1 . Most of us have at least a few prized possessions we’d have trouble letting go of. But those with a hoarding (囤积) disorder are forced to hold onto their belongings, even when doing so means severely messy surroundings that decrease their quality of life and threaten their safety through the risk of fire or personal injury.

The hoarding disorder is an under-recognized condition. “People with a hoarding disorder are often hesitant to seek or stay in treatment because of anxiety,” says Marla Deibler, a clinical psychologist based in Princeton, New Jersey. Now scientists at Stanford University are exploring a new treatment to help individuals with a hoarding disorder.

The recent pilot study shows that therapy powered by a virtual reality headset and handheld controllers can help those who hoard to practice letting go of their possessions using a simulation (模拟) of their homes before they clean the space in real life.

The study was conducted over 16 weeks and allowed its participants — all diagnosed with a hoarding disorder — to enter virtual models of their homes to practice sorting and discarding (丢弃) items which they found hard to part with. The virtual layout of their homes and possessions are created with photos uploaded to create a 3D simulation, so the items are known and valued by each participant before they practice throwing them out.

“78% of the participants noted virtual reality contributed to their motivation in increasing real-life discarding,” says Carolyn Rodriguez, the lead author of the study. “Such results are promising, especially when the study’s participants ranged in age from 60 to 73 years old — the group in which hoarding is most common.”

The Stanford study builds on work done at the University of Chicago, published in 2020, which also showed that individuals struggling with a hoarding disorder were motivated to have a clean environment by using virtual reality to explore their homes. The uniqueness of the Stanford research, however, lies in the opportunity it has provided for participants to take part in the discarding process — a crucial step in emotionally separating themselves from each item.

5 . For decades, scientists thought of the brain as the most valuable and consequently most closely guarded part of the body. Locked safely behind the blood-brain barrier, it was broadly free of the harm of viruses and the battles started by the immune system (免疫系统). Then, about 20 years ago, some researchers began to wonder: is the brain really so separated from the body? The answer, according to a growing body of evidence, is no.

The list of brain conditions that have been associated with changes elsewhere in the body is long and growing. Changes in the makeup of the microorganisms in the digestive system have been linked to disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. There is also a theory that infection during pregnancy could lead to brain diseases in babies.

The effect is two-way. There is a lengthening list of symptoms not typically viewed as disorders of the nervous system, but the brain plays a large part in them. For example, the development of a fever is influenced by a population of nerve cells that control body temperature and appetite. Evidence is mounting that cancers use nerves to grow and spread.

The interconnection between the brain and body has promising implications for our ability to both understand and treat illnesses. If some brain disorders start outside the brain, then perhaps treatments for them could also reach in from outside. Treatments that take effect through the digestive system, the heart or other organs, would be much easier and less risky than those that must cross the blood-brain barrier.

It also works in the opposite direction. Study shows mice have healthier hearts after receiving stimulation to a brain area involved in positive emotion and motivation. Activation of the brain reward centre — called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) — seems to cause immune changes that contribute to it. Working out how this happens could help to destroy cancers, enhance responses to vaccines and even re-evaluate physical diseases that, for centuries, have not been considered as being psychologically driven.

7 . What if “looking your age” refers not to your face, but to your chest? Osaka Metropolitan University scientists have developed an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model that uses chest radiographs (胸片) to accurately estimate a patient’s chronological (按时间计算的) age. More importantly, when there is a difference, it can signal a correlation with chronic (慢性) disease.

The research team, led by graduate student Yasuhito Mitsuyama and Dr. Daiju Ueda from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka Metropolitan University, first constructed a deep learning-based AI model to estimate age from chest radiographs of healthy individuals. They then applied the model to radiographs of patients with known diseases to analyze the relationship between AI-estimated age and each disease. Given that AI trained on a single dataset is easy to overfitting (过度拟合), the researchers collected data from multiple institutions.

For the development, training, internal and external testing of the AI model for age estimation, a total of 67,099 chest radiographs were obtained between 2008 and 2021 from 36,051 healthy individuals who underwent health check-ups at three facilities. The developed model showed a correlation coefficient (系数) of 0.95 between the AI-estimated age and chronological age. Generally, a correlation coefficient of 0.9 or higher is considered to be very strong.

To confirm the usefulness of AI-estimated age using chest radiographs as a bio-marker(生物指标), an additional 34,197 chest radiographs were gathered from 34,197 patients with known diseases from two other institutions. The results revealed that the difference between AI-estimated age and the patient’s chronological age was positively correlated with a variety of chronic diseases, like high blood pressure. In other words, the higher the AI-estimated age compared to the chronological age, the more likely individuals were to have these diseases.

“Chronological age is one of the most critical factors in medicine,” stated Mitsuyama. “Our results suggest that chest radiography-based apparent age may accurately reflect health conditions beyond chronological age. We aim to further develop this research and apply it to estimate the severity of chronic diseases, to predict life expectancy, and to forecast possible surgical complications.”

Acupuncture (针灸), an ancient Chinese medical practice, has been a treatment for countless patients for thousands of years. Before modern medicine came     1     life, ancient Chinese people used sharpened stone tools and bones     2     (relieve) pain. Over time, this practice evolved into a comprehensive and profound medical system and shaped the root of acupuncture.

Acupuncture is a treatment that aims to promote the body’s self-regulating functions. Its treatment principles are     3     (basic) connected with the philosophical concepts of traditional Chinese medicine,     4     emphasizes overall treatment and adjustment, balance of bodily functions and physiological well-being.

Practices can vary in forms, including needle insertion (针刺) , cupping and scraping. Needle insertion, the most common method,     5     (carry) out by inserting hair-thin needles into specific points on the body. Practitioners may gently twist needles to unblock the flow of energy, restore yin and yang balance, and stimulate the body’s innate potential to heal     6     (it) .

    7     (look) beyond China, acupuncture is becoming more and more popular. Over the past decades, acupuncture     8     (see) many advancements in scientific research and modern medicine. It is now a mainstream alternative and complementary treatment for     9     variety of illnesses. According to a 2019 WHO report, acupuncture is used in 113 of its 120 member countries, illustrating its widespread recogntion and application.

As an ancient Chinese medical practice with a rich history and deep cultural     10     (significant), acupuncture is expected to go further.