atrophy

Human brains function on a pretty strict use-it-or-lose-it policy: When they’re not engaged, they start to atrophy.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

Apitegromab works by blocking a protein involved in the breakdown of muscle and is also being explored as a treatment for other medical conditions affecting muscles, including spinal muscular atrophy.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

Kadi-Ly Lestal, a 17-year-old student, said she avoids generative AI out of fear of brain atrophy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

In Asia, Hegseth reiterated that the region's security had "rested disproportionately on American military power, while many of our allies and partners allowed their own defence capabilities to atrophy".

From Barron's ● May 30, 2026

The psyche can be bombarded only so much by these rhythms before it begins to crumble and atrophy.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

Despite massive vocal opposition, cognitive offloading is addictive, and our capacity for deep work atrophies with every use.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026

"When you get machines thinking for you, your brain just atrophies."

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2025

As we age, our brain gradually atrophies, losing nerve cells and connections and this can lead to a decline in brain function.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2024

If astrophysicists don’t take big, new and different swings at dark matter, the search will only stagnate until it atrophies.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 5, 2023

For just as the thymus involutes at the second year, the pineal atrophies before the onset of adolescence.

From The Glands Regulating Personality by Louis Berman M.D.

When we met him, he meandered across the field, atrophied by lack of exercise, sat on my foot and looked up with a hopeful demeanor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026

Social skills and conversational ease have stiffened and atrophied.

From New York Times ● May 14, 2024

When followed over several years, the super-agers’ brains atrophied at a slower rate than average.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 29, 2024

Last month, the nonprofit Long Beach Post, which expertly covered the port city while the Press-Telegram atrophied, laid off nearly everyone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2024

“Like any other appendage,” the captain tells me, “it has atrophied from lack of use.”

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

After exhausting holistic options, he saw a doctor who said one of his vocal cords was atrophying.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2024

"After two years, part of my brain was atrophying," one said.

From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2024

The work the body does against gravity to stay upright and move around keeps muscles from atrophying and stimulates bone growth.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 19, 2023

Disney said in February that it would cut $5.5 billion in costs and eliminate 7,000 jobs to address streaming losses, an atrophying cable television business and steep corporate debt.

From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2023

Over the weeks that followed he languished in the hospital, arms curled grotesquely at his sides, muscles atrophying, his weight dropping below 80 pounds.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer