The new study of more than 30,000 adults in the U.S. found that the rate of cognitive decline associated with aging fell by 15%-20% for people who formally volunteer their services or who help in more informal ways with neighbors, family or friends outside the home on a regular basis. This cognitive benefit was consistently observed when individuals devoted about two to four hours per week to helping others.

A key discovery about the impact of stroke on a person’s ability to read reveals why a deficit occurs – a finding that presents a possible opportunity for new therapeutic strategies to help people recover one of the most important life skills. It’s long been known that people who experience a stroke can struggle with reading, but researchers weren’t clear exactly why. Now, a new study reveals that strokes can rob a person’s ability to use the meaning of words to help them recognize the words when reading. 

Taking inspiration from a rare mutation that makes people impervious to viral diseases, a Columbia researcher is developing a therapy that could bestow this superpower on the rest of us. 

Threadworms spend up to 10 minutes exploring human skin before finding the best place to burrow in.  When a specific dopamine signal is blocked, the worms almost completely stop trying to penetrate the skin. A topical application that blocks this dopamine pathway could act as a repellent to prevent threadworm infections.