8+ hour, 50+ min ago   (503+ words) Positive mental health encompasses more than just the absence of mental illness. It includes aspects of functioning effectively, feeling good, and connecting with others. High levels of mental well-being are associated with better recovery from stressful events, lower risks of…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago   (564+ words) A neuroimaging study involving participants from the fetal period up into the first four years of life found that the volume of the amygdala region of the brain increases with age and that this increase is steeper in boys than…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago   (207+ words) Experiencing abuse or neglect in childhood can disrupt the development of systems in the brain that handle emotion and cognitive control. This early adversity can make individuals highly sensitive to negative emotions, elevating their baseline stress. It can also reduce…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago   (1220+ words) A new test that measures both how people describe odors and how they physically sniff them provides a way to distinguish Parkinson’s disease from other causes of smell loss. The findings suggest that people with Parkinson’s do not just lose…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago   (911+ words) “We were interested in understanding the journey from experiencing adversity to potentially developing conspiracy beliefs,” said Daniel Jolley, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham. Jolley collaborated on the project with Laura Blackie, an assistant professor of…...

1+ day, 5+ hour ago   (863+ words) Previous neuroimaging research typically looked at global brain age, which assumes aging happens uniformly across the entire brain. This approach can obscure specific regional effects. “Our main motivation was that most previous brain-age studies summarize the entire brain using a…...

2+ day, 4+ hour ago   (823+ words) Reducing social isolation can directly protect older adults from cognitive decline, regardless of whether those individuals actually feel lonely. These findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, suggest that keeping people socially integrated is an independent and effective…...

2+ day, 7+ hour ago   (263+ words) Past research indicates that expecting a medical treatment to work can trigger the brain’s dopamine system, leading to real improvements in mood. This psychological phenomenon is commonly known as the placebo effect. In the context of depression, the simple belief…...

2+ day, 7+ hour ago   (383+ words) Chi-Lin Yu, a psychology researcher at Oklahoma State University, led the investigation into this phenomenon. Previous research had established a scale to measure this specific fear in Chinese populations. Yu sought to validate an English version of the questionnaire and…...

2+ day, 7+ hour ago   (749+ words) A single day of treatment with an inhaled psychedelic compound called mebufotenin helped relieve symptoms of postpartum depression in a small trial of new mothers. Within two hours of receiving the therapy, patients experienced a near-total reduction in depressive symptoms…...