Announcing a new publication from Opto-Electronic Technology; DOI 10.29026/oet.2026.260014.

Rather than asking whether smartphones and social media simply damage our cognitive abilities, this new paper argues that they may instead recalibrate how we value and allocate mental effort. Repeated exposure to digital environments designed for immediate, low-effort rewards may gradually make sustained, cognitively demanding activities feel less worthwhile, even if our underlying cognitive capacity remains unchanged. By framing digital media use as a shift in effort regulation rather than cognitive decline, the authors offer a novel, mechanistic account that explains inconsistent findings in previous research, generates clear, testable hypotheses, and provides a foundation for developing educational strategies and digital designs that encourage sustained attention and deeper learning.

In a recent paper published in Stem Cell Reports, Hiroya Yamada’s team from Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Japan found that the performance of adult rats in learning and memory tests was impaired when the rats had been exposed to high fructose in before birth by feeding their mothers with high fructose corn syrup. The researchers discovered distinct changes in NSCs after high fructose exposure, which included reduced cell division and impaired generation of new neurons, and altered gene expression. 

Viruses that get past the blood-brain barrier can cause encephalitis. Now researchers have found that the brain prepares for a potential attack in advance, thanks to a signaling network that transmits advanced intelligence about viral infection from distal regions of the body. The findings deepen our understanding of the immune system’s intricate surveillance apparatus and could inform new approaches to preventing vector-borne neuroinflammation.

Researchers have taken over 120,000 images of salmon lice larvae in seawater and used them to train AI models. The models were much faster and more accurate than experienced biologists at identifying the parasites that feed on the skin and blood of salmonids.