Intensive breathing exercises can reduce blood flow to the brain by up to 45% and alter communication between brain networks, according to a new brain-imaging study. Participants reported experiences resembling some effects of psychedelic drugs, including altered perception, vivid mental imagery, a sense of unity and changes in self-experience. The researchers, presenting the work at the ECNP Congress in Munich (following recent publication), say changes in brain communication, rather than reduced blood flow alone, appear to be key to the altered state.

Researchers have found that women with bipolar disorder who have regular menstrual cycles are more likely to report severe premenstrual symptoms than those with irregular cycles, according to preliminary research being presented at the 2026 ECNP Congress in Munich.

A nationwide study integrating nearly two decades of epidemiological surveillance with genomic data from 4215 Brucella isolates across 79 countries has revealed how China’s rapidly evolving agri-food system may be reshaping the spread of human brucellosis.While livestock production remains closely associated with disease burden in northern China, southern cases are more strongly linked to agri-food logistics and market connectivity. Genomic analyses further uncovered a hierarchical transmission network connecting northern pastoral reservoirs to central relay hubs and historically low-risk southern provinces.

Coronary artery disease remains the top global cause of death, yet standard angiography cannot visualize dangerous artery plaque, creating gaps for guiding percutaneous coronary intervention. This narrative review synthesizes 10 years of human studies, clinical trials and consensus documents covering established and emerging intravascular imaging plus computational tools. Hybrid catheter systems have completed first‑in‑human testing, while artificial‑intelligence plaque analysis delivers diagnostic accuracy comparable to expert readers. These technologies enable combined anatomical, compositional and functional vessel assessment, though broad clinical roll‑out still requires standardized validation and streamlined workflow integration.

Pulmonary vein isolation alone frequently yields suboptimal long‑term rhythm control for patients with persistent atrial fibrillation, and manual substrate ablation produces inconsistent results across centers. This systematic review and meta‑analysis pooled data from three eligible studies enrolling 322 persistent atrial fibrillation patients, published in Cardiology Discovery. After the 3‑month post‑ablation blanking period, pooled 12‑month freedom‑from‑atrial‑fibrillation reached 87% (95% CI, 82%‑91%). One included randomized controlled trial demonstrated 89% arrhythmia‑free survival for artificial‑intelligence‑guided ablation versus 67% for standard pulmonary vein isolation alone. Authors caution that the small body of available evidence requires further validation in large‑scale multicenter trials.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a predominantly inherited heart condition affecting roughly 1 in 500 people, remains the top cause of exercise‑related sudden cardiac death among young individuals. Traditional medications mostly relieve symptoms without targeting underlying disease mechanisms. This peer‑reviewed narrative review synthesizes global clinical trial and pre‑clinical evidence published between January 2010 and June 2026. Approved cardiac myosin‑inhibitor drugs reduce the need for invasive septal‑reduction procedures in many obstructive‑HCM patients. Multiple investigational metabolic, anti‑fibrotic, and gene‑editing therapies remain in early‑stage testing. Authors note that many promising approaches still lack large‑scale long‑term human outcome data before broad real‑world clinical adoption.

Heart failure represents a highly diverse global syndrome, and classification relying only on left‑ventricular ejection fraction cannot fully explain variable treatment responses, especially among patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). This peer‑reviewed narrative review synthesizes published human clinical evidence from major databases up to December 2024. Authors describe five distinct HFpEF clinical phenotypes defined by comorbid conditions: metabolic, hypertensive, cardiorenal, pulmonary vascular, and inflammatory‑autoimmune subtypes. Each phenotype carries unique pathophysiology that may support phenotype‑specific therapy. The review notes that robust head‑to‑head treatment trials for these subgroups remain limited, calling for further prospective research before widespread real‑world adoption of precision‑based heart‑failure management.

Heart failure represents a highly diverse global syndrome, and classification relying only on left‑ventricular ejection fraction cannot fully explain variable treatment responses, especially among patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). This peer‑reviewed narrative review synthesizes published human clinical evidence from major databases up to December 2024. Authors describe five distinct HFpEF clinical phenotypes defined by comorbid conditions: metabolic, hypertensive, cardiorenal, pulmonary vascular, and inflammatory‑autoimmune subtypes. Each phenotype carries unique pathophysiology that may support phenotype‑specific therapy. The review notes that robust head‑to‑head treatment trials for these subgroups remain limited, calling for further prospective research before widespread real‑world adoption of precision‑based heart‑failure management.