Turn up that Zeppelin: A recent study found that older adults who regularly listen to or play music have a significantly lower risk of developing dementia.
A research team from Monash University in Australia looked at data from more than 10,800 adults over the age of 70 and found that those who listened to music most days experienced a 39% lower likelihood of developing dementia compared with those who sometimes, rarely or never listened to music.
Those frequent music listeners had a 17% lower incidence of cognitive impairment, along with higher overall cognitive scores and better episodic memory (used when we recall specific, everyday events).
Playing an instrument ― including singing ― was associated with a 35% reduction in dementia risk. Those who both listened to and played music on a regular basis had a 33% reduced risk of dementia and a 22% reduced risk of cognitive impairment.
For older adults worried about dementia ― a disease that affects 7 million people and is becoming more common as life expectancy increases ― turning on some music is an easy, low-effort way to ease a bit of that anxiety.
“We know that listening to music engages multiple brain areas at once, acting like a full-brain workout,” said Emma Jaffa, a biomedical science Monash honors student who conducted the study alongside Joanne Ryan, a professor of biological neuropsychiatry at Monash.
Although the topic is still relatively underexplored, the study’s co-authors have several hypotheses — supported by earlier research — about why music might stimulate the brain.
“We know that listening to music engages multiple brain areas at once, acting like a full-brain workout,” said Emma Jaffa, a biomedical science Monash honors student who co-authored the study with Joanne Ryan, a professor of biological neuropsychiatry at Monash.
“Previous studies show it improves processing speed, language, memory and coordination,” she told HuffPost. “Plus, it often involves socializing with others, which helps protect brain health.”
As a bass player and singer herself, the findings were of particular interest to Jaffa.
She also loves the idea of tangible research ― research that you can actually do something with, that truly helps people. “I think that’s what drew me to this topic. It was the combination of a hobby and the possibility of delivering actionable insights to others,” she said.
“Previous studies show [listening to music] improves processing speed, language, memory and coordination,” Jaffa told HuffPost. “Plus, it often involves socializing with others, which helps protect brain health.”
Jaffa said the question she gets most often about the study is, “Are some genres of music more beneficial than others?” Is Coltrane or Clapton superior when it comes to improving cognitive function?
While she doesn’t have the answer (participants weren’t asked about what they were listening to), she said it’s definitely something she wants to explore in future research. (That and if listening to music has any bearing on reducing the risk of cognitive decline for those younger than 70.)
It’s no surprise that researchers like Ryan and Jaffa are exploring this topic, given how devastating dementia symptoms can be. People with the condition may develop speech difficulties, memory loss, mood changes and trouble completing everyday tasks.
Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images
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Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb is perhaps best known for raising eyebrows with public suggestions that variousstellarphenomena could be evidence of extraterrestrial civilization. It’s controversial, to be sure — but if nothing else, at least Loeb’s using his own brain, at a time when dependence on AI chatbots has never been higher.
In a recent essay on his personal blog, the Harvard professor lamented the mental decay among the AI users in his life.
“Recently, I noticed that some people around me are starting to lose their cognitive abilities as a result of excessive use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini,” Loeb wrote. “This phenomenon resembles muscle loss from excessive use of public transportation as a substitute for walking. In academia, the only reliable way of testing the cognitive abilities of students right now is by placing them in a Faraday cage.”
Nevermind studies showing that public transit users walk a tremendous amount — a much better analogue would be drivers, really — Loeb is underscoring a real and growing concern by many researchers and educators.
Since the rise of AI chatbots over the past few years, there have been plenty of research papers, anecdotal evidence, and grim predictions outlining this exact phenomenon. As one 2025 study by Swiss researcher Michael Gerlich found, frequent use of AI tools can cause critical thinking abilities to atrophy, resulting in a “cognitive cost” among human users.
As the number of AI users ticks up, the long-term risks of systemic intellectual debt only become more apparent. As recent research by the Pew Research Center found, a massive number of school-aged teens are using AI to do their homework, with heavy use concentrated among minority and low-income students.
As far as Loeb is concerned, he writes that the threat of this kind of societal cognitive impairment makes it important to push back against the idea of AI systems as a sort of magical stand-in for the human brain.
“Regarding AI as similar to the beauty of the human mind is just like putting lipstick on a pig,” he pontificates. “I am much more excited about the potential to discover truly alien intelligence from another star.”
I’m a tech and transit correspondent for Futurism, where my beat includes transportation, infrastructure, and the role of emerging technologies in governance, surveillance, and labor.
New research identifies the fusiform imagery node as the essential brain region for visual imagination, providing a biological basis for aphantasia. Credit: Neuroscience News
Summary: About 3% of people are born with aphantasia—the inability to visualize images in their mind. But what happens when someone loses their imagination after a stroke or accident? A new study has pinpointed the exact brain region responsible for this internal vision.
By mapping brain lesions in rare cases of acquired aphantasia, the team discovered that while injuries occurred in various locations, 100% of cases were connected to a single nexus: the fusiform imagery node. This discovery identifies a critical biological “hub” required for mental imagery and opens new doors for understanding human consciousness and AI development.
Key Facts
The “Fusiform Imagery Node”: Researchers identified this specific region as the mandatory “switch” for visual imagination. If it is damaged or disconnected, the mind’s eye goes dark.
Acquired Aphantasia: The study focused on rare cases where individuals who previously had vivid imaginations lost the ability following a stroke or traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Network Connectivity: Even if the injury wasn’t in the fusiform imagery node, it was always connected to it, suggesting imagination relies on this node as a central communications hub.
Clinical Significance:Many patients find the loss of imagination distressing but “invisible” to doctors. This study provides a biological explanation for their symptoms, aiding in more holistic stroke and TBI recovery.
Consciousness Debate: The findings contribute to the “lively debate” on whether consciousness is localized in one region or spread across the entire brain, with potential implications for artificial intelligence.
Source: Mass General
A recent study by Mass General Brigham researchers explored whether a stroke or traumatic brain injury can result in the loss of visual imagination, known as aphantasia, and which specific parts of the brain are necessary for this function.
Isaiah Kletenik, MD, and Julian Kutsche, of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics within the Mass General Brigham Neuroscience Institute, are the senior and lead authors of a paper published in Cortex, “Lesions Causing Aphantasia are Connected to the Fusiform Imagery Node.”
Q: What challenges or unmet needs make this study important?
Visual imagination, or “seeing in the mind’s eye,” is a unique function that allows people to relive past events, solve problems and envision the future. However, about 3% of the general population is born lacking this visual mental imagery—a condition known as aphantasia. Beyond these congenital cases, it remains unclear how stroke or traumatic brain injury can impair this type of imagination.
Understanding the underlying neuroanatomy of aphantasia can advance the field of cognitive neuroscience and inform clinical practice as well. The lack of understanding surrounding this condition poses challenges for those affected as it can impact creativity, a sense of personal meaning and cognitive function.
What central question(s) were you investigating?
Our study was guided by two central questions:
What specific parts of the brain are involved, or necessary, for visual imagination?
Can a brain injury make someone lose their imagination?
By examining rare cases of acquired aphantasia caused by brain injury, we sought to lend insight into the neurological basis of visual imagination.
Q: What methods or approach did you use?
We systematically mapped the locations of brain injuries in individuals who previously possessed the ability for visual imagination, but lost it following a stroke or brain trauma. Specifically, we conducted a thorough literature review to identify cases of acquired aphantasia and mapped the lesion locations onto a common brain atlas. Next, to understand the impact of these injuries, we used extensive functional and structural brain atlases to analyze the connectivity patterns that may have been disrupted.
Q: What did you find?
Our findings revealed that individuals with acquired aphantasia had injuries in many different brain locations. However, 100% of cases were connected to the fusiform imagery node, a specialized region of the brain that is active during visual imagery tasks in healthy individuals. The fact that all identified cases were functionally linked to this specific brain region suggests a critical role for the fusiform imagery node in maintaining the capacity for visual imagination.
Q: What are the real-world implications, particularly for patients?
Strokes and traumatic brain injuries can lead to a wide range of symptoms, many of which are subjective and not observable to others. The capacity for imagination holds significant meaning and importance in people’s lives, making it particularly puzzling and surprising for patients when they discover that a stroke can alter this ability.
By recognizing that brain injuries can lead to changes in subjective, internal experiences, healthcare providers can help patients gain a better understanding of their symptoms during recovery. Moreover, understanding the link between brain injury and changes in imagination may inform future rehabilitation strategies, enhancing patient care and supporting a more holistic approach to recovery.
Q: What emerging trends in this field excite you right now?
Currently, there is a lively debate regarding whether conscious experience can arise from a single organized part of the brain or if widespread communication across multiple brain regions is needed. This question about the neuroscience of consciousness is particularly exciting as it may have implications for our understanding of potential AI consciousness.
Our discovery that disconnection of a specific brain region could extinguish visual imagination opens up intriguing avenues for future research—for example, exploring whether this region can produce visual imagination independently, or if it serves as a crucial nexus that requires coordinated communication with other brain regions.
Authorship: In addition to Kletenik and Kutsche, Mass General Brigham authors include Calvin Howard, William Drew, Alexander L. Cohen and Michael D. Fox. Additional authors include Alberto Castro Palacin and Matthias Michel.
Funding: Funding sources for this study include the German Academic Exchange Service’s Biomedical Education Program, the Canadian Clinician Investigator Program and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) NINDS (L30 NS134024).
Disclosures: Fox reported holding intellectual property on the use of brain connectivity imaging to analyze lesions and guide brain stimulation, as well as consulting for Magnus Medical, Soterix, Abbott, Boston Scientific and Tal Medical.
Key Questions Answered:
Q: What exactly does it feel like to have aphantasia?
A:If I ask you to imagine a red apple, you might “see” it in your head. Someone with aphantasia knows what an apple is and can describe it, but they don’t “see” an image. It’s like a computer running a program without a monitor attached.
Q: Can a brain injury really “delete” your imagination?
A:Yes. While we often focus on motor skills or speech after a stroke, this study shows that subjective internal experiences—like the ability to relive a memory visually or envision the future—can also be extinguished if the “fusiform imagery node” is disconnected.
Q: Does this mean we could “turn on” imagination in people born without it?
A: That’s the exciting future. By identifying the exact node and circuit responsible, researchers can now explore whether brain stimulation (like TMS) could potentially activate or strengthen the “mind’s eye” in people with congenital or acquired aphantasia.
Editorial Notes:
This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
Journal paper reviewed in full.
Additional context added by our staff.
About this aphantasia and visual neuroscience research news
Author: Katie Grant Source: Mass General Contact: Katie Grant – Mass General Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access. “Lesions Causing Aphantasia are Connected to the Fusiform Imagery Node” by Julian Kutsche, Calvin Howard, Alberto Castro Palacin, William Drew, Matthias Michel, Alexander L. Cohen, Michael D. Fox, and Isaiah Kletenik. Cortex DOI:10.1016/j.cortex.2026.01.009
Abstract
Lesions Causing Aphantasia are Connected to the Fusiform Imagery Node
The absence of visual mental imagery, called aphantasia, occurs congenitally in up to 3% of the general population, but the brain regions responsible for aphantasia remain uncertain.
Rare cases of acquired aphantasia caused by brain lesions may lend insight into the neuroanatomy responsible for this condition, and the neural substrate of visual mental imagery itself.
We performed a systematic literature review to identify cases of lesion-induced aphantasia and traced the lesion locations onto a common brain atlas. These locations were compared to control lesions causing other neuropsychiatric symptoms (n = 887).
First, we tested for intersection between lesion locations and an a priori region of interest termed the fusiform imagery node, active during visual mental imagery tasks. Second, we tested for connectivity between lesion locations and this region of interest, leveraging resting-state functional connectivity from a large cohort of healthy subjects (n = 1000).
Finally, we performed a data-driven analysis assessing whole-brain lesion connectivity that was sensitive (100% overlap) and specific (family-wise error p < .05) for aphantasia. We identified 12 cases of lesion-induced aphantasia, only 5 of which intersected the fusiform imagery node.
However, 100% of these lesion locations were functionally connected to the fusiform imagery node. Connectivity to this region was both sensitive (100% overlap) and specific (family-wise error p < .05) for aphantasia in a data-driven whole-brain analysis. Lesions causing acquired aphantasia occur in multiple different brain regions but are all functionally connected to the left fusiform imagery node.
This study provides causal support for the importance of this brain region in visual mental imagery.
Israel didn’t start a new war on February 28. Israel completed an ancient ritual.
Here is the story they won’t put on CNN.
2,500 years ago. Persian Empire.
A man named Haman wanted every Jew in the empire dead. He was the king’s most powerful minister. He cast lots to find the perfect date. The lots fell. He chose the 13th of Adar.
In Hebrew, Adar is 6th Month. That was the day Persian swords would, finish the Jewish people. It never happened. A Jewish woman named Esther stopped it. Hidden inside the palace. Sleeping in the Persian king’s bed. The king didn’t know she was Jewish.Concealment was her weapon.
On the 13th of Adar, the Jews didn’t die. They fought back. They won.Haman was hanged on the gallows he built for his enemy. Every year since, for 2,500 years, Jews observe the 13th of Adar as a fast day. The Fast of Esther. A day of remembrance. The day Persia tried to kill them. The day they survived. The very next day, The 14th of Adar, is Purim.
The celebration of Jewish survival over Persian persecution.
Now open your eyes.
The US-Israeli strike hit Iran on February 28, 2026.In the Hebrew calendar, that is Adar 11. One day before the Fast of Esther. Two days before Purim. That is not a coincidence. That is a timestamp. The operation was named “Roaring Lion.” The ancient symbol of pre-Islamic Iran, removed by Khomeini in 1979, Was the Lion and Sun. Not military branding. Civilizational reclamation.
Khamenei was not just a politician. In Shia theology he was God’s living representative on Earth. Killing him is not just assassination. It is theological decapitation.
The city where Esther’s story happened? Shushan. Today called Shush. Khuzestan province. Southwestern Iran. The exact land just bombed.
The IDF Chief of Staff went home for Sabbath dinner the night before the strike. Deliberately. To fool Iranian intelligence. Concealment as weapon.Exactly like Esther. 2,500 years later. Same tactic. Same enemy. Same land. Here is the detail that will break your brain.
The Book of Esther is the only book in the entire Bible , where God is never mentioned. Because in this story, humans did the work. Through concealment. Through positioning. Through perfect timing. That is Mossad’s entire doctrine.
Written 2,500 years ago. Cyrus the Great freed the Jews from Babylon in 539 BCE. He is the only non-Jew called Messiah in the Hebrew Bible. For 200 years, Persia and Israel were brothers. Then came the fracture.
Then came 1979. This war has one pattern. Repeated without failure across 25 centuries. Haman always dies on the gallows he builds. Always. The missiles are modern. The calendar is ancient. The timing, Deliberate. #Iran#IranWar#IranIsraelWar#ChandraGrahan#USIranConflict#TelAviv
![“Previous studies show [listening to music] improves processing speed, language, memory and coordination,” Jaffa told HuffPost. “Plus, it often involves socializing with others, which helps protect brain health.”](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/6930af5c19000078086a0e90.jpeg?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale)
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