Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #mentalhealth, aggregated by home.social.
Staten Island high school to use holograms for student mental health support
This story was initially published in Healthbeat, public health, explained. Sign up to receive Healthbeat’s free New York…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Mentalhealth #gregbowen #Health #healthbeat #hologramstudio #MentalHealth #principalofralphr.mckeecareerandtechnicaleducationhighschool #statenisland #students #tele-health
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/890246/
Seeing a psychologist is becoming more unequal – and our map shows the gap
When you’re struggling with your mental health, visiting your GP for a mental health treatment plan can be…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Mentalhealth #Health #MentalHealth
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/890086/
Japanese study links postpartum depression to mother-infant bonding difficulties
A Japanese study found that higher postpartum depression scores were associated with greater mother–infant bonding difficulties. Repeated assessments…
#EuropeSays #Japan #JP #Brain #Childbirth #Consultation #depression #hospital #Mentalhealth #Neuroimaging #postpartumdepression #Psychiatry #Research
https://www.europesays.com/japan/110173/
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 05:18PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITY
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#Utah OKs 3 #HealthAI Pilot Apps for 'Regulatory Sandbox': Test Projects Focus on AI-Enabled Drug Prescriptions, #PhysicalTherapy Treatment https://t.co/TCIz4jA1kf
@nollahealth @ExpectFitness #AugustAILab
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Problem gambling jumps, suicides triple in Ontario after expansion of online casinos
Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…
#NewsBeep #News #Mentalhealth #CA #Canada #Health #MentalHealth
https://www.newsbeep.com/ca/941213/
Problem gambling jumps, suicides triple in Ontario after expansion of online casinos
Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Mentalhealth #Health #MentalHealth
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/889926/
https://www.europesays.com/ie/744902/ Problem gambling jumps, suicides triple in Ontario after expansion of online casinos #Éire #Health #IE #Ireland #MentalHealth #MentalHealth
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Children who later develop psychosis tend to have slightly smaller heads, study finds
A longitudinal study tracking thousands of children from birth to mid-adolescence suggests that young people who develop psychotic disorders tend to have smaller heads throughout their early lives. Published in Psychological Medicine, the research indicates that these head size differences are largely tied to overall body height, pointing toward a broader pattern of altered physical growth rather than an isolated issue with brain expansion. The findings also point to distinct trajectories between males and females who experience milder psychotic symptoms.
Psychosis is a psychiatric condition in which a person loses some contact with reality. It often involves hallucinations, which are sensory experiences of things that are not present, and delusions, which are firmly held false beliefs. Psychosis exists on a spectrum, with clinical psychotic disorders like schizophrenia at the severe end, which disrupt daily life and typically emerge in late adolescence or early adulthood. A much larger segment of the population reports isolated psychotic experiences, such as occasionally hearing a voice or feeling unusually suspicious, without meeting the threshold for a clinical illness.
Even though psychotic disorders usually appear in young adulthood, the neurodevelopmental model of schizophrenia proposes that the underlying biological roots of these conditions begin during fetal development and early childhood. Adults diagnosed with schizophrenia tend to have slightly smaller total brain volumes than peers without the condition, even before they ever take psychiatric medications. Because performing brain scans on thousands of infants and children is costly and impractical, scientists often rely on head circumference, a simple tape-measure reading around the widest part of the skull that is routinely recorded by pediatricians, as an indirect indicator of early brain size.
“The study was motivated by the need to identify inexpensive and accessible biomarkers of psychosis risk,” study co-author Kate Merritt, a lecturer in human neuroscience in the Division of Psychiatry at University College London, told PsyPost. “If we can identify people who are more likely to develop psychosis, this could eventually help us target preventative interventions toward those at greatest risk.”
“Much of our work focuses on using MRI to identify biological markers that predict outcomes in psychosis, but MRI is expensive and not widely accessible,” Merritt explained. “We therefore wondered whether a much simpler measure, head circumference, might provide useful information. Head circumference is correlated with brain volume, so we looked at whether differences in head growth might be associated with psychosis risk.”
Prior research examining infant head size and later mental health has produced mixed results. Some studies, including a 2005 study of Swedish twins, found that babies born with smaller head circumferences and lower birth weights were more likely to develop schizophrenia as adults. Other studies found larger head sizes, no link at all, or differences that only appeared in females or vanished by early childhood. Most of this earlier work only looked at measurements taken at birth or during the first few months of life, leaving it unknown how head growth unfolds through later childhood and adolescence.
Scientists have also questioned whether a smaller head reflects a biological process restricted to the brain or a whole-body growth pattern. For example, a 2007 study of over 1.3 million Swedish men indicated that shorter adult height and lower body mass index were associated with a higher risk of schizophrenia. Similarly, a 2007 birth cohort study found that women who developed schizophrenia-spectrum disorders grew in height about one centimeter per year slower during early childhood than women without these conditions.
To determine whether head growth trajectories differ across the psychosis spectrum and whether those differences are independent of overall body size, Merritt, lead author Sarah A. Ashley of University College London, and their colleagues examined data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. This population-based project tracked children born to pregnant women in the Southwest of England between April 1991 and December 1992.
The researchers analyzed an overall sample of 3,866 participants, including 2,177 females and 1,689 males, who had complete background records and at least one head circumference measurement between birth and age 15. Head measurements were collected across up to 22 time points, with major assessments occurring during the first year of life, at age 7, and at age 15. On average, participants had about eight head circumference measurements recorded over their childhood.
When the participants reached age 17 or 18, trained psychologists interviewed them using a semi-structured assessment to evaluate whether they had experienced hallucinations, delusions, or thought interference since age 12. Thought interference refers to the belief that one’s private thoughts are being broadcast out loud, inserted into one’s mind, or taken away by an outside force. Based on these interviews, 339 participants (8.8 percent of the sample, comprising 218 females and 121 males) were classified as having definite psychotic experiences.
Within that group, 62 individuals (1.6 percent of the sample, comprising 49 females and 13 males) met the operational criteria for a psychotic disorder. This meant their experiences occurred at least once a month over the preceding six months and caused severe distress, impaired their social or work functioning, or prompted them to seek professional help. The remaining 3,527 participants served as the comparison control group.
To confirm that external head measurements accurately reflected internal brain size in their sample, the researchers also analyzed structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans from a subset of 347 participants at age 20. From these scans, they calculated total intracranial volume, which is the total space inside the skull cavity occupied by the brain and surrounding fluids.
In their statistical models, the authors controlled for several maternal and birth factors that can influence physical growth. These included the mother’s highest level of education, her pre-pregnancy body mass index, the length of the pregnancy, and the baby’s weight at birth. In a secondary step, the researchers added the child’s height across development to see if head size differences persisted when accounting for overall physical stature.
The neuroimaging analysis confirmed that childhood head circumference was a reliable proxy for young adult brain size. Head size at birth showed a moderate positive correlation with total intracranial volume at age 20, while head measurements taken at ages 7 and 15 showed strong correlations with adult intracranial volume across both males and females.
When looking at growth trajectories over time, the researchers found that young people who met criteria for a psychotic disorder at age 18 had consistently smaller head circumferences than the control group from birth right through to age 15. Across the developmental span, the psychotic disorder group had an average head circumference about 0.26 centimeters smaller than controls in the statistical model, a small fraction of overall head size. The gap did not widen or narrow as the children aged, indicating that the modeled gap was similar in size from birth through adolescence.
The difference remained after accounting for maternal education and maternal body mass index, and shrank only slightly, to about 0.20 centimeters, when length of pregnancy and birth weight were added, though at that point it fell just short of statistical significance. Sensitivity checks looking strictly at birth, age 7, and age 15 also found smaller head sizes in the psychotic disorder group at each milestone, with the differences reaching statistical significance at ages 7 and 15.
When the team examined the larger group of 339 young people who reported broader psychotic experiences, they discovered contrasting patterns between males and females. Females with psychotic experiences had consistently smaller head circumferences across childhood and adolescence compared to female controls, averaging about 0.27 centimeters smaller in the unadjusted trajectory model.
In contrast, males with psychotic experiences had larger head circumferences than male controls across the overall trajectory model, averaging about 0.35 centimeters larger. In the age-by-age checks, however, males with psychotic experiences had smaller heads at birth and larger heads at ages 7 and 15. Both of the overall sex-specific patterns remained intact after adjusting for maternal and birth characteristics.
The smaller head sizes seen in the psychotic disorder group and among females with psychotic experiences stand in contrast to findings in autism spectrum disorder, a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication and restricted or repetitive behaviors. “For me, one of the most interesting aspects of this finding is what it tells us when considered alongside our work in autism spectrum disorder,” Merritt noted. “In a separate paper, we found the opposite pattern, with larger head circumference associated with autism. This suggests that patterns of brain growth may differ across different forms of neurodevelopmental risk, rather than there being a single pattern of atypical brain development.”
The picture shifted when the researchers factored in the children’s height over time. After controlling for height across development, the head circumference differences between the psychotic disorder group and the control group shrank and were no longer statistically significant. The same thing happened among females with psychotic experiences: once height was taken into account, their smaller head size was no longer statistically significant. The raw height differences between groups at age 15.5 were small and not statistically tested: females in the psychotic disorder group averaged about 1.6 centimeters shorter than female controls, while the 13 males in that group averaged slightly taller than male controls.
In males with psychotic experiences, however, controlling for height did not change the outcome, and their head circumferences remained larger than those of male controls. Together, these results suggest that for individuals with psychotic disorders and females with psychotic experiences, a smaller head circumference may reflect a broader, whole-body growth restriction rather than an issue confined to brain growth.
The authors noted that hormones regulating early physical development might help explain why general growth restriction and sex differences appear across the psychosis spectrum. One candidate they pointed to is insulin-like growth factor-I, a hormone that manages both fetal and childhood physical growth and naturally circulates at different levels in males and females. Early environmental stressors, such as maternal infections during pregnancy or nutritional deficiencies, could also influence both overall physical stature and future mental health risk.
“The key takeaway is that head circumference is a potentially useful, inexpensive measure for understanding developmental differences associated with psychosis risk,” Merritt said. “However, these findings reflect differences between groups and cannot currently be used to predict psychosis in an individual. We would not want people to interpret a smaller head circumference as meaning that someone will develop psychosis. There are many factors that contribute to psychosis risk, and head circumference would need to be considered alongside other measures.”
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider when interpreting these findings. Because the study followed participants over nearly two decades, not every child had their head measured at every possible age, and the researchers had to rely on statistical modeling to chart continuous trajectories across gaps in time. In addition, the classification of psychotic disorder at age 18 was based on structured research interviews rather than formal clinical diagnoses from a medical doctor.
The total number of participants who met the criteria for a psychotic disorder was relatively small at 62 people, and only 13 of them were male. Because of this small male sample size in the disorder group, the researchers may not have had enough statistical power to detect sex differences among those with full psychotic disorders, and findings involving males in that group should be viewed cautiously. Future studies using larger, independent birth cohorts will be needed to verify these sex-specific growth patterns and examine the biological mechanisms that link early physical growth to adult mental health.
“In the longer term, we are interested in whether head circumference could be combined with other developmental, genetic and environmental risk measures to improve our ability to identify individuals who might benefit from early intervention,” Merritt added.
The study, “Course of head growth from birth to adolescence across the psychosis spectrum,” was authored by Sarah A. Ashley, Kate Merritt, Francesca Solmi, Pedro Luque Laguna, Yanakan Logeswaran, Derek K. Jones, David Linden, Anthony S. David, and Abraham Reichenberg.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Psychosis #MentalHealth #PsychosisResearch #ChildDevelopment #Neuroscience #BrainDevelopment #ChildHealth #Psychiatry #MedicalResearch #MentalHealthAwareness
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 03:41AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORG
TITLE: Netflix Releases "The New Stanford Prison Experiment" TV Series
Source: The Guardian
Television has rerun the Stanford prison experiment before, most notably in 2002 when the BBC aired "The Experiment," based on a study in which volunteers role-played prison guards and prisoners. The creator of the original 1971 experiment, Philip Zimbardo, long claimed that reality TV shows weren't comparable to his study because participants were aware of being on TV and played to the cameras. Now Netflix has released a new series with the...
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Netflix #StanfordPrisonExperiment #SocialPsychology #Psychology #HumanBehavior #PhilipZimbardo #TVSeries #RealityTV #Documentary #StreamingSeries
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 03:41AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORG
TITLE: Scientists Report Reversing 60 Years of Aging in Human Cells
Source: Science Daily - Top Health
Scientists in Germany have found a way to dramatically reverse the molecular age of human cells, transforming blood cells from an 80-year-old person into stem cells with an age signature of less than 20 years. Researchers achieved this remarkable transformation by reprogramming immature red blood cells into neural stem cells, which can eventually develop into brain cells. The breakthrough was published in the journal Aging Cell.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AgingResearch #CellReprogramming #StemCells #HumanCells #AntiAging #Longevity #Neuroscience #RegenerativeMedicine #Biotechnology #ScienceNews
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 03:40AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORG
TITLE: U.S. High Court Rejects Bid to Restrict Treatments for Trans Inmates
Source: CBS News - U.S. News
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday left intact a lower court decision that blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a Bureau of Prisons policy ending certain medical interventions for transgender inmates. In a one-line order, the high court rejected an appeal from the Justice Department, which seeks to cut off surgical and hormone therapy, as well as social accommodations, for inmates who have been or will be diagnosed with gender...
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SupremeCourt #TransgenderRights #TransInmates #LGBTQRights #PrisonHealthcare #GenderAffirmingCare #TransHealthcare #HumanRights #USPolitics #SupremeCourtNews
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 03:40AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORG
TITLE: United Airlines CEO Says U.S. Should Have a National Wealth Tax
Source: Yahoo News - Top Headlines
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby gave a wide-ranging, often provocative interview to the New York Times on October 18, touching on wealth inequality and distrust of CEOs. "Wealth inequality has become a danger to our society, and we need to address that," he said. "We should have a national wealth tax—it won't work by state because people will just move. And I think we should have inheritance taxes that get close to 100% at some level. I would...
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #UnitedAirlines #ScottKirby #WealthTax #NationalWealthTax #WealthInequality #TaxPolicy #InheritanceTax #EconomicInequality #CEO #USPolitics
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 03:39AM
SOURCE: SOCIALPSYCHOLOGY.ORG
TITLE: Major Loss of California Beaches Predicted in Latest Climate Forecast
Source: Yahoo News - Top Headlines
As ocean levels rise, Southern California is on track to lose 30-70% of its beaches over the next several decades. Almost half of all beach cliffs are likely to retreat 30-80 feet by 2100. And a 1.6-foot increase in sea level rise by 2060 will leave coastal areas such as the ports and Santa Monica, Venice, and Redondo beaches especially vulnerable to floods and storms. Those are just some of the dire findings in California's Fifth Climate Change...
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📚 NEW: #Cambridge researchers have linked #reading for pleasure to better attention, #memory, and #sleep in #children, lower #stress in #adults, and a lower risk of #dementia in older readers. Shared reading appears to add social benefits.
👉 https://scitechdaily.com/researchers-discover-what-reading-for-pleasure-may-be-doing-to-your-brain/
#brain #health #psychology #science #books #literacy #kids #learning #education #mentalhealth
FOOD, HEALTHCARE, CLOTHING, PERSONAL HYGIENE, RENT, LIFE BEYOND STRUGGLING TO EXIST! I DESPERATELY NEED HELP NOW! I DO NOT FEEL WELL AND I NEED TO BE ABLE TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!
I desperately need to place a serious #food and #personalhygiene order, all of my basic staples are gone, all the supporting basics are gone, your Compassionate Support would be a massive relief and replenishing blessing today;
Today's Needed Goal: **$300**
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$5-10-15 It All Helps,
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#MutualAid, #Disabled, #Poverty, #Help, #Survival, #Compassion, #Pain, #MentalHealth, #Food, #Groceries, #Hygiene, #Anxiety, #PTSD, #Bipolar, #Dignity, #Disablity, #Life, #Housing, #Support, #Aging, #Love, #Empathy, #Health, #Rent, #Cronicillness, #dentalhealth, #healthcare, #dental, #Emergency, #oralhealth,
DATE: October 21, 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. **
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TITLE: Intelligence predicts charitable giving and voting in massive Swedish study
URL: https://www.psypost.org/intelligence-predicts-charitable-giving-and-voting-in-massive-swedish-study/
People with higher cognitive abilities are more likely to engage in actions that benefit society, such as donating to charity, voting in elections, and buying environmentally friendly vehicles. These findings suggest that general intelligence plays a direct role in driving cooperative, socially minded actions. The research was published in The Economic Journal.
Humans are uniquely inclined to cooperate with strangers and contribute to public goods. Evolutionary biologists and economists often categorize these actions as prosocial behaviors. Finding a rational explanation for why humans evolved into such cooperative animals has long challenged researchers across multiple disciplines.
One proposed explanation centers on human intelligence. Some theorists suggest that cognitive ability improves logical reasoning and the capacity to understand the perspectives of others. These mental skills naturally foster ethical reasoning, which can ultimately lead to a sense of altruism.
Other researchers propose that intelligent individuals often achieve higher incomes and better social standing. This wealth could lower the personal financial cost of giving away money or time. Up until now, evidence linking intelligence to prosocial behavior has mostly come from brief laboratory games or surveys where people report their own habits.
To find concrete answers, economists Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixson analyzed a massive set of Swedish administrative records. They wanted to see if objective measures of intelligence predicted documented, real world prosocial behaviors. The researchers focused on three specific actions: charitable giving, voting, and the ownership of environmentally friendly cars.
The researchers first analyzed data from over 1.2 million Swedish men and about 3,000 Swedish women. All of these individuals took a standardized cognitive test during their military enlistment process between 1969 and 1997. This exam evaluated logical, verbal, spatial, and technical abilities on a nine point scale.
The researchers then matched these historical test scores with modern government records. They looked at tax registries from 2012 to 2015 to track charitable donations. Because Swedish charities automatically report donations to the government for tax purposes, the data minimizes biases related to a person’s financial literacy or their willingness to fill out tax forms.
To measure political participation, the researchers examined electoral rolls for the 2009 European Parliament election. By using validated voter turnout data, the team avoided the common problem of people lying about their voting habits in surveys. Finally, they consulted a national vehicle database to identify households that owned cars powered by electricity, ethanol, or natural gas.
Individuals with higher cognitive scores were much more likely to engage in all three prosocial behaviors. Men with the highest cognitive scores were more than five times as likely to donate to charity compared to men with the lowest scores. A one standard deviation increase in intelligence matched a 40 percent relative increase in the likelihood of charitable giving.
The same bump in test scores corresponded to a 31 percent increase in voting. It also matched a 14 percent increase in eco-friendly car ownership. The data from the female participants revealed very similar positive trends for voting and charity, showing that the effect was not limited to men.
When looking at specific types of intelligence, the researchers noticed that logical and verbal reasoning were the strongest predictors of prosocial action. These two traits are widely considered the best indicators of general fluid intelligence. Fluid intelligence is the ability to think abstractly and solve novel problems.
Observing a link in the general population does not prove that intelligence directly causes prosocial behavior. People with high cognitive scores often grow up in wealthy families or specific neighborhoods that might actively encourage civic duties. To account for these shared background variables, Elinder and Erixson conducted a second analysis using a large sample of 5,786 twin pairs.
Because twins typically share the same upbringing, home environment, and a large portion of their genetics, comparing siblings helps account for many confounding factors and better isolate the effect of intelligence. The researchers looked at twin pairs where one sibling scored higher on the enlistment cognitive test than the other. They also controlled for general personality traits evaluated during the military interviews, such as emotional stability and sociality.
The researchers found that the smarter twin was consistently more likely to vote and donate to charity. The associations decreased in size by about half compared to the massive population sample. A one standard deviation increase in cognitive ability among twins matched a 26 percent increase in charitable giving and a 13 percent increase in voting.
The link to eco-friendly car ownership also dropped to a 13 percent increase. This twin based approach indicates that unobserved family factors account for some of the population wide trend. However, those family factors do not entirely explain the connection between cognitive ability and prosocial habits.
Elinder and Erixson then ran a third analysis to test specific lifestyle variables that might bridge the gap between intelligence and behavior. A person’s intelligence influences their life trajectory, which could in turn dictate their civic engagement. The researchers factored in differences in education, total income, marriage status, the presence of children, and the municipality of residence.
Education explained a noticeable portion of the link between cognitive scores and civic habits. This aligns with the idea that schools help transmit prosocial values or develop a person’s ethical awareness. Individuals who spend more years in the educational system often learn to prioritize community well being.
Income did not act as a major mediator. Smarter individuals were not simply donating or buying eco-friendly cars just because they had more money to spare. When accounting for all these lifestyle variables, the direct mathematical link between intelligence and owning an eco-friendly car was not statistically significant.
However, the direct connection to voting and charitable giving held firm even after adjusting for education and income. The researchers interpreted this as evidence of a profound, direct tie between intelligence and certain types of cooperation. General intelligence appears to influence these behaviors independently of a person’s life circumstances.
Finally, the researchers looked at survey responses from a separate sample of about 600 men. These men had previously reported their own feelings of altruism on a numerical scale, along with their patience and risk preferences. The researchers matched these survey answers to the men’s military enlistment cognitive scores.
Individuals with higher cognitive abilities expressed a higher degree of personal altruism, with a one standard deviation increase in cognitive ability associated with a 0.16 standard deviation increase in self-reported altruism. This self reported data is in line with the behavioral records found in the national registries. While the survey results cannot firmly distinguish between different mechanisms, they are consistent with the theory that cognitive ability influences prosocial behavior through ethical reasoning and altruism.
While the twin analysis helps control for many background factors, the findings do not guarantee a strict cause and effect relationship in every scenario. The study relies heavily on data from Swedish men born between 1951 and 1979. The exact percentages might vary across different cultures, age groups, or time periods.
Additionally, the research defines prosocial behavior through three specific financial and political actions. People with lower cognitive scores might be equally cooperative in ways that do not show up in tax or vehicle registries, such as volunteering or helping neighbors physically. Future research will need to explore how other cognitive functions, like empathy and the ability to read emotions, interact with general intelligence to shape human cooperation.
The study, “An inquiry into the relationship between intelligence and prosocial behaviour: Evidence from Swedish population registers,” was authored by Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixson.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/intelligence-predicts-charitable-giving-and-voting-in-massive-swedish-study/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #IntelligenceAndProsocial #CognitiveAbility #CharitableGiving #VotingBehavior #EcoFriendlyCars #SwedenStudy #TwinStudy #EducationAndCivicDuty #ProsocialBehavior #EthicalReasoning
#Disability #Poverty #Aging #Health
🚨 URGENT HELP NEEDED TODAY 🚨
I am a 48-year-old disabled man living in poverty, and I am struggling to survive.
Every day is a battle against constant pain, sleepless nights, hunger, declining health, worsening vision, vertigo, mobility issues, cognitive decline, and the harsh reality that my disability income does not come close to covering the cost of living.
I face impossible choices every day:
Food or hygiene.
Medication or necessities.
Survival today or survival tomorrow.
I have no safety net. No financial cushion. No family support. No meaningful support system.
I am asking for help because I genuinely do not know how much longer I can continue carrying this burden alone.
My Reality
I live solely on SSDI.
I have no health insurance.
I do not drive.
I live in a rural area with no public transportation, meaning everything I need must be delivered or depend on finding someone willing and able to help.
My housing situation is unstable. Part of my rent is paid through helping maintain the property where I live, but my disabilities and declining health are making even those responsibilities increasingly difficult.
I am aging in poverty, and every year brings new physical limitations, more pain, and greater uncertainty.
I am not getting better.
I am getting worse.
My Health Is Declining
My days are consumed by:
Chronic pain
Exhaustion
High blood pressure fluctuations
Vertigo and dizziness
Poor mobility
Knee, hip, ankle, and joint pain
Numbness and weakness in my hands
Cognitive and executive functioning decline
Vision problems and light sensitivity
Dental issues
Anxiety, PTSD, and Bipolar Disorder
Some days my vision becomes a fuzzy blur. Bright light hurts. Low light makes basic tasks difficult.
If I sit too long, my joints lock up.
If I stand too long, my legs burn and stiffen.
If I lie down, pain spreads throughout my body.
Simple daily activities that most people take for granted are becoming harder and harder to accomplish.
Why I Am Reaching Out
I am exhausted.
Physically.
Mentally.
Emotionally.
Spiritually.
I have spent years contacting organizations, charities, government agencies, advocacy programs, nonprofits, and anyone I could think of for help.
Most of the time I receive lists of resources, referrals, phone numbers, websites, and suggestions.
What I do not receive are results.
I desperately need someone willing to understand my actual circumstances and help create real, concrete solutions.
I do not need more lists.
I need advocacy.
I need a social worker or case manager who can help navigate housing, healthcare, benefits, food security, transportation, and long-term stability.
I know resources exist.
I simply cannot seem to access them on my own.
A Recent Example
A few months ago, I developed a serious dental problem.
The pain became so severe that my landlord had to take me to the emergency room simply to obtain antibiotics.
After extensive effort and repeated requests, I was able to receive an examination and X-rays, only to be referred elsewhere for additional care I could not afford and could not reliably travel to.
Multiple emails and follow-ups produced little more than apologies and delays.
This experience reflects a much larger problem:
Many disabled people are given information about help.
Far fewer are actually able to obtain that help.
What I Need Most
Immediate Needs
Food and groceries
Hygiene supplies
Clothing
Medical and dental care
Transportation assistance
Household necessities
Relief from immediate financial crisis
Long-Term Needs
Stable, permanent housing
Consistent food security
Reliable healthcare access
Advocacy and case management
A sustainable future with dignity and security
My greatest need is stability.
I need a forever home where I can live safely for the rest of my life without constantly fearing homelessness, displacement, or crisis.
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Poverty is expensive.
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Despite everything, I continue to fight every day.
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$25,000
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$5,000,000
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Final Words
I am tired.
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If you have ever known hardship, loss, fear, hunger, loneliness, disability, or uncertainty, then you know that compassion can mean everything.
Please help if you can.
Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
#MutualAid #Disabled #Disability #Poverty #Housing #Health #Healthcare #DentalHealth #FoodInsecurity #ChronicIllness #MentalHealth #PTSD #Bipolar #Survival #Support #Compassion #Empathy #Aging #Help #Dignity #Rent #Groceries #Hygiene #CommunitySupport #Life
DATE: October 21, 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. **
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TITLE: Your posture may change how much pain you feel
URL: https://www.psypost.org/your-posture-may-change-how-much-pain-you-feel/
A new study published in Psychophysiology indicates that people are somewhat less sensitive to pain while lying down than while standing upright. The researchers propose that this reflects shifts in blood volume and blood pressure as the body adjusts to gravity, which may help explain why lying down eases acute discomfort. They also suggest the same relief could encourage inactivity in people with chronic pain, an idea the study did not test directly.
The human cardiovascular system does more than circulate oxygen and nutrients; it also helps regulate how the nervous system processes physical discomfort. Embedded within the walls of major blood vessels, such as the carotid arteries in the neck and the aorta near the heart, as well as inside the heart chambers and lungs, are microscopic stretch sensors called baroreceptors. When blood volume increases or blood pressure rises, the walls of these vessels expand, stretching the baroreceptors. Once stretched, these sensors send neural signals to the brain that slow the heart and relax blood vessels while simultaneously triggering pain-inhibiting pathways in the central nervous system.
Because of this built-in dampening mechanism, higher blood pressure tends to be accompanied by reduced sensitivity to physical pain. Early evidence from a 1994 human experiment demonstrated that artificially stimulating neck baroreceptors with gentle suction dulled pain reflexes and lowered how much pain participants reported feeling. Building on that work, a 2009 clinical study showed that giving medication to raise blood pressure in people with chronically low blood pressure reduced their pain sensitivity.
This link between the circulatory system and pain processing even extends beyond physical sensation. For instance, a study covered by PsyPost in 2019 found that higher resting blood pressure was associated with lower self-reported sensitivity to social pain and rejection. Closer to physical pain, a 2021 study of fibromyalgia patients by Reyes del Paso and colleagues found that individuals whose baroreceptors were less responsive to blood pressure changes experienced worse daily pain, fatigue, and anxiety.
Despite these established findings in psychophysiology, lead study author Gustavo A. Reyes del Paso, a full professor of psychophysiology at the University of Jaén in Spain, noted that “the general public is unaware that an increase in blood pressure has an inhibitory effect on pain: people with hypertension report fewer pain complaints, whereas those with chronic low blood pressure are more sensitive to pain.”
Recognizing that blood flow alters pain sensitivity, Reyes del Paso and his colleagues in Spain and Austria wanted to test whether everyday changes in body posture naturally move enough blood to change how much pain people feel. When a person stands up, gravity pulls blood down into the legs, reducing blood return to the heart and temporarily lowering blood pressure and baroreceptor stretching. When a person lies flat on their back, blood flows easily back to the chest, increasing the volume of blood pumped with each beat and stretching the baroreceptors, which the researchers hypothesized would dampen pain sensitivity.
“Changes in body posture alter blood pressure (it decreases during standing up and increases during lying down), so they may also affect pain,” Reyes del Paso told PsyPost. “We wanted to probe this hypothesis. Also, patients with chronic pain usually are very sedentary (i.e., have kinesiophobia) and are lying down much of the time. Is there a cause for that?”
In clinical settings, kinesiophobia refers to an excessive, debilitating fear of physical movement and activity resulting from a feeling of vulnerability to painful injury. To test how posture affects pain and circulation, the researchers recruited 83 healthy university students, consisting of 61 women and 22 men with an average age of about 20 years. None of the participants had cardiovascular conditions or chronic pain, and all abstained from pain medications for 24 hours and alcohol or vigorous exercise for three hours beforehand. Women taking oral contraceptives were excluded because synthetic hormones alter both blood pressure regulation and pain sensitivity, which could obscure the natural effects of posture.
During the experiment, the researchers measured cardiovascular activity and pain perception while participants assumed three postures: sitting, standing upright, and lying flat on their backs. The sequence included an initial sitting phase, a first standing phase, a lying down phase, and a second standing phase, with cardiovascular measurements recorded across four-minute intervals in each position. Pain testing was carried out during sitting, lying down, and the second standing phase, and the study protocol was publicly registered before data collection began.
To measure pain in a controlled way, the team used a computer-guided pressure algometer, a device that applies steadily increasing mechanical pressure to a one-square-centimeter area on the third fingernail of the left hand. The researchers recorded two behavioral thresholds: the pain threshold, defined as the pressure at which the participant first began to feel pain, and pain tolerance, defined as the maximum pressure the participant could endure. Participants also received five-second pressure stimuli ranging from 1.5 to 4 kilograms per square centimeter and rated how painful each press felt on a 10-centimeter visual scale from painless to extremely painful.
Throughout these postures, participants wore chest electrodes to record an electrocardiogram, which tracks the timing between heartbeats, and an impedance cardiogram, a non-invasive method that uses mild electrical currents across the chest to estimate blood flow volume. Continuous blood pressure sensors on the fingers of the right hand were calibrated every minute with an upper-arm cuff.
From these recordings, the team tracked blood pressure, heartbeat intervals, stroke volume (the blood pumped per beat), cardiac output (the blood pumped per minute), total peripheral resistance (how tightly constricted the blood vessels are), and baroreflex sensitivity, which measures how effectively the heart adjusts its beat timing in response to blood pressure shifts.
The results supported the hypothesis that lying down dulls pain sensitivity compared to standing upright. Participants exhibited higher pain thresholds while lying down than when standing, and their maximum pain tolerance was higher while lying down than during both standing and sitting. Across the sample, average pain thresholds varied only modestly between 3.4 and 3.6 kilograms per square centimeter across postures, and the authors noted that the clinical relevance of these small differences remains uncertain.
Subjective pain intensity ratings followed a similar pattern once the applied pressure crossed that threshold into actual pain. At the highest pressure of 4 kilograms per square centimeter, participants rated the sensation as more painful while standing than while either sitting or lying down. At 3 and 3.5 kilograms per square centimeter, standing also produced higher pain ratings than sitting. Contrary to the researchers’ hypothesis, for lighter pressures between 1.5 and 2.5 kilograms per square centimeter, ratings were slightly higher while lying down than sitting, though the authors noted that pressures below 3.4 kilograms may not have been perceived as painful by most participants.
The cardiovascular recordings confirmed that shifting postures produced substantial changes in blood flow and pressure regulation. When participants moved from sitting to the first standing period, their systolic blood pressure dropped from an average of 109.36 to 104.97 millimeters of mercury, and their stroke volume fell from 73.39 to 63.61 milliliters per beat. When they lay flat on their backs, systolic blood pressure rose to 111.33 millimeters of mercury, stroke volume climbed to 89.47 milliliters, and baroreflex sensitivity nearly tripled from 11.52 while standing to 30.35 milliseconds per millimeter of mercury while lying down, which the authors interpret as stronger heart-slowing nervous system activity.
When the researchers analyzed how baseline cardiovascular traits while sitting predicted pain responses, they found that mean arterial blood pressure was inversely linked to pain intensity ratings. Participants with higher resting blood pressure tended to rate the presses as less painful, a pattern that appeared at every pressure level when stimuli came in random order and at three of six levels when they increased step by step.
Total peripheral resistance, or the tightness of the blood vessels, was positively associated with both pain threshold and pain tolerance across the entire group, suggesting that blood vessel constriction may play a role in dampening pain. Stroke volume, cardiac output, heart rate, and baroreflex sensitivity, the measures that shifted most with posture, were not linked to any of the pain measures.
The researchers also observed distinct differences between men and women in both pain and circulatory measurements. Men had higher overall blood pressure, greater blood vessel resistance, and higher pain thresholds and pain tolerance than women, although men and women gave similar subjective pain intensity ratings on the visual scale. In addition, higher blood pressure was directly associated with a higher pain threshold in men, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.43 to 0.47, whereas this specific association was not statistically significant in women, though the male subsample included only 22 participants.
The authors noted that lying down appears to be an intuitive, functional behavior for easing acute physical pain, which they attribute to greater blood return to the heart and stronger stimulation of pain-blocking baroreceptors. At the same time, they pointed out that this biological mechanism could have unintended drawbacks for people with chronic pain conditions.
“The reduction in pain during lying down could be a mechanism explaining the typical sedentarism and low physical activity in chronic pain patients, in which bed rest is considered counterproductive for pain rehabilitation, as this inhibitory effect can negatively reinforce inactivity by reducing pain,” Reyes del Paso explained.
“If you feel an acute pain, the maintenance of a lying down posture will help alleviate the pain,” he added. “However, if a person suffers from chronic pain, he/she should avoid the frequent use of a supine position, because it reinforces inactivity and in the medium and long term can aggravate the pain problem.”
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider when interpreting the results. The study sample consisted entirely of young, healthy university students who generally had low-to-normal resting blood pressure, and nearly three-quarters of the participants were women. Because the pain-dampening effects of blood pressure are typically strongest in people with elevated or high-normal blood pressure, the modest effects observed here might differ in older adults, people with hypertension, or patients living with chronic pain syndromes. The idea that pain relief while lying down reinforces inactivity in chronic pain is the authors’ hypothesis, and the study did not test it.
In addition, the links between blood pressure and pain were measured only while participants were seated, by comparing people with one another. The study did not test whether each person’s blood pressure changes across postures explained their own changes in pain.
Another detail to keep in mind is that the researchers did not randomize the order of the postures, meaning every participant went through the sitting, lying, and standing phases in the exact same sequence. When participants stood up for the second time, directly after lying down, which is when standing pain was measured, their blood pressure did not drop as it had during the first standing phase, averaging 110.30 millimeters of mercury. The authors explained that standing up from a flat position causes a bigger, faster shift of blood toward the legs than standing up from a chair, which likely triggered a rapid reflex that kept blood pressure from dropping. They suggest this may have weakened the posture effect on pain.
Looking ahead, the research team plans to directly investigate how these postural mechanisms operate in clinical populations. “We are going to replicate this study in individuals with chronic pain disorders, such as fibromyalgia or chronic back pain,” Reyes del Paso said.
The study, “Body Posture-Related Differences in Pain Perception and Their Mediation by Cardiovascular Factors,” was authored by Gustavo A. Reyes del Paso, Dolores Santiago, Belén Moreno, Casandra I. Montoro, Stefan Duschek, and Dmitry M. Davydov.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/your-posture-may-change-how-much-pain-you-feel/
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Mutual Aid Request Roundup 21 Oct 2026
Indonesia shows the pattern: over 70 percent of fire spots lie inside company concessions, 314,124 respiratory infections since 20 August, and five were charged over stolen relief money. Wherever extraction pays and institutions fail to catch the fall, the cost lands on ordinary people, and ordinary people cover it for each other. Support this week's mutual aid requests directly. Give to the ones you can, share each one in the group chats where you already hold trust, and ask one person with money to match what you gave.https://mutualaidspace.org/mutual-aid-request-roundup-21-oct-2026/
Good deeds become more powerful when done with no hope for reward, www.compassmethods.com. https://youtube.com/@compassionscompass-sb7jo?si=fLRKQnA-765xpiVf #mentalhealth #goodness #love #compassion #wisdom
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 10:51AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMES
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Andy Burnham backs mandatory suicide prevention training after Matilda Davis’s death
By Josh Halliday North of England editor
Lib Dem MP Manuela Perteghella to meet former art teacher’s family and PM to discuss prevention measures
#Mentalhealth #Society #Health #AndyBurnham #Carers #UKnews #Disability #TheGuardian #JoshHallidayNorthofEnglandeditor
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 05:02AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEED
TITLE: Review: ‘The New Stanford Prison Experiment’ Is a Stiff Sentence
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/21/arts/television/review-the-new-stanford-prison-experiment.html
Netflix’s reboot of a notoriously cruel and unusual psychological study makes for unenlightening reality TV.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/21/arts/television/review-the-new-stanford-prison-experiment.html
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Andy Burnham backs mandatory suicide prevention training after Matilda Davis death https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/21/andy-burnham-backs-mandatory-suicide-prevention-training-after-matilda-davis-death #MentalHealth #Society #Health #AndyBurnham #Carers #UkNews #Disability
DATE: October 21, 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. **
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TITLE: Extraversion is linked to faster relief from depressive symptoms
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-personality-traits-shape-the-speed-of-depression-recovery/
As patients receive inpatient treatment for depression, their personality traits often shift in tandem with their recovering mood, pointing to a deeply intertwined relationship between character and mental health. Individuals with higher average levels of neuroticism experience a slower recovery across a wide range of depressive symptoms, while those who lean toward extraversion or agreeableness tend to bounce back faster. These findings were recently published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Mental health professionals classify human personality into five broad domains, often called the Big Five. Neuroticism involves a tendency to experience negative emotions like sadness and worry. Extraversion reflects how outgoing, enthusiastic, and socially engaged a person is. Openness describes a willingness to try new things and embrace novel ideas.
Agreeableness involves being cooperative, empathetic, and trusting. Finally, conscientiousness is characterized by being organized, reliable, and goal-oriented. Together, these traits shape how individuals perceive the world and interact with others.
Depression is a highly varied condition. Two people diagnosed with major depressive disorder might experience entirely different challenges. One might sleep too much and feel constantly guilty, while another might suffer from insomnia and a total loss of appetite. Standard therapies help many people, but about one third of patients do not see their symptoms improve.
Researchers want to know why some people respond well to therapy while others do not. Personality is a prime suspect in this investigation. Prior studies have established a strong link between personality dimensions and psychiatric conditions. Neuroticism is generally viewed as a risk factor for mental health struggles, whereas extraversion and conscientiousness are often seen as protective traits.
Mara Carlotta Berg and Maike Richter, along with senior authors Mitja Back and Nils Opel, led the new investigation. The team includes researchers from the University of Münster and Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany. They wanted to understand how personality and depression evolve together over time. They also wanted to look beyond total depression scores to see how specific symptoms respond to treatment in people with different personality profiles.
The research team recruited 334 psychiatric patients receiving care at a German university hospital. The participants had been diagnosed with affective or psychotic disorders, such as major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder. To be included in the analysis, patients needed to stay in the hospital for at least four weeks. This minimum duration allowed the research team to track their progress over a meaningful timeframe.
Patients completed digital questionnaires upon admission and then again roughly every two weeks. The final assessment took place shortly before they were discharged from the hospital. One questionnaire measured the severity of 21 different depressive symptoms experienced over the previous two weeks. This assessment included questions about mood, suicidal thoughts, and physical complaints.
A second questionnaire assessed the Big Five personality traits. The researchers opted for a very brief, 15-item version of a standard personality test. This shortened format reduced the burden on patients who were already dealing with severe mental health challenges. The research team then used statistical models to track how these scores shifted and interacted from admission to discharge.
The overall severity of depression dropped substantially across the study population as patients received inpatient care. Alongside this clinical improvement, the researchers observed coordinated shifts in how patients described their own personalities. Neuroticism scores went down over the course of the hospital stay. At the same time, scores for conscientiousness and extraversion went up.
The statistical models revealed a synchronized relationship between personality and mood. Patients who reported the steepest drops in neuroticism also experienced the largest reductions in their overall depression scores. The reverse was true for agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion. For those three traits, greater increases over the course of treatment were tied to larger mood improvements.
The researchers then broke the depression data down to the level of individual symptoms. They wanted to see if a patient’s average personality profile during their stay influenced the speed of their recovery for specific issues. They found that higher average neuroticism was associated with slower improvement across 14 distinct symptoms.
These lingering issues spanned emotional problems like sadness, irritability, and suicidal thoughts, to physical complaints like insomnia, appetite loss, and somatic worries. The broad impact of neuroticism aligns with its reputation as a general vulnerability factor in mental health. Patients with high neuroticism often experience heightened emotional reactivity and persistent rumination, which might make these symptoms harder to shake.
Other personality traits were linked to faster recovery in specific areas. Patients with higher average extraversion saw quicker relief from seven symptoms, including work difficulty, indecisiveness, and pessimism. Higher average agreeableness mapped onto faster improvements in self-blame, guilt, and body image concerns. Openness was associated with a quicker return of sexual interest and a faster reduction in feelings of guilt.
Conscientiousness was the only trait that did not show these item-by-item associations with recovery speed. While conscientiousness increased overall as patients felt better, it did not seem to dictate the pace at which individual depressive symptoms faded. The researchers suspect that the benefits of conscientiousness might operate through broader behavioral habits that are not captured by specific symptom questions.
The study relies on observational data gathered during naturalistic treatment. Because patients received different types of therapy for varying lengths of time, the results cannot establish that personality directly caused the symptoms to change. The researchers note that the brief personality questionnaire used in the study has limited precision. The short test may have reduced the reliability of the measurements, particularly for the extraversion trait.
It is also difficult to separate true personality changes from a recovering mood. When people are deeply depressed, they often view themselves through a negative lens. The observed changes in personality traits might reflect enduring psychological growth. Alternatively, they might simply represent a return to the patient’s normal baseline as their depression lifts.
Future studies could track patients for months or years after discharge to see if the personality changes stick. Researchers could also use more comprehensive personality tests to confirm the symptom-specific findings. Understanding these patterns could eventually help mental health professionals design more personalized treatments.
Psychiatry is gradually moving toward precision medicine, where care is tailored to the individual rather than the diagnosis alone. If a clinician knows a patient has high neuroticism, they might anticipate a slower recovery and deploy targeted interventions earlier. These targeted interventions could focus specifically on emotion regulation or persistent rumination. Conversely, highly extraverted patients might benefit most from socially engaging group therapies.
The study, “Big Five personality dimensions and their association with depressive symptom severity over the treatment course,” was authored by Mara Carlotta Berg, Maike Richter, Marius Gruber, Janik Goltermann, Luise Victoria Claaß, Julian Herpertz, Ramona Leenings, Lara Gutfleisch, Jonathan Mathias Fasshauer, Michael Storck, Rogério Blitz, Udo Dannlowski, Mitja Back, and Nils Opel.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-personality-traits-shape-the-speed-of-depression-recovery/
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How happy do you feel RIGHT NOW? (I ask this question every day to gauge how happy the Fediverse is.) #happiness #poll #mentalhealth
First a strip-search goes too far, then a boy is isolated in a cell … the former detainees who tell all-too-similar stories
By Sarah Collard Indigenous affairs correspondent
Exclusive: Guardian Australia has spent five months talking to men and women who are speaking out at last, alleging systemic assaults in custody across the country
#Prisons #Youthjustice #IndigenousAustralians #Australianews #Rapeandsexualassault #Psychiatry #Mentalhealth #Royalcommissionintoinstitutionalresponsestochildsexualabuse #Indigenousincarceration #CrimeAustralia #Tasmania #SouthAustralia #NorthernTerritory #WesternAustralia #Victoria #Australianlaw #Children #Youngpeople #TheGuardian #SarahCollardIndigenousaffairscorrespondent
Mark Allen reveals he made snooker return after 10-week stay in mental health clinic
By Press Association
Former world No 4 vows to show ‘fighting qualities’
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/oct/21/snooker-mark-allen-northern-ireland-open-mental-health
#Snooker #Sport #Mentalhealth #TheGuardian #PressAssociation
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYCHIATRIC TIMES
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DATE: October 21, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Older adults tell the story of their lives differently, and it may not be a sign of decline, new psychology study suggests
A new study published in Psychology and Aging indicates that having to switch between recalling different types of personal memories makes it harder for both young and older adults to follow instructions accurately. Beyond the mental effort of juggling changing rules, the findings suggest that older adults tend to include more general personal facts and fewer specific details than younger adults, whether they are recalling a one-time event or a recurring routine.
Autobiographical memory is the mental system that allows people to recollect their own life history. It encompasses two main kinds of information: episodic memory and personal semantic memory. Episodic memories are rich recollections of unique events tied to a specific time and place, such as a particular birthday dinner last month. Personal semantic memories are broader facts about one’s life that are not tied to a single episode, such as general self-knowledge. Falling between the two are memories of repeated events, like a weekly habit of cooking with a friend, which summarize many similar occasions while still carrying some sensory and contextual detail.
As people age, the balance between these forms of recall tends to change. A benchmark 2002 study of younger and older adults found that when asked to describe past life events, younger adults mostly shared specific details about what happened, where they were, and how they felt, whereas older adults shared fewer time-and-place details and favored general, factual knowledge.
“A typical example would be that if a young adult is telling you about their last birthday party, they are more likely to include specific contextual and perceptual details (such as the specific time and place, what clothes people wore at that party, or specific details about what they said),” senior author Louis Renoult, a professor of cognitive neuroscience and the postgraduate research director in the School of Psychology at the University of East Anglia, told PsyPost. “In contrast, when remembering the same event, older adults would typically provide more factual background knowledge about similar birthday parties or other celebrations they would have attended, or more general knowledge they have about the people involved, for example.”
This pattern raised questions about whether the shift toward general memories comes from changes in how memories are stored or from age-related declines in executive control, which is the set of mental skills used to manage goals, stay focused, and filter out irrelevant thoughts. A 2013 study explored this by changing how instructions were given while participants listened to musical clips, finding that younger adults adjusted how specific their memories were to match the rules, while older adults did not adjust their recall as much when task demands grew more complex.
To test how mental flexibility affects memory recall, another 2013 study of university students introduced a test requiring participants to rapidly alternate between recalling unique, one-time events and repeated routines. The students were less accurate at providing specific memories when they had to switch back and forth compared to when they followed a single rule at a time.
“In the field, people generally assume that the greater reliance on factual knowledge (and semantic memory) in aging would constitute a compensation, due to a less efficient episodic memory,” explained Renoult, who also recently discussed memory and aging on a podcast episode. “However, tests commonly used to assess semantic and episodic memory are rarely well matched in difficulty, and most tests of autobiographical memory focus on episodic memory only. Due to these issues, my research group has developed new memory tests to study semantic and episodic memory in parallel, in conditions where they are well matched experimentally to better understand memory changes as we get older.”
To examine whether mental switching places an extra burden on older adults during memory recall and how it interacts with the broader shift toward factual details, Renoult and his colleagues carried out the new study. The work was led by Greta Melega while she was completing her doctorate at the University of East Anglia; she is now a postdoctoral researcher at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (“and also an elite European Ultimate Frisbee player (!),” Renoult noted).
The researchers recruited 45 younger adults and 45 older adults, all of whom were native English speakers without psychiatric or neurological conditions. After excluding participants who did not finish the study, had poor audio recordings, fell below a cognitive screening threshold, or did not pass an initial training check, the final sample included 37 older adults aged 60 to 85 and 37 younger adults aged 18 to 33.
The two age groups had similar levels of education and did not differ in self-reported symptoms of depression or anxiety, which the authors measured because mood can influence how specifically people recall the past. A subset of 30 younger and 30 older participants also completed standard tests of attention and working memory, showing no statistically significant differences between the age groups.
Participants completed an online memory task where they saw 21 neutral, easy-to-visualize cue words on a screen, one at a time. Depending on the prompt, they had up to one minute to think of either a specific memory (a unique event lasting less than a day, such as having “a good time at Jane’s party last month in London”) or a categoric memory (a repeated event that happened multiple times in a similar way, such as “When I go to Jane’s house, we usually cook together and watch a movie afterwards”).
Once a memory came to mind, they pressed a button and spoke aloud for up to two minutes to describe it in as much detail as possible. After each description, participants had five seconds per question to rate how vivid and emotional the memory was, whether they saw it through their own eyes or as an outside observer, and how long ago it took place.
The experiment was divided into two parts: a baseline block and a switching block. In the baseline block, participants followed one instruction at a time, recalling three specific memories in a row and three categoric memories in a row. In the 14-trial switching block, the instructions to recall specific or categoric memories changed unpredictably every two or three trials. This allowed the scientists to compare “switch trials,” where the rule had just changed from the previous prompt, with “remain trials,” where the rule stayed the same as the prompt right before it.
The research team evaluated the recorded narratives in two ways. First, they measured accuracy, defined as the percentage of memories that matched the prompt given on that trial. Second, for the memories that matched the instructions, the researchers broke the transcripts down to count the exact types of details produced: episodic details (specific sights, times, and feelings of a one-time event), repeated event details (context and sensory details of a recurring routine), semantic details (general facts and personal background knowledge), and other statements like repetitions. Because older adults spoke longer on average than younger adults (about 45 seconds versus 27 seconds) and produced more total details per memory (an average of 11.00 details compared to 7.41), the authors analyzed the proportion of each detail type rather than raw counts.
When looking at overall accuracy, both younger and older participants had a harder time following instructions when they had to juggle both rules in the switching block, dropping from 82 percent accuracy in the baseline block to 73 percent in the switching block. Within the switching block itself, accuracy did not differ between switch trials and remain trials, suggesting that the mental cost came from keeping two different rules in mind at once rather than the immediate act of switching from one trial to the next.
Older adults were not disproportionately harmed by the switching block compared to younger adults. Across the experiment, the two age groups were equally accurate when asked to recall specific, one-time events, with older adults succeeding on 81 percent of trials and younger adults on 80 percent. However, older adults were less accurate than younger adults when instructed to recall categoric, repeated events, matching the instructions 68 percent of the time compared to 81 percent for younger adults. When participants failed to provide a proper categoric memory, they most often defaulted to sharing general personal facts instead of an actual recurring event.
When the researchers examined how participants elaborated on their accurate memories, strong age differences appeared regardless of whether participants were in the baseline or switching block. Even when older adults successfully recalled a unique, one-time event, only 66 percent of the details they shared were specific episodic details, compared to 79 percent for younger adults. In turn, general semantic facts made up 18 percent of older adults’ descriptions of unique events, compared to 13 percent for younger adults.
A similar pattern emerged for categoric memories: older adults included a smaller proportion of on-target repeated event details than younger adults (48 percent versus 72 percent) and a much larger proportion of general semantic information across both blocks (40 to 42 percent for older adults, versus 15 to 24 percent for younger adults).
“As observed previously, older adults consistently produced more semantic (factual) details but less episodic (specific) elements than young adults,” Renoult said. “However, crucially, this was not only observed under specific (episodic) instructions, but also under categoric (semantic) instructions. This suggests that remembering the past using more factual knowledge is adaptive and meaningful to older adults, and not necessarily the result of a compensation, or of a general decline in their memory abilities.”
The study itself did not test what purpose, if any, this narrative style serves.
Increased task demands in the switching block also altered the makeup of memory details. Under categoric instructions, moving to the switching block reduced the proportion of target repeated event details from 67 percent to 54 percent across participants. The paper reports a similar shift under specific instructions, but its figures for that comparison duplicate those given elsewhere, so the size of that effect is uncertain.
The subjective ratings highlighted additional differences in how the two age groups experienced their memories. Even though older adults included proportionally fewer specific details in their stories, they rated their specific memories as more vivid than younger adults did (an average of 3.81 versus 3.53 on a 5-point scale) and rated their memories overall as more emotional (2.92 versus 2.46). Regarding the age of the memories, younger adults mostly drew from the past five years, especially the past year, whereas older adults recalled memories from more than 10 years ago on 39 percent of specific trials and 48 percent of categoric trials, compared to just 15 percent and 7 percent for younger adults.
“It is important to realize that, even though young and older adults remember their past differently (with different narrative style), in these studies participants of both age groups are able to follow the overall instructions and retrieve the relevant type of information in most trials (i.e., they produce the correct type of memory, even if with different amount of details),” Renoult noted. “Nonetheless, the results that we report in this study are consistent with previous findings from our group using different methods.”
Renoult also emphasized that differences in how older adults recount their past should not be mistaken for a broad loss of memory function. “Sometimes people have gloomy views of aging, but not all types of memory decline when we get older, as shown in studies such as ours: Semantic memory (general knowledge of the world) is well preserved in older adults (who sometimes outperform young adults in these tasks).”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting these results. The study’s design and analysis plan were not preregistered. Because the baseline block was always completed before the switching block so participants could learn the rules, fatigue or the possibility that the easiest memories were used up first could have contributed to the drop in performance during the switching phase. The number of trials was also kept relatively small to prevent tiredness during online testing, which meant the authors could not separately test whether switching rules hurt one memory type more than the other.
In addition, the older adults in this sample performed just as well as the younger undergraduate students on standard cognitive tests of working memory and attention. Because executive control often declines with age, this high-performing group of older adults might not reflect the broader aging population, which could explain why they had no trouble finding specific memories when prompted. The participants were also predominantly female, and they were allowed to choose memories from any point in their lives; future studies could restrict recall to specific time periods and use standardized follow-up prompts to see if older adults can retrieve more specific sensory details when encouraged to do so.
Looking ahead, the research team plans to explore how the social context of a conversation shapes the way people recount their lives. “We are interested to investigate social elements that may influence memory retrieval in aging, such as with whom one is sharing their memories,” Renoult said. “One related bias in the literature is that older adults are typically interviewed by a young adult (e.g., a PhD student, or a research assistant). It is possible that, in such cases, older adults include more general knowledge to provide additional background information for someone of a different age group.”
The study, “Age-Related Differences in Autobiographical Memory Recall: Impact of Retrieval Mode Switching,” was authored by Greta Melega, Alice Bush, Tabitha James, Riccardo Sacripante, and Louis Renoult.
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Broken Heart = Broken Body? Doctor Explains
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DATE: October 21, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Early fluid intelligence linked to faster gray matter refinement
URL: https://www.psypost.org/childhood-intelligence-predicts-the-pace-of-adolescent-brain-development/
Early intelligence levels in children can predict the pace of their physical and functional brain development as they progress through adolescence. A large study found that children with higher cognitive abilities experience faster gray matter shrinkage and a more gradual maturation of white matter pathways. The findings were published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience.
During adolescence, the human brain undergoes immense physical and functional remodeling. Gray matter, which contains the main cell bodies of neurons, initially grows during childhood and then shrinks in a process of refinement known as synaptic pruning. At the same time, white matter, which acts as the communication cables connecting different brain regions, typically strengthens as protective sheaths of myelin wrap around nerve fibers.
As the brain physically changes, its functional networks also reorganize. The synchronization between different neural networks, measured while the brain is at rest, evolves to balance integration and specialization. Researchers wanted to understand how individual differences in early childhood intelligence relate to these long-term developmental trajectories.
Previous research on cognitive ability and brain maturation has often relied on cross-sectional data, taking a snapshot of a single moment in time. Longitudinal studies tracking the same individuals over many years have been relatively limited in size and scope. To address this gap, researchers Phoebe Thomson, Philip Shaw, and Divyangana Rakesh from King’s College London conducted a detailed investigation into how early intelligence tracks with multiple brain changes over time.
The investigators analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. This is an ongoing, large study following thousands of children across the United States. For this analysis, the researchers reviewed data from 10,495 participants. The data spanned four time points, beginning when the children were around nine or ten years old and continuing into middle adolescence.
At the start of the study, participants completed a battery of tests to assess different facets of their general cognitive ability. The researchers separated these scores into three distinct categories. The first category was fluid cognition, which involves problem-solving, memory, and processing speed.
The second category was crystallized cognition, which measures accumulated knowledge, such as reading comprehension and vocabulary. The third metric was matrix reasoning, a specific type of visual and spatial abstract reasoning. Treating these abilities as separate constructs allowed the research team to see if different types of intelligence corresponded to different biological maturation patterns.
To measure brain development, the team examined three types of magnetic resonance imaging scans. Structural imaging provided data on the volume, surface area, and thickness of gray matter. Diffusion imaging tracked changes in white matter microstructure. Finally, resting-state functional imaging recorded how different functional networks in the brain communicated with one another.
Because family environment can influence both cognitive test scores and biological development, the researchers adjusted their mathematical models for household socioeconomic status. They also accounted for participant sex and the technical variations among different magnetic resonance imaging scanners used at different research sites.
The researchers first looked at gray matter structure across the whole brain. They found that baseline fluid cognition predicted how cortical surface area and volume changed over time. Specifically, teenagers who started with higher fluid cognition scores experienced a faster rate of gray matter contraction.
This faster decrease in gray matter volume and surface area was especially prominent in the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is heavily involved in higher-order thinking and decision-making. These structural changes align with theories that children with higher cognitive abilities might undergo an accelerated period of neural refinement following childhood growth.
Cortical thickness, a different structural metric, did not show a statistically significant association with any of the cognitive measures. Crystallized cognition and matrix reasoning scores also did not relate to long-term changes in gray matter structure.
Next, the researchers examined white matter development using a metric known as fractional anisotropy. This metric evaluates how uniformly water molecules travel along neural pathways. Higher fractional anisotropy generally indicates thicker myelin sheathing and more tightly packed nerve fibers, which typically increase over the course of adolescence as brain regions become better connected.
The researchers found that early matrix reasoning scores predicted the rate of this white matter maturation. Children with higher matrix reasoning scores started with higher baseline white matter integrity, but they exhibited a slower, more protracted increase in fractional anisotropy over time. This pattern was visible in several major white matter tracts, including those connecting the frontal lobe to other areas.
Fluid and crystallized cognition did not show a statistically significant association with white matter development.
Finally, the team evaluated resting-state functional connectivity, measuring the communication strength between distinct brain networks. They focused on how often separate networks synchronized their activity. Early scores across all three cognitive measures predicted the trajectory of this between-network communication.
Children with lower baseline cognitive scores exhibited a longitudinal increase in connectivity between different functional networks. This general increase was absent in participants with higher initial cognitive scores. Instead, youth with higher intelligence scores showed a faster decrease in connectivity between certain networks that normally decouple during adolescence, such as those governing auditory processing and cognitive control.
When evaluating resting-state functional connectivity at a closer level, the team looked at exactly how specialized networks interact. They noticed that higher crystallized cognition and matrix reasoning scores were linked to a stronger separation between the default mode network, active during internal thought, and higher-order attention networks. Over the course of adolescence, these systems became more distinctly compartmentalized in youths with higher cognitive abilities.
This decoupling process is thought to help distinct brain networks operate more independently. The findings suggest that higher childhood intelligence might relate to an accelerated specialization of these functional networks.
The study provides an observational account of brain development and does not demonstrate that high cognitive ability directly causes these physical or functional changes. The findings could be influenced by shared underlying variables, such as genetics or environmental stimulation, which might independently shape both intelligence and brain maturation.
Because data from the final measurement time point was incomplete at the time of the analysis, the researchers primarily utilized linear models to chart developmental changes. Brain maturation often follows non-linear patterns, speeding up or slowing down at different ages. Future longitudinal tracking covering a wider age range could help map these physical changes with even greater precision.
The study, “Cognitive ability in childhood predicts adolescent structural and functional brain development: A longitudinal study,” was authored by Phoebe Thomson, Philip Shaw, and Divyangana Rakesh.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/childhood-intelligence-predicts-the-pace-of-adolescent-brain-development/
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redial
The wind keeps howling, dragging the laden branches of the old olive trees to the ground. As it huffs and puffs, it mops away the rain streaks, further west, farther and farther still.
- Get your thoughts out of your head.
Writing it down or talking to someone slows things down to give you a chance to notice the illogical leaps.
- Continue activities you enjoy.
Work out the things that lift you up - gym, a book, a long walk - and make them non-negotiable.
- Remember your worth and your success.
You are still the person who existed before it, and there can still be a person after it whom you haven't met.
- Find a critical friend. You need someone who is your cheerleader but will also call you out when you let good habits slip.
- Work out what you can fix, and what you can't. If you've caused harm, take responsibility: apologise and put things right where you can. But don't take responsibility for things that were never yours to carry.
- Don't confuse your worst moment with the whole story of your life. You are not that mistake.
[Edited from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmwyz4g4ln4no - worth a read.]
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: One in three teen boys follows Andrew Tate at least a little, and those who do hold more rigid views of manhood
Teenage boys who follow prominent online personalities associated with the “manosphere” are more likely to support traditional beliefs about manhood, such as the idea that men should hide their emotions, remain dominant, and reject anything considered feminine. For the two best-known figures, Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson, this pattern held even after accounting for the gender messages boys hear at home and how masculine they already perceive themselves to be, according to research published in Psychology of Men & Masculinities.
The term “manosphere” describes a loose network of websites, podcasts, and social media accounts focused on male interests, often while framing women or modern feminism as threats to men’s status. Content creators in this digital space, frequently referred to as “manfluencers,” often promote hegemonic masculinity. This concept refers to a culturally idealized form of manhood characterized by power, physical toughness, emotional detachment, and the subordination of femininity.
Earlier research had begun tracking the reach of these online ideas. For instance, a 2024 study that included focus groups with 13- and 14-year-old boys in London found that some were drawn to Andrew Tate, who paired anti-feminist commentary with advice about dating and making money, and some saw him as funny or authentic. Around the same time, a 2024 study of young men in Sweden found that those who followed more manfluencers were more likely to hold dehumanizing views of women. A 2025 Common Sense Media report, which was not peer reviewed, found that boys who saw more masculinity-focused content online tended to hold more traditional views, but it did not ask about specific figures or parental messages.
Despite these insights, little quantitative evidence existed about what leads younger adolescent boys to engage with these figures in the first place, or how this media consumption interacts with the guidance they receive from their families. The new research was led by Erica Scharrer, a professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of Children, Media, and Technology: Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and co-author of Quantitative Research Methods in Communication: The Power of Numbers for Social Justice. She worked with University of Michigan psychologists L. Monique Ward and Brenda L. Volling to understand the real-world dynamics driving boys toward these online figures.
“Andrew Tate and ‘the manosphere’ had been in the headlines for quite a while,” Scharrer told PsyPost. “I noticed that even though some of the concern expressed in news and popular discourse was about the potential of the manosphere or ‘manfluencers’ to influence adolescent boys, there were no quantitative studies on the topic.”
“I approached L. Monique Wardwho is one of the premier scholars of adolescents, masculinities, and mediato see if she wanted to study the phenomenon with me, and she introduced me to another stellar scholar, Brenda L. Volling, who has deep expertise in gendered dynamics in family contexts,” Scharrer explained. “Together, our team designed and carried out this study. While we were writing our paper (but well after we collected our data), the Netflix show, Adolescence, put the issue of the manosphere and adolescent boys further into the spotlight.”
The 2025 Netflix drama depicts a teenage boy, immersed in manosphere content, who is accused of murdering a female classmate. To explore how real-world adolescents interact with these online communities, the scientists surveyed a diverse group of 601 adolescent boys aged 13 to 17 living across the United States. Participants were recruited through online panels managed by Qualtrics, with parent consent and youth assent obtained before the teens completed the questions privately on their own mobile devices. The sample was balanced across different age groups, racial backgrounds, and geographic regions to roughly match national population proportions.
To measure engagement with the manosphere, the authors took two distinct approaches. First, they directly asked boys how often they followed two prominent online commentators: former kickboxer Andrew Tate, who has been banned from several social media platforms for hate speech, and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson. Second, the authors asked participants to write in their favorite celebrity and top three favorite social media stars, later cross-referencing those names against a list of 31 manosphere-linked figures the researchers compiled from news and scholarly sources.
The boys also completed established psychological questionnaires. These included scales assessing traditional masculinity beliefs, which measure the degree to which an individual believes men should avoid showing vulnerability, remain emotionally detached, use physical toughness, and avoid feminine behaviors. Participants also reported the kinds of gender lessons they received from their caregivers, answered how masculine they perceived themselves to be on a 1-to-5 scale, and completed assessments of social support, depressive symptoms, and hostility.
The survey revealed that about 33.2 percent of the boys reported following Andrew Tate at least a little, while 11.6 percent reported following Jordan Peterson. In contrast, when asked open-ended questions about their absolute favorite personalities, only about 9 percent wrote in a figure associated with the manosphere, most commonly naming mainstream creators, musicians, or athletes instead. The authors described it as encouraging that only a small share of participants named a manosphere figure among their favorites.
Boys who expressed an affinity for manosphere personalities reported receiving more messages from their parents encouraging traditional gender expectations and physical toughness. They also rated their own personal masculinity higher compared to their peers. However, they were not statistically different in terms of age, racial background, total weekly time spent watching YouTube, or reported feelings of hostility, depression, or perceived support from family and friends. The authors note that this runs counter to the idea that isolated or distressed boys are the ones who turn to the manosphere.
Before any statistical controls, all three measures of manosphere engagement were linked to stronger traditional masculinity beliefs on every scale. For example, boys who named a manosphere figure as a favorite averaged 4.12 on a 7-point measure of traditional masculinity beliefs, compared with 3.39 for other boys.
When running statistical models that controlled for age, self-perceived masculinity, and parental messages, the authors found that following Andrew Tate remained a positive predictor across every measure of traditional masculinity ideology. Following Jordan Peterson also predicted higher support for male toughness, dominance, and relationship-specific masculinity norms, though it did not predict anti-femininity beliefs. The authors suggest this may reflect Peterson’s emphasis on self-improvement rather than overtly anti-women messaging. Having an affinity for manosphere figures on the open-ended list predicted beliefs favoring physical toughness, but was not related to emotional detachment or anti-femininity after accounting for the other variables.
Parental messages about being big and tough were the strongest predictor in every model, carrying roughly two to three times the weight of following Tate, and following Peterson was a weaker predictor than following Tate. Younger boys also tended to hold more traditional beliefs than older boys. Taken together, the predictors in these models explained roughly 37 to 44 percent of the variation in the boys’ overall traditional masculinity scores.
“Our study cannot show causality, but our data do show that in our sample of teen boys, following manosphere influencers online goes hand in hand with having narrow, stereotypical conceptions of masculinity,” Scharrer noted.
The findings echo that Swedish study, which PsyPost covered in 2025, although it measured misogyny and dehumanization of women among young adult men rather than traditional masculinity beliefs among American teenage boys.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The study relies on survey responses gathered at a single point in time, meaning the scientists cannot determine whether watching these creators causes boys to adopt traditional beliefs, or if boys who already favor traditional roles simply seek out compatible media. It is plausible that both processes occur together, reinforcing one another over time.
Additionally, the authors noted that endorsing masculine traits like emotional stoicism and strength is not the same as expressing outright hostility toward women, an outcome this particular project did not directly evaluate. The researchers also pointed out that online creators within the manosphere vary widely in tone and focus, ranging from financial self-help to overt anti-feminism, meaning adolescent viewers may be reacting to very different messages depending on whom they watch. The survey also recorded whether boys followed these figures but not why, so some may have been watching out of curiosity or skepticism rather than agreement, and the 33 percent figure includes boys who said they followed Tate only “a little.”
Recruiting participants through online survey panels can also introduce selection biases, as families who join these panels may not reflect the entire adolescent population. Looking ahead, the authors recommend long-term studies that track the same boys over time, incorporate direct measures of misogynistic attitudes, and explore the specific reasons why teens choose to follow these online figures.
The study, “Following Manosphere Influencers and Endorsement of Traditional Masculinity Beliefs Among Adolescent Boys,” was authored by Erica Scharrer, L. Monique Ward, and Brenda L. Volling.
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Alzheimer’s affects more than just the patient. From sleep deprivation and chronic stress to emotional exhaustion, read how caregiving can take a toll on family members and why their wellbeing matters too https://english.mathrubhumi.com/lifestyle/health/how-alzheimers-disease-affects-caregivers-5-challenges-families-should-know-s5ew68an?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #Alzheimers #Health #Wellness #Mentalhealth
Veterans use military slang to stay connected as distance remains top barrier
DATE: October 21, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Neuroscientists uncover brain clues to why some people with childhood trauma struggle to look forward to things
A new brain imaging study published in The Journal of Neuroscience indicates that the way a memory-related brain region communicates with the brain’s reward centers is linked to motivational difficulties in young adults with a history of childhood trauma. Among individuals who experienced higher levels of early life adversity, weaker activity and connectivity in the hippocampus were associated with a reduced ability to look forward to pleasurable experiences. These findings suggest that targeting memory and novelty-processing circuits could offer a new avenue for addressing motivational symptoms in trauma-exposed populations.
Anhedonia is a psychological condition defined by a reduced ability to experience pleasure or a lack of motivation to pursue rewarding activities. It is a common symptom across several mental health conditions, including major depression and schizophrenia. Psychologists typically divide anhedonia into two categories: consummatory anhedonia, the inability to feel pleasure in the moment while engaging in an enjoyable activity, and anticipatory anhedonia, a diminished capacity to feel excited about or motivated to pursue future rewards.
To understand the biological roots of anhedonia, neuroscientists often examine the mesolimbic dopamine system, a network of brain structures that release and respond to the chemical messenger dopamine to drive reward-seeking behavior. Two central hubs in this network are the ventral tegmental area, a cluster of dopamine-producing neurons in the midbrain near the top of the brainstem, and the nucleus accumbens, a deep forebrain structure within the ventral striatum that processes reward and motivation. For instance, a longitudinal study covered by PsyPost in 2015 found that adolescents who experienced emotional neglect in childhood showed a drop in ventral striatum activity when receiving rewards over a two-year period, which predicted an increase in depressive symptoms.
While human brain imaging studies of anhedonia have largely concentrated on the striatum, animal research points to the hippocampus as an upstream regulator of this reward network. The hippocampus is a seahorse-shaped structure tucked deep within the temporal lobe on each side of the brain. Although best known for forming and retrieving memories, it also acts as a novelty detector. When an organism encounters something unfamiliar, the hippocampus sends signals through a multi-step neural circuit to the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens, triggering dopamine release that encourages exploration and goal-directed action.
Because the hippocampus contains a dense concentration of receptors that bind to stress hormones like cortisol, exposure to childhood abuse or neglect can alter how this structure develops and functions. In humans, a 2026 brain-mapping preprint from members of the same research group, which has not yet been peer reviewed, reconstructed the physical nerve tracts connecting the hippocampus, ventral tegmental area, and nucleus accumbens, providing structural evidence that these regions form an integrated loop supporting adaptive behavior. A study covered by PsyPost in 2022 found that people with moderate to severe childhood trauma reported more social anhedonia, a reduced interest in social connection, alongside differences in brain structure.
The research team behind the new study, led by first author Kathleen J. O’Brien of Temple University and senior author Vishnu “Deepu” Murty of the University of Oregon’s Adaptive Memory Lab, wanted to test whether disruptions in hippocampal-reward communication interact with childhood trauma to explain why some people struggle with anhedonia.
“This study was motivated by a large animal literature that suggests that regions implicated in novelty processing, like the hippocampus, are critical for anhedonia, but characterization of this circuit had not been translated into the human literature,” Murty told PsyPost.
To investigate this question, the researchers recruited participants from the Philadelphia site of a broader project examining psychosis risk in young adults, ensuring the sample included a wide range of anhedonia severity. Out of 102 individuals who completed functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, the final sample included 92 participants with usable resting-state brain scans (37 males and 55 females) and 80 participants with usable task-based scans (34 males and 46 females). The participants ranged in age from 18 to 30 years old, with an average age of about 21.
Participants completed a modified version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short-Form, a self-report survey assessing experiences of emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect before age 16. They also filled out the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale, which uses separate subscales to measure anticipatory pleasure and consummatory pleasure. Lower scores on these scales indicate higher levels of anhedonia.
Inside the magnetic resonance imaging scanner, which measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow, the researchers focused on the anterior hippocampus, the front third of the structure that connects most densely with reward circuits. First, participants underwent a 5.8-minute resting-state scan while looking at a cross on a screen. This allowed the scientists to measure baseline functional connectivity, meaning how closely activity in the anterior hippocampus synchronized with activity in the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area while at rest.
Next, participants completed a target-detection task designed to measure how the brain responds to novelty and pursues goals. An hour before entering the scanner, participants had been familiarized with 80 outdoor scene photographs, viewing each one six times. Immediately prior to scanning and again inside the scanner, participants were shown a single specific target landscape. During the brain scan, participants watched a sequence of images flash on the screen for two seconds each and had to press a button every time the target landscape appeared.
Mixed in with the 40 target trials were the 80 familiar scenes and 80 completely new outdoor scenes the participants had never seen before. Using this setup, the researchers measured how strongly the anterior hippocampus activated in response to the novel images compared to the familiar ones. They also used a forward-prediction model to test whether heightened hippocampal activity during novel scenes predicted stronger activation in the ventral tegmental area when the target image appeared shortly afterward.
In their statistical analyses, the researchers controlled for participant age, as age was correlated with baseline connectivity between the hippocampus and the ventral tegmental area, and they verified in follow-up tests that accounting for psychosis-risk status did not change the outcomes. Across all four brain measures, the authors found no statistically significant links or trauma interactions related to consummatory anhedonia. In other words, hippocampal circuit function did not explain differences in the ability to enjoy pleasurable activities in the moment.
For anticipatory anhedonia, however, interactions emerged between childhood trauma and three of the four hippocampal circuit measures. Resting connectivity between the anterior hippocampus and the ventral tegmental area showed no such interaction. Among individuals with higher levels of childhood trauma (defined as one standard deviation above the sample average), weaker resting-state connectivity between the anterior hippocampus and the nucleus accumbens was associated with greater anticipatory anhedonia.
Similarly, in this high-trauma group, a blunted response in the anterior hippocampus when viewing novel scenes, as well as a weaker link between hippocampal responses to novel scenes and later activity in the ventral tegmental area during subsequent target detection, were both linked to worse anticipatory anhedonia. Among participants with lower levels of childhood trauma (one standard deviation below the average), these brain measures showed no statistically significant relationship with anticipatory pleasure.
To determine whether each of these neural measures contributed independently rather than reflecting the exact same underlying brain process, the scientists ran a machine-learning variable selection technique that removes redundant predictors and retains only the strongest ones. The resulting combined model accounted for 24 percent of the total variance in anticipatory anhedonia scores, or 20 percent after adjusting for the number of predictors in the model.
Even when evaluated simultaneously alongside overall trauma severity, both the interaction between trauma and resting hippocampus-accumbens connectivity and the interaction between trauma and task-based hippocampus-to-ventral-tegmental-area signaling remained independent predictors of anticipatory anhedonia. The interaction involving the hippocampus’s response to novel scenes was retained by the selection procedure but fell short of statistical significance in the final model, while higher trauma levels were themselves associated with greater anticipatory anhedonia.
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in 2025, which found that chronic stress in mice weakened connections from the hippocampus to the nucleus accumbens and reduced reward-seeking, and that a single dose of ketamine restored both. That work examined stressed animals directly rather than brain scans and self-reported trauma in people. The authors suggest that when early life adversity coincides with weakened communication between the hippocampus and dopamine centers, the brain may struggle to use novel environmental cues to spark motivation and update expectations about future rewards.
“The average person should take away that early life stress may make you vulnerable to anhedonia, a lack of pleasure, but that engagement of circuits centered on novelty and exploration can minimize that risk,” Murty explained. “Sometimes there is a misinterpretation that these mesolimbic systems are just there for reward processing, but rather they are sensitive to motivation and behaviors like novelty, information seeking, and perhaps even curiosity.”
There are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting these results. Because the study is cross-sectional, meaning all data were collected at a single point in time, it cannot establish that childhood trauma or hippocampal alterations directly cause anhedonia. It is possible that preexisting differences in brain circuitry make certain individuals more sensitive to the emotional fallout of early stress, or that prolonged exposure to childhood stress gradually wears down hippocampal pathways over time. Longitudinal studies that track children and adolescents across development will be necessary to determine the exact sequence of events.
The study does have some other limitations. The researchers also did not test whether engaging these circuits, for instance through novel experiences, would actually lower anhedonia in people with a history of trauma. The trauma measure relied on young adults recalling their childhoods, and due to the online nature of the initial screening survey and ethical constraints regarding mandatory reporting without direct participant contact, the researchers excluded questions about physical and sexual abuse, meaning the findings specifically reflect emotional abuse and emotional or physical neglect.
In addition, the sample was drawn from a psychosis-risk study in which 22 participants met criteria for clinical high risk, so the results may differ in a general population of young adults, and replication in larger samples will be helpful given the modest statistical strength of the interaction findings.
The resting-state brain scans lasted just under six minutes, whereas recent neuroimaging standards suggest that longer scan times can yield more stable estimates of baseline brain connectivity. Future research could also expand beyond the hippocampus and midbrain to examine how other brain regions involved in emotion and decision-making, such as the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, work together to influence motivation after early life stress.
Looking ahead, the research team plans to examine how these brain mechanisms connect to personal recall and everyday emotional life. “Our long-term goal is to try to understand how these findings relate to subjective experience of anhedonia, and how those might relate to memories of the past,” Murty noted.
The study, “Functional Integrity of Mesolimbic-Hippocampal Circuits Is Associated with Anhedonia in Individuals with Early Life Stress,” was authored by Kathleen J. O’Brien, Blake L. Elliott, Ian O’Shea, Jason Schiffman, Vijay A. Mittal, Lauren M. Ellman, and Vishnu P. Murty.
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This Specific Hobby Might Ease Your Depression, New Study Finds
4 min read Key Points Salsa dancing may help ease symptoms of depression and social anxiety.An eight-week sa…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/au/935843/
ADHD linked to 70% higher death rate, but medication may reduce risk
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! People diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) face a roughly 71%…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/us/889510/
This Specific Hobby Might Ease Your Depression, New Study Finds
4 min read Key Points Salsa dancing may help ease symptoms of depression and social anxiety.An eight-wee…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/809246/
Woman pleads guilty to arson at mental health unit
By Sandy Powell
A woman who set a fire in a mental health ward in a north-west Tasmanian public hospital has pleaded guilty to arson.
"Prison is confinement – you place any animal in a cage and it will either go mad or adapt to its environment, neither of which is healthy." 💯
https://www.abouttime.org.au/letters/prison-is-failing-people-with-mental-health-issues
Your service to others is bigger than you. You are worth the extra time.
The extra time is preparation for the great work you are here to do.
Australian researchers identify new subtype of depression linked to body clock disruptions
By Donna Lu assistant editor, climate, environment and science
Study identifies ‘circadian depression’ as affecting nearly a quarter of more than 11,000 participants
#Depression #Health #Mentalhealth #Health #Australianews #Medicalresearch #Psychology #Sleep #TheGuardian #DonnaLuassistanteditor #climate #environment #science
Australian researchers identify new subtype of depression linked to body clock disruptions https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/21/australian-researchers-identify-new-subtype-of-depression-linked-to-body-clock-disruptions #Depression #Health #MentalHealth #Health #AustraliaNews #MedicalResearch #Psychology #Sleep
DATE: October 20, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Early-life pain led to lasting social deficits in mice, and brain stimulation reversed them
Deep brain stimulation may reverse social deficits caused by early-life pain, mouse study suggests
A study on mice found that inflammatory pain early in life led to lasting deficits in social behavior, along with an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory activity in a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex. Boosting the region’s excitatory neurons, quieting its inhibitory neurons, or applying deep brain stimulation reversed the social deficits. The paper was published in Translational Psychiatry.
The human brain develops through a complex interaction between genetic instructions and experiences from the environment. This interaction is especially important in early years of life, when the developing brain is highly plastic and particularly sensitive to outside influences. Adverse experiences during childhood, such as abuse, neglect, social isolation, or chronic stress, can interfere with normal brain development and leave lasting changes in both brain structure and function.
Research has linked such experiences to alterations in areas involved in memory, emotional regulation, decision-making, and responses to stress, including the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex. These changes may help explain why early-life adversity is associated with a greater risk of psychological and behavioral difficulties later in life.
Pain experienced during childhood or adolescence can also act as a powerful and persistent source of stress during sensitive stages of development. When pain becomes chronic, its consequences may extend far beyond physical discomfort and affect education, social relationships, later employment, and overall quality of life. Despite this, much less is known about how painful experiences early in life influence the development of brain systems responsible for complex social behavior.
Study author Xiangdong Wan of Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, in Beijing and colleagues set out to examine the long-term effects of early-life pain on social behavior. They focused on the anterior cingulate cortex, a region toward the front of the brain that is involved both in processing social information and in the emotional, unpleasant side of pain. The region’s normal function depends on a precise balance between excitatory neurons, which increase activity in the networks they connect to, and inhibitory neurons, which dampen it. The researchers hypothesized that early-life pain disrupts this balance, leading to social deficits.
The researchers used male and female laboratory mice, including genetically modified strains that allowed them to target excitatory or inhibitory neurons specifically. In these mice, the researchers could make one type of neuron glow so it could be counted, record its activity, or switch it on or off using light (optogenetics) or a designer drug that acts only on engineered receptors (chemogenetics).
When the mice were 10 days old, the researchers injected a substance called Complete Freund’s Adjuvant into one hind paw of mice in one group, producing inflammation that made the paw more sensitive to pressure and heat. A control group received a saline injection instead. To find out whether timing mattered, the researchers also gave the injection to other groups of mice at 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, or 21 days of age.
By adulthood, the mice’s sensitivity to pressure and heat had returned to normal, but those that had experienced early-life pain showed social deficits. Unlike control mice, which preferred a chamber containing an unfamiliar mouse over one containing an empty cage, they showed no preference between the two. The deficit appeared in both males and females, persisted to at least 16 weeks of age, and occurred only when the injection was given at 12 days of age or younger.
The mice that had experienced early-life pain still showed normal interest in a newly introduced mouse, and they did not show more anxiety-like behavior than control mice. The authors suggest this points to a specific loss of social motivation rather than general anxiety or memory problems.
When the pain-exposed mice approached an unfamiliar mouse, excitatory neurons in their anterior cingulate cortex became less active than those of control mice. In control mice, inhibitory neurons in the region normally quieted down during social approach, but this drop was smaller in pain-exposed mice, leaving the region relatively more inhibited. Measurements of chemical messengers showed a matching pattern, with less release of the excitatory messenger glutamate and a smaller drop in the inhibitory messenger GABA during social approach, and the pain-exposed mice also had fewer excitatory and more inhibitory neurons in the region.
Boosting the activity of excitatory neurons or dampening the activity of inhibitory neurons, using light or designer drugs, rescued the social deficit in pain-exposed mice. In healthy mice, the opposite manipulations produced social deficits. Infusing drugs that enhance glutamate signaling or block GABA receptors directly into the region also improved social behavior, although not fully.
Finally, the researchers implanted an electrode in the anterior cingulate cortex to deliver deep brain stimulation, a technique already in clinical use in humans. At the setting they selected, stimulation increased the activity of excitatory neurons while only mildly activating inhibitory ones, and applying it during testing reversed the social deficit in pain-exposed mice. A higher setting caused seizure-like reactions in some mice.
“This study unveils a core mechanism whereby early-life pain impairs social function by inducing a state of hypoexcitation [reduced activation] and hyperinhibition [increased inhibition] in the ACC [anterior cingulate cortex]. Furthermore, we establish that DBS [deep brain stimulation] can effectively rectify this ACC imbalance, providing a novel theoretical basis and a potential translational strategy for intervening in social deficits associated with developmental trauma,” study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the importance of early experiences for adult life. However, it should be noted that the study was conducted on mice, not on humans. Although mice and humans share many genetic and physiological similarities, they are still very different species, and a brief inflammatory injury in mouse pups is not the same as chronic pain in children.
In addition, the researchers were not blinded to which mice were in which group during testing, and the stimulation was tested only while it was switched on, so it is not known whether its benefits last. The researchers also did not track the estrous cycle in female mice, which can affect social behavior.
The paper, “Deep brain stimulation ameliorates social deficits from early-life pain by restoring excitatory/inhibitory balance in the anterior cingulate cortex,” was authored by Xiangdong Wan, Tao Du, Dou Yang, Zaiying Jiang, Xiangyu Zhang, Yunjian Huang, Siyi Liu, Shiyun Xu, He Zhang, Guang Lu, Bing Ni, and Hongwei Zhu.
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https://www.europesays.com/ie/744109/ Pharmacist warning on the sertraline side effect that ‘will surprise you’ #DepartmentOfMentalHealth #Éire #ExpertAdvice #FitnessAndHealth #GoodHealth #Health #HealthyEating #HealthyLife #HealthyLifestyle #HealthyLiving #IE #Ireland #Men'sHealth #MentalHealth #SocialMedia #TikTok #WorldMentalHealthDay
DATE: October 20, 2026 at 05:07PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITY
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