Brain health : lifelong brain resilience and longevity最新文献

{"title":"The criticome as the window of becoming: Toward a novel and comprehensive framework for understanding the critical period of information integration in human development.","authors":"Michel Cuenod, Julio Licinio, Kim Q Do","doi":"10.61373/bh026i.0021","DOIUrl":"10.61373/bh026i.0021","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Critical periods of synaptic plasticity represent windows of extraordinary neural malleability that fundamentally shape brain architecture and function and can determine brain health for decades to come. Yet neuroscience lacks adequate terminology to describe the totality of experiential information integrated during these periods. We propose a conceptually novel term: criticome, as the complete ensemble of sensory, motor, social, cultural, and environmental information recorded during critical periods from prenatal development through approximately age 25, with the recognition that this boundary is probabilistic and domain-specific rather than fixed. Our original framework is grounded in six coupled neurobiological mechanisms: GABAergic regulation through parvalbumin-positive interneurons, perineuronal net dynamics, myelination, epigenetic regulation, neuromodulatory maturation, and developmental synaptic pruning. Their collective state determines what experience can be integrated and how stable the outcome is. The criticome reframes cultural specificity, implicit bias, aesthetic preference, and interpersonal attraction as variations in integrated content rather than differences in brain architecture, and reconceptualizes autism, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress, major depression, and culture-bound syndromes as developmental rather than purely synaptic disorders. The same plasticity that allows Mozart to emerge from early auditory exposure also produces the lasting damage seen in institutional deprivation, ideological indoctrination, and chronic geopolitical trauma. This framework carries practical consequences for therapeutic timing, educational policy, cultural competence in mental healthcare, and interventions aimed at reopening plasticity in adulthood, while simultaneously raising urgent questions about how screen-mediated environments now shape criticomes during the windows when neural architecture is most malleable.</p>","PeriodicalId":523878,"journal":{"name":"Brain health : lifelong brain resilience and longevity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13341141/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148407781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The human microplastic burden and brain health: From measurement to pathophysiology and removal.","authors":"Julio Licinio, Charlotte Steenblock, Nicholas Fabiano, Stefan R Bornstein, Ma-Li Wong","doi":"10.61373/bh026p.0006","DOIUrl":"10.61373/bh026p.0006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Microplastics and nanoplastics now contaminate every human compartment examined, including blood, placenta, atheromatous plaque, and brain tissue. The brain warrants particular attention. Decedent brain tissue has been shown to carry microplastic concentrations seven to thirty times higher than liver or kidney, with a 50% rise documented between 2016 and 2024, and the highest burdens observed in donors with diagnosed dementia. Animal data confirm that nanoscale particles cross the blood-brain barrier within hours of oral exposure. Ultra-processed foods, which now account for more than half of caloric intake in the United States, serve as high-throughput delivery vehicles for microplastics via packaging migration, mechanical processing, and contamination. They have themselves been independently linked in large prospective cohorts to depression, anxiety, cognitive decline, stroke, and dementia. The convergence of high tissue burden, biologically plausible mechanism, and a population-scale modifiable exposure vehicle defines a Brain Health emergency. We outline what is known, what is not yet measurable, and where the field must move next, with attention to vulnerable populations including pregnant women, children, and patients with established neurological or cardiovascular disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":523878,"journal":{"name":"Brain health : lifelong brain resilience and longevity","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13225872/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148153032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}