Physical fitness, physical activity and screen time influence adolescents’ brain function
Peer-Reviewed Publication
This month, we’re focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), a topic that continues to capture attention everywhere. Here, you’ll find the latest research news, insights, and discoveries shaping how AI is being developed and used across the world.
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 10-Jan-2026 02:11 ET (10-Jan-2026 07:11 GMT/UTC)
Physical fitness, physical activity and screen time are associated with brain mechanisms underlying mental health and learning, according to two recent studies from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital. Research into the effects of lifestyle and physical fitness on adolescent brain function remains limited to date.
As voice artificial intelligence (AI) speeds toward use in clinical settings, a researcher from Simon Fraser University is highlighting the urgent need for ethical, legal, and social oversight—especially in therapeutic care.
Voice AI analyzes vocal patterns to detect signs of physical, cognitive, and mental health conditions based on vocal qualities like pitch and jitter or fluency and specific words people use. Some tech companies have even dubbed it “the new blood” of healthcare because of its potential to act as a biomarker, but SFU health sciences researcher Zoha Khawaja urges caution.
Collaborating authors include Professor Joshua Agar (Drexel University), Professors Chris Wolverton and Peter Voorhees (Northwestern University), Professor Peter Littlewood (University of St Andrews), and Professor Sergei Kalinin (University of Tennessee).
Paper Title: Artificial Intelligence for Materials Discovery, Development, and Optimization
The era has arrived in which artificial intelligence (AI) autonomously imagines and predicts the structures and properties of new materials. Today, AI functions as a researcher’s “second brain,” actively participating in every stage of research, from idea generation to experimental validation.
‘Addressing the SEND crisis update: Implementing what works in a worsening crisis’, produced by the N8 Research Partnership and Health Equity North in partnership with Baroness Longfield’s Centre for Young Lives, provides an updated and shocking picture from the last 12 months.
In a new study, University of Arizona researchers created a model for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, and identified two mutated tumor proteins, or neoantigens, that contain features of good candidates for a vaccine. At the same time, they used artificial intelligence to create 3D models to help them understand and predict which neoantigens could provoke T cells, a type of white blood cell critical to the immune system, to attack the cancer.
University of Phoenix College of Social and Behavioral Sciences announces a new white paper, “Trauma-Informed Education – A Pathway for Relief, Retention, and Renewal,” authored by College leadership Sheila Babendir, Ed.D., LPAC; Barbara Burt, Psy.D.; Michelle Crawford-Morrison, LMFT, LPCC, NCC; Samantha E. Dutton, Ph.D., LCSW-R; Christine Karper, Ph.D., LMHC (QCS); and MaryJo Trombley, Ph.D. The paper asserts that implementing trauma-informed practices can improve outcomes for students and educators, driving retention and well-being while equipping learners with skills they can carry into the workplace.