#mental-health — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #mental-health, aggregated by home.social.
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There is a reason this is #MentalHealthMonth
While people assume that winter is when suicides take place the most, it is actually April, May, and June.One interesting correlation is how Springtime allergens and inflammation exacerbate mental health issues.
Add energy shifts overcoming lethargy, and I can see how this is such a dangerous time.
It is classically when my depression is overwhelming.
#Depression #anxiety #mentalhealth #mentalillness #cPTSD #Suicide #988crisisline
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DATE: May 14, 2026 at 03:25AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORGTITLE: Medical AI Transcriber "Hallucinated," Generating Errors
Source: Canadian Broadcasting Company - Health News
Artificial intelligence note-taking tools intended for use by Ontario doctors provided incorrect and incomplete information or demonstrated AI "hallucinations," a new audit report shows. During a provincial procurement process for AI medical systems that transcribe conversations between doctors and patients, government evaluators found serious errors in transcripts generated by 20 programs, said Ontario Auditor General Shelley Spence.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MedicalAI #AIErrors #AIFraud #HealthcareTech #MedicalTranscription #AIHallucinations #OntarioHealth #AuditorGeneral #HealthTechAudit #TranscriptionMistakes
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DATE: May 14, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Women score higher than men on fluid intelligence tests when allowed to express uncertainty
Traditional tests of intelligence and literacy may be fundamentally flawed because they force test-takers to choose a single answer rather than allowing them to express their level of confidence in different options. When people are given financial incentives and allowed to distribute their answers based on how sure they are, women actually score higher than men. The research was published in the Journal of Political Economy.
For decades, psychologists and economists have measured cognitive ability using multiple-choice tests. These assessments score responses as strictly right or wrong. Glenn W. Harrison of Georgia State University, Don Ross of University College Cork, and J. Todd Swarthout of Georgia State University suspected this format misses a vital component of human cognition. Knowing how strongly to believe in an answer is a skill in itself.
The researchers note that the standard format forces people to mask their thought processes. If someone is somewhat confident in an answer but still perceives some risk of being wrong, the rigid format does not capture that nuance. The test format demands absolute certainty even when a person possesses healthy skepticism.
To address this, the team examined the Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices test. This assessment presents a grid of shapes with one missing piece and asks the test-taker to identify the pattern. It is widely used to measure fluid intelligence, which is the ability to solve new logic problems without relying on prior knowledge.
The researchers wrote that, “The measurement of intelligence should identify and measure an individual’s subjective confidence that a response to a test question is correct.” They noted that existing tests completely fail to achieve this goal.
The standard version of this puzzle allows test-takers unlimited time and offers no financial motivation. The researchers created a computerized version that offered monetary rewards for correct answers. They divided participants into different groups to test how the structure of the task changed their performance.
In the baseline group, participants took a traditional version for a flat fee of five dollars. In another group, participants were paid based on their accuracy but were still forced to pick just one answer. A third group experienced a radically different test structure.
These participants were given eighty digital tokens to allocate across eight possible answers. If they were completely sure, they could place all eighty tokens on a single choice for a maximum reward of two dollars per puzzle. If they were unsure, they could spread their tokens out over multiple likely answers to guarantee a smaller payout.
This token system measures what the researchers refer to as confidence. In this context, confidence does not mean optimism. It refers to the precision of a person’s belief. A person who places ten tokens on every single answer is safely guarding against risk because they have no idea which shape is correct.
When financial incentives were combined with the ability to express varying degrees of confidence, the results shifted dramatically. In the traditional format, female participants scored lower than male participants. When participants could assign tokens based on their confidence, women outperformed men.
The data showed that female participants were better at calculating the risk of their answers and distributing their tokens efficiently. Knowing when you are unsure is a core part of cognition. The researchers consider this risk assessment to be a fundamental element of fluid intelligence.
The researchers also altered the order of the puzzles. The standard test starts with easy puzzles and gradually progresses to difficult ones. The researchers call this sequence a structured progression, meaning it is an environmental clue that helps a person think.
When the researchers scrambled the order of the puzzles so that difficulty varied randomly, overall performance dropped. The gap in performance between the group forced to pick one answer and the group allowed to use tokens widened even further. This confirmed that the ability to express uncertainty is a distinct cognitive advantage when facing unpredictable problems.
This discovery regarding gender prompted the researchers to revisit other areas where men possess a supposed advantage. They looked at studies regarding competitiveness. Past behavioral studies suggest that women back away from competitive environments, such as workplace tournaments, in favor of flat payment schedules.
The researchers recreated these experiments using the token system and discovered that women were making the mathematically correct risk management choices. Participants had to solve logic problems under a time limit, choosing either a guaranteed payment per correct answer or a tournament style where only the top performer received a large payout.
Men tended to choose the competitive tournament even when it resulted in a monetary loss for them. Men proved to be overly optimistic about their chances of winning. Women evaluated the risk accurately and chose the safer compensation structure, which resulted in better financial outcomes.
The team also looked at financial literacy tests. Standard surveys report that women choose the “do not know” option much more often than men when asked financial questions. This has led to the assumption that women possess lower financial literacy.
The researchers presented participants with a standard question about calculating purchasing power based on interest and inflation rates. When the researchers allowed subjects to use tokens to answer the question, they found that women were just more open about their lack of complete certainty. The bias in their actual knowledge was tiny and not statistically significant.
Many women distributed their tokens broadly, meaning they were aware that they lacked the exact knowledge and guarded their bets accordingly. This behavior signals an intellectual awareness of uncertainty. Someone who knows they are guessing is more likely to seek out a financial advisor or a textbook to learn the correct answer.
Individuals who place all their tokens on a highly incorrect answer represent a much larger danger. The researchers noted that these individuals are completely confident in their incorrect knowledge. These are the people most likely to make catastrophic financial decisions without consulting outside help.
The authors specify that their findings on motivation might involve variables that are difficult to isolate. Participants might bring personal motivations into the laboratory that interact with the monetary incentives offered by the experimenters.
Future studies could attempt to separate these personal drives from the financial rewards to see how they impact token distribution. The research team also plans to further investigate data suggesting that Black participants similarly perform drastically better when allowed to express their confidence through the token system.
The study, “Gender, Confidence, and the Mismeasure of Intelligence, Competitiveness, and Literacy,” was authored by Glenn W. Harrison, Don Ross, and J. Todd Swarthout.
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NYU Information for Practice puts out 400-500 good quality health-related research posts per week but its too much for many people, so that bot is limited to just subscribers. You can read it or subscribe at @PsychResearchBot
Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #FluidIntelligence #ConfidenceInAssessment #TokenBasedTesting #GenderDifferences #RiskAssessment #UncertaintyExpression #CognitiveMeasurement #EconomicIncentives #FinancialLiteracy #RavenMatrices
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Mental health ‘system is broken’, says mother of Nottingham triple-killer https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/may/14/mental-health-system-broken-says-celeste-valdo-calocane-mother-nottingham-killer #Nottingham #MentalHealth #UkNews #Health #Society
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New #blog #post: Mind the Shards
https://rldane.space/mind-the-shards.html
552 words
Mild #CW: I'm discussing mental health, and briefly, faith.
cc: my wonderful #chorus: @joel @dm @sotolf @thedoctor @pixx @orbitalmartian @adamsdesk @krafter @roguefoam @clayton @giantspacesquid @Twizzay @stfn
(I will happily add/remove you from the chorus upon request! :)
#rlDaneWriting #blost #podcasts #MentalHealth #MandyPatinkin #frailty
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LIVE, Dammit Bluesky Blog
#Reasonsforhope...
https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/we-are-crashing-into-the-future/?ref=meditations-in-an-emergency-newsletter
LINK: https://bsky.app/profile/livedammit.bsky.social/post/3mltdmba73s2s
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LIVEdammit is a mental health support site with stories, tools, free e-course, bookstore & inspiring wearables — for stubborn souls doing the work to stay here, stay human, & stay strong.
WEBSITE: https://LIVEdammit.com
This robot is not affiliated with LIVEdammit.
DAILY EMAIL DIGEST: Email [email protected] -- no subject or message needed.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #livedammit #suicide -
Did you know that #poverty is the single biggest driver of poor #mentalhealth in #Scotland. That's why we worked with the Mental Health Foundation to create Listen & Support - an online resource to support our members across Scotland.
https://www.povertyalliance.org/listen-and-support/ -
The 'wake up at 5 a.m.' advice skips the part where you actually went to sleep.
It also forgets the three hours you spent replaying everything you said wrong in a conversation six years ago.
#adhd #autism #neurodivergent #auDHD #anxiety #mentalhealth #actuallyAutistic
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Book Review: The Butcher's Empire by C.O. Wheel #books #DarkRomance #mentalhealth #morallygreycharacters #reading
https://insanityasylum.org/book-review-the-butchers-empire-by-c-o-wheel/
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May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the USA
May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the USA and I have mixed feelings about it. My beliefs about mental health, mental illness, treatment, freewill, and legal agency have changed a lot over the years as a result of my reading, observations, and experience as a family caregiver for three adults with what some refer to as “mental health issues.” In my family they are schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar-II. I will get to the “issues” rhetoric in a bit. (1/10)
#MentalHealth #Psychology #Psychiatry #MentalIllness #Caregiving
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Researchers found that people who engaged in arts and cultural activities every week appeared to age more slowly at a biological level, with effects comparable to regular exercise
#ArtMatters #CultureMatters #Wellbeing #health #MentalHealth #aging #culture
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DATE: May 14, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brain cells store competing memories that drive or suppress alcohol relapse
URL: https://www.psypost.org/brain-cells-store-competing-memories-that-drive-or-suppress-alcohol-relapse/
A new study published in the journal Neuron provides evidence that the brain stores competing memories of alcohol use and the recovery from it within distinct networks of the same type of brain cell. The research suggests that the memory driving a return to drinking and the memory suppressing it exist side by side, competing for control over a person’s behavior. These findings offer a nuanced understanding of how addiction persists and point toward potential new ways to improve treatments for alcohol use disorder.
Addiction occurs when addictive substances hijack normal learning processes, leading to the formation of powerful memories that link certain actions and environments with the drug. Behavioral therapies, such as extinction training, attempt to reduce the urge to seek alcohol by repeatedly exposing individuals to drug-related cues without providing the alcohol reward. However, the clinical impact of these therapies tends to be limited because scientists do not fully understand the physical cellular structures that hold these opposing memories.
“Relapse is one of the most difficult challenges in alcohol use disorder, even after long periods of abstinence or treatment,” said Jun Wang, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics at the Texas AM University Health Science Center’s College of Medicine. “Alcohol-associated cues and contexts can trigger powerful memories that drive renewed alcohol seeking. We wanted to understand where relapse-related memories are stored in the brain, and how extinction training reduces alcohol-seeking behavior by erasing the original alcohol memory or by creating a competing memory that suppresses relapse.”
Memories are thought to be physically stored in the brain through specific groups of cells called engrams. An engram is a physical change in the brain that represents a memory. It consists of a specific network of brain cells that activate together when an experience happens, and when the brain recalls that memory, the same group of cells fires again. Past research on engrams has mostly focused on fear learning in other parts of the brain, meaning less is known about the engrams that store habits and voluntary actions related to addictive substances.
The researchers designed the study to test whether the memories for alcohol use and the memories for extinction are stored in separate areas or within the same cell populations. They focused on a brain region called the dorsomedial striatum, which helps control goal-directed behaviors. Within this region, they examined a specific type of cell known as direct-pathway medium spiny neurons.
“We were surprised to find that these opposing memories were encoded within the same genetically defined cell type, direct-pathway medium spiny neurons, rather than being separated simply by different neuron types,” Wang said. “Traditionally, many models emphasize broad distinctions between direct- and indirect-pathway neurons, but our findings show that even within one cell type, distinct neuronal ensembles can have very different, even opposite, behavioral functions.”
The scientists conducted a series of experiments using genetically modified mice. They placed the mice in specialized testing boxes equipped with levers and lights. The mice learned that pressing an active lever three times would deliver a small amount of a twenty percent alcohol solution, which was accompanied by a specific tone and a yellow light. After several weeks of this training, the mice underwent nine days of extinction training, where pressing the lever no longer provided the alcohol or the cues.
To track the memory cells, the researchers used a specialized genetic tagging technique. They injected a drug that allowed them to permanently label the specific brain cells that were active either during the initial alcohol learning or during the later extinction training. Following the training phases, the researchers tested groups of four to seven mice to see which memory cells were reactivated during a simulated relapse event.
They found that the brain cells tagged during the initial alcohol learning were highly reactivated when the mice experienced the cues associated with alcohol. The cells tagged during extinction training were not reactivated during this simulated relapse, which provides evidence that alcohol use and extinction training recruit different sets of the same type of brain cell.
The researchers then looked at where these specific cell groups were located within the dorsomedial striatum. This brain region is divided into two distinct areas: the matrix, which generally promotes action, and the striosome, which generally discourages action. By analyzing brain tissue samples, the scientists found that the cells linked to extinction memories were heavily clustered in the striosome areas. These extinction-related cells strongly inhibited dopamine-producing neurons, which helps suppress the urge to seek alcohol. In contrast, the cells linked to alcohol use were spread broadly across the matrix and promoted reward-seeking behavior.
To test whether these distinct groups of cells actively control behavior, the researchers used a technique that allows them to turn specific neurons on or off using custom-made chemicals. They injected viral vectors into the brains of the mice, which safely delivered genetic instructions causing the tagged memory cells to produce specialized receptors. The researchers then injected a chemical that binds to these receptors to either turn the cells on or off.
In tests involving groups of seven to sixteen mice, the authors found that turning off the alcohol-learning cells successfully suppressed the simulated relapse. Activating the extinction-learning cells also reduced the animals’ attempts to seek alcohol. The scientists repeated these tests using sucrose instead of alcohol and found no effect. This suggests these particular memory cells are specific to alcohol and do not generalize to natural rewards.
The authors also wanted to understand exactly how the brain physicalizes the memory of alcohol use. Learning changes the brain by strengthening the synapses, which are the connections between different brain cells. The researchers focused on the connections coming from the medial prefrontal cortex, a brain area involved in complex decision-making. By taking electrical recordings from dozens of individual neurons across multiple mice, they found that alcohol use caused a long-lasting strengthening of the synapses connecting the medial prefrontal cortex to the specific cells involved in alcohol learning.
To see if this strengthened connection was the actual memory, the scientists used a technique that controls brain cells with light. They introduced light-sensitive proteins into the brain cells of a new group of mice, numbering seven to eleven per group, that had never consumed alcohol. By shining a specific wavelength of light into the brain through tiny optical fibers, the scientists forced the neurons to fire and strengthened their connections artificially.
This artificial stimulation was paired with specific lights and sounds in the testing chamber. Later, when the researchers played the lights and sounds again, the mice began pressing the lever as if they were seeking alcohol. This suggests that the researchers successfully created an artificial memory of alcohol relapse simply by strengthening a specific brain connection. The authors also replicated these behavioral findings in a small group of rats to ensure the results were not unique to mice.
“One important aspect of the study is that we were able to identify not only the neurons associated with alcohol relapse and extinction, but also a synaptic mechanism that helps store relapse-related memory,” Wang said. “Specifically, we found that communication from the medial prefrontal cortex to striatal neurons was strengthened after alcohol self-administration, and experimentally mimicking this strengthening was sufficient to drive relapse-like behavior. This provides evidence that alcohol-related memories can be physically embedded in specific brain connections.”
“The main takeaway is that relapse and recovery-related learning are not only abstract psychological processes; they are represented by specific groups of neurons in the brain,” Wang explained. “We found that two opposing alcohol-related memories, one that promotes relapse and one that suppresses alcohol seeking after extinction, can be encoded within the same broad type of striatal neuron. This suggests that recovery may depend not only on weakening relapse-driving circuits, but also on strengthening the brain circuits that support extinction and behavioral control.”
While the study provides a detailed look at how the brain stores alcohol-related memories, there are some limitations to consider. The timeline of alcohol exposure in the study was relatively short compared to human addiction, which tends to develop over years. It is possible that the physical nature of these memories changes over longer periods of chronic alcohol use.
“An important caveat is that this study was conducted in mouse models of alcohol self-administration, extinction, and relapse-like behavior,” Wang noted. “These models capture important aspects of alcohol seeking and relapse, but they do not fully reproduce the complexity of human alcohol use disorder. We also do not want readers to interpret the findings as meaning that relapse is controlled by a single brain region or a simple ‘on/off switch.’ Rather, our study identifies one specific circuit and cellular mechanism that contributes to alcohol-related memory and relapse-like behavior.”
Current medical treatments cannot selectively erase or enhance specific memory cells in human patients. However, understanding that recovery involves strengthening a competing extinction memory gives researchers a new conceptual target. Future therapeutic strategies might focus on finding medications or brain stimulation techniques that specifically boost the extinction memory network to help prevent relapse.
“Our long-term goal is to understand how maladaptive alcohol memories are formed, stored, retrieved, and suppressed at the level of specific brain circuits,” Wang said. “We are particularly interested in identifying mechanisms that could selectively weaken relapse-promoting memory circuits or strengthen extinction-related circuits. In the long run, this type of work may help guide new strategies to improve the durability of behavioral therapies and reduce relapse risk.”
The study, “Dual-engram architecture within a single striatal cell type distinctly controls alcohol relapse and extinction,” was authored by Xueyi Xie, Yufei Huang, Ruifeng Chen, Zhenbo Huang, Himanshu Gangal, Ziyi Li, Jiayi Lu, Adelis M. Cruz, Anita Chaiprasert, Emily Yu, Nicholas Hernandez, Valerie Vierkant, Runmin Wang, Xuehua Wang, Rachel J. Smith, and Jun Wang.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/brain-cells-store-competing-memories-that-drive-or-suppress-alcohol-relapse/
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Since 1991 The National Psychologist has focused on keeping practicing psychologists current with news, information and items of interest. Check them out for more free articles, resources, and subscription information: https://www.nationalpsychologist.com
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AlcoholRelapse #ExtinctionMemory #EngramScience #NeuralCircuits #DorsomedialStriatum #DirectPathwayMSNs #AddictionResearch #BrainMemory #RelapsePrevention #NeuroscienceStudies
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Pop’s Confessional Turn Is Rewiring the Way We Prioritize Mental Health
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Find your calm place by learning to dwell in mind’s natural clarity, www.compassmethods.com. https://youtube.com/@compassionscompass-sb7jo?si=aC7GQUvSS7XPDqOA #mentalhealth #mind #love #compassion #wisdom
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I got diagnosed with PCOS at 16 — it led to years of heroin addiction
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DATE: May 14, 2026 at 11:30AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMESDirect article link at end of text block below.
Our Schizophrenia Special Report starts releasing today.
Read the introduction by Special Report Chair Peter F. Buckley, MD, now: https://t.co/eqRcZR1SG4 https://t.co/eQ0YLqHabO
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at Articles can be found at https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news".
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #psychotherapist #Schizophrenia #SpecialReport #PeterBuckley #MentalHealthNews #MedicalResearch
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Five-four-three-two-one. Name five things you see, four you can touch, three you hear, two you smell, one you taste. The news cycle does not know your name. The hawthorn is white at field edges and the first fireflies are starting their electrical inventory of the dark. Your nervous system held all of that. Honest labor.
https://twp.ai/4hrGLw
#Mindfulness #Grounding #MentalHealth #Druid #Spirituality #SelfCare #Somatic #Wellness #Healing #Nature -
This is nothing ground breaking but this past weekend I removed any and all news, sports, video streaming and SNS apps from my phone.
It will say this, a week in the habit/urge to check has receded to almost nothing. The most noticeable positive differences has been the amount of overall calm and better mental and physical health.
So I listen to music, read books, check my steps, or continue to work on my Japanese.
Most of all I am fully present.
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Nursing a cramping calf easy slow 3 and cake for medicinal purposes u understand 🏃🏻😜🍰 (picture of me trying my first and last buzzball cocktail 🍹) #Running #cocktail #runnersofmastodon #Health #mentalhealth #mindfulness #cake #Music #Sport #thursday #may #Summer #cramp #injuries #athlete #runner #retirement #love #Peace #harmony
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Hallo Mastodon 🐑
Ich bin Wollo, und mein Mensch und ich sind neu hier.
Wir sammeln Gedanken, kleine Lichtblicke und Geschichten zwischen Pflege, Verantwortung, Chaos und dem Versuch, die eigenen Bedürfnisse nicht zu vergessen.
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DATE: May 14, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Real-world evidence shows generative AI is making human creative output more uniform
Using artificial intelligence for creative tasks tends to make human output more uniform on a collective level. A recent preprint study provides evidence that while these tools might boost individual performance, they contribute to an overall reduction in the diversity of ideas across different users. This widespread reliance on automated assistance could lead to a narrower range of concepts in collaborative environments.
Generative artificial intelligence refers to computer programs capable of creating new text, images, or other media based on user instructions. The most common of these tools rely on large language models. Developers build these models by feeding them billions of sentences from the internet, allowing the software to recognize patterns and predict how words should follow one another.
Since many users interact with similar systems trained on overlapping data, scientists have raised concerns about how this technology shapes human thought. Researchers Alwin de Rooij, assistant professor in creativity research at Tilburg University and associate professor at Avans University of Applied Sciences, and Michael Mose Biskjaer, associate professor in design creativity and innovation at Aarhus University, designed a new study to assess these concerns. They noticed that previous research often focused on how these tools help individuals work faster or overcome temporary mental blocks.
They wanted to know if this individual assistance comes at a collective cost. “There are growing concerns that using Generative AI may lead people toward similar creative ideas,” the authors explained. “While AI can enhance creativity at the individual level, these benefits might come at a cost for creativity at a collective, or even societal, level.”
The authors sought to answer whether generative software makes people think alike. “We sought to address this by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 empirical studies,” they noted. “More concretely, we wanted to examine whether and to what extent generative AI use is associated with convergence at the level of creative output, such as people’s ideas, designs, and creative writing.”
A meta-analysis is a statistical technique that combines the results of multiple independent studies to find common patterns or overall trends. By pooling data from various experiments, scientists can draw more robust conclusions than they could from a single test. The authors searched academic databases for studies published between 2022 and early 2026.
This time frame covers the period following the public release of popular chatbots, capturing the first wave of empirical research on this topic. The researchers selected 18 eligible articles containing 19 distinct experimental studies. These studies provided a total of 61 individual effect sizes, which are mathematical values indicating the strength of a specific phenomenon.
To be included in the analysis, the original experiments had to compare humans working with generative software against humans working alone. The original studies measured homogenization using several techniques. Many relied on advanced text analysis tools that translate written responses into mathematical coordinates.
This process allows computers to measure the semantic distance between words, essentially calculating how closely related different ideas are to one another. Other studies used human experts to rate the variety of meanings produced by participants. The analysis revealed a statistically significant homogenization effect associated with the use of artificial intelligence.
When people co-created with these systems, their final products tended to be more similar to the work of other users. “The meta-analysis shows that using generative AI can indeed lead people to think alike,” the authors noted. “Across individuals, AI use tends to make ideas, designs, and creative texts more similar to one another.”
“This suggests that AI may contribute to a form of homogenization of creative thought at the collective level,” they continued. “Importantly, this does not necessarily reflect a failure of human-AI co-creation but may instead be an inherent feature of how these systems currently support creative work at scale.”
The scientists also evaluated whether the type of task influenced the degree of uniformity. They categorized the experiments into four groups, which included divergent thinking, idea generation, writing, and visual art. Divergent thinking tasks are highly open-ended exercises, such as asking someone to list creative uses for a paperclip.
Idea generation tasks provide more specific constraints, such as asking for solutions to improve public transportation. The analysis showed that the homogenization effect was strongest in the idea generation tasks. Because these exercises require specific solutions to defined problems, users likely rely more heavily on the predictable suggestions provided by the computer algorithms.
The researchers did not find strong statistical evidence for differences among the other three categories, suggesting that open-ended tasks lead to less convergence. They also checked if these patterns only happen in highly controlled laboratory settings. The authors compared traditional laboratory experiments with real-world scenarios, such as analyzing published essays and visual artworks created before and after the widespread adoption of automated writing tools.
The analysis of these real-world conditions showed a small but significant reduction in idea diversity. “In many ways, the findings resemble classic fixation effects from the psychology literature, where exposure to examples constrains later thinking, but here they appear amplified by the scale and synchronicity of generative AI model use,” the researchers stated. “This homogenization effect was observed not only in controlled lab studies but also in real-world quasi-experiments. This suggests that it is not merely a lab-based phenomenon, but a practical concern affecting concrete creative processes and practices.”
De Rooij and Biskjaer also investigated whether this narrowing of ideas persists after a person stops using the software. They isolated a subset of studies that tested participants on new creative tasks after their initial interaction with the computer models. The results suggest that the homogenization effect carries over into these subsequent activities.
“The findings also provide preliminary evidence that homogenization effects may persist beyond moments of direct AI use,” the researchers told PsyPost. “In other words, interacting with these generative AI systems may shape how people think and generate ideas even after the interaction has ended. This potential ‘rub-off’ effect on creative cognition warrants further research and is something we would like to explore in more depth.”
These results closely align with another recent study published in the journal PNAS Nexus. Scientists Emily Wenger and Yoed N. Kenett tested how large language models affect human creativity by evaluating 22 different commercial chatbots. They recruited 102 human participants to complete a series of verbal creativity tests, including the alternative uses task, and then asked the chatbots to complete the exact same assignments.
Wenger and Kenett found that individual language models performed at or slightly above the level of the average human on most exercises. When viewed in isolation, a single chatbot provided highly original and creative responses. However, when the scientists compared all the responses from the different models, a stark pattern of similarity emerged.
Across all tasks, the computer programs produced answers that were significantly more alike than the answers provided by the human participants. Both sets of researchers point to similar underlying mechanisms for this phenomenon. Because the major technology companies train their models on massive, overlapping datasets scraped from the internet, the programs naturally gravitate toward the most statistically common word associations.
When thousands of people use these tools to generate ideas, the software acts as a semantic anchor. The models pull human users toward a shared set of typical concepts, reducing the overall variety of ideas. Wenger and Kenett attempted to fix this issue by adjusting the internal settings of the chatbots to force more random text generation, but this caused the models to produce nonsensical sentences.
Readers should avoid interpreting these findings as proof that human beings are becoming entirely uncreative. De Rooij and Biskjaer note that the reduction in collective diversity does not equal a total loss of individual ability. “A key point is that our findings do not show that using AI reduces creativity,” the researchers emphasized.
“Rather, they point to a shift in where and how creative diversity occurs, and where it may be constrained,” the authors said. “Individual output can improve in creative quality while becoming more similar across people. While these effects are often subtle in single instances, they may become meaningful when considered at the scale at which generative AI is now being used.”
The authors point out some limitations to their current analysis. The review primarily focuses on text-based tools and large language models, meaning the findings might not apply to other types of computer systems. For instance, adaptive machine learning programs or tools used for music composition were not adequately represented in the available data.
This restricts how broadly the scientific community can apply these conclusions across different artistic domains. Additionally, the analyses regarding long-term persistence and real-world applications relied on relatively small groups of studies. The limited data makes these specific conclusions tentative and open to revision.
Future research should explore different forms of human and machine collaboration over extended periods of time. “An important next step is rethinking how generative AI systems are designed and used in creative contexts to mitigate homogenization effects,” the authors noted. “This includes exploring alternative workflows, interaction designs, and creative strategies that sustain diversity rather than encourage early convergence.”
“One step in this direction has already been taken by mapping creative strategies for working with generative AI and machine learning, based on analyses of AI art practices,” they added, referencing a recently published article outlining this approach. “We believe these strategies can transfer to other creative domains.”
The preprint study, “Does Generative AI Make Us Think Alike? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Homogenization Effects in Human-AI Co-Creation,” was authored by Alwin de Rooij and Michael Mose Biskjaer.
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