy work in practice.

Tools like the National Health Laboratory Service diabetes dashboard offer valuable insights into blood sugar levels control across districts. But to close the loop, South Africa urgently needs a national diabetes registry and integrated digital tracking to understand who enters care, who remains in care, and who is being left behind.

From declaration to delivery

After the 2025 Diabetes Summit, the Diabetes Alliance launched the Johannesburg Declaration for Accelerated Action on Diabetes. The declaration calls for coordinated national leadership, sustainable financing, decentralised primary care, and direct participation by people living with diabetes. It asks the Presidency to lead a multisectoral response and calls on the National Treasury and health sector to match policy commitments with financial resources.

The latest mortality report gives this agenda even more urgency. There are three practical priorities:

  1. Connect early diagnosis to sustained care. Screening is only useful if a positive result leads to uninterrupted treatment, reliable medicines, blood glucose monitoring and clinical review.
  2. Measure quality of care: publish a picture of diagnosis, treatment, retention and complication rates by district and province.
  3. Address the conditions in which health choices are made. Food prices, transport barriers and economic hardship shape health outcomes.

People living with diabetes must help define what quality care looks like. Their experience should guide national policy and daily clinic operations alike.

Patrick Ngassa Piotie, Chairperson, Diabetes Alliance; Co-founder, Diabetes Research Centre, University of Pretoria

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Variations in the Human Vocal Tract Could Have Influenced Our Language Diversity

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Vocal tracts and the sounds they produce vary, resulting in distinct sounds in speaking groups

Vocal tract outlines for the five vowels [i], [e], [a], [o] and [u] in the midsagittal plane producing a vowel sound. Each colour represents a different vowel and speaker, showcasing markedly different vocal tract and tongue configurations across speakers and vowels.
Image credit: Tiena Danner and Christoph Zollikofer (CC-BY 4.0)

The anatomical differences in our vocal tracts could be one of the sources of our Tower of Babel – the vast difference in languages spoken around the world, according to a study published October 13th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Steven Moran and Tiena Danner from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and colleagues.

Many variations exist in the human voice. People vary in the size and shape of the tissues in the head and neck and also shape that anatomy differently to produce similar sounds. Developmental and cultural factors will shape the way people speak. To better understand how anatomical and articulatory variation might affect how a speaker sounds, the authors of this study analysed data from 32 speakers (16 male and 16 female) from the USC 75-Speaker Speech MRI Database, an open-source collection of real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtMRI) conducted during speech tasks, focusing on American English vowels (i, e, a, o and u).

The authors found that the subjects had widely different vocal tracts and used very different ranges of motion in those tracts to produce the same sound. Those ranges of motion, or articulatory differences, were a result of each person’s specific vocal anatomy, and produced both the correct sound and an individual acoustic difference. Finally, by combining the rtMRI results with multilingual speech data, they showed that the amount of variation within other languages such as Basque or Hindi was similar to the variation present in American English, suggesting that within each language, there’s a basic level of speaker variation as a result of vocal tract anatomy.

While the sample size of vocal tracts was small, and the authors compared variations in only a few language families, the authors propose a biocultural model of how spoken sounds might vary and diversity between peoples, where variation of pronunciation within a group feeds into the development of a language difference between groups, eventually producing two groups that can’t understand each other.

The authors add, “We often think of differences in pronunciation between speakers of a language as noise to be normalized away in linguistic analysis. However, the results of our study suggest the opposite: that the variation between individuals may be an important source of information in understanding the evolution of spoken languages.

“An exciting aspect of our study is that it provides researchers with a null model for studying the phonetic evolution of spoken languages. If the differences between the world’s 7000 or so languages reflect variation already present in the anatomical differences between speakers, we now have a baseline against which we can identify sociocultural or historical factors that have driven language diversification.

“Every person has a slightly different vocal tract and speakers compensate for these differences to remain mutually intelligible. Nevertheless, our anatomical differences leave systematic acoustic signatures in the sounds we produce. Remarkably, we find that the same patterns of phonetic variation between individuals are also reflected in the difference between languages.

“Our results suggest that the seeds of phonetic differences between languages are already present in the variation between individual speakers. Spoken language evolution is driven by the biological diversity within populations and the sociocultural forces that shape how languages change.”

Provided by PLOS

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Teens’ Body Dissatisfaction Linked to Childhood Body Fat Levels

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A longitudinal study of more than 13 000 children in the UK found that higher childhood body mass index and fat mass were associated with greater body dissatisfaction at age 14 in both sexes

Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

Children who follow higher trajectories of body mass index (BMI) and fat mass index across childhood report greater body dissatisfaction at age 14, in both boys and girls, according to a new study published October 14, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Dr Madelaine Davies Kellock, a Research Fellow at University College London, UK, and colleagues.

Body dissatisfaction has been rising among young people over recent decades and is linked to later depression and eating disorders. Prior research using BMI has suggested weight relates to body dissatisfaction differently in girls and boys, but BMI cannot distinguish fat mass from fat-free mass, which includes muscle, bone and other tissues. Fat mass and fat-free mass may relate to dissatisfaction differently than BMI, particularly given the social desirability of muscularity in boys.

Researchers used data from 13 025 participants in the UK Millennium Cohort Study, which provided measurements of height and weight from age 3, and body composition from ages 7 to 14. For the new analysis, children were grouped into low, moderate and high trajectories of BMI, fat mass index, and fat-free mass index based on that data. At age 14, body dissatisfaction was measured using a self-reported questionnaire.

Children with moderate or high BMI trajectories had higher dissatisfaction scores than those with low trajectories (adjusted mean difference 0.32 and 0.71, on a 0-6 scale), with similar results for fat mass index (0.33 and 0.73), and no evidence these associations differed by sex. The researchers expected higher fat-free mass index, which includes muscle as well as other non-fat tissue, to relate to lower dissatisfaction in boys; instead, boys with high fat-free mass had greater dissatisfaction than those with low fat-free mass (adjusted mean difference 0.31), and the association was larger in girls (0.36 moderate, 0.79 high).

Because the study was observational, it could not establish that body composition causes body dissatisfaction. It was also limited by the single question measurement of body dissatisfaction and the fact that children from more disadvantaged families were more likely to have missing data.

The authors conclude that both girls and boys with higher childhood adiposity are at risk of body dissatisfaction in adolescence and say the findings could help shape ways to target body dissatisfaction.

The authors add: “Body dissatisfaction is often thought of as something that mainly affects girls, but our findings suggest that both girls and boys with higher BMI or fat mass index trajectories in childhood have higher levels of body dissatisfaction in adolescence.

Our findings for fat-free mass index were quite surprising. We did not find that higher fat-free mass index was associated with lower body dissatisfaction in boys, but as we found a smaller association compared to girls, this might suggest that some aspects of fat-free mass are less of a risk factor for body dissatisfaction in boys. There are lots of reasons why someone might have high fat-free mass, so it’s likely that this group includes people with quite different physical characteristics, including high levels of lean muscle mass, as well as those with increased bone and muscle mass partly as a consequence of having high fat mass. This could mask the role that aspects such as muscle mass might play in how young people experience their bodies.

There is now good evidence that body dissatisfaction in adolescence is associated with subsequent poorer mental health. The association between adiposity and body dissatisfaction might emerge because young people with higher weight experience more negative events, such as stigmatising comments and bullying. Therefore, it is important that we think carefully about how we talk about weight and body size with young people, including in schools.”

Provided by PLOS

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Myopia Surge Could be Caused by Focus Strain in Low Light

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For years, rising rates of myopia have been widely attributed to increased screen time, especially among children and young adults. But new research from scientists at the SUNY College of Optometry suggests the story may be more complicated – and more human.

In a new study published in Cell Reports, researchers propose that myopia may be driven less by screens themselves and more by a common indoor visual habit: prolonged close-up focus in low-light environments, which limits how much light reaches the retina.

The research offers a new hypothesis that could help explain a long-standing puzzle in vision science – why so many seemingly different factors, from near work and dim indoor lighting to treatments like atropine drops, multifocal lenses, and time spent outdoors, all appear to influence myopia progression.

“Myopia has reached near-epidemic levels worldwide, yet we still don’t fully understand why,” said Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and senior author of the study. “Our findings suggest that a common underlying factor may be how much light reaches the retina during sustained near work – particularly indoors.”

A different way of thinking about near work

Myopia affects nearly 50 percent of young adults in the United States and Europe and close to 90 percent in parts of East Asia. While genetics play an important role, rapid increases over just a few generations suggest environmental factors are also critical.

Scientists have long known that:

  • Spending more time outdoors appears to protect against myopia
  • Extended near work is associated with increased risk
  • Treatments as different as atropine eye drops, multifocal lenses, and contrast-reducing optics can slow progression

What has been unclear is why these diverse approaches work.

SUNY Optometry researchers propose a unifying explanation centred on the pupil – the eye’s natural “aperture,” similar to a camera diaphragm.

“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” explains Urusha Maharjan, SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study. “When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets, or books, the pupil can also constrict, not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image. In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”

According to the researchers’ hypothesis, reduced retinal stimulation over long periods may weaken specific neural pathways involved in visual processing, contributing to myopia development and progression.

Explaining what we already observe

The proposed mechanism may help explain several well-known observations:

  • Why outdoor time is protective: bright light keeps retinal stimulation high
  • Why atropine may slow myopia: it limits pupil constriction, allowing more light into the eye
  • Why certain lenses help: they reduce the need for strong close-up focusing
  • Why prolonged indoor near work under low light may be particularly problematic

Importantly, the study does not claim that screens directly cause myopia, that light alone explains the condition, or that genetics are unimportant. Rather, it offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting, and eye focusing interact.

“This is not a final answer,” Alonso emphasised. “It’s a hypothesis grounded in measurable physiology that brings together many pieces of existing evidence. More research is needed, but it gives us a new way to think about prevention and treatment.”

Implications for families and clinicians

While the findings do not change clinical guidelines overnight, they may help inform future research, public health strategies, and conversations around children’s visual habits – especially as digital devices become a constant part of daily life.

The study was conducted by Urusha Maharjan in the laboratories of Jose-Manuel Alonso at SUNY College of Optometry.

Source: SUNY College of Optometry