When Later Life Stays Busy, Memory and Planning May Stay Sharper
Researchers pooled long-term survey data from 57,793 adults aged roughly 57 to 73 in 24 countries, tracking memory and planning-test scores over an average of six years. People who regularly took part in three or more social activities scored higher each year, and volunteering plus sports-club membership showed the most consistent links. As an observational study it cannot prove the activities themselves protect the brain, and the surveys counted activities rather than their quality.
Source: Phys.org (study in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 2026)
Your Brain Judges Faces on Five Dimensions — No Words Needed
Caltech researchers asked more than 3,000 volunteers across two experiments to arrange faces on a screen by how alike they seemed in personality, without giving any trait words to rate. A computer analysis of those arrangements revealed five recurring dimensions — approachability, warmth, competence, morality, and youthfulness — closely matching results from older studies that used explicit labels. Because the task needs no language, future versions could run with infants, people who cannot use words, or speakers of other languages; the findings describe perceived impressions, not anyone's actual personality.
Source: Phys.org (study in Nature Human Behaviour, 2026)
Creative Drawing Seems to Ride on the Brain's Wiring, Not One "Creative Spot"
A University of Graz team tested 142 adults aged 18 to 38 on a standardized creative-drawing task and mapped their brain's white-matter wiring with MRI. Participants with more original, expressive drawings tended to have stronger structural connections across many pathways, especially routes linking visual, movement, and deep brain regions. The associations were modest, and because everything was measured at one point in time, the study cannot show that stronger wiring causes better creativity.
Source: PsyPost (study in Cerebral Cortex, 2026)