#psychotherapy — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #psychotherapy, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Daily, but not weekly, psilocin mucate lowers cortisol and anxiety in stressed rats
A study on rats found that daily doses of psilocin mucate, a stable salt of psilocin (the main psychoactive metabolite responsible for the psychoactive effects of psilocybin, a psychedelic drug) produced significant reductions in the levels of the stress hormone cortisol and improved rats’ performance in several behavioral tests indicative of anxiety. However, giving psilocin mucate once a week did not produce significant results. The paper was published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.
Anxiety disorders are a group of mental health conditions characterized by excessive fear, worry, or apprehension that interferes with everyday functioning. They include conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and agoraphobia.
Anxiety itself is a normal response to potential threats, but in anxiety disorders this response becomes unusually intense, persistent, or triggered by situations that pose little actual danger. These disorders typically develop through a combination of genetic vulnerability, differences in brain and stress-response systems, temperament, learning experiences, and stressful or adverse life events.
Avoiding feared situations can provide immediate relief but may also strengthen anxiety over time by preventing people from learning that the situations they fear can mostly be safely tolerated. Psychological treatments, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure-based approaches, help people change patterns of thinking and behavior that maintain anxiety, while antidepressant medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can also be effective.
Study author Frederick D. Sancilio and his colleagues note that psilocybin (a psychedelic drug) reduces anxiety, but can also lead to hallucinations, which are an adverse, unwanted effect of the treatments using psilocybin. These effects are produced primarily by psilocin, a compound the body creates from psilocybin that is responsible for its psychoactive effects.Sancilio and his colleagues conducted a study in which they examined the anxiety-reducing (anxiolytic) effects of psilocin mucate (a stable salt of psilocin) on rats.
The study was conducted on sixty healthy 6-8-week-old Wistar rats. 30 of them were male. The rats were divided into 5 experimental groups. One was a control group, not exposed to any experimental treatment. The remaining four groups were exposed to a series of mild anxiety-inducing events designed to create mild chronic stress and thus anxiety-like symptoms.
The four groups differed in the treatment they were receiving. The treatments lasted 4 weeks. One group received a control substance (with no expected psychoactive effects) daily, the second group received it once a week. The third group received psilocin mucate daily, and the fourth group received it once a week.
After the treatments, the rats completed a series of behavioral tests designed to assess anxiety-like behaviors (such as observing how much rats avoid open or elevated spaces, or how they interact with new objects during the Elevated Plus Maze, the Open Field Test, and the Novel Object Recognition Task). Afterwards, they were euthanized and study authors analyzed their blood, measuring the levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Results showed that daily dosing of psilocin mucate led to significant reductions in cortisol levels compared to the stressed control group. Rats that received a daily dose of psilocin mucate also showed improved performance on the behavioral tests assessing anxiety-like behaviors. However, weekly dosing did not produce significant effects.
“Overall, daily dosing of L-130 [psilocin mucate] was able to produce anxiolytic [anti-anxiety] behaviors, but larger studies are needed to determine optimal doses and dosing schedules,” study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific knowledge about anxiolytic effects of psilocin mucate. However, it should be noted that the study was conducted on rats, not on humans. While rats and humans share many physiological similarities, they are still very different species. Because of that, effects on humans might differ.
The paper, “Daily Administration of Psilocin Mucate (L-130) Produces a Favorable Safety Profile and Anxiolytic Effects in Rodents Exposed to Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress,” was authored by Frederick D. Sancilio, Maghsoud Dariani, Purvi Chavda, Harsha Mysore Rajagopal, and Lyl Tomlinson.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsilocinMucate #AnxiolyticEffects #CortisolReduction #DailyDosing #RodentStudy #PsychoactiveDrugs #AnxietyResearch #ChronicStress #OpenFieldTest #ElevatedPlusMaze
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DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Daily, but not weekly, psilocin mucate lowers cortisol and anxiety in stressed rats
A study on rats found that daily doses of psilocin mucate, a stable salt of psilocin (the main psychoactive metabolite responsible for the psychoactive effects of psilocybin, a psychedelic drug) produced significant reductions in the levels of the stress hormone cortisol and improved rats’ performance in several behavioral tests indicative of anxiety. However, giving psilocin mucate once a week did not produce significant results. The paper was published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.
Anxiety disorders are a group of mental health conditions characterized by excessive fear, worry, or apprehension that interferes with everyday functioning. They include conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and agoraphobia.
Anxiety itself is a normal response to potential threats, but in anxiety disorders this response becomes unusually intense, persistent, or triggered by situations that pose little actual danger. These disorders typically develop through a combination of genetic vulnerability, differences in brain and stress-response systems, temperament, learning experiences, and stressful or adverse life events.
Avoiding feared situations can provide immediate relief but may also strengthen anxiety over time by preventing people from learning that the situations they fear can mostly be safely tolerated. Psychological treatments, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure-based approaches, help people change patterns of thinking and behavior that maintain anxiety, while antidepressant medications such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can also be effective.
Study author Frederick D. Sancilio and his colleagues note that psilocybin (a psychedelic drug) reduces anxiety, but can also lead to hallucinations, which are an adverse, unwanted effect of the treatments using psilocybin. These effects are produced primarily by psilocin, a compound the body creates from psilocybin that is responsible for its psychoactive effects.Sancilio and his colleagues conducted a study in which they examined the anxiety-reducing (anxiolytic) effects of psilocin mucate (a stable salt of psilocin) on rats.
The study was conducted on sixty healthy 6-8-week-old Wistar rats. 30 of them were male. The rats were divided into 5 experimental groups. One was a control group, not exposed to any experimental treatment. The remaining four groups were exposed to a series of mild anxiety-inducing events designed to create mild chronic stress and thus anxiety-like symptoms.
The four groups differed in the treatment they were receiving. The treatments lasted 4 weeks. One group received a control substance (with no expected psychoactive effects) daily, the second group received it once a week. The third group received psilocin mucate daily, and the fourth group received it once a week.
After the treatments, the rats completed a series of behavioral tests designed to assess anxiety-like behaviors (such as observing how much rats avoid open or elevated spaces, or how they interact with new objects during the Elevated Plus Maze, the Open Field Test, and the Novel Object Recognition Task). Afterwards, they were euthanized and study authors analyzed their blood, measuring the levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Results showed that daily dosing of psilocin mucate led to significant reductions in cortisol levels compared to the stressed control group. Rats that received a daily dose of psilocin mucate also showed improved performance on the behavioral tests assessing anxiety-like behaviors. However, weekly dosing did not produce significant effects.
“Overall, daily dosing of L-130 [psilocin mucate] was able to produce anxiolytic [anti-anxiety] behaviors, but larger studies are needed to determine optimal doses and dosing schedules,” study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific knowledge about anxiolytic effects of psilocin mucate. However, it should be noted that the study was conducted on rats, not on humans. While rats and humans share many physiological similarities, they are still very different species. Because of that, effects on humans might differ.
The paper, “Daily Administration of Psilocin Mucate (L-130) Produces a Favorable Safety Profile and Anxiolytic Effects in Rodents Exposed to Chronic Unpredictable Mild Stress,” was authored by Frederick D. Sancilio, Maghsoud Dariani, Purvi Chavda, Harsha Mysore Rajagopal, and Lyl Tomlinson.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsilocinMucate #AnxiolyticEffects #CortisolReduction #DailyDosing #RodentStudy #PsychoactiveDrugs #AnxietyResearch #ChronicStress #OpenFieldTest #ElevatedPlusMaze
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DATE: August 13, 2026 at 04:43PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
Extortion Gang Leaks #NovoNordisk's '#AI and #ML Ecosystem': #Fulcrumsec Claims 2nd Data Dump Exposes Firm's #HuggingFace Models, Drug R&D Data https://t.co/totMntZzOS
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
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#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
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DATE: August 13, 2026 at 04:43PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
Extortion Gang Leaks #NovoNordisk's '#AI and #ML Ecosystem': #Fulcrumsec Claims 2nd Data Dump Exposes Firm's #HuggingFace Models, Drug R&D Data https://t.co/totMntZzOS
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
-------------------------------------------------
#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
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DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Frustration, not fear of judgment, drives the rise of independent voters
URL: https://www.psypost.org/frustration-not-fear-of-judgment-drives-the-rise-of-independent-voters/
The rising number of Americans who identify as political independents is driven by genuine dissatisfaction with their own preferred party, rather than a desire to hide their political leanings to avoid social judgment. In a large study published in Public Opinion Quarterly, researchers found that voters abandon party labels when they grow unhappy with the candidates and platforms of the political side they traditionally support. These findings suggest that the trend of political independence reflects real frustration with the American political system.
A record proportion of Americans now identify as independent rather than declaring themselves Democrats or Republicans. Many of these voters still lean toward one party and vote dependably for that party’s candidates in national elections. This behavior creates a puzzle for political scientists who want to understand why voters refuse the party label while still supporting the party at the ballot box.
Researchers frequently divide these unaffiliated voters into two conceptual camps to understand their motivations. The first theory suggests that independent identification is a form of impression management. In this view, voters are undercover partisans who hold strong political preferences but hide their affiliation to avoid the social stigma associated with highly polarized politics.
The second theory proposes that independents are reluctant partisans. These individuals might consistently vote for one party, but they do so out of a lack of better options. They drop their party label because they feel genuinely unrepresented by either political side, viewing both major parties in a negative light.
Alex Tolkin, a political scientist and postdoctoral research associate at Duke University, set out to test which of these two explanations better accounts for why people switch their political affiliations. Identifying the actual cause of this shift requires looking at how individual voters change over time. Previous research often looked at the traits of people who already identify as independent, an approach that is vulnerable to hidden variables that influence both a person’s personality and their political affiliation.
The large study relied on data from a national panel collected by researchers at the University of Chicago. The dataset included 4,941 participants surveyed across eight different intervals between October 2016 and November 2022. Tolkin isolated a group of 1,293 respondents who identified as a partisan in at least one survey phase and as an independent in another.
Tracking the same individuals over several years provides a major analytical advantage. Comparing a lifelong independent to a lifelong partisan can introduce errors, as the two individuals might differ in unmeasured ways like personality or upbringing. By observing when a single individual drops their party label, researchers can isolate the exact changes in attitude that trigger the shift.
To test the impression management theory, the study measured whether voters were simply hiding their true affiliations to look good in front of others. The surveys asked respondents how divided they thought American politics had become. They also asked participants to rate the overall civility of contemporary political discussions.
Finally, the surveys measured self-censorship by asking respondents how willing they were to express their political beliefs to someone who disagreed with them. If the impression management theory were accurate, voters should drop their party labels when they begin to view politics as highly polarized or uncivil. They should also switch to independent status when they start self-censoring their own views.
The data did not support this theory. Changes in a voter’s perception of political civility did not predict a shift toward independence. Similarly, voters who grew less willing to discuss politics with people who disagreed with them were not more likely to abandon their party label. The effects of these social desirability factors on party identification were not statistically significant.
Tolkin then tested the reluctant partisan theory, which suggests voters become independent because they genuinely lose favor with their own party. The surveys used standard 100-point feeling scales to measure how warmly respondents felt toward the Democratic and Republican parties. The same tool measured feelings toward the leading presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The study also measured policy alignment. Respondents shared their personal preferences on major issues like immigration, gun control, healthcare, and taxes. They then estimated where each political party stood on those same issues, allowing the researcher to calculate the perceived distance between the voter and the party platform.
The findings showed that evaluations of a voter’s own party strongly predicted a shift to independent identification. When participants reported a decrease in favorability toward their preferred party, they were highly likely to abandon their partisan label. The same was true when they reported declining warmth toward the party’s presidential nominee.
Growing disagreement with a party’s policy platform also predicted a shift toward independence. This effect was slightly weaker than personal distaste for the party or its leader. The policy-driven shift was also entirely concentrated among former Republicans.
In this specific dataset, Democrats who grew distant from their party’s platform did not abandon their party label at higher rates. Voters were primarily motivated by frustration with their own side, rather than an attraction to the opposition. While developing positive feelings toward the opposing party did increase the likelihood of becoming an independent, the effect was very small compared to the impact of in-party dissatisfaction.
People shed their labels because they view their former party more negatively, not because they view the other party more positively. These results draw on a specific period in American politics, spanning the years 2016 through 2022. This era featured unconventional political figures and highly unusual national events.
While Republican voters in the study were more sensitive to policy disagreements than Democratic voters, the data does not indicate whether this is a permanent difference between the parties or a temporary reaction to recent political shifts. The study design exclusively examines individuals who actively changed their political identification during the survey period. It cannot account for broad shifts caused by generational replacement.
Younger voters may simply decline to join a political party when they enter the electorate, bypassing the partisan phase entirely. Even if younger generations are driving the long-term trend, the underlying mechanism remains consistent. The flight from partisan labels appears to be rooted in genuine frustration with the available political options. Future research will be needed to determine exactly why the major political parties are losing favor with their own supporters.
The study, “Reluctant Partisans, Not Undercover Partisans: Why Americans Increasingly Identify as Independent,” was authored by Alex Tolkin.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/frustration-not-fear-of-judgment-drives-the-rise-of-independent-voters/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #IndependentVoters #ReluctantPartisans #FrustrationNotFear #PoliticalIndependents #PartyIdentifications #CivicDiscourse #AmericanPolitics #VoterBehavior #PoliticalFrustration #ReluctantVoter
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DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Frustration, not fear of judgment, drives the rise of independent voters
URL: https://www.psypost.org/frustration-not-fear-of-judgment-drives-the-rise-of-independent-voters/
The rising number of Americans who identify as political independents is driven by genuine dissatisfaction with their own preferred party, rather than a desire to hide their political leanings to avoid social judgment. In a large study published in Public Opinion Quarterly, researchers found that voters abandon party labels when they grow unhappy with the candidates and platforms of the political side they traditionally support. These findings suggest that the trend of political independence reflects real frustration with the American political system.
A record proportion of Americans now identify as independent rather than declaring themselves Democrats or Republicans. Many of these voters still lean toward one party and vote dependably for that party’s candidates in national elections. This behavior creates a puzzle for political scientists who want to understand why voters refuse the party label while still supporting the party at the ballot box.
Researchers frequently divide these unaffiliated voters into two conceptual camps to understand their motivations. The first theory suggests that independent identification is a form of impression management. In this view, voters are undercover partisans who hold strong political preferences but hide their affiliation to avoid the social stigma associated with highly polarized politics.
The second theory proposes that independents are reluctant partisans. These individuals might consistently vote for one party, but they do so out of a lack of better options. They drop their party label because they feel genuinely unrepresented by either political side, viewing both major parties in a negative light.
Alex Tolkin, a political scientist and postdoctoral research associate at Duke University, set out to test which of these two explanations better accounts for why people switch their political affiliations. Identifying the actual cause of this shift requires looking at how individual voters change over time. Previous research often looked at the traits of people who already identify as independent, an approach that is vulnerable to hidden variables that influence both a person’s personality and their political affiliation.
The large study relied on data from a national panel collected by researchers at the University of Chicago. The dataset included 4,941 participants surveyed across eight different intervals between October 2016 and November 2022. Tolkin isolated a group of 1,293 respondents who identified as a partisan in at least one survey phase and as an independent in another.
Tracking the same individuals over several years provides a major analytical advantage. Comparing a lifelong independent to a lifelong partisan can introduce errors, as the two individuals might differ in unmeasured ways like personality or upbringing. By observing when a single individual drops their party label, researchers can isolate the exact changes in attitude that trigger the shift.
To test the impression management theory, the study measured whether voters were simply hiding their true affiliations to look good in front of others. The surveys asked respondents how divided they thought American politics had become. They also asked participants to rate the overall civility of contemporary political discussions.
Finally, the surveys measured self-censorship by asking respondents how willing they were to express their political beliefs to someone who disagreed with them. If the impression management theory were accurate, voters should drop their party labels when they begin to view politics as highly polarized or uncivil. They should also switch to independent status when they start self-censoring their own views.
The data did not support this theory. Changes in a voter’s perception of political civility did not predict a shift toward independence. Similarly, voters who grew less willing to discuss politics with people who disagreed with them were not more likely to abandon their party label. The effects of these social desirability factors on party identification were not statistically significant.
Tolkin then tested the reluctant partisan theory, which suggests voters become independent because they genuinely lose favor with their own party. The surveys used standard 100-point feeling scales to measure how warmly respondents felt toward the Democratic and Republican parties. The same tool measured feelings toward the leading presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The study also measured policy alignment. Respondents shared their personal preferences on major issues like immigration, gun control, healthcare, and taxes. They then estimated where each political party stood on those same issues, allowing the researcher to calculate the perceived distance between the voter and the party platform.
The findings showed that evaluations of a voter’s own party strongly predicted a shift to independent identification. When participants reported a decrease in favorability toward their preferred party, they were highly likely to abandon their partisan label. The same was true when they reported declining warmth toward the party’s presidential nominee.
Growing disagreement with a party’s policy platform also predicted a shift toward independence. This effect was slightly weaker than personal distaste for the party or its leader. The policy-driven shift was also entirely concentrated among former Republicans.
In this specific dataset, Democrats who grew distant from their party’s platform did not abandon their party label at higher rates. Voters were primarily motivated by frustration with their own side, rather than an attraction to the opposition. While developing positive feelings toward the opposing party did increase the likelihood of becoming an independent, the effect was very small compared to the impact of in-party dissatisfaction.
People shed their labels because they view their former party more negatively, not because they view the other party more positively. These results draw on a specific period in American politics, spanning the years 2016 through 2022. This era featured unconventional political figures and highly unusual national events.
While Republican voters in the study were more sensitive to policy disagreements than Democratic voters, the data does not indicate whether this is a permanent difference between the parties or a temporary reaction to recent political shifts. The study design exclusively examines individuals who actively changed their political identification during the survey period. It cannot account for broad shifts caused by generational replacement.
Younger voters may simply decline to join a political party when they enter the electorate, bypassing the partisan phase entirely. Even if younger generations are driving the long-term trend, the underlying mechanism remains consistent. The flight from partisan labels appears to be rooted in genuine frustration with the available political options. Future research will be needed to determine exactly why the major political parties are losing favor with their own supporters.
The study, “Reluctant Partisans, Not Undercover Partisans: Why Americans Increasingly Identify as Independent,” was authored by Alex Tolkin.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/frustration-not-fear-of-judgment-drives-the-rise-of-independent-voters/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #IndependentVoters #ReluctantPartisans #FrustrationNotFear #PoliticalIndependents #PartyIdentifications #CivicDiscourse #AmericanPolitics #VoterBehavior #PoliticalFrustration #ReluctantVoter
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DATE: August 13, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Why do some children develop ADHD after stressful events while others do not?
Children exposed to stressful life events may face a greater risk of developing ADHD symptoms, but a new study suggests that vulnerability depends partly on family mental health, genetic risk, and brain development. These findings were published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
ADHD is commonly associated with difficulties involving attention, impulsive behavior, and activity levels. Researchers have long known that both inherited factors and environmental experiences contribute to ADHD. Stressful events during childhood, including violence, serious accidents, or other major disruptions, may interfere with emotional development and brain systems involved in attention and self-control.
Yet exposure to stress is not a straightforward explanation for ADHD. Some children show substantial difficulties after stressful experiences, while others appear relatively resilient. The new study aimed to identify the factors that might explain these differences.
Led by Seung Yun Choi of Seoul National University, the research team examined data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. The initial group included 6,303 children, 46.8 percent of whom were female, aged approximately 9.9 years at the beginning of the study. The children were assessed again after one year and two years.
The researchers considered several types of information, including ADHD symptoms, stressful life events, parental mental health difficulties, genetic measures, and connections between brain regions. Choi and colleagues then utilized a machine-learning approach, an advanced form of data analysis, to examine the complex relationships between these factors.
The results revealed that stressful experiences were associated with increased ADHD symptoms at both follow-up points. However, the size of this association varied considerably between children. At the one-year follow-up, children considered most vulnerable had higher levels of parental depression and parental ADHD. They also differed from lower-risk children on a genetic measure related to smoking behavior.
By the two-year follow-up, parental mental health problems remained important, and a higher genetic risk score for ADHD also became a significant factor. The researchers also identified differences in the physical connections between parts of the brain involved in planning, attention, and behavioral control.
The contrast between the groups was substantial. At one year, the estimated effect of stressful events was more than twice as large in the highest-risk group as in the lowest-risk group. A similar pattern was observed after two years.
The authors emphasized that their findings “underscore the importance of integrating environmental, genetic, and neural variables to identify children vulnerable or resilient to developing ADHD symptoms following early-life stress.”
The findings do not mean that genes determine whether a child will develop ADHD, nor that family mental health difficulties inevitably lead to symptoms. Instead, they suggest that children may differ in how strongly they respond to stressful environments. Family support, early assistance, and treatment for parental mental health problems could therefore be important parts of prevention.
The study has several limitations. For instance, the definition of stressful life events the authors utilized is based on the level of exposure, which may not adequately capture the subjective intensity of these experiences.
The study, “Individual differences in effects of stressful life events on childhood ADHD: genetic, neural, and familial contributions,” was authored by Seung Yun Choi, Jinwoo Lee, Junghoon Park, Eunji Lee, Bo-Gyeom Kim, Gakyung Kim, Yoonjung Yoonie Joo, and Jiook Cha.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ADHD #ChildDevelopment #StressAndADHD #FamilyMentalHealth #Genetics #NeuralDevelopment #BrainConnections #AdolescentBrainCognition #MentalHealthAwareness #EarlyIntervention
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DATE: August 13, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Why do some children develop ADHD after stressful events while others do not?
Children exposed to stressful life events may face a greater risk of developing ADHD symptoms, but a new study suggests that vulnerability depends partly on family mental health, genetic risk, and brain development. These findings were published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
ADHD is commonly associated with difficulties involving attention, impulsive behavior, and activity levels. Researchers have long known that both inherited factors and environmental experiences contribute to ADHD. Stressful events during childhood, including violence, serious accidents, or other major disruptions, may interfere with emotional development and brain systems involved in attention and self-control.
Yet exposure to stress is not a straightforward explanation for ADHD. Some children show substantial difficulties after stressful experiences, while others appear relatively resilient. The new study aimed to identify the factors that might explain these differences.
Led by Seung Yun Choi of Seoul National University, the research team examined data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. The initial group included 6,303 children, 46.8 percent of whom were female, aged approximately 9.9 years at the beginning of the study. The children were assessed again after one year and two years.
The researchers considered several types of information, including ADHD symptoms, stressful life events, parental mental health difficulties, genetic measures, and connections between brain regions. Choi and colleagues then utilized a machine-learning approach, an advanced form of data analysis, to examine the complex relationships between these factors.
The results revealed that stressful experiences were associated with increased ADHD symptoms at both follow-up points. However, the size of this association varied considerably between children. At the one-year follow-up, children considered most vulnerable had higher levels of parental depression and parental ADHD. They also differed from lower-risk children on a genetic measure related to smoking behavior.
By the two-year follow-up, parental mental health problems remained important, and a higher genetic risk score for ADHD also became a significant factor. The researchers also identified differences in the physical connections between parts of the brain involved in planning, attention, and behavioral control.
The contrast between the groups was substantial. At one year, the estimated effect of stressful events was more than twice as large in the highest-risk group as in the lowest-risk group. A similar pattern was observed after two years.
The authors emphasized that their findings “underscore the importance of integrating environmental, genetic, and neural variables to identify children vulnerable or resilient to developing ADHD symptoms following early-life stress.”
The findings do not mean that genes determine whether a child will develop ADHD, nor that family mental health difficulties inevitably lead to symptoms. Instead, they suggest that children may differ in how strongly they respond to stressful environments. Family support, early assistance, and treatment for parental mental health problems could therefore be important parts of prevention.
The study has several limitations. For instance, the definition of stressful life events the authors utilized is based on the level of exposure, which may not adequately capture the subjective intensity of these experiences.
The study, “Individual differences in effects of stressful life events on childhood ADHD: genetic, neural, and familial contributions,” was authored by Seung Yun Choi, Jinwoo Lee, Junghoon Park, Eunji Lee, Bo-Gyeom Kim, Gakyung Kim, Yoonjung Yoonie Joo, and Jiook Cha.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ADHD #ChildDevelopment #StressAndADHD #FamilyMentalHealth #Genetics #NeuralDevelopment #BrainConnections #AdolescentBrainCognition #MentalHealthAwareness #EarlyIntervention
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DATE: August 13, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Predictive single-dose test could guide ADHD treatment in adults
URL: https://www.psypost.org/predictive-single-dose-test-could-guide-adhd-treatment-in-adults/
Testing how a person responds to a single dose of stimulant medication might help doctors predict how well the treatment will work for them two months later. Researchers found that early changes in specific symptom scores accurately forecast long-term medication success in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The study was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, commonly known as ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by varying levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Stimulant medications, such as methylphenidate, represent the primary pharmacological treatment for the condition. These drugs help regulate attention and behavior by enhancing the availability of dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain. This mechanism reduces background noise in neural circuits, enabling patients to better maintain focus and control impulsive behaviors.
While stimulants reduce symptoms across large populations, individual patient responses vary widely. In standard clinical practice, doctors often prescribe these medications using a trial-and-error approach. Patients take a drug for weeks or months to see if it works and whether it causes intolerable side effects. If a medication fails, the patient must slowly taper off and try another option. This process can delay relief and prolong the academic, professional, and personal challenges patients face in their daily lives.
To bypass this waiting period, researchers have been searching for ways to predict treatment success before a patient commits to a long-term prescription. Previous investigations hinted that measuring brain activity after just one dose of medication could indicate its long-term effectiveness.
A research team led by Valeria Parlatini, a clinical academic at the University of Southampton and King’s College London, wanted to know if this predictive capability also applied to simpler, more accessible clinical tests. They designed a study to see if standard symptom questionnaires and computer-based behavioral assessments could forecast longer-term treatment outcomes.
The research team recruited 60 adult males diagnosed with ADHD. At the beginning of the study, each participant attended two testing sessions. In one session, they received a single 20-milligram dose of methylphenidate. In the other session, they received a placebo capsule. Participants did not know which pill they were taking on which day, ensuring their expectations did not influence their performance.
During both sessions, the researchers evaluated the participants using two tools about an hour after they took the pill, allowing the medication time to enter their bloodstream. The first tool was a self-report questionnaire called the Barkley Adult ADHD Rating Scale, which measures inattention and hyperactivity. The second was the Quantitative behavior test. This computer-based assessment tracks head movement with an infrared camera while the user completes a repetitive visual task, yielding objective scores for activity, impulsivity, and inattention.
After completing these initial tests, the participants began a standard daily regimen of long-acting methylphenidate. Following two months of this daily treatment, the researchers evaluated the participants again using the same questionnaire and computer test. They wanted to see if the behavioral changes recorded under the single initial dose aligned with the improvements observed at the two-month mark.
The researchers first analyzed individual scores from the initial tests against the long-term results. Out of the original group, 45 participants completed the questionnaire during the single-dose phase. The data showed that early reductions in self-reported hyperactivity and impulsivity after a single dose corresponded with improvements in those exact areas two months later.
However, changes in self-reported inattention under the single dose did not consistently predict long-term improvements in attention. This suggests that certain symptom domains are harder for patients to subjectively evaluate in the short term.
Conversely, early changes in all three main scores on the computer-based behavior test mapped onto longer-term improvements. Participants who demonstrated better objective focus and less movement under the single dose were highly likely to show those same benefits after two months of daily medication.
Next, the team used a machine learning technique known as Lasso regression to build predictive models. This specific algorithm automatically selects a limited set of the strongest predictive variables from a large pool of data, ignoring weaker factors to prevent the model from becoming overly complicated. This analysis combined the single-dose test results with baseline demographic and clinical traits. These baseline traits included age, intelligence quotient, years of education, and initial symptom severity.
These combined models successfully predicted actual patient outcomes at the two-month follow-up for most of the tested measures. The models accurately forecast total symptom improvement, changes in hyperactivity, and shifts in computer-tracked impulsivity and inattention. The researchers noted that combining the single-dose response with baseline traits like intelligence and age improved the accuracy of the predictions beyond using the single-dose data alone.
In a secondary analysis, the researchers looked closer at how different types of intelligence related to treatment outcomes. They found that visual-spatial problem-solving skills were linked to long-term improvements in attention. Meanwhile, verbal intelligence scores were associated with long-term reductions in hyperactivity and impulsivity. The study also found that older participants tended to see better improvements in impulsivity, while younger participants saw greater gains in attention.
The study evaluated a specific demographic group, which shapes how the results apply to the broader population. The researchers exclusively enrolled adult men to limit potential biological variables in a related brain imaging analysis. As a result, the findings require validation in women and people of other genders to confirm whether the predictive tests work universally.
Additionally, the participants had no co-occurring mental health or developmental conditions, such as autism. People with ADHD frequently have other diagnoses, which can alter how they respond to stimulant medications. Testing these predictive models in a more diverse patient group will help determine their utility in everyday medical settings.
The models also need to be tested on entirely separate groups of patients. While the machine learning algorithms performed well on the data they were trained on, predictive tools often require external validation to ensure they do not just reflect the specific characteristics of the original sample.
The single-dose prediction approach remains in the testing phase and is not yet a replacement for standard clinical monitoring. In the future, researchers hope to incorporate physiological measures, such as heart rate variability, to build even more accurate predictive profiles. Combining objective computer tests, questionnaires, and biological markers could eventually help doctors tailor prescriptions to individual patients from day one.
The study, “Clinical response to a single-dose methylphenidate challenge is indicative of treatment response at two months in adults with ADHD,” was authored by Valeria Parlatini, Joaquim Radua, Hannah Thomas, Miguel Garcia-Argibay, Alessio Bellato, Samuele Cortese, and Declan Murphy.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/predictive-single-dose-test-could-guide-adhd-treatment-in-adults/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ADHD #methylphenidate #single-doseprediction #adult ADHD #stimulantresponse #predictivepsychology #behavioralassessment #machinelearning #TranslationalPsychiatry #personalizedmedicine
-
DATE: August 13, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Predictive single-dose test could guide ADHD treatment in adults
URL: https://www.psypost.org/predictive-single-dose-test-could-guide-adhd-treatment-in-adults/
Testing how a person responds to a single dose of stimulant medication might help doctors predict how well the treatment will work for them two months later. Researchers found that early changes in specific symptom scores accurately forecast long-term medication success in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The study was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, commonly known as ADHD, is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by varying levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Stimulant medications, such as methylphenidate, represent the primary pharmacological treatment for the condition. These drugs help regulate attention and behavior by enhancing the availability of dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain. This mechanism reduces background noise in neural circuits, enabling patients to better maintain focus and control impulsive behaviors.
While stimulants reduce symptoms across large populations, individual patient responses vary widely. In standard clinical practice, doctors often prescribe these medications using a trial-and-error approach. Patients take a drug for weeks or months to see if it works and whether it causes intolerable side effects. If a medication fails, the patient must slowly taper off and try another option. This process can delay relief and prolong the academic, professional, and personal challenges patients face in their daily lives.
To bypass this waiting period, researchers have been searching for ways to predict treatment success before a patient commits to a long-term prescription. Previous investigations hinted that measuring brain activity after just one dose of medication could indicate its long-term effectiveness.
A research team led by Valeria Parlatini, a clinical academic at the University of Southampton and King’s College London, wanted to know if this predictive capability also applied to simpler, more accessible clinical tests. They designed a study to see if standard symptom questionnaires and computer-based behavioral assessments could forecast longer-term treatment outcomes.
The research team recruited 60 adult males diagnosed with ADHD. At the beginning of the study, each participant attended two testing sessions. In one session, they received a single 20-milligram dose of methylphenidate. In the other session, they received a placebo capsule. Participants did not know which pill they were taking on which day, ensuring their expectations did not influence their performance.
During both sessions, the researchers evaluated the participants using two tools about an hour after they took the pill, allowing the medication time to enter their bloodstream. The first tool was a self-report questionnaire called the Barkley Adult ADHD Rating Scale, which measures inattention and hyperactivity. The second was the Quantitative behavior test. This computer-based assessment tracks head movement with an infrared camera while the user completes a repetitive visual task, yielding objective scores for activity, impulsivity, and inattention.
After completing these initial tests, the participants began a standard daily regimen of long-acting methylphenidate. Following two months of this daily treatment, the researchers evaluated the participants again using the same questionnaire and computer test. They wanted to see if the behavioral changes recorded under the single initial dose aligned with the improvements observed at the two-month mark.
The researchers first analyzed individual scores from the initial tests against the long-term results. Out of the original group, 45 participants completed the questionnaire during the single-dose phase. The data showed that early reductions in self-reported hyperactivity and impulsivity after a single dose corresponded with improvements in those exact areas two months later.
However, changes in self-reported inattention under the single dose did not consistently predict long-term improvements in attention. This suggests that certain symptom domains are harder for patients to subjectively evaluate in the short term.
Conversely, early changes in all three main scores on the computer-based behavior test mapped onto longer-term improvements. Participants who demonstrated better objective focus and less movement under the single dose were highly likely to show those same benefits after two months of daily medication.
Next, the team used a machine learning technique known as Lasso regression to build predictive models. This specific algorithm automatically selects a limited set of the strongest predictive variables from a large pool of data, ignoring weaker factors to prevent the model from becoming overly complicated. This analysis combined the single-dose test results with baseline demographic and clinical traits. These baseline traits included age, intelligence quotient, years of education, and initial symptom severity.
These combined models successfully predicted actual patient outcomes at the two-month follow-up for most of the tested measures. The models accurately forecast total symptom improvement, changes in hyperactivity, and shifts in computer-tracked impulsivity and inattention. The researchers noted that combining the single-dose response with baseline traits like intelligence and age improved the accuracy of the predictions beyond using the single-dose data alone.
In a secondary analysis, the researchers looked closer at how different types of intelligence related to treatment outcomes. They found that visual-spatial problem-solving skills were linked to long-term improvements in attention. Meanwhile, verbal intelligence scores were associated with long-term reductions in hyperactivity and impulsivity. The study also found that older participants tended to see better improvements in impulsivity, while younger participants saw greater gains in attention.
The study evaluated a specific demographic group, which shapes how the results apply to the broader population. The researchers exclusively enrolled adult men to limit potential biological variables in a related brain imaging analysis. As a result, the findings require validation in women and people of other genders to confirm whether the predictive tests work universally.
Additionally, the participants had no co-occurring mental health or developmental conditions, such as autism. People with ADHD frequently have other diagnoses, which can alter how they respond to stimulant medications. Testing these predictive models in a more diverse patient group will help determine their utility in everyday medical settings.
The models also need to be tested on entirely separate groups of patients. While the machine learning algorithms performed well on the data they were trained on, predictive tools often require external validation to ensure they do not just reflect the specific characteristics of the original sample.
The single-dose prediction approach remains in the testing phase and is not yet a replacement for standard clinical monitoring. In the future, researchers hope to incorporate physiological measures, such as heart rate variability, to build even more accurate predictive profiles. Combining objective computer tests, questionnaires, and biological markers could eventually help doctors tailor prescriptions to individual patients from day one.
The study, “Clinical response to a single-dose methylphenidate challenge is indicative of treatment response at two months in adults with ADHD,” was authored by Valeria Parlatini, Joaquim Radua, Hannah Thomas, Miguel Garcia-Argibay, Alessio Bellato, Samuele Cortese, and Declan Murphy.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/predictive-single-dose-test-could-guide-adhd-treatment-in-adults/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ADHD #methylphenidate #single-doseprediction #adult ADHD #stimulantresponse #predictivepsychology #behavioralassessment #machinelearning #TranslationalPsychiatry #personalizedmedicine
-
DATE: August 13, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People trust human nurses more than AI, but the intuitiveness of the advice matters most
A recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research suggests that people still find health advice from human nurses more credible than advice from artificial intelligence. However, the nature of the advice itself plays a substantial role in determining trust, often outweighing the source. The findings indicate that individuals apply similar critical thinking heuristics to both human and machine sources, particularly evaluating whether the recommendations match their own intuitive expectations.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems are becoming common tools for everyday information seeking. Millions of users ask platforms like ChatGPT for health and wellness guidance on a regular basis. Because these systems are neither licensed medical professionals nor anonymous web pages, they occupy a unique position in how medical knowledge reaches the public.
The idea for the study came from a personal experience with one of these chatbots. Asheley R. Landrum, an associate professor and director of the News Co/Lab at Arizona State University, was snacking at home when she had a minor scare.
“This is sort of embarrassing, but most people who know me well won’t be surprised,” Landrum said. “So, ASU has gone all in on AI, and we’ve been exploring it and figuring out how best to use it. One day, I was working from home and eating Doritos, and one kind of scraped my esophagus as it went down (or at least that’s what it felt like). I had ChatGPT open, so I asked,’ I just swallowed a Dorito and it scraped me on the way down. Should I be worried? What should I do?'”
The program provided a detailed response, advising her to sip water, eat soft foods, and seek urgent medical attention if she experienced severe symptoms like difficulty breathing or swallowing.
“I wondered how many people might use ChatGPT (and similar tools) for health advice,” Landrum said. “So, I ran a small national survey and presented the results at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2025. A month or so later, we got in contact with a company developing an AI Nurse and incorporated this type of tool in a pre-registered experiment, which is now published. We are still doing work in this area.”
Epistemic trust, which is the willingness to accept information from a source as reliable and act upon it, relies heavily on how people perceive competence and benevolence. Licensed medical professionals usually serve as the benchmark for this type of credibility due to their extensive training. At the same time, patients are increasingly aware of human fallibility, cognitive biases, and structural issues within healthcare systems.
To explore these dynamics, the researchers recruited 1,502 adults in the United States, utilizing a panel matched to national demographic census data. Participants engaged in a survey experiment where they read fictional conversations featuring a person seeking health advice. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three advice sources: a licensed human registered nurse named Nurse Dobson, a specialized AI nurse trained on medical data, or the general-purpose chatbot ChatGPT. The assigned source remained the same for a given participant throughout all experimental scenarios.
In the first set of analyses, participants read two scenarios categorized by risk level. The low-risk scenario involved dietary advice regarding eating eggs when trying to reduce cholesterol. The high-risk scenario involved whether to seek emergency care for chest discomfort. For these scenarios, the provided advice was randomly manipulated to be either intuitive or counterintuitive. Intuitive advice matched common public expectations, and counterintuitive advice departed from expectations but remained medically accurate.
After reading the text, participants rated the credibility of the advice on a scale from 1 to 5, where 3 indicated moderate credibility. Advice from the human nurse received an average credibility rating of 3.53, making it slightly more trusted than advice from the AI nurse at 3.13 and ChatGPT at 3.21. Participants also reported a higher willingness to follow the human nurse’s recommendations. The difference in credibility ratings between the two AI sources was not statistically significant.
The intuitiveness of the message exerted a strong influence on trust. Across all sources, intuitive advice received an average credibility rating of 3.46, compared to 3.12 for counterintuitive advice. This gap widened in the high-risk scenario, meaning that counterintuitive advice was penalized more heavily when the medical stakes were higher.
“I think that there are two stories here, one for the average person and one for developers,” Landrum told PsyPost. “For the average person, one of the biggest takeaways is that we may not judge AI health advice as differently from human advice as we think we do. People in our study trusted the human nurse more, but they didn’t dismiss the AI sources as untrustworthy.”
“In fact, what the advice actually said and whether it seemed intuitively right mattered as much as or more than whether it came from a human or AI,” Landrum continued. “This is a clear example of confirmation bias. So, one practical takeaway is that when health advice ‘just sounds right’ or ‘sounds wrong,’ we should ask ourselves (as non-medical experts) whether we are responding to the evidence or whether it simply matches what we already believe.” Confirmation bias is the psychological tendency to favor information that aligns with a person’s preexisting beliefs.
The researchers then presented participants with a morally sensitive scenario about freezing eggs to preserve fertility for later in life. In this scenario, the ideological tone of the advice was manipulated between subjects. Participants received advice that was framed neutrally, conservatively framed to emphasize natural conception, or liberally framed to emphasize reproductive autonomy.
Across all sources, participants rated the conservatively biased advice as less credible. They were also less willing to recommend taking the conservatively framed advice. The researchers anticipated that the AI sources might be perceived as less biased than the human nurse, but the data did not support this hypothesis. Adding a specialized “AI nurse” label also failed to elevate trust above the general-purpose chatbot.
“For developers, there are takeaways for designing AI-health tools,” Landrum explained. “There’s a lot of emphasis right now on whether people trust AI, but our findings suggest that’s probably too simple a question. Trust depends on the person, the situation, and how the information is communicated. Simply labeling something as a specialized health AI tool didn’t make people trust it more than ChatGPT, for example.”
“Where design may really matter is when good medical advice is surprising or goes against what people expect,” Landrum added. “In those cases, especially when the stakes are high, an AI system probably shouldn’t just give someone an answer, it may need to explain why the recommendation makes sense, where it comes from, and when someone should seek additional medical care. (Although, we can ask if the justification is persuasive or simply the presence of a justification is persuasive, see Langer’s copymachine study!).”
This references a classic 1978 psychology experiment by Ellen Langer, which found that people were more likely to comply with a request to skip a line for a copy machine if the person provided any reason at all, even a meaningless one like “because I have to make copies.”
Finally, the researchers evaluated overall perceptions of source competence and benevolence. They collected measures of the participants’ medical skepticism, political voting behavior, religiosity, and prior experience with generative AI. Older adults and individuals with prior AI experience tended to give higher competence and benevolence ratings across all three sources.
A notable relationship emerged regarding medical skepticism, which is a mindset where individuals doubt the necessity of professional medical intervention and feel confident managing their own health. For participants scoring higher in medical skepticism, perceived competence of the human nurse tended to drop. At the same time, higher medical skepticism was associated with higher perceived competence of the specialized AI nurse.
“We found a really cool interaction where people who are more skeptical of traditional medical authority saw the AI Nurse and the Human Nurse as equally competent, but people who are lower on such skepticism saw AI Nurses as much less competent than human nurses,” Landrum said. “This finding was exploratory and we are seeing if it holds in another study. If it does, it might mean that AI Nurse tools could be a way to reach those who are typically less likely to go to medical professionals for advice.”
Certain limitations contextualize these findings. The scenarios used in the experiment were hypothetical vignettes, which do not perfectly mirror the emotional weight of real health decisions.
“The biggest caveat is that we studied how people evaluate health advice, not whether they can tell when AI medical advice is actually right or wrong,” Landrum cautioned. “These were also hypothetical situations, so we don’t know whether someone facing a real health scare would respond the same way. As I said above, I’d also be a little cautious with our finding about people who are more skeptical of traditional medical professionals. It’s potentially really important, but that part of the study was very exploratory and needs to be replicated.”
Additionally, participants only read text from the chatbots rather than generating their own prompts. Real-world trust in a specialized medical AI might depend heavily on its user interface, institutional branding, or active dialogue.
“This work was done with set advice and we simply manipulated who it was purportedly from,” Landrum said. “That is, we said whether it was from ChatGPT, or an AI Nurse, or a human nurse. The advice itself did not vary. People did not actually interact with any AI tools. In our current and ongoing research, we are having participants actually interact with AI tools (in addition to survey questions) to better understand how they may use AI for health advice, when they may use AI for health advice, why, etc.”
The study, “Trusting Generative AI for Health Advice: Preregistered Survey Experiment,” was authored by Asheley R. Landrum, Nitin Verma, and Amanda Kehrberg.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #HealthAdviceTrust #NurseVsAI #GenerativeAIHealth #EpistemicTrust #IntuitiveHealthAdvice #MedicalAICommunication #AIInHealthcare #CredibilityOfAdvice #AIHealthNurse #NurseDobson
-
DATE: August 13, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People trust human nurses more than AI, but the intuitiveness of the advice matters most
A recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research suggests that people still find health advice from human nurses more credible than advice from artificial intelligence. However, the nature of the advice itself plays a substantial role in determining trust, often outweighing the source. The findings indicate that individuals apply similar critical thinking heuristics to both human and machine sources, particularly evaluating whether the recommendations match their own intuitive expectations.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems are becoming common tools for everyday information seeking. Millions of users ask platforms like ChatGPT for health and wellness guidance on a regular basis. Because these systems are neither licensed medical professionals nor anonymous web pages, they occupy a unique position in how medical knowledge reaches the public.
The idea for the study came from a personal experience with one of these chatbots. Asheley R. Landrum, an associate professor and director of the News Co/Lab at Arizona State University, was snacking at home when she had a minor scare.
“This is sort of embarrassing, but most people who know me well won’t be surprised,” Landrum said. “So, ASU has gone all in on AI, and we’ve been exploring it and figuring out how best to use it. One day, I was working from home and eating Doritos, and one kind of scraped my esophagus as it went down (or at least that’s what it felt like). I had ChatGPT open, so I asked,’ I just swallowed a Dorito and it scraped me on the way down. Should I be worried? What should I do?'”
The program provided a detailed response, advising her to sip water, eat soft foods, and seek urgent medical attention if she experienced severe symptoms like difficulty breathing or swallowing.
“I wondered how many people might use ChatGPT (and similar tools) for health advice,” Landrum said. “So, I ran a small national survey and presented the results at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2025. A month or so later, we got in contact with a company developing an AI Nurse and incorporated this type of tool in a pre-registered experiment, which is now published. We are still doing work in this area.”
Epistemic trust, which is the willingness to accept information from a source as reliable and act upon it, relies heavily on how people perceive competence and benevolence. Licensed medical professionals usually serve as the benchmark for this type of credibility due to their extensive training. At the same time, patients are increasingly aware of human fallibility, cognitive biases, and structural issues within healthcare systems.
To explore these dynamics, the researchers recruited 1,502 adults in the United States, utilizing a panel matched to national demographic census data. Participants engaged in a survey experiment where they read fictional conversations featuring a person seeking health advice. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three advice sources: a licensed human registered nurse named Nurse Dobson, a specialized AI nurse trained on medical data, or the general-purpose chatbot ChatGPT. The assigned source remained the same for a given participant throughout all experimental scenarios.
In the first set of analyses, participants read two scenarios categorized by risk level. The low-risk scenario involved dietary advice regarding eating eggs when trying to reduce cholesterol. The high-risk scenario involved whether to seek emergency care for chest discomfort. For these scenarios, the provided advice was randomly manipulated to be either intuitive or counterintuitive. Intuitive advice matched common public expectations, and counterintuitive advice departed from expectations but remained medically accurate.
After reading the text, participants rated the credibility of the advice on a scale from 1 to 5, where 3 indicated moderate credibility. Advice from the human nurse received an average credibility rating of 3.53, making it slightly more trusted than advice from the AI nurse at 3.13 and ChatGPT at 3.21. Participants also reported a higher willingness to follow the human nurse’s recommendations. The difference in credibility ratings between the two AI sources was not statistically significant.
The intuitiveness of the message exerted a strong influence on trust. Across all sources, intuitive advice received an average credibility rating of 3.46, compared to 3.12 for counterintuitive advice. This gap widened in the high-risk scenario, meaning that counterintuitive advice was penalized more heavily when the medical stakes were higher.
“I think that there are two stories here, one for the average person and one for developers,” Landrum told PsyPost. “For the average person, one of the biggest takeaways is that we may not judge AI health advice as differently from human advice as we think we do. People in our study trusted the human nurse more, but they didn’t dismiss the AI sources as untrustworthy.”
“In fact, what the advice actually said and whether it seemed intuitively right mattered as much as or more than whether it came from a human or AI,” Landrum continued. “This is a clear example of confirmation bias. So, one practical takeaway is that when health advice ‘just sounds right’ or ‘sounds wrong,’ we should ask ourselves (as non-medical experts) whether we are responding to the evidence or whether it simply matches what we already believe.” Confirmation bias is the psychological tendency to favor information that aligns with a person’s preexisting beliefs.
The researchers then presented participants with a morally sensitive scenario about freezing eggs to preserve fertility for later in life. In this scenario, the ideological tone of the advice was manipulated between subjects. Participants received advice that was framed neutrally, conservatively framed to emphasize natural conception, or liberally framed to emphasize reproductive autonomy.
Across all sources, participants rated the conservatively biased advice as less credible. They were also less willing to recommend taking the conservatively framed advice. The researchers anticipated that the AI sources might be perceived as less biased than the human nurse, but the data did not support this hypothesis. Adding a specialized “AI nurse” label also failed to elevate trust above the general-purpose chatbot.
“For developers, there are takeaways for designing AI-health tools,” Landrum explained. “There’s a lot of emphasis right now on whether people trust AI, but our findings suggest that’s probably too simple a question. Trust depends on the person, the situation, and how the information is communicated. Simply labeling something as a specialized health AI tool didn’t make people trust it more than ChatGPT, for example.”
“Where design may really matter is when good medical advice is surprising or goes against what people expect,” Landrum added. “In those cases, especially when the stakes are high, an AI system probably shouldn’t just give someone an answer, it may need to explain why the recommendation makes sense, where it comes from, and when someone should seek additional medical care. (Although, we can ask if the justification is persuasive or simply the presence of a justification is persuasive, see Langer’s copymachine study!).”
This references a classic 1978 psychology experiment by Ellen Langer, which found that people were more likely to comply with a request to skip a line for a copy machine if the person provided any reason at all, even a meaningless one like “because I have to make copies.”
Finally, the researchers evaluated overall perceptions of source competence and benevolence. They collected measures of the participants’ medical skepticism, political voting behavior, religiosity, and prior experience with generative AI. Older adults and individuals with prior AI experience tended to give higher competence and benevolence ratings across all three sources.
A notable relationship emerged regarding medical skepticism, which is a mindset where individuals doubt the necessity of professional medical intervention and feel confident managing their own health. For participants scoring higher in medical skepticism, perceived competence of the human nurse tended to drop. At the same time, higher medical skepticism was associated with higher perceived competence of the specialized AI nurse.
“We found a really cool interaction where people who are more skeptical of traditional medical authority saw the AI Nurse and the Human Nurse as equally competent, but people who are lower on such skepticism saw AI Nurses as much less competent than human nurses,” Landrum said. “This finding was exploratory and we are seeing if it holds in another study. If it does, it might mean that AI Nurse tools could be a way to reach those who are typically less likely to go to medical professionals for advice.”
Certain limitations contextualize these findings. The scenarios used in the experiment were hypothetical vignettes, which do not perfectly mirror the emotional weight of real health decisions.
“The biggest caveat is that we studied how people evaluate health advice, not whether they can tell when AI medical advice is actually right or wrong,” Landrum cautioned. “These were also hypothetical situations, so we don’t know whether someone facing a real health scare would respond the same way. As I said above, I’d also be a little cautious with our finding about people who are more skeptical of traditional medical professionals. It’s potentially really important, but that part of the study was very exploratory and needs to be replicated.”
Additionally, participants only read text from the chatbots rather than generating their own prompts. Real-world trust in a specialized medical AI might depend heavily on its user interface, institutional branding, or active dialogue.
“This work was done with set advice and we simply manipulated who it was purportedly from,” Landrum said. “That is, we said whether it was from ChatGPT, or an AI Nurse, or a human nurse. The advice itself did not vary. People did not actually interact with any AI tools. In our current and ongoing research, we are having participants actually interact with AI tools (in addition to survey questions) to better understand how they may use AI for health advice, when they may use AI for health advice, why, etc.”
The study, “Trusting Generative AI for Health Advice: Preregistered Survey Experiment,” was authored by Asheley R. Landrum, Nitin Verma, and Amanda Kehrberg.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #HealthAdviceTrust #NurseVsAI #GenerativeAIHealth #EpistemicTrust #IntuitiveHealthAdvice #MedicalAICommunication #AIInHealthcare #CredibilityOfAdvice #AIHealthNurse #NurseDobson
-
DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Parental mental illness is linked to lower cognitive scores in young men
Young men who grew up with a parent diagnosed with a mental disorder tend to score slightly lower on cognitive tests in late adolescence. But this link vanishes for children who experienced multiple other hardships, lived with a single parent, or were placed in foster care. The findings were published in the European Journal of Pediatrics.
Mental health conditions are common and can represent a major source of stress in a young child’s environment. The first six years of life are a time of rapid brain development. During this period, children rely heavily on their parents for care and stability. Disruptions in the home can sometimes affect how a child’s cognitive abilities develop over time.
Often, a parent’s mental illness does not happen in isolation. It frequently co-occurs with other stressful situations, such as poverty, physical illness in the family, or parents separating. Scientists refer to the tendency of childhood hardships to cluster together within families as a compounding burden.
Some researchers propose a theory of cumulative disadvantage. This idea suggests that early hardships pile up over time, resulting in worse outcomes for the child’s development. But few studies have looked at how other family hardships might change the specific relationship between a parent’s mental health and a child’s later intelligence.
Tanja Gram Petersen, a researcher at the University of Southern Denmark, led a team to investigate these specific patterns. The researchers wanted to see if having a parent with a mental illness before age six was linked to cognitive performance at age 18. They also wanted to know if this association changed when a child faced other types of adversity during those same early years.
To find answers, the researchers conducted a large study using data from the Danish nationwide registry system. In Denmark, all residents receive a unique personal identification number. This allows scientists to link individual health records, family relationships, and education data securely and anonymously.
The team identified 125,791 male adolescents born in Denmark between 1996 and 2001. They focused on young men because all 18-year-old male citizens in Denmark are required by law to undergo a military conscription examination. As part of this evaluation, the young men take a standardized cognitive test.
The military test assesses logical, verbal, numerical, and spatial reasoning skills. The researchers standardized the resulting scores to a scale with an average of 100. This made the scores resemble a typical intelligence quotient scale, making it easier to compare the results with other studies.
Using the national registers, the team looked for records of parental mental disorders. They specifically checked if a mother or father had received an inpatient or outpatient psychiatric diagnosis at a hospital before the child’s sixth birthday. About 5.3 percent of the boys in the study had a parent who met this criteria.
The researchers also tracked other hardships the children might have faced before age six. They grouped these events into three categories. The first category involved family health issues, such as the death of a parent or sibling, or a family member with a severe physical illness.
The second category captured socioeconomic disadvantages. This included prolonged family poverty or a parent experiencing long-term unemployment. The third category covered family instability, which included parents living apart, the family moving across municipality lines frequently, or the child being placed in out-of-home care.
Overall, the study found a modest link between parental mental illness and lower offspring test scores. Young men whose parents were diagnosed with a mental disorder scored, on average, 0.91 points lower on the cognitive test at age 18. This was compared to peers whose parents did not have a recorded psychiatric diagnosis.
But when the researchers divided the data based on other hardships, the patterns shifted. For teenagers who lived with both parents up to age six, a parent’s mental illness was linked to a 1.6-point drop in test scores. For boys who lived with only one parent, there was no association between the affected parent’s diagnosis and the child’s test scores.
The results were even more different for children who had been placed in out-of-home care before age six. In that group, having a parent with a mental illness was actually associated with a 3.2-point increase in cognitive scores at age 18. The researchers note that children in the foster system often face severe situations, and these estimates were based on a smaller number of boys, meaning the numbers should be read with caution.
The total number of hardships also mattered. The team counted how many additional stressful events each child experienced. For boys who faced up to two other hardships, a parent’s mental illness was still linked to lower cognitive scores.
But for young men who experienced three or more additional early hardships, the association vanished. These boys already had lower cognitive scores overall, regardless of their parent’s mental health. Having a parent with a psychiatric diagnosis did not reduce their test scores any further.
The researchers note that these results do not prove that a parent’s diagnosis directly causes a drop in intelligence. Both psychiatric conditions and cognitive abilities are heavily influenced by genetics. Families share genes, and they also share home environments. The overlap of inherited traits and stressful surroundings makes it hard to separate exactly what is driving the lower test scores.
If a child already faces multiple hardships, those events might share the same underlying genetic or environmental roots as the parent’s mental illness. Because of this, adding a parental diagnosis to an already stressful environment might not result in any additional measurable impact on the child’s brain development.
The study included a few limitations that readers should keep in mind. The research focused entirely on males, and it is possible that young women might respond differently to childhood adversity. The data also lacked details on the quality of parenting or the presence of abuse and neglect in the home.
Additionally, Denmark provides a robust universal welfare system. Citizens have free access to most health and social services. The ways in which early hardships affect long-term development might look different in countries with less supportive social safety nets.
The researchers believe that reducing early childhood hardships could still yield broad benefits for society. Cognitive ability is linked to many important life outcomes, including physical health, socioeconomic status, and overall mortality. Understanding how different family situations shape cognitive development will help scientists better support children facing multiple hurdles.
The study, “Cognitive ability following exposure to parental mental disorders and other childhood adversities: a population-based cohort study of Danish males in late adolescence,” was authored by Tanja Gram Petersen, Gunhild Tidemann Okholm, Kirstine Davidsen, Rikke Wesselhoeft, Merete Osler, Trine Munk-Olsen, and Mette Bliddal.
-------------------------------------------------
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ParentalMentalIllness #CognitiveDevelopment #AdolescentCognition #DanishStudy #MaleAdolescents #EarlyLifeAdversity #ChildhoodStress #FosterCareEffects #SocioeconomicImpact #GeneticsVsEnvironment
-
DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Parental mental illness is linked to lower cognitive scores in young men
Young men who grew up with a parent diagnosed with a mental disorder tend to score slightly lower on cognitive tests in late adolescence. But this link vanishes for children who experienced multiple other hardships, lived with a single parent, or were placed in foster care. The findings were published in the European Journal of Pediatrics.
Mental health conditions are common and can represent a major source of stress in a young child’s environment. The first six years of life are a time of rapid brain development. During this period, children rely heavily on their parents for care and stability. Disruptions in the home can sometimes affect how a child’s cognitive abilities develop over time.
Often, a parent’s mental illness does not happen in isolation. It frequently co-occurs with other stressful situations, such as poverty, physical illness in the family, or parents separating. Scientists refer to the tendency of childhood hardships to cluster together within families as a compounding burden.
Some researchers propose a theory of cumulative disadvantage. This idea suggests that early hardships pile up over time, resulting in worse outcomes for the child’s development. But few studies have looked at how other family hardships might change the specific relationship between a parent’s mental health and a child’s later intelligence.
Tanja Gram Petersen, a researcher at the University of Southern Denmark, led a team to investigate these specific patterns. The researchers wanted to see if having a parent with a mental illness before age six was linked to cognitive performance at age 18. They also wanted to know if this association changed when a child faced other types of adversity during those same early years.
To find answers, the researchers conducted a large study using data from the Danish nationwide registry system. In Denmark, all residents receive a unique personal identification number. This allows scientists to link individual health records, family relationships, and education data securely and anonymously.
The team identified 125,791 male adolescents born in Denmark between 1996 and 2001. They focused on young men because all 18-year-old male citizens in Denmark are required by law to undergo a military conscription examination. As part of this evaluation, the young men take a standardized cognitive test.
The military test assesses logical, verbal, numerical, and spatial reasoning skills. The researchers standardized the resulting scores to a scale with an average of 100. This made the scores resemble a typical intelligence quotient scale, making it easier to compare the results with other studies.
Using the national registers, the team looked for records of parental mental disorders. They specifically checked if a mother or father had received an inpatient or outpatient psychiatric diagnosis at a hospital before the child’s sixth birthday. About 5.3 percent of the boys in the study had a parent who met this criteria.
The researchers also tracked other hardships the children might have faced before age six. They grouped these events into three categories. The first category involved family health issues, such as the death of a parent or sibling, or a family member with a severe physical illness.
The second category captured socioeconomic disadvantages. This included prolonged family poverty or a parent experiencing long-term unemployment. The third category covered family instability, which included parents living apart, the family moving across municipality lines frequently, or the child being placed in out-of-home care.
Overall, the study found a modest link between parental mental illness and lower offspring test scores. Young men whose parents were diagnosed with a mental disorder scored, on average, 0.91 points lower on the cognitive test at age 18. This was compared to peers whose parents did not have a recorded psychiatric diagnosis.
But when the researchers divided the data based on other hardships, the patterns shifted. For teenagers who lived with both parents up to age six, a parent’s mental illness was linked to a 1.6-point drop in test scores. For boys who lived with only one parent, there was no association between the affected parent’s diagnosis and the child’s test scores.
The results were even more different for children who had been placed in out-of-home care before age six. In that group, having a parent with a mental illness was actually associated with a 3.2-point increase in cognitive scores at age 18. The researchers note that children in the foster system often face severe situations, and these estimates were based on a smaller number of boys, meaning the numbers should be read with caution.
The total number of hardships also mattered. The team counted how many additional stressful events each child experienced. For boys who faced up to two other hardships, a parent’s mental illness was still linked to lower cognitive scores.
But for young men who experienced three or more additional early hardships, the association vanished. These boys already had lower cognitive scores overall, regardless of their parent’s mental health. Having a parent with a psychiatric diagnosis did not reduce their test scores any further.
The researchers note that these results do not prove that a parent’s diagnosis directly causes a drop in intelligence. Both psychiatric conditions and cognitive abilities are heavily influenced by genetics. Families share genes, and they also share home environments. The overlap of inherited traits and stressful surroundings makes it hard to separate exactly what is driving the lower test scores.
If a child already faces multiple hardships, those events might share the same underlying genetic or environmental roots as the parent’s mental illness. Because of this, adding a parental diagnosis to an already stressful environment might not result in any additional measurable impact on the child’s brain development.
The study included a few limitations that readers should keep in mind. The research focused entirely on males, and it is possible that young women might respond differently to childhood adversity. The data also lacked details on the quality of parenting or the presence of abuse and neglect in the home.
Additionally, Denmark provides a robust universal welfare system. Citizens have free access to most health and social services. The ways in which early hardships affect long-term development might look different in countries with less supportive social safety nets.
The researchers believe that reducing early childhood hardships could still yield broad benefits for society. Cognitive ability is linked to many important life outcomes, including physical health, socioeconomic status, and overall mortality. Understanding how different family situations shape cognitive development will help scientists better support children facing multiple hurdles.
The study, “Cognitive ability following exposure to parental mental disorders and other childhood adversities: a population-based cohort study of Danish males in late adolescence,” was authored by Tanja Gram Petersen, Gunhild Tidemann Okholm, Kirstine Davidsen, Rikke Wesselhoeft, Merete Osler, Trine Munk-Olsen, and Mette Bliddal.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ParentalMentalIllness #CognitiveDevelopment #AdolescentCognition #DanishStudy #MaleAdolescents #EarlyLifeAdversity #ChildhoodStress #FosterCareEffects #SocioeconomicImpact #GeneticsVsEnvironment
-
DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Ketogenic diets may increase blood alcohol levels while reducing the drive to drink
A high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet alters the way the liver processes alcohol and tends to reduce alcohol consumption in alcohol-dependent male rats. These findings suggest that changing the body’s primary energy source could influence both the rate at which alcohol is broken down and the drive to drink. The research was published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
A ketogenic diet involves eating high amounts of fat and very few carbohydrates and proteins. This nutritional pattern forces the body to stop relying on blood sugar, or glucose, and instead burn fat to produce molecules called ketone bodies. These ketone bodies then serve as an alternative fuel for the brain and body. Previous research indicates that heavy alcohol use reduces the brain’s ability to use glucose, leading to an energy deficit that might drive withdrawal symptoms and the urge to drink.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and University of Pennsylvania designed the present study to better understand how this dietary shift interacts with alcohol processing.
“The study builds directly on our previous work showing that a high-fat, low carb ketogenic diet intervention reduced alcohol withdrawal symptoms in human inpatients with AUD, and reduced alcohol intake in rodents,” said Corinde Wiers, an assistant professor of psychiatry and radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who supervised the study along with Leandro Vendruscolo, a Stadtman Investigator and chief of the Stress and Addiction Neuroscience Unit at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
In their previous experiments, the research team noticed an unexpected pattern. “Interestingly, in that earlier work we also observed that rats on a ketogenic diet had much higher blood alcohol levels compared to chow-fed rats, after receiving the same amount of alcohol,” Wiers explained. “That was an unexpected finding and raised an important question: is the ketogenic diet changing how the liver metabolizes alcohol? The present study was designed to investigate that question and to better understand how ketogenic diets affect both alcohol metabolism and alcohol consumption.”
In the first phase of their research, the scientists maintained eight male and eight female adult rats on a ketogenic diet. A comparison group of eight male and eight female rats ate standard laboratory chow. The ketogenic diet consisted of 93 percent calories from fat, and the standard chow provided 13 percent calories from fat. After eight weeks, the rats on the ketogenic diet had higher blood ketone levels and lower blood glucose levels.
To test alcohol processing, the researchers exposed these rats to a short four-hour session of alcohol vapor. The rats on the ketogenic diet exhibited higher blood alcohol levels compared to the chow-fed group. Upon analyzing the liver tissue, the scientists observed that the ketogenic diet lowered the levels of alcohol dehydrogenase 1, or ADH1, an enzyme responsible for breaking down alcohol. The diet also lowered levels of pyruvate and lactate and increased the ratio of specific coenzymes involved in energy transfer, known as the NAD+/NADH balance.
“The original observation that really motivated this study was that ketogenic-diet-fed rats had much higher blood alcohol levels after alcohol exposure,” Wiers noted. “In the current study, we found evidence that this is related to slower liver alcohol metabolism, including lower levels of the major alcohol-metabolizing enzyme ADH1 and changes in the liver’s NAD+/NADH balance.”
Next, the researchers conducted positron emission tomography scans on a separate group of eight male rats to track how the diet affected brain energy use. They assigned four rats to each diet for eight weeks. The scientists injected the animals with a traceable radioactive sugar to see how much glucose the brain absorbed. The images indicated that the rats on the standard diet had higher sugar absorption across multiple brain regions, while the brains of the ketogenic diet group absorbed less sugar, providing evidence of a shift toward ketone-based energy production.
This shift in fuel sources might play a role in behavioral changes. “We cannot yet say exactly why the ketogenic diet reduced alcohol consumption,” Wiers explained. “In addition to less efficient alcohol metabolism, our findings point to changes in brain energetics as one possible contributor.”
In a third experiment, lead authors Sophie K. Elvig and Adrienne McGinn along with the rest of the team tested how the diet influenced the motivation to drink alcohol in dependent rats. They trained 20 male and 31 female rats to press a lever to receive a small dose of alcohol. The rats were then split into ketogenic and standard diet groups. To induce physical dependence on alcohol, the researchers exposed the animals to daily cycles of 14 hours of alcohol vapor followed by 10 hours of regular air.
Because the earlier experiment showed that a ketogenic diet slows alcohol breakdown, the researchers controlled for this metabolic difference. They adjusted the vapor chambers to deliver about 40 percent less alcohol to the ketogenic diet group. This adjustment successfully equalized the blood alcohol levels between the two groups.
During the daily withdrawal periods, the rats were given 30-minute sessions where they could press the lever for alcohol. The researchers found that male rats on the ketogenic diet pressed the lever fewer times and drank less alcohol per gram of body weight compared to the male rats on the standard diet. However, the diet did not alter alcohol consumption in the female rats. The ketogenic diet did not affect lever pressing for water in either sex, which indicates that the reduction in drinking among males was specific to alcohol.
“It was also interesting that the reduction in alcohol consumption occurred in male but not female rats, suggesting that sex may be an important factor in how metabolic interventions affect alcohol use, at least in rats,” Wiers told PsyPost.
These parallel changes in liver function and behavior highlight the complex nature of alcohol dependence. “I think this study illustrates why it is important to look at the whole body when studying addiction,” Wiers said. “Alcohol use is influenced not only by the brain, but also by peripheral metabolism and the interaction between the brain and organs such as the liver.”
The slowed alcohol metabolism suggests a potential risk for people attempting this diet. “Our findings suggest that a metabolic intervention can have effects in both directions, potentially reducing alcohol consumption while also slowing alcohol metabolism,” Wiers added. “That combination makes it especially important to study these interventions carefully before assuming that a ketogenic diet is necessarily beneficial or harmful for people who drink alcohol.”
The most relevant limitation is that these effects were observed in an animal model. “The most important caveat is that these are findings in rats, and we cannot assume that the same effects occur in humans,” Wiers cautioned. “We need a lot more work to determine the mechanisms and whether they are relevant to individuals with alcohol use disorder.”
A direct comparison to human metabolism is still pending. “If these findings translate to humans, the same amount of alcohol could result in greater alcohol exposure while following a ketogenic diet,” Wiers said. “This was an animal study, so we don’t yet know whether these effects occur in people. But we do know that increased sensitivity to alcohol is an anecdotally reported side effect of ketogenic diets.”
To explore this in humans, Wiers noted that her lab is currently conducting a clinical trial, led by postdoctoral fellow Xinyi Li, testing the effects of a four-week ketogenic diet on alcohol intoxication.
Looking ahead, the research team aims to evaluate several diet-based and pharmacological approaches to treating addiction. “Our broader goal is to understand how the body’s metabolic state influences addiction,” Wiers said. “Ketogenic diets fundamentally change the fuels available to the brain, shifting it away from glucose toward ketone bodies. We are particularly interested in whether these changes in brain energetics can influence alcohol craving, withdrawal, and alcohol consumption.”
Some scientists are already exploring whether metabolic medications used for diabetes and weight loss, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, might also reduce drinking. “Ultimately, we want to determine whether metabolic interventions, including the ketogenic diet, ketone supplement drinks, and GLP-1 receptor agonist medications, can be developed into useful treatments for alcohol use disorder, while also understanding their potential effects on alcohol intoxication and other risks,” Wiers concluded.
The study, “A ketogenic diet reduces hepatic alcohol metabolism and alcohol consumption in rats,” was authored by Sophie K. Elvig, Adrienne McGinn, Xinyi Li, Janaina C. M. Vendruscolo, Juan L. Gomez, Robert Pawlosky, Bryan Mackowiak, Luis Gonzalez, M. Todd King, Michael Michaelides, Bin Gao, Nora D. Volkow, George F. Koob, Corinde E. Wiers, and Leandro F. Vendruscolo.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #KetogenicDiet #AlcoholMetabolism #ADH1 #LiverHealth #Ketones #AlcoholUseDisorder #Neuropsychopharmacology #BrainEnergy #GLP1RAg #AlcoholConsumption
-
DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Ketogenic diets may increase blood alcohol levels while reducing the drive to drink
A high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet alters the way the liver processes alcohol and tends to reduce alcohol consumption in alcohol-dependent male rats. These findings suggest that changing the body’s primary energy source could influence both the rate at which alcohol is broken down and the drive to drink. The research was published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
A ketogenic diet involves eating high amounts of fat and very few carbohydrates and proteins. This nutritional pattern forces the body to stop relying on blood sugar, or glucose, and instead burn fat to produce molecules called ketone bodies. These ketone bodies then serve as an alternative fuel for the brain and body. Previous research indicates that heavy alcohol use reduces the brain’s ability to use glucose, leading to an energy deficit that might drive withdrawal symptoms and the urge to drink.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health and University of Pennsylvania designed the present study to better understand how this dietary shift interacts with alcohol processing.
“The study builds directly on our previous work showing that a high-fat, low carb ketogenic diet intervention reduced alcohol withdrawal symptoms in human inpatients with AUD, and reduced alcohol intake in rodents,” said Corinde Wiers, an assistant professor of psychiatry and radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who supervised the study along with Leandro Vendruscolo, a Stadtman Investigator and chief of the Stress and Addiction Neuroscience Unit at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
In their previous experiments, the research team noticed an unexpected pattern. “Interestingly, in that earlier work we also observed that rats on a ketogenic diet had much higher blood alcohol levels compared to chow-fed rats, after receiving the same amount of alcohol,” Wiers explained. “That was an unexpected finding and raised an important question: is the ketogenic diet changing how the liver metabolizes alcohol? The present study was designed to investigate that question and to better understand how ketogenic diets affect both alcohol metabolism and alcohol consumption.”
In the first phase of their research, the scientists maintained eight male and eight female adult rats on a ketogenic diet. A comparison group of eight male and eight female rats ate standard laboratory chow. The ketogenic diet consisted of 93 percent calories from fat, and the standard chow provided 13 percent calories from fat. After eight weeks, the rats on the ketogenic diet had higher blood ketone levels and lower blood glucose levels.
To test alcohol processing, the researchers exposed these rats to a short four-hour session of alcohol vapor. The rats on the ketogenic diet exhibited higher blood alcohol levels compared to the chow-fed group. Upon analyzing the liver tissue, the scientists observed that the ketogenic diet lowered the levels of alcohol dehydrogenase 1, or ADH1, an enzyme responsible for breaking down alcohol. The diet also lowered levels of pyruvate and lactate and increased the ratio of specific coenzymes involved in energy transfer, known as the NAD+/NADH balance.
“The original observation that really motivated this study was that ketogenic-diet-fed rats had much higher blood alcohol levels after alcohol exposure,” Wiers noted. “In the current study, we found evidence that this is related to slower liver alcohol metabolism, including lower levels of the major alcohol-metabolizing enzyme ADH1 and changes in the liver’s NAD+/NADH balance.”
Next, the researchers conducted positron emission tomography scans on a separate group of eight male rats to track how the diet affected brain energy use. They assigned four rats to each diet for eight weeks. The scientists injected the animals with a traceable radioactive sugar to see how much glucose the brain absorbed. The images indicated that the rats on the standard diet had higher sugar absorption across multiple brain regions, while the brains of the ketogenic diet group absorbed less sugar, providing evidence of a shift toward ketone-based energy production.
This shift in fuel sources might play a role in behavioral changes. “We cannot yet say exactly why the ketogenic diet reduced alcohol consumption,” Wiers explained. “In addition to less efficient alcohol metabolism, our findings point to changes in brain energetics as one possible contributor.”
In a third experiment, lead authors Sophie K. Elvig and Adrienne McGinn along with the rest of the team tested how the diet influenced the motivation to drink alcohol in dependent rats. They trained 20 male and 31 female rats to press a lever to receive a small dose of alcohol. The rats were then split into ketogenic and standard diet groups. To induce physical dependence on alcohol, the researchers exposed the animals to daily cycles of 14 hours of alcohol vapor followed by 10 hours of regular air.
Because the earlier experiment showed that a ketogenic diet slows alcohol breakdown, the researchers controlled for this metabolic difference. They adjusted the vapor chambers to deliver about 40 percent less alcohol to the ketogenic diet group. This adjustment successfully equalized the blood alcohol levels between the two groups.
During the daily withdrawal periods, the rats were given 30-minute sessions where they could press the lever for alcohol. The researchers found that male rats on the ketogenic diet pressed the lever fewer times and drank less alcohol per gram of body weight compared to the male rats on the standard diet. However, the diet did not alter alcohol consumption in the female rats. The ketogenic diet did not affect lever pressing for water in either sex, which indicates that the reduction in drinking among males was specific to alcohol.
“It was also interesting that the reduction in alcohol consumption occurred in male but not female rats, suggesting that sex may be an important factor in how metabolic interventions affect alcohol use, at least in rats,” Wiers told PsyPost.
These parallel changes in liver function and behavior highlight the complex nature of alcohol dependence. “I think this study illustrates why it is important to look at the whole body when studying addiction,” Wiers said. “Alcohol use is influenced not only by the brain, but also by peripheral metabolism and the interaction between the brain and organs such as the liver.”
The slowed alcohol metabolism suggests a potential risk for people attempting this diet. “Our findings suggest that a metabolic intervention can have effects in both directions, potentially reducing alcohol consumption while also slowing alcohol metabolism,” Wiers added. “That combination makes it especially important to study these interventions carefully before assuming that a ketogenic diet is necessarily beneficial or harmful for people who drink alcohol.”
The most relevant limitation is that these effects were observed in an animal model. “The most important caveat is that these are findings in rats, and we cannot assume that the same effects occur in humans,” Wiers cautioned. “We need a lot more work to determine the mechanisms and whether they are relevant to individuals with alcohol use disorder.”
A direct comparison to human metabolism is still pending. “If these findings translate to humans, the same amount of alcohol could result in greater alcohol exposure while following a ketogenic diet,” Wiers said. “This was an animal study, so we don’t yet know whether these effects occur in people. But we do know that increased sensitivity to alcohol is an anecdotally reported side effect of ketogenic diets.”
To explore this in humans, Wiers noted that her lab is currently conducting a clinical trial, led by postdoctoral fellow Xinyi Li, testing the effects of a four-week ketogenic diet on alcohol intoxication.
Looking ahead, the research team aims to evaluate several diet-based and pharmacological approaches to treating addiction. “Our broader goal is to understand how the body’s metabolic state influences addiction,” Wiers said. “Ketogenic diets fundamentally change the fuels available to the brain, shifting it away from glucose toward ketone bodies. We are particularly interested in whether these changes in brain energetics can influence alcohol craving, withdrawal, and alcohol consumption.”
Some scientists are already exploring whether metabolic medications used for diabetes and weight loss, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, might also reduce drinking. “Ultimately, we want to determine whether metabolic interventions, including the ketogenic diet, ketone supplement drinks, and GLP-1 receptor agonist medications, can be developed into useful treatments for alcohol use disorder, while also understanding their potential effects on alcohol intoxication and other risks,” Wiers concluded.
The study, “A ketogenic diet reduces hepatic alcohol metabolism and alcohol consumption in rats,” was authored by Sophie K. Elvig, Adrienne McGinn, Xinyi Li, Janaina C. M. Vendruscolo, Juan L. Gomez, Robert Pawlosky, Bryan Mackowiak, Luis Gonzalez, M. Todd King, Michael Michaelides, Bin Gao, Nora D. Volkow, George F. Koob, Corinde E. Wiers, and Leandro F. Vendruscolo.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #KetogenicDiet #AlcoholMetabolism #ADH1 #LiverHealth #Ketones #AlcoholUseDisorder #Neuropsychopharmacology #BrainEnergy #GLP1RAg #AlcoholConsumption
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DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Daytime emotional suppression does not affect the emotional tone of dreams
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-emotional-suppression-does-not-affect-the-emotional-tone-of-dreams/
People tend to experience fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions in their dreams than they do while awake. However, a person’s tendency to hide their feelings during the day does not seem to change the emotional intensity of their dreams. These findings were published in the journal Dreaming.
Sleep and memory researchers propose that dreaming serves as a nighttime emotional processing system. In this view, the sleeping brain uses dreams to integrate difficult memories and regulate psychological stress. This processing can sometimes create a rebound effect. When people actively ignore or repress thoughts during the day, those same thoughts often surface vividly in their dreams at night.
The psychological concept known as ironic process theory suggests that trying to suppress a thought requires the brain to constantly monitor for it. Because the brain’s executive control systems are less active during sleep, this monitoring process can backfire. The suppressed thoughts break through into dreams, often bringing intense negative emotions with them. Past research has shown that this rebound effect might be particularly strong for feelings of sadness, fear, and anger.
Because of this proposed processing function, the emotions people feel in their dreams do not always match the emotions they feel while awake. Previous investigations have noted an emotional disconnect, where waking life is generally more positive, but dream life is more negative.
Yui Yoshioka, a researcher at Kwansei Gakuin University who conducted the work at Kyoto University, wanted to understand if a specific psychological trait drives this disconnect. Yoshioka hypothesized that people who regularly suppress their emotions during the day would experience a sharper drop in positive dream emotions and a larger spike in negative dream emotions.
To test these ideas, Yoshioka recruited participants online and screened them for severe depression and low dream recall. A total of 76 adults completed the full study. During the initial screening, the participants filled out questionnaires assessing their general habits regarding dreams and their tendency to suppress emotional expression. Based on these survey results, the researcher divided the participants into a high emotional suppression group and a low emotional suppression group.
The main part of the research involved a seven-day diary survey. Every evening before going to bed, participants rated the intensity of the emotions they had experienced that day. They scored four positive emotions, such as joy and satisfaction, and four negative emotions, such as sadness and anger, on an eight-point scale.
Every morning upon waking, the participants provided a detailed written description of any dreams they remembered. They then used the same eight-point scale to rate the emotions they felt within those dreams. The researcher averaged these daily scores to measure each person’s typical emotional experience during wakefulness and sleep.
The daily diary entries revealed a shift in emotional tone between waking and sleeping states. During the day, the participants reported experiencing positive emotions more intensely than negative emotions. In their dreams, however, the intensity of positive emotions like satisfaction and joy went down. At the same time, the intensity of negative emotions like anxiety and confusion went up.
This pattern aligned with the idea that dreams might prioritize the processing of negative psychological material. Despite this overall trend, the results did not support the hypothesis regarding emotional suppression. The data showed no differences in dream emotion intensity between the high emotional suppression group and the low emotional suppression group.
People who regularly hid their waking emotions did not experience more intense negative dreams or less intense positive dreams than those who expressed their feelings freely. The only difference found between the two groups was behavioral. Individuals with lower emotional suppression tendencies were simply more likely to talk about their dreams with other people.
Readers should keep in mind how emotional suppression was measured in this specific research context. The questionnaire used to categorize participants focused on the suppression of emotional expression, such as hiding irritation or remaining silent when angry. It did not measure the internal, unconscious repression of the feeling itself.
Participants in the high suppression group may have fully recognized their daytime emotions without actually trying to banish the thoughts from their minds. If they were only hiding their outward physical or verbal reactions, the anticipated dream rebound effect might not be triggered.
Cultural factors might also influence the emotional patterns observed in the data. The study was conducted with adults in Japan, where cultural norms often encourage restraint in emotional expression and self-disclosure. Because outward emotional suppression is relatively common in this context, the entire sample may have had a higher baseline for this trait.
This general cultural tendency could make it difficult to detect subtle variations between the high and low suppression groups. Additionally, participants might have unconsciously downplayed the intensity of negative feelings in their diaries. Because they knew a researcher would be reading their entries, social desirability bias could have altered their self-reported emotional ratings.
The method of recording dreams can alter which dreams are studied. A daily diary requires participants to write down whatever they remember each morning, even if the dream was mundane or emotionally flat. Other dream research methods ask participants to recall their single most impactful recent dream.
Those alternative methods tend to yield reports of stranger and more intensely negative dreams. Relying on a daily diary might capture an accurate average of nightly experiences, but it could miss the extreme emotional spikes that occur in occasional, highly memorable dreams.
Future studies could measure emotional responses more objectively. Relying on self-reported emotion ratings leaves room for memory biases, as people quickly forget the details of their dreams upon waking. Using physiological sensors to track emotional arousal during sleep could provide a more direct measure of what the brain is experiencing.
Researchers might also incorporate experimental tasks where participants are instructed to suppress specific thoughts before bed. This would allow for a more controlled test of the rebound effect, independent of a person’s general personality traits.
The study, “Emotional Suppression and the Relationship Between Wakeful and Dream Emotions,” was authored by Yui Yoshioka.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-emotional-suppression-does-not-affect-the-emotional-tone-of-dreams/
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-
DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Daytime emotional suppression does not affect the emotional tone of dreams
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-emotional-suppression-does-not-affect-the-emotional-tone-of-dreams/
People tend to experience fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions in their dreams than they do while awake. However, a person’s tendency to hide their feelings during the day does not seem to change the emotional intensity of their dreams. These findings were published in the journal Dreaming.
Sleep and memory researchers propose that dreaming serves as a nighttime emotional processing system. In this view, the sleeping brain uses dreams to integrate difficult memories and regulate psychological stress. This processing can sometimes create a rebound effect. When people actively ignore or repress thoughts during the day, those same thoughts often surface vividly in their dreams at night.
The psychological concept known as ironic process theory suggests that trying to suppress a thought requires the brain to constantly monitor for it. Because the brain’s executive control systems are less active during sleep, this monitoring process can backfire. The suppressed thoughts break through into dreams, often bringing intense negative emotions with them. Past research has shown that this rebound effect might be particularly strong for feelings of sadness, fear, and anger.
Because of this proposed processing function, the emotions people feel in their dreams do not always match the emotions they feel while awake. Previous investigations have noted an emotional disconnect, where waking life is generally more positive, but dream life is more negative.
Yui Yoshioka, a researcher at Kwansei Gakuin University who conducted the work at Kyoto University, wanted to understand if a specific psychological trait drives this disconnect. Yoshioka hypothesized that people who regularly suppress their emotions during the day would experience a sharper drop in positive dream emotions and a larger spike in negative dream emotions.
To test these ideas, Yoshioka recruited participants online and screened them for severe depression and low dream recall. A total of 76 adults completed the full study. During the initial screening, the participants filled out questionnaires assessing their general habits regarding dreams and their tendency to suppress emotional expression. Based on these survey results, the researcher divided the participants into a high emotional suppression group and a low emotional suppression group.
The main part of the research involved a seven-day diary survey. Every evening before going to bed, participants rated the intensity of the emotions they had experienced that day. They scored four positive emotions, such as joy and satisfaction, and four negative emotions, such as sadness and anger, on an eight-point scale.
Every morning upon waking, the participants provided a detailed written description of any dreams they remembered. They then used the same eight-point scale to rate the emotions they felt within those dreams. The researcher averaged these daily scores to measure each person’s typical emotional experience during wakefulness and sleep.
The daily diary entries revealed a shift in emotional tone between waking and sleeping states. During the day, the participants reported experiencing positive emotions more intensely than negative emotions. In their dreams, however, the intensity of positive emotions like satisfaction and joy went down. At the same time, the intensity of negative emotions like anxiety and confusion went up.
This pattern aligned with the idea that dreams might prioritize the processing of negative psychological material. Despite this overall trend, the results did not support the hypothesis regarding emotional suppression. The data showed no differences in dream emotion intensity between the high emotional suppression group and the low emotional suppression group.
People who regularly hid their waking emotions did not experience more intense negative dreams or less intense positive dreams than those who expressed their feelings freely. The only difference found between the two groups was behavioral. Individuals with lower emotional suppression tendencies were simply more likely to talk about their dreams with other people.
Readers should keep in mind how emotional suppression was measured in this specific research context. The questionnaire used to categorize participants focused on the suppression of emotional expression, such as hiding irritation or remaining silent when angry. It did not measure the internal, unconscious repression of the feeling itself.
Participants in the high suppression group may have fully recognized their daytime emotions without actually trying to banish the thoughts from their minds. If they were only hiding their outward physical or verbal reactions, the anticipated dream rebound effect might not be triggered.
Cultural factors might also influence the emotional patterns observed in the data. The study was conducted with adults in Japan, where cultural norms often encourage restraint in emotional expression and self-disclosure. Because outward emotional suppression is relatively common in this context, the entire sample may have had a higher baseline for this trait.
This general cultural tendency could make it difficult to detect subtle variations between the high and low suppression groups. Additionally, participants might have unconsciously downplayed the intensity of negative feelings in their diaries. Because they knew a researcher would be reading their entries, social desirability bias could have altered their self-reported emotional ratings.
The method of recording dreams can alter which dreams are studied. A daily diary requires participants to write down whatever they remember each morning, even if the dream was mundane or emotionally flat. Other dream research methods ask participants to recall their single most impactful recent dream.
Those alternative methods tend to yield reports of stranger and more intensely negative dreams. Relying on a daily diary might capture an accurate average of nightly experiences, but it could miss the extreme emotional spikes that occur in occasional, highly memorable dreams.
Future studies could measure emotional responses more objectively. Relying on self-reported emotion ratings leaves room for memory biases, as people quickly forget the details of their dreams upon waking. Using physiological sensors to track emotional arousal during sleep could provide a more direct measure of what the brain is experiencing.
Researchers might also incorporate experimental tasks where participants are instructed to suppress specific thoughts before bed. This would allow for a more controlled test of the rebound effect, independent of a person’s general personality traits.
The study, “Emotional Suppression and the Relationship Between Wakeful and Dream Emotions,” was authored by Yui Yoshioka.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/daytime-emotional-suppression-does-not-affect-the-emotional-tone-of-dreams/
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-
DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Single dose of rapamycin rapidly reduces autism-like traits in adult mice
URL: https://www.psypost.org/single-dose-of-rapamycin-rapidly-reduces-autism-like-traits-in-adult-mice/
A new study published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that exposing mice to mild inflammation during pregnancy triggers brain and behavioral changes in their offspring that resemble autism spectrum disorder. The research provides evidence that a single dose of the immunosuppressive drug rapamycin can rapidly but temporarily reverse these symptoms in adult mice by altering brain function rather than physical structure.
Autism spectrum disorder is a complex condition associated with diverse changes in brain development, behavior, and sensory processing. One known risk factor is maternal immune activation, which occurs when a pregnant mother experiences an infection or inflammation. This inflammatory response can alter the development of the fetal brain. In both human and animal studies, such early immune events are linked to later neurodevelopmental differences, including increased brain volume in early life, altered social behaviors, and heightened sensitivity to sensory input.
At the cellular level, many of these changes are associated with the overactivation of the mTOR pathway. The mTOR pathway is a biological signaling network that regulates cell growth, division, and survival. When this system is hyperactive, it tends to lead to abnormal synapse formation, an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory brain signals, and an increased susceptibility to seizures.
“We have a longstanding interest in the mTOR system in brain development and autism spectrum disorder,” said study authors Harley Kornblum, director of the UCLA Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center and a professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and pharmacology; Neil Harris, a professor of neurosurgery; and Janel Le Belle, an associate professor of neurosurgery. “Our earlier study also led by Dr. Le Belle showed that mild maternal inflammation in a strain of mouse activated the mTOR system and resulted in many behaviors reminiscent of autism and that are also found in genetic mouse models in which we know that the affected genes cause autism in people.”
Rapamycin is an established drug that inhibits the mTOR pathway. It is commonly used in medicine to prevent organ transplant rejection. In previous animal research, treating young mice with rapamycin over several weeks prevented the physical brain abnormalities associated with certain genetic mutations linked to autism.
“We were interested in trying treatment with the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin, which is used in children with disorders that activate the mTOR pathway,” the researchers added. However, chronic use of rapamycin can suppress the immune system and inhibit healthy growth. The authors designed this study to observe what happens when adult mice receive a short-acting, single dose of the drug, focusing on immediate functional changes in the brain rather than long-term structural remodeling.
The authors triggered a mild maternal inflammatory response in pregnant mice by injecting them with lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial compound that induces an immune reaction. This low dose was designed to provoke a response without making the pregnant mice noticeably ill. The offspring were then raised to early adulthood or older adulthood, creating experimental groups of male and female mice to compare against a control group that received a harmless saline solution.
The researchers first evaluated the physical and molecular characteristics of the offspring exposed to maternal inflammation. They tracked brain weights from birth to 200 days old for 16 mice per group. The exposed mice experienced mild brain overgrowth early in life compared to the control group, but by day 200, this growth had slowed, resulting in brain weights slightly below the control average.
The exposed mice also maintained chronically elevated levels of immune proteins, known as cytokines, in their blood. Their brain tissue showed persistent overactivation of the mTOR pathway. To see if immune cells were driving the ongoing issues, the researchers depleted microglia, a type of brain immune cell, in some mice. This reduction improved behaviors in young adult mice but failed to help older adult mice, suggesting that other functional mechanisms maintain the behavioral traits later in life.
To test behavior, the scientists observed groups of 26 mice in open field tests. The exposed mice spent roughly twice as much time engaging in repetitive behaviors, such as grooming and circling, compared to the control mice. When the researchers administered a single injection of rapamycin at a dose of 5 milligrams per kilogram, the repetitive behaviors in the exposed mice dropped to match the levels seen in the control mice within two hours.
“We were very surprised by the rapidity of the effects of rapamycin,” the researchers told PsyPost. “We expected that if the mTOR system was still activated in the adult, it would be influencing the structure of how brain cells connect with each other, which would mean that anticipated effects would take longer than just a few hours.”
This behavioral rescue was temporary, as the repetitive behaviors returned to their previous elevated levels 72 hours later. The authors also tested daily injections over five weeks in groups of 10 mice. They found that the mice developed a tolerance to the drug, leading to a gradual loss of its behavioral benefits.
The study also measured sensory over-responsivity, a common trait where individuals are highly sensitive to touch or sound. Using groups of eight mice, the researchers tested tactile avoidance by placing the animals in a box with both smooth and rough floor surfaces. The exposed mice actively avoided the rough-textured floor, spending less time there than the control mice. Following a single dose of rapamycin, the exposed mice increased their time spent on the rough floor, indicating a normalization of their sensory tolerance.
Sensory sensitivities can disrupt daily life and exacerbate other challenges. “Our results point to a significant role of the sensory system in our mouse model and its correction with rapamycin,” the authors noted. “Sensory symptoms are known to be highly disabling in autism and now there is some evidence that abnormalities in sensory responsiveness may contribute to many of the behaviors that we don’t normally view as being mediated by the sensory system.”
Because sensory and behavioral changes often relate to how brain cells fire, the researchers examined the electrical activity of individual brain cells. They analyzed brain slices from 24 mice per group, focusing on pyramidal neurons in the sensory cortex. The neurons from the exposed mice exhibited a higher frequency and amplitude of spontaneous electrical discharges compared to the control neurons, indicating hyper-excitability. Treating the mice or the brain slices with rapamycin quickly reduced this hyperactivity.
To test this hyper-excitability in living animals, the researchers administered a seizure-inducing chemical to groups of eight mice. All eight exposed mice experienced visible seizures at a high dose, compared to only two out of eight control mice. Rapamycin administration lowered the severity of the seizure scores in the exposed group.
To observe brain-wide communication, the authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan 16 mice per group. This technique measures functional connectivity, which tracks how different brain regions synchronize their activity. The exposed mice displayed higher levels of connectivity than the control mice, particularly between sensory processing areas and subcortical regions like the thalamus. Following the two-hour rapamycin treatment, this hyper-connectivity decreased in the sensory cortex and reorganized across the brain, restoring the functional network to a state that closely resembled the control mice.
This neural reorganization provides evidence that specific circuits remain adaptable in adult mice. The average person should take away the idea “[t]hat some behaviors associated with autism can improve, even after the brain has matured,” the authors said. “Furthermore, we have identified the pathways (connections) in the brain that are influenced in this mouse model and that are altered with rapamycin.”
Finally, the researchers analyzed gene expression in the brain cells. They found that the exposed mice had altered activity in genes related to ion channels, which control the flow of electrical charges in and out of cells. After the acute rapamycin treatment, the expression of genes associated with brain cell excitability and autism risk quickly shifted back toward typical levels. This indicates that the drug works by rapidly adjusting the molecular balance of excitation and inhibition.
The findings from this study rely on a specific animal model of maternal inflammation, and physiological responses seen in mice do not directly translate to human neurodevelopment. Because rapamycin has strong immunosuppressive properties, it is not a practical daily treatment for behavioral or sensory symptoms in humans.
“We don’t believe that rapamycin or its close relatives that are currently used clinically will be the ‘cure’ for autism,” the authors cautioned. “First, our effects were temporary and wore off after several treatments. Second, as a class of medications, they can have significant side effects, especially immunosuppression.” They emphasized that they “would not recommend treatment with these medications outside of the conditions for which they are approved.”
Instead of acting as a direct treatment, the drug helps reveal underlying mechanisms for scientists to target. “We look at our findings as a fulcrum to further study autism-associated behaviors and symptoms and how they can be treated,” the authors explained.
Moving forward, the research team plans to explore other interventions. “In one set of studies we are trying to discover the downstream molecular pathways by which rapamycin acts so that we can potentially develop new therapies,” they said. “In the other approach, we are investigating the neural pathways that are misregulated in our model to see if these pathways can be functionally manipulated by therapeutic means, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation.”
The study, “Acute rapamycin treatment reveals distinct mechanisms of dysfunction in a maternal inflammation mouse model,” was authored by JE Le Belle, M. C. Condro, C. Cepeda, KD Oikonomou, K. Tessema, L. Dudley, J. Schoenfield, R. Kawaguchi, D. Geschwind, AJ Silva, Z. Zhang, K. Shokat, NG Harris, and HI Kornblum.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/single-dose-of-rapamycin-rapidly-reduces-autism-like-traits-in-adult-mice/
-------------------------------------------------
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AutismResearch #Rapamycin #mTOR #MaternalInflammation #Neuroscience #BrainPlasticity #AutismTherapies #Neurodevelopment #SensoryProcessing #NeuralConnectivity
-
DATE: August 13, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Single dose of rapamycin rapidly reduces autism-like traits in adult mice
URL: https://www.psypost.org/single-dose-of-rapamycin-rapidly-reduces-autism-like-traits-in-adult-mice/
A new study published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that exposing mice to mild inflammation during pregnancy triggers brain and behavioral changes in their offspring that resemble autism spectrum disorder. The research provides evidence that a single dose of the immunosuppressive drug rapamycin can rapidly but temporarily reverse these symptoms in adult mice by altering brain function rather than physical structure.
Autism spectrum disorder is a complex condition associated with diverse changes in brain development, behavior, and sensory processing. One known risk factor is maternal immune activation, which occurs when a pregnant mother experiences an infection or inflammation. This inflammatory response can alter the development of the fetal brain. In both human and animal studies, such early immune events are linked to later neurodevelopmental differences, including increased brain volume in early life, altered social behaviors, and heightened sensitivity to sensory input.
At the cellular level, many of these changes are associated with the overactivation of the mTOR pathway. The mTOR pathway is a biological signaling network that regulates cell growth, division, and survival. When this system is hyperactive, it tends to lead to abnormal synapse formation, an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory brain signals, and an increased susceptibility to seizures.
“We have a longstanding interest in the mTOR system in brain development and autism spectrum disorder,” said study authors Harley Kornblum, director of the UCLA Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center and a professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and pharmacology; Neil Harris, a professor of neurosurgery; and Janel Le Belle, an associate professor of neurosurgery. “Our earlier study also led by Dr. Le Belle showed that mild maternal inflammation in a strain of mouse activated the mTOR system and resulted in many behaviors reminiscent of autism and that are also found in genetic mouse models in which we know that the affected genes cause autism in people.”
Rapamycin is an established drug that inhibits the mTOR pathway. It is commonly used in medicine to prevent organ transplant rejection. In previous animal research, treating young mice with rapamycin over several weeks prevented the physical brain abnormalities associated with certain genetic mutations linked to autism.
“We were interested in trying treatment with the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin, which is used in children with disorders that activate the mTOR pathway,” the researchers added. However, chronic use of rapamycin can suppress the immune system and inhibit healthy growth. The authors designed this study to observe what happens when adult mice receive a short-acting, single dose of the drug, focusing on immediate functional changes in the brain rather than long-term structural remodeling.
The authors triggered a mild maternal inflammatory response in pregnant mice by injecting them with lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial compound that induces an immune reaction. This low dose was designed to provoke a response without making the pregnant mice noticeably ill. The offspring were then raised to early adulthood or older adulthood, creating experimental groups of male and female mice to compare against a control group that received a harmless saline solution.
The researchers first evaluated the physical and molecular characteristics of the offspring exposed to maternal inflammation. They tracked brain weights from birth to 200 days old for 16 mice per group. The exposed mice experienced mild brain overgrowth early in life compared to the control group, but by day 200, this growth had slowed, resulting in brain weights slightly below the control average.
The exposed mice also maintained chronically elevated levels of immune proteins, known as cytokines, in their blood. Their brain tissue showed persistent overactivation of the mTOR pathway. To see if immune cells were driving the ongoing issues, the researchers depleted microglia, a type of brain immune cell, in some mice. This reduction improved behaviors in young adult mice but failed to help older adult mice, suggesting that other functional mechanisms maintain the behavioral traits later in life.
To test behavior, the scientists observed groups of 26 mice in open field tests. The exposed mice spent roughly twice as much time engaging in repetitive behaviors, such as grooming and circling, compared to the control mice. When the researchers administered a single injection of rapamycin at a dose of 5 milligrams per kilogram, the repetitive behaviors in the exposed mice dropped to match the levels seen in the control mice within two hours.
“We were very surprised by the rapidity of the effects of rapamycin,” the researchers told PsyPost. “We expected that if the mTOR system was still activated in the adult, it would be influencing the structure of how brain cells connect with each other, which would mean that anticipated effects would take longer than just a few hours.”
This behavioral rescue was temporary, as the repetitive behaviors returned to their previous elevated levels 72 hours later. The authors also tested daily injections over five weeks in groups of 10 mice. They found that the mice developed a tolerance to the drug, leading to a gradual loss of its behavioral benefits.
The study also measured sensory over-responsivity, a common trait where individuals are highly sensitive to touch or sound. Using groups of eight mice, the researchers tested tactile avoidance by placing the animals in a box with both smooth and rough floor surfaces. The exposed mice actively avoided the rough-textured floor, spending less time there than the control mice. Following a single dose of rapamycin, the exposed mice increased their time spent on the rough floor, indicating a normalization of their sensory tolerance.
Sensory sensitivities can disrupt daily life and exacerbate other challenges. “Our results point to a significant role of the sensory system in our mouse model and its correction with rapamycin,” the authors noted. “Sensory symptoms are known to be highly disabling in autism and now there is some evidence that abnormalities in sensory responsiveness may contribute to many of the behaviors that we don’t normally view as being mediated by the sensory system.”
Because sensory and behavioral changes often relate to how brain cells fire, the researchers examined the electrical activity of individual brain cells. They analyzed brain slices from 24 mice per group, focusing on pyramidal neurons in the sensory cortex. The neurons from the exposed mice exhibited a higher frequency and amplitude of spontaneous electrical discharges compared to the control neurons, indicating hyper-excitability. Treating the mice or the brain slices with rapamycin quickly reduced this hyperactivity.
To test this hyper-excitability in living animals, the researchers administered a seizure-inducing chemical to groups of eight mice. All eight exposed mice experienced visible seizures at a high dose, compared to only two out of eight control mice. Rapamycin administration lowered the severity of the seizure scores in the exposed group.
To observe brain-wide communication, the authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan 16 mice per group. This technique measures functional connectivity, which tracks how different brain regions synchronize their activity. The exposed mice displayed higher levels of connectivity than the control mice, particularly between sensory processing areas and subcortical regions like the thalamus. Following the two-hour rapamycin treatment, this hyper-connectivity decreased in the sensory cortex and reorganized across the brain, restoring the functional network to a state that closely resembled the control mice.
This neural reorganization provides evidence that specific circuits remain adaptable in adult mice. The average person should take away the idea “[t]hat some behaviors associated with autism can improve, even after the brain has matured,” the authors said. “Furthermore, we have identified the pathways (connections) in the brain that are influenced in this mouse model and that are altered with rapamycin.”
Finally, the researchers analyzed gene expression in the brain cells. They found that the exposed mice had altered activity in genes related to ion channels, which control the flow of electrical charges in and out of cells. After the acute rapamycin treatment, the expression of genes associated with brain cell excitability and autism risk quickly shifted back toward typical levels. This indicates that the drug works by rapidly adjusting the molecular balance of excitation and inhibition.
The findings from this study rely on a specific animal model of maternal inflammation, and physiological responses seen in mice do not directly translate to human neurodevelopment. Because rapamycin has strong immunosuppressive properties, it is not a practical daily treatment for behavioral or sensory symptoms in humans.
“We don’t believe that rapamycin or its close relatives that are currently used clinically will be the ‘cure’ for autism,” the authors cautioned. “First, our effects were temporary and wore off after several treatments. Second, as a class of medications, they can have significant side effects, especially immunosuppression.” They emphasized that they “would not recommend treatment with these medications outside of the conditions for which they are approved.”
Instead of acting as a direct treatment, the drug helps reveal underlying mechanisms for scientists to target. “We look at our findings as a fulcrum to further study autism-associated behaviors and symptoms and how they can be treated,” the authors explained.
Moving forward, the research team plans to explore other interventions. “In one set of studies we are trying to discover the downstream molecular pathways by which rapamycin acts so that we can potentially develop new therapies,” they said. “In the other approach, we are investigating the neural pathways that are misregulated in our model to see if these pathways can be functionally manipulated by therapeutic means, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation.”
The study, “Acute rapamycin treatment reveals distinct mechanisms of dysfunction in a maternal inflammation mouse model,” was authored by JE Le Belle, M. C. Condro, C. Cepeda, KD Oikonomou, K. Tessema, L. Dudley, J. Schoenfield, R. Kawaguchi, D. Geschwind, AJ Silva, Z. Zhang, K. Shokat, NG Harris, and HI Kornblum.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/single-dose-of-rapamycin-rapidly-reduces-autism-like-traits-in-adult-mice/
-------------------------------------------------
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-
DATE: August 13, 2026 at 05:02AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: My Son’s Racist Views Are Destroying Our Family
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/well/mind/racism-family-relationship-therapist.html
Our Ask the Therapist columnist, Lori Gottlieb, advises a reader who wants to maintain a relationship with her son while protecting her daughter from his hurtful behavior.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/well/mind/racism-family-relationship-therapist.html
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-
DATE: August 13, 2026 at 05:02AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: My Son’s Racist Views Are Destroying Our Family
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/well/mind/racism-family-relationship-therapist.html
Our Ask the Therapist columnist, Lori Gottlieb, advises a reader who wants to maintain a relationship with her son while protecting her daughter from his hurtful behavior.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/well/mind/racism-family-relationship-therapist.html
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-
DATE: August 13, 2026 at 04:30AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS MENTAL HEALTHTITLE: STAT+: What patients actually think about ‘minimally invasive’ brain implants
Scroll through the flashy websites of neurotechnology startups and a phrase repeats again and again: “minimally invasive.”
“The term is fuzzy, problematic,” said Anna Wexler, a medical ethics and health policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. “Is it physical invasiveness? We’re not sure, it’s a fraught term.”
The fuzziness hasn’t stopped most brain-computer interface startups from deploying it in a bid to differentiate their devices from others in development. Synchron, Motif Neuroscience, Precision Neuroscience, and Merge Labs all use it liberally. Journalists sometimes repeat the spin.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…
-------------------------------------------------
STAT News reports "from the frontiers of health and medicine".
Learn more at https://www.statnews.com/topic/mental-health/ .
See also their complete Mastodon account at @STAT .
This robot is NOT affiliated with STAT news and merely rebroadcasts from their site. Responses posted here are not monitored.
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DATE: August 13, 2026 at 04:30AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS MENTAL HEALTHTITLE: STAT+: What patients actually think about ‘minimally invasive’ brain implants
Scroll through the flashy websites of neurotechnology startups and a phrase repeats again and again: “minimally invasive.”
“The term is fuzzy, problematic,” said Anna Wexler, a medical ethics and health policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. “Is it physical invasiveness? We’re not sure, it’s a fraught term.”
The fuzziness hasn’t stopped most brain-computer interface startups from deploying it in a bid to differentiate their devices from others in development. Synchron, Motif Neuroscience, Precision Neuroscience, and Merge Labs all use it liberally. Journalists sometimes repeat the spin.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Evolving political views linked to changes in brain activity
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-shifting-political-loyalties-alter-brain-activity-over-time/
When people alter their political loyalties, the way their brains respond to political messages changes alongside those shifting allegiances. A small study tracked individuals over two and a half years and found that evolving feelings about political groups altered brain activity in regions related to emotion and memory. These results, published in Communications Psychology, detail how social identity deeply shapes the way the human brain processes political information.
Political identity has traditionally been measured by a person’s abstract beliefs or policy preferences, such as identifying as liberal or conservative. In recent years, political polarization has become more personal, with group loyalty often overriding specific policy positions. Many voters now view politics through a lens of strict group membership, prioritizing whether a politician belongs to their specific faction over the details of proposed legislation. This shift has led researchers to ask how changes in worldview manifest physically within the brain over time.
Most neuroimaging studies compare different groups of people at a single moment in time. Very few track how an individual’s neural responses to the exact same information might shift as their own perspectives evolve. Finding an environment to test this is difficult, because adult political opinions tend to remain stable under normal conditions.
The research was conducted by neuroscientists Gal Boiman, Tal Ohad, and Yaara Yeshurun at Tel Aviv University, along with their colleagues Yohay Zvi and Noa Katabi. The team took advantage of a prolonged period of political instability in Israel starting in 2019. During this time, repeated elections and unexpected alliances disrupted traditional party lines, creating a rare opportunity to observe people as their political loyalties shifted in real time.
To study this phenomenon, the researchers recruited a group of participants for an initial brain scanning session in April 2019. More than two years later, in August 2021, 21 of those individuals returned for a second scan. Because the sample included fewer than 50 participants, it is considered a small study. During both sessions, participants lay inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, a machine that measures brain activity by tracking blood flow.
While inside the scanner, the participants watched identical sets of videos. The video clips included campaign advertisements from left-wing, right-wing, and centrist parties, as well as speeches by political figures. A documentary clip about a man who converted an old bus into a house served as a neutral baseline.
After each scanning session, the participants answered extensive questionnaires in a separate room. These surveys measured their agreement with the videos, their emotional engagement, and their specific sentiments toward the political figures shown. The questions asked participants to rate feelings like trust, pride, anger, and disgust. During the 2021 session, participants also answered questions about how their opinions had changed since the first viewing.
The research team used the survey responses to calculate a score representing how much each person’s interpretation of the videos had altered. They divided these changes into two main categories. One category measured shifts in abstract ideology, such as opinions on specific government policies. The second category measured changes in group identity, capturing how participants felt about specific politicians and political factions.
Next, the researchers compared the brain scans from 2019 with the scans from 2021. They looked for differences in brain activity across thousands of tiny, three-dimensional blocks of brain tissue, known as voxels. The researchers mapped these differences to see which parts of the brain changed the most and which remained stable. To ensure accuracy, they filtered out baseline changes that occurred when participants watched the neutral documentary video.
The analysis revealed a hierarchy of brain adaptation. Brain regions responsible for basic sensory processing, such as the visual and auditory cortices, showed the least amount of change between the two sessions. When participants watched the same videos two years later, their visual and auditory centers reacted in almost the exact same way.
In contrast, the largest differences in brain activity appeared in areas deep within the brain that manage memory, emotion, and reward. These areas included the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the striatum. The amygdala helps process emotional reactions, the hippocampus is heavily involved in forming and retrieving memories, and the striatum plays a role in recognizing rewards.
The researchers then looked for links between the altered brain activity and the survey scores measuring shifts in interpretation. They found that changes in brain activity directly correlated with how much a participant’s interpretation of a video had changed. The brain activity shifted the most when participants watched videos of politicians who had made unexpected alliances or changed their political positioning during the two-year gap.
When the researchers separated the survey scores into ideology and group identity, a distinct pattern emerged. The alterations in brain activity were strongly associated with changing feelings about political groups and specific figures. In contrast, the relationship between brain activity and changes in abstract ideological beliefs was not statistically significant. This suggests that shifting loyalties to a political team are more closely tied to how the brain processes information than changing opinions on policy.
The study design relies on observing natural changes over time, meaning it can only identify associations rather than establish direct causes. It remains unknown whether changing political attitudes cause the brain’s processing pathways to alter, or if underlying neural shifts lead to new political attitudes. The authors note that the small sample size prevented them from comparing different demographic groups, such as strictly conservative versus liberal voters. This limitation makes it impossible to say if one end of the political spectrum experiences these brain changes differently than the other.
The findings also depend on real-world political developments, which introduces some contextual variables. A participant might interpret a video differently in 2021 not just because their internal worldview changed, but because the politician in the video had taken new actions in the real world. Future research could use controlled laboratory settings to isolate personal shifts in opinion from external political events.
The study, “Changes in political attitudes are associated with changes in neural responses to political content,” was authored by Gal Boiman, Tal Ohad, Yohay Zvi, Noa Katabi, and Yaara Yeshurun.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-shifting-political-loyalties-alter-brain-activity-over-time/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PoliticalIdentity #BrainActivity #Neuroscience #PoliticalPersuasion #EmotionMemory #AmygdalaHippocampus #VoterLoyalty #Neuroimaging #PoliticalContent #BlockbusterResearch
-
DATE: August 12, 2026 at 08:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Evolving political views linked to changes in brain activity
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-shifting-political-loyalties-alter-brain-activity-over-time/
When people alter their political loyalties, the way their brains respond to political messages changes alongside those shifting allegiances. A small study tracked individuals over two and a half years and found that evolving feelings about political groups altered brain activity in regions related to emotion and memory. These results, published in Communications Psychology, detail how social identity deeply shapes the way the human brain processes political information.
Political identity has traditionally been measured by a person’s abstract beliefs or policy preferences, such as identifying as liberal or conservative. In recent years, political polarization has become more personal, with group loyalty often overriding specific policy positions. Many voters now view politics through a lens of strict group membership, prioritizing whether a politician belongs to their specific faction over the details of proposed legislation. This shift has led researchers to ask how changes in worldview manifest physically within the brain over time.
Most neuroimaging studies compare different groups of people at a single moment in time. Very few track how an individual’s neural responses to the exact same information might shift as their own perspectives evolve. Finding an environment to test this is difficult, because adult political opinions tend to remain stable under normal conditions.
The research was conducted by neuroscientists Gal Boiman, Tal Ohad, and Yaara Yeshurun at Tel Aviv University, along with their colleagues Yohay Zvi and Noa Katabi. The team took advantage of a prolonged period of political instability in Israel starting in 2019. During this time, repeated elections and unexpected alliances disrupted traditional party lines, creating a rare opportunity to observe people as their political loyalties shifted in real time.
To study this phenomenon, the researchers recruited a group of participants for an initial brain scanning session in April 2019. More than two years later, in August 2021, 21 of those individuals returned for a second scan. Because the sample included fewer than 50 participants, it is considered a small study. During both sessions, participants lay inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner, a machine that measures brain activity by tracking blood flow.
While inside the scanner, the participants watched identical sets of videos. The video clips included campaign advertisements from left-wing, right-wing, and centrist parties, as well as speeches by political figures. A documentary clip about a man who converted an old bus into a house served as a neutral baseline.
After each scanning session, the participants answered extensive questionnaires in a separate room. These surveys measured their agreement with the videos, their emotional engagement, and their specific sentiments toward the political figures shown. The questions asked participants to rate feelings like trust, pride, anger, and disgust. During the 2021 session, participants also answered questions about how their opinions had changed since the first viewing.
The research team used the survey responses to calculate a score representing how much each person’s interpretation of the videos had altered. They divided these changes into two main categories. One category measured shifts in abstract ideology, such as opinions on specific government policies. The second category measured changes in group identity, capturing how participants felt about specific politicians and political factions.
Next, the researchers compared the brain scans from 2019 with the scans from 2021. They looked for differences in brain activity across thousands of tiny, three-dimensional blocks of brain tissue, known as voxels. The researchers mapped these differences to see which parts of the brain changed the most and which remained stable. To ensure accuracy, they filtered out baseline changes that occurred when participants watched the neutral documentary video.
The analysis revealed a hierarchy of brain adaptation. Brain regions responsible for basic sensory processing, such as the visual and auditory cortices, showed the least amount of change between the two sessions. When participants watched the same videos two years later, their visual and auditory centers reacted in almost the exact same way.
In contrast, the largest differences in brain activity appeared in areas deep within the brain that manage memory, emotion, and reward. These areas included the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the striatum. The amygdala helps process emotional reactions, the hippocampus is heavily involved in forming and retrieving memories, and the striatum plays a role in recognizing rewards.
The researchers then looked for links between the altered brain activity and the survey scores measuring shifts in interpretation. They found that changes in brain activity directly correlated with how much a participant’s interpretation of a video had changed. The brain activity shifted the most when participants watched videos of politicians who had made unexpected alliances or changed their political positioning during the two-year gap.
When the researchers separated the survey scores into ideology and group identity, a distinct pattern emerged. The alterations in brain activity were strongly associated with changing feelings about political groups and specific figures. In contrast, the relationship between brain activity and changes in abstract ideological beliefs was not statistically significant. This suggests that shifting loyalties to a political team are more closely tied to how the brain processes information than changing opinions on policy.
The study design relies on observing natural changes over time, meaning it can only identify associations rather than establish direct causes. It remains unknown whether changing political attitudes cause the brain’s processing pathways to alter, or if underlying neural shifts lead to new political attitudes. The authors note that the small sample size prevented them from comparing different demographic groups, such as strictly conservative versus liberal voters. This limitation makes it impossible to say if one end of the political spectrum experiences these brain changes differently than the other.
The findings also depend on real-world political developments, which introduces some contextual variables. A participant might interpret a video differently in 2021 not just because their internal worldview changed, but because the politician in the video had taken new actions in the real world. Future research could use controlled laboratory settings to isolate personal shifts in opinion from external political events.
The study, “Changes in political attitudes are associated with changes in neural responses to political content,” was authored by Gal Boiman, Tal Ohad, Yohay Zvi, Noa Katabi, and Yaara Yeshurun.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-shifting-political-loyalties-alter-brain-activity-over-time/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PoliticalIdentity #BrainActivity #Neuroscience #PoliticalPersuasion #EmotionMemory #AmygdalaHippocampus #VoterLoyalty #Neuroimaging #PoliticalContent #BlockbusterResearch
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 06:24PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
#Ransomware Attack Disables #Canadian Hospital's Doors, #HVAC: Experts: Incident Underscores OT Risks in #Healthcare Environments https://t.co/8uzCYjaZSb #HSCWinnipeg #SharedHealth #cyberattack
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#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 06:24PM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
#Ransomware Attack Disables #Canadian Hospital's Doors, #HVAC: Experts: Incident Underscores OT Risks in #Healthcare Environments https://t.co/8uzCYjaZSb #HSCWinnipeg #SharedHealth #cyberattack
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
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Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
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#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
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DATE: August 12, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Dogs can distinguish between specific negative human facial expressions, brain scans show
New research provides evidence that the canine brain not only separates human facial expressions by positive or negative emotion but also distinguishes between specific negative expressions. These distinct patterns of brain activity suggest that dogs have a nuanced neural representation of human emotions. The findings were recently published in the journal iScience.
Behavioral studies have documented that dogs observe and react to human emotional cues. Canines can distinguish between a smiling face and a neutral one. They often modify their behavior based on the emotional states of the humans around them.
Despite this observed flexibility, the exact brain processes supporting these abilities are not fully understood. Previous neuroimaging work mostly tested positive versus negative emotions or relied on images of the dogs’ caregivers. Because of this, it was not known if canine brains simply register a positive or negative state or if they can process the differences between distinct emotional expressions of the same valence.
To rule out the effect of familiarity, scientists designed a new experiment using only photographs of unfamiliar human faces. They aimed to map the specific neural mechanisms underlying how dogs process happy expressions. They also wanted to observe if the canine brain exhibits unique patterns of activity for different negative facial expressions.
In the first part of the study, the researchers recruited eight awake pet dogs, primarily border collies. The animals were trained to lie completely still inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. This device measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. During the brain scans, the dogs viewed alternating blocks of photographs showing strangers with either happy or neutral facial expressions.
The researchers matched the images for low-level visual properties like brightness and contrast to ensure the dogs were reacting to the emotions rather than simple lighting differences. The scans indicated that happy faces elicited stronger brain activity than neutral faces. This increased activity occurred in a large cluster located in the right temporal cortex that extended into the caudate nucleus.
The temporal cortex is an area associated with processing visual and social information. The caudate nucleus is a brain region typically linked to the processing of rewards. This pattern suggests that happy human faces, even those of strangers, function as rewarding social stimuli for dogs.
Next, the authors conducted a second experiment to test whether this specific brain region responds uniquely to happiness or just to emotional faces in general. They scanned twelve dogs, including some from the first group. This time, they showed the animals images of unfamiliar humans expressing happiness, anger, fear, and sadness.
The scientists used a machine learning computer model to analyze the brain data, restricting their focus only to the temporal-caudate region identified in the first experiment. The model analyzed the data and successfully distinguished the brain activity patterns of happiness from those of anger, fear, and sadness. The model performed better than chance only when happiness was one of the two emotions being compared.
When the model tried to distinguish between two negative expressions using only this brain region, the results were not statistically significant. This indicates that the right temporal-caudate network has a preferential responsiveness to happy human faces. It does not simply react to any emotional facial expression.
To find out if dogs can differentiate between the negative emotions, the researchers expanded their analysis to the entire brain. They looked for distributed patterns of activity that generalized across different images of the same emotion but varied between different emotions. They also used computational models of the early visual cortex to ensure that subtle visual shapes did not skew the data.
This whole-brain analysis provided evidence that dog brains distinguish between certain negative facial expressions. The researchers found that activity patterns in a region called the right rostral suprasylvian gyrus differentiated sadness from fear. A different set of regions, including the right mid ectosylvian gyrus and left splenial gyrus, differentiated anger from fear.
The scientists did not find distinct brain patterns that could separate sadness from anger. Distinguishing between these two negative emotions may require additional sensory information, such as body language or vocal cues. Overall, the distinct neural patterns related to fearful faces suggest that fear might hold a particular biological relevance for dogs compared to other negative emotions.
Reading these findings requires some caution regarding how canine perception is interpreted. The ability of the canine brain to separate these expressions neurologically does not mean that dogs experience or categorize emotions exactly as humans do. The labels of happiness, fear, anger, and sadness are human descriptions of the stimuli. They do not necessarily reflect a human-like semantic understanding of those feelings in the dogs’ minds.
The study sample also consisted largely of border collies, a breed known for its intense focus on human social cues. This high level of social tuning suggests that the findings might not apply equally to all canine breeds. Free-ranging dogs or breeds less oriented toward human interaction might process facial expressions differently.
The research relied on static photographs rather than real-world emotional events. In everyday life, dogs interpret dynamic facial movements paired with human body language, vocal tone, and scent. Future research plans to use more naturalistic, moving, and multisensory stimuli to observe how dogs integrate all of these social signals.
The study, “Dog brain representations of human facial expressions: Encoding happiness and differentiating specific negative expressions,” was authored by Raúl Hernández-Pérez, Luis Concha, Attila Andics, Rodolfo Bernal-Gamboa, and Laura V. Cuaya.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DogBrain #CanineCognition #HumanFaces #EmotionalProcessing #HappyFace #NegativeExpressions #Neuroscience #fMRI #DogBehavior #PetResearch
-
DATE: August 12, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Dogs can distinguish between specific negative human facial expressions, brain scans show
New research provides evidence that the canine brain not only separates human facial expressions by positive or negative emotion but also distinguishes between specific negative expressions. These distinct patterns of brain activity suggest that dogs have a nuanced neural representation of human emotions. The findings were recently published in the journal iScience.
Behavioral studies have documented that dogs observe and react to human emotional cues. Canines can distinguish between a smiling face and a neutral one. They often modify their behavior based on the emotional states of the humans around them.
Despite this observed flexibility, the exact brain processes supporting these abilities are not fully understood. Previous neuroimaging work mostly tested positive versus negative emotions or relied on images of the dogs’ caregivers. Because of this, it was not known if canine brains simply register a positive or negative state or if they can process the differences between distinct emotional expressions of the same valence.
To rule out the effect of familiarity, scientists designed a new experiment using only photographs of unfamiliar human faces. They aimed to map the specific neural mechanisms underlying how dogs process happy expressions. They also wanted to observe if the canine brain exhibits unique patterns of activity for different negative facial expressions.
In the first part of the study, the researchers recruited eight awake pet dogs, primarily border collies. The animals were trained to lie completely still inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. This device measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow. During the brain scans, the dogs viewed alternating blocks of photographs showing strangers with either happy or neutral facial expressions.
The researchers matched the images for low-level visual properties like brightness and contrast to ensure the dogs were reacting to the emotions rather than simple lighting differences. The scans indicated that happy faces elicited stronger brain activity than neutral faces. This increased activity occurred in a large cluster located in the right temporal cortex that extended into the caudate nucleus.
The temporal cortex is an area associated with processing visual and social information. The caudate nucleus is a brain region typically linked to the processing of rewards. This pattern suggests that happy human faces, even those of strangers, function as rewarding social stimuli for dogs.
Next, the authors conducted a second experiment to test whether this specific brain region responds uniquely to happiness or just to emotional faces in general. They scanned twelve dogs, including some from the first group. This time, they showed the animals images of unfamiliar humans expressing happiness, anger, fear, and sadness.
The scientists used a machine learning computer model to analyze the brain data, restricting their focus only to the temporal-caudate region identified in the first experiment. The model analyzed the data and successfully distinguished the brain activity patterns of happiness from those of anger, fear, and sadness. The model performed better than chance only when happiness was one of the two emotions being compared.
When the model tried to distinguish between two negative expressions using only this brain region, the results were not statistically significant. This indicates that the right temporal-caudate network has a preferential responsiveness to happy human faces. It does not simply react to any emotional facial expression.
To find out if dogs can differentiate between the negative emotions, the researchers expanded their analysis to the entire brain. They looked for distributed patterns of activity that generalized across different images of the same emotion but varied between different emotions. They also used computational models of the early visual cortex to ensure that subtle visual shapes did not skew the data.
This whole-brain analysis provided evidence that dog brains distinguish between certain negative facial expressions. The researchers found that activity patterns in a region called the right rostral suprasylvian gyrus differentiated sadness from fear. A different set of regions, including the right mid ectosylvian gyrus and left splenial gyrus, differentiated anger from fear.
The scientists did not find distinct brain patterns that could separate sadness from anger. Distinguishing between these two negative emotions may require additional sensory information, such as body language or vocal cues. Overall, the distinct neural patterns related to fearful faces suggest that fear might hold a particular biological relevance for dogs compared to other negative emotions.
Reading these findings requires some caution regarding how canine perception is interpreted. The ability of the canine brain to separate these expressions neurologically does not mean that dogs experience or categorize emotions exactly as humans do. The labels of happiness, fear, anger, and sadness are human descriptions of the stimuli. They do not necessarily reflect a human-like semantic understanding of those feelings in the dogs’ minds.
The study sample also consisted largely of border collies, a breed known for its intense focus on human social cues. This high level of social tuning suggests that the findings might not apply equally to all canine breeds. Free-ranging dogs or breeds less oriented toward human interaction might process facial expressions differently.
The research relied on static photographs rather than real-world emotional events. In everyday life, dogs interpret dynamic facial movements paired with human body language, vocal tone, and scent. Future research plans to use more naturalistic, moving, and multisensory stimuli to observe how dogs integrate all of these social signals.
The study, “Dog brain representations of human facial expressions: Encoding happiness and differentiating specific negative expressions,” was authored by Raúl Hernández-Pérez, Luis Concha, Attila Andics, Rodolfo Bernal-Gamboa, and Laura V. Cuaya.
-------------------------------------------------
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DogBrain #CanineCognition #HumanFaces #EmotionalProcessing #HappyFace #NegativeExpressions #Neuroscience #fMRI #DogBehavior #PetResearch
-
DATE: August 12, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: How sexual arousal distorts men’s perception of women’s boundaries
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
A new study shows that sexually aroused men are more prone to misjudging a woman’s interest in flirting by focusing on her clothing rather than her facial expressions. When in an aroused state, men often prioritize broad signals of sexual appeal over direct signs of rejection. The research was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
When people navigate social situations, they must process a variety of signals to understand the intentions of those around them. These signals fall into two categories known as global cues and specific cues. Global cues are broad, stable characteristics like physical attractiveness, general demeanor, or revealing clothing. Specific cues are tied to a particular moment and directed at a specific person, such as a flirtatious smile, a scowl, or deliberate eye contact.
Misunderstandings frequently occur when observers focus heavily on a person’s general physical appeal while ignoring explicit facial expressions that indicate disinterest. Psychologists refer to this tendency as an overreliance on global cues. In the context of dating and flirting, past research connects this perceptual bias to a higher risk of sexually aggressive behavior. The observer projects his own desires onto the target, creating a bias where he assumes sexual interest that does not exist.
Visceral states like hunger or sexual arousal are known to influence how the human brain processes information. When individuals experience an intense physical drive, they often suffer from a kind of motivational myopia. They focus their attention entirely on stimuli that promise immediate gratification. In a state of sexual arousal, a person’s internal goals might override the visual information they receive from a social partner.
Ingo Landwehr, a researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, led an investigation to explore this phenomenon alongside colleagues Katrin Landwehr and Alexander F. Schmidt. The researchers wanted to test whether an accessible computer task could accurately measure a man’s overreliance on global cues. They also sought to determine how temporary states of sexual arousal might amplify this perceptual bias, especially in men with certain problematic personality traits.
The researchers recruited 284 heterosexual men for an online experiment. Participants completed a decision making task where they viewed pairs of photographs featuring the same woman. The images were thoroughly standardized and validated to ensure they looked authentic to everyday social interactions.
The photographs varied systematically along two dimensions. First, the women wore either casual everyday clothing or sexually provocative outfits. Second, they displayed either a flirtatious facial expression or a blatantly rejecting facial expression. During each trial, the participants had a little over two seconds to press a keyboard button selecting the image of the woman who was more likely to be flirting with them.
The research team divided the image pairs into two distinct types of trials. In the low conflict trials, the visual cues matched stereotypical expectations. One image showed a flirtatious woman in revealing clothing, while the other showed a rejecting woman in casual clothing. Choosing the flirting woman was conceptually easy because both her clothing and her facial expression signaled approachability.
In the high conflict trials, the cues conveyed opposing information. Participants had to choose between a casually dressed woman who was flirting and a provocatively dressed woman who was displaying a rejecting expression. Because facial expressions communicate direct intent in a specific interaction, the casually dressed but smiling woman was the conceptually correct choice. The sexy but rejecting image acted as a visual distractor.
Participants first completed a round of 52 trials to establish a baseline measurement in a non aroused state. After this baseline phase, the men completed several questionnaires designed to assess personality traits. These surveys measured characteristics like sexual desire, tendencies to objectify others, and a sense of sexual entitlement. They also measured antagonistic traits often called the Dark Triad, which include narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
The participants then listened to a five minute explicit erotic audio narrative designed to induce a state of sexual arousal. Immediately following the audio story, they completed a second round of 52 image selection trials. By comparing the results of the two rounds, the researchers could evaluate how the introduction of sexual arousal changed the participants’ decision making processes.
The researchers tracked how long it took participants to make their selections and how often they made incorrect choices. The results revealed that sexual arousal altered how the men processed the visual information. During the second round of trials, the men made their choices more rapidly across both types of scenarios.
In the low conflict scenarios, the participants continued to select the correct image with high accuracy. In the high conflict scenarios, their error rates increased. When sexually aroused, the men were more likely to select the woman in provocative clothing who was rejecting them, incorrectly bypassing the casually dressed woman who was actually flirting. A subgroup of men made errors on at least half of the high conflict trials when aroused.
The researchers also found a robust relationship between the participants’ task performance and their self reported personality traits. The team identified a cluster of characteristics that they labeled as the sexual manipulativeness, exploitativeness, and disinhibition factor. Men who scored higher on this factor, and those who displayed high levels of sexual entitlement, were especially prone to making errors during the high conflict trials while aroused.
These findings demonstrate that a state of sexual arousal can disrupt a person’s ability to accurately process direct social signals. Instead of interpreting a woman’s facial expression, aroused men with manipulative personality traits default to prioritizing clothing that aligns with their immediate sexual goals. The visceral state of arousal essentially amplifies their preexisting biases.
The authors noted a few limitations to the experimental design. Because the baseline task always occurred before the arousal task, it is possible that general fatigue or impatience contributed to some of the errors in the second round. The participants’ error rates increased near the end of the second block of trials, suggesting that diminished task engagement might have played a role as the experiment progressed.
The study also relied on an online sample of volunteers from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. This sampling method means the results might not perfectly reflect the behavior of the broader global population. Self selected internet samples can sometimes skew toward individuals with specific educational backgrounds or technological access.
Future studies could verify the results by changing the order of the experimental conditions or by utilizing different control groups. Researchers might also test other forms of physiological arousal, such as anxiety or nonsexual excitement, to see if they produce similar disruptions in social judgment. Ultimately, the research team hopes to apply this streamlined keyboard task in clinical and forensic settings to evaluate individuals who struggle to appropriately interpret sexual boundaries.
The study, “A Dress Is (Still) Not a Yes: How Even Simple Key Presses Reveal Sexually Aroused Men’s Overreliance on Global Cues in the Context of Sexual Flirting,” was authored by Ingo Landwehr, Katrin Landwehr, and Alexander F. Schmidt.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SexualArousal #PerceptionBias #GlobalCues #FlirtingSignals #SexualBoundaries #Misinterpretation #DarkTriad #SocialCognition #FaceVsClothing #ResearchStudy
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DATE: August 12, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: How sexual arousal distorts men’s perception of women’s boundaries
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
A new study shows that sexually aroused men are more prone to misjudging a woman’s interest in flirting by focusing on her clothing rather than her facial expressions. When in an aroused state, men often prioritize broad signals of sexual appeal over direct signs of rejection. The research was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
When people navigate social situations, they must process a variety of signals to understand the intentions of those around them. These signals fall into two categories known as global cues and specific cues. Global cues are broad, stable characteristics like physical attractiveness, general demeanor, or revealing clothing. Specific cues are tied to a particular moment and directed at a specific person, such as a flirtatious smile, a scowl, or deliberate eye contact.
Misunderstandings frequently occur when observers focus heavily on a person’s general physical appeal while ignoring explicit facial expressions that indicate disinterest. Psychologists refer to this tendency as an overreliance on global cues. In the context of dating and flirting, past research connects this perceptual bias to a higher risk of sexually aggressive behavior. The observer projects his own desires onto the target, creating a bias where he assumes sexual interest that does not exist.
Visceral states like hunger or sexual arousal are known to influence how the human brain processes information. When individuals experience an intense physical drive, they often suffer from a kind of motivational myopia. They focus their attention entirely on stimuli that promise immediate gratification. In a state of sexual arousal, a person’s internal goals might override the visual information they receive from a social partner.
Ingo Landwehr, a researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, led an investigation to explore this phenomenon alongside colleagues Katrin Landwehr and Alexander F. Schmidt. The researchers wanted to test whether an accessible computer task could accurately measure a man’s overreliance on global cues. They also sought to determine how temporary states of sexual arousal might amplify this perceptual bias, especially in men with certain problematic personality traits.
The researchers recruited 284 heterosexual men for an online experiment. Participants completed a decision making task where they viewed pairs of photographs featuring the same woman. The images were thoroughly standardized and validated to ensure they looked authentic to everyday social interactions.
The photographs varied systematically along two dimensions. First, the women wore either casual everyday clothing or sexually provocative outfits. Second, they displayed either a flirtatious facial expression or a blatantly rejecting facial expression. During each trial, the participants had a little over two seconds to press a keyboard button selecting the image of the woman who was more likely to be flirting with them.
The research team divided the image pairs into two distinct types of trials. In the low conflict trials, the visual cues matched stereotypical expectations. One image showed a flirtatious woman in revealing clothing, while the other showed a rejecting woman in casual clothing. Choosing the flirting woman was conceptually easy because both her clothing and her facial expression signaled approachability.
In the high conflict trials, the cues conveyed opposing information. Participants had to choose between a casually dressed woman who was flirting and a provocatively dressed woman who was displaying a rejecting expression. Because facial expressions communicate direct intent in a specific interaction, the casually dressed but smiling woman was the conceptually correct choice. The sexy but rejecting image acted as a visual distractor.
Participants first completed a round of 52 trials to establish a baseline measurement in a non aroused state. After this baseline phase, the men completed several questionnaires designed to assess personality traits. These surveys measured characteristics like sexual desire, tendencies to objectify others, and a sense of sexual entitlement. They also measured antagonistic traits often called the Dark Triad, which include narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
The participants then listened to a five minute explicit erotic audio narrative designed to induce a state of sexual arousal. Immediately following the audio story, they completed a second round of 52 image selection trials. By comparing the results of the two rounds, the researchers could evaluate how the introduction of sexual arousal changed the participants’ decision making processes.
The researchers tracked how long it took participants to make their selections and how often they made incorrect choices. The results revealed that sexual arousal altered how the men processed the visual information. During the second round of trials, the men made their choices more rapidly across both types of scenarios.
In the low conflict scenarios, the participants continued to select the correct image with high accuracy. In the high conflict scenarios, their error rates increased. When sexually aroused, the men were more likely to select the woman in provocative clothing who was rejecting them, incorrectly bypassing the casually dressed woman who was actually flirting. A subgroup of men made errors on at least half of the high conflict trials when aroused.
The researchers also found a robust relationship between the participants’ task performance and their self reported personality traits. The team identified a cluster of characteristics that they labeled as the sexual manipulativeness, exploitativeness, and disinhibition factor. Men who scored higher on this factor, and those who displayed high levels of sexual entitlement, were especially prone to making errors during the high conflict trials while aroused.
These findings demonstrate that a state of sexual arousal can disrupt a person’s ability to accurately process direct social signals. Instead of interpreting a woman’s facial expression, aroused men with manipulative personality traits default to prioritizing clothing that aligns with their immediate sexual goals. The visceral state of arousal essentially amplifies their preexisting biases.
The authors noted a few limitations to the experimental design. Because the baseline task always occurred before the arousal task, it is possible that general fatigue or impatience contributed to some of the errors in the second round. The participants’ error rates increased near the end of the second block of trials, suggesting that diminished task engagement might have played a role as the experiment progressed.
The study also relied on an online sample of volunteers from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. This sampling method means the results might not perfectly reflect the behavior of the broader global population. Self selected internet samples can sometimes skew toward individuals with specific educational backgrounds or technological access.
Future studies could verify the results by changing the order of the experimental conditions or by utilizing different control groups. Researchers might also test other forms of physiological arousal, such as anxiety or nonsexual excitement, to see if they produce similar disruptions in social judgment. Ultimately, the research team hopes to apply this streamlined keyboard task in clinical and forensic settings to evaluate individuals who struggle to appropriately interpret sexual boundaries.
The study, “A Dress Is (Still) Not a Yes: How Even Simple Key Presses Reveal Sexually Aroused Men’s Overreliance on Global Cues in the Context of Sexual Flirting,” was authored by Ingo Landwehr, Katrin Landwehr, and Alexander F. Schmidt.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
-------------------------------------------------
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SexualArousal #PerceptionBias #GlobalCues #FlirtingSignals #SexualBoundaries #Misinterpretation #DarkTriad #SocialCognition #FaceVsClothing #ResearchStudy
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study reveals how running trains the body to handle psychological stress
A study examining the effects of exercise on mental health symptom severity found that these effects are mediated by reductions in perceived stress and repetitive negative thinking. In other words, exercise reduced perceived stress and repetitive negative thinking, and these led to the reduction of other mental health symptoms. The paper was published in Psychological Medicine.
Regular physical exercise is increasingly recognized as an important tool for supporting mental health as well as physical health. Research suggests that exercise can reduce symptoms of several mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and insomnia. Yet, researchers are still trying to understand exactly why moving the body can produce such broad psychological benefits.
One possibility is that exercise acts as a transdiagnostic treatment—meaning it influences processes that are shared across many different mental disorders rather than acting on symptoms unique to a particular diagnosis. These common processes include how strongly people perceive and experience stress, how much they become caught in repetitive negative thoughts, and how well they sleep.
Each of these factors can contribute to the development and persistence of psychological difficulties, and they can also reinforce one another over time. Exercise may help interrupt this cycle by improving the ability to cope with stress, reducing patterns of persistent negative thinking, and supporting better sleep.
Study author Anna Katharina Frei and her colleagues conducted a study in which they investigated how perceived stress, repetitive negative thinking, and sleep quality jointly mediate the effect of exercise on mental health symptom severity. They conducted a secondary analysis of the ImPuls trial data (using existing data from an already completed trial to answer this new question) that included 6- and 12-month follow-ups along with data collection at the start of the study.
The ImPuls trial was a study conducted across 10 study sites in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Participants were randomly assigned into two parallel groups – one receiving the ImPuls exercise treatment plus treatment as usual (for the disorder participants suffered from) and one receiving only treatment as usual, which acted as a control group.
Study participants were 400 physically inactive individuals suffering from major depressive disorder, agoraphobia, panic disorder, PTSD, or insomnia. Nearly 72% of them suffered from major depressive disorder. Participants’ average age was 42 years, and about 71% of them were women.
The ImPuls treatment consisted of supervised group meetings and 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise performed as outdoor running two to three times per week. The group meetings were focused on behavioral change techniques (e.g. goal setting, barrier management) delivered by qualified exercise therapists to increase motivation and commitment to maintaining an exercise routine.
The supervised portion of the treatment lasted for 4 weeks, after which participants were instructed to continue nonsupervised aerobic exercises for five more months, making it a 6-month intervention overall. The adherence to this regimen was monitored through phone calls with the exercise therapist. The treatment as usual condition (the control condition) included standard interventions typically provided in German outpatient settings, such as psychological treatments and medications.
Study authors assessed participants’ overall symptom severity (using the Global Severity Index, which measures combined distress from depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms), sleep quality (the German version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), perceived stress (the Perceived Stress Scale), and repetitive negative thinking (the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire).
Results showed that at the 6- and 12-month assessments, participants undergoing the ImPuls treatment showed significantly reduced repetitive negative thinking and perceived stress compared to the control group. However, contrary to initial expectations, the exercise intervention did not lead to improved sleep quality at either time point. The authors suggest this may be because while exercise is known to improve sleep for depression, its impact on the sleep of those with PTSD and anxiety disorders—who were also included in this mixed group—is historically less conclusive.
Study authors tested a statistical model proposing that reductions in repetitive negative thinking and perceived stress (caused by the ImPuls treatment) led to reductions in disorder symptoms. Results confirmed this relationship, showing that changes in perceived stress and repetitive negative thinking fully mediated the treatment’s effect on overall symptom severity.
“Our results suggest that changes in perceived stress and repetitive negative thinking may be key transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying the treatment effect of exercise on global symptom severity,” study authors concluded.
The researchers theorize that exercise reduces stress by safely mimicking physical stress responses (like a raised heart rate and cortisol release), effectively training the body to handle actual psychological stressors better over time. Furthermore, the physical exertion of exercise may act as a deliberate distraction, forcing the brain to shift focus away from symptoms and break the cycle of repetitive negative thinking.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the effects of exercise on mental health symptoms. However, the study participants were likely aware of what the study was investigating and what the expected results were, while outcome measures were based on self-reports. This could have created expectancy effects that may have affected the results.
The paper, “Changes in repetitive negative thinking and stress perception mediate treatment effects of a transdiagnostic exercise intervention,” was authored by Anna Katharina Frei, Thomas Studnitz, Britta Seiffer, Jana Welkerling, Johanna-Marie Zeibig, Eva Herzog, Mia Maria Günak, Thomas Ehring, Keisuke Takano, Tristan Nakagawa, Leonie Sundmacher, Sebastian Himmler, Stefan Peters, Anna Lena Flagmeier, Lena Zwanzleitner, Ander Ramos-Murguialday, Gorden Sudeck, and Sebastian Wolf.
-------------------------------------------------
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ExerciseMentalHealth #TransdiagnosticTreatment #StressReduction #RepetitiveNegativeThinking #SleepQuality #ImPulsTrial #MentalHealthResearch #DepressionAnxietyPTSD #RunningForWellness #PsychologicalMedicine
-
DATE: August 12, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study reveals how running trains the body to handle psychological stress
A study examining the effects of exercise on mental health symptom severity found that these effects are mediated by reductions in perceived stress and repetitive negative thinking. In other words, exercise reduced perceived stress and repetitive negative thinking, and these led to the reduction of other mental health symptoms. The paper was published in Psychological Medicine.
Regular physical exercise is increasingly recognized as an important tool for supporting mental health as well as physical health. Research suggests that exercise can reduce symptoms of several mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and insomnia. Yet, researchers are still trying to understand exactly why moving the body can produce such broad psychological benefits.
One possibility is that exercise acts as a transdiagnostic treatment—meaning it influences processes that are shared across many different mental disorders rather than acting on symptoms unique to a particular diagnosis. These common processes include how strongly people perceive and experience stress, how much they become caught in repetitive negative thoughts, and how well they sleep.
Each of these factors can contribute to the development and persistence of psychological difficulties, and they can also reinforce one another over time. Exercise may help interrupt this cycle by improving the ability to cope with stress, reducing patterns of persistent negative thinking, and supporting better sleep.
Study author Anna Katharina Frei and her colleagues conducted a study in which they investigated how perceived stress, repetitive negative thinking, and sleep quality jointly mediate the effect of exercise on mental health symptom severity. They conducted a secondary analysis of the ImPuls trial data (using existing data from an already completed trial to answer this new question) that included 6- and 12-month follow-ups along with data collection at the start of the study.
The ImPuls trial was a study conducted across 10 study sites in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Participants were randomly assigned into two parallel groups – one receiving the ImPuls exercise treatment plus treatment as usual (for the disorder participants suffered from) and one receiving only treatment as usual, which acted as a control group.
Study participants were 400 physically inactive individuals suffering from major depressive disorder, agoraphobia, panic disorder, PTSD, or insomnia. Nearly 72% of them suffered from major depressive disorder. Participants’ average age was 42 years, and about 71% of them were women.
The ImPuls treatment consisted of supervised group meetings and 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise performed as outdoor running two to three times per week. The group meetings were focused on behavioral change techniques (e.g. goal setting, barrier management) delivered by qualified exercise therapists to increase motivation and commitment to maintaining an exercise routine.
The supervised portion of the treatment lasted for 4 weeks, after which participants were instructed to continue nonsupervised aerobic exercises for five more months, making it a 6-month intervention overall. The adherence to this regimen was monitored through phone calls with the exercise therapist. The treatment as usual condition (the control condition) included standard interventions typically provided in German outpatient settings, such as psychological treatments and medications.
Study authors assessed participants’ overall symptom severity (using the Global Severity Index, which measures combined distress from depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms), sleep quality (the German version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), perceived stress (the Perceived Stress Scale), and repetitive negative thinking (the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire).
Results showed that at the 6- and 12-month assessments, participants undergoing the ImPuls treatment showed significantly reduced repetitive negative thinking and perceived stress compared to the control group. However, contrary to initial expectations, the exercise intervention did not lead to improved sleep quality at either time point. The authors suggest this may be because while exercise is known to improve sleep for depression, its impact on the sleep of those with PTSD and anxiety disorders—who were also included in this mixed group—is historically less conclusive.
Study authors tested a statistical model proposing that reductions in repetitive negative thinking and perceived stress (caused by the ImPuls treatment) led to reductions in disorder symptoms. Results confirmed this relationship, showing that changes in perceived stress and repetitive negative thinking fully mediated the treatment’s effect on overall symptom severity.
“Our results suggest that changes in perceived stress and repetitive negative thinking may be key transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying the treatment effect of exercise on global symptom severity,” study authors concluded.
The researchers theorize that exercise reduces stress by safely mimicking physical stress responses (like a raised heart rate and cortisol release), effectively training the body to handle actual psychological stressors better over time. Furthermore, the physical exertion of exercise may act as a deliberate distraction, forcing the brain to shift focus away from symptoms and break the cycle of repetitive negative thinking.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the effects of exercise on mental health symptoms. However, the study participants were likely aware of what the study was investigating and what the expected results were, while outcome measures were based on self-reports. This could have created expectancy effects that may have affected the results.
The paper, “Changes in repetitive negative thinking and stress perception mediate treatment effects of a transdiagnostic exercise intervention,” was authored by Anna Katharina Frei, Thomas Studnitz, Britta Seiffer, Jana Welkerling, Johanna-Marie Zeibig, Eva Herzog, Mia Maria Günak, Thomas Ehring, Keisuke Takano, Tristan Nakagawa, Leonie Sundmacher, Sebastian Himmler, Stefan Peters, Anna Lena Flagmeier, Lena Zwanzleitner, Ander Ramos-Murguialday, Gorden Sudeck, and Sebastian Wolf.
-------------------------------------------------
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #ExerciseMentalHealth #TransdiagnosticTreatment #StressReduction #RepetitiveNegativeThinking #SleepQuality #ImPulsTrial #MentalHealthResearch #DepressionAnxietyPTSD #RunningForWellness #PsychologicalMedicine
-
DATE: August 12, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Mentally engaging parenting linked to better working memory development
URL: https://www.psypost.org/mentally-engaging-parenting-linked-to-better-working-memory-development/
Children from wealthier families tend to start school with a better ability to hold and use information in their minds, but engaging kids in activities like reading or puzzles is associated with bridging this gap. A large study tracking students from kindergarten through fifth grade found that mentally engaging parenting practices are linked to protected cognitive development in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The research was published in Learning and Individual Differences.
Working memory is the mental capacity to temporarily hold and manipulate information. It acts as a mental workspace for tasks like reasoning, planning, and understanding language. In a classroom, a child uses working memory to remember multi-step instructions or to solve mental math problems. This cognitive skill is strongly linked to how well children learn when they enter formal schooling.
During early childhood, this mental capacity grows rapidly. A family’s socioeconomic status, which encompasses household income, parental education, and job prestige, is closely tied to this early cognitive development. Children raised in families with fewer resources often face chronic stress and have less access to educational materials. These factors are frequently associated with slower cognitive growth compared to peers from wealthier backgrounds.
Past research has shown mixed results about whether these early cognitive gaps widen, remain the same, or shrink as children progress through school. Researchers Li Zhao, Stephanie W.Y. Chan, and Shuyang Dong wanted to map exactly how working memory changes across childhood. They also examined whether specific parenting behaviors could alter the statistical relationship between a family’s socioeconomic background and a child’s cognitive growth.
The team analyzed data from a large study of 15,437 children in the United States. The information came from a national education database that followed a representative group of students from their kindergarten year in 2010 through the fifth grade. To measure working memory, the original survey administrators used a backward digit span task. Children listened to a sequence of numbers and had to repeat them back in reverse order.
The number sequences grew longer as the children succeeded, testing the limits of their mental capacity. This test was given to the students multiple times between kindergarten and the fifth grade. During the kindergarten year, parents answered survey questions about their household income, education levels, and occupations.
Parents also reported on three dimensions of their parenting behavior. They answered questions about cognitive stimulation, which included how often they read, sang, or did arts and crafts with their children. The survey also asked about parental warmth, such as how often parents expressed affection or felt close to their child. Finally, parents reported on negative discipline, specifically whether they spanked their child and how many times they had done so in the past week.
Using all these data points, the researchers built statistical models to track cognitive growth over time. Overall, working memory increased steadily for most children as they progressed through elementary school. The growth happened fastest in the early years and began to level off as the children approached the fifth grade.
A family’s socioeconomic status was linked to exactly how this growth happened. Children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds started kindergarten with better working memory scores than their less wealthy peers. However, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds actually showed a faster initial rate of cognitive growth during the early school years.
This early burst of growth allowed disadvantaged children to narrow the cognitive gap slightly. The researchers suspect that entering a structured school environment provides an initial boost to children who lacked resources at home. Yet, their working memory growth started to plateau much earlier than that of their wealthier peers. Children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds experienced a steadier, more prolonged period of working memory development.
Because of this longer growth period, the cognitive gap remained evident by the end of fifth grade. Over time, cumulative disadvantages like limited access to enriching extracurricular activities can continue to restrict cognitive development. Wealthier children keep benefiting from sustained access to enriched resources, allowing their mental capacities to grow for a longer period.
The researchers then looked at how parenting behaviors altered these trends. They found that cognitive stimulation was associated with a buffering effect against the negative impacts of a lower socioeconomic background. Children whose parents frequently engaged them in reading, puzzles, and nature activities tended to start kindergarten with higher working memory scores.
These engaging activities were also linked to changes in the trajectory of the children’s cognitive growth. Children receiving high levels of cognitive stimulation experienced a delayed plateau in their working memory development. This means their cognitive skills continued growing for a longer time, following a pattern more similar to the growth of children from wealthier families.
Other parenting behaviors did not alter the relationship between family wealth and cognitive growth. The results were not statistically significant for parental warmth modifying the socioeconomic disparities in working memory. The researchers noted that most parents in the survey reported very high levels of warmth, which might have made it difficult to detect any subtle statistical variations.
Spanking also failed to change the trajectory of socioeconomic disparities. While spanking was generally linked to poorer working memory across all groups, it did not uniquely associate with a change in the cognitive gap tied to socioeconomic status. Physical discipline appeared to be negatively linked to cognitive development regardless of a family’s income or education level.
There are a few limitations to the study design. All data on parenting behaviors were reported by the parents themselves. People often answer surveys in ways that make them look better, which can introduce bias into the results. Future projects could use direct observations of parent-child interactions to get more objective measurements.
Additionally, the researchers only used data on family income and parenting behaviors from the children’s kindergarten year. Families experience financial changes, and parenting styles evolve as children grow. By only looking at a single point in time, the study cannot account for how shifting family dynamics over the next five years might have shaped the students’ development.
The measurement of physical discipline was also quite narrow. The survey asked parents if they spanked their child and how many times they had done so in the past week. This short timeframe makes it hard to capture chronic patterns of harsh discipline. A longer assessment period would be needed to see how consistent physical discipline associates with cognitive growth over years.
The backward digit span task only assesses one specific type of cognitive processing. Working memory has multiple components, including the ability to remember spatial information. Using a wider variety of cognitive tests would provide a more complete picture of a child’s mental capabilities.
Finally, the data came exclusively from a sample of children in the United States. Educational systems and cultural parenting norms vary widely around the world. The ways that wealth and parenting interact to shape cognitive growth might look different in other countries.
The study, “Development of working memory through childhood: The interplay of family socioeconomic status and parenting behaviors,” was authored by Li Zhao, Stephanie W.Y. Chan, and Shuyang Dong.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/mentally-engaging-parenting-linked-to-better-working-memory-development/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #WorkingMemory #CognitiveDevelopment #EarlyChildhoodEducation #ParentingTips #SocioeconomicStatus #CognitiveStimulation #ReadingWithKids #MentalEngagement #ChildDevelopment #LearningDifferences
-
DATE: August 12, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Mentally engaging parenting linked to better working memory development
URL: https://www.psypost.org/mentally-engaging-parenting-linked-to-better-working-memory-development/
Children from wealthier families tend to start school with a better ability to hold and use information in their minds, but engaging kids in activities like reading or puzzles is associated with bridging this gap. A large study tracking students from kindergarten through fifth grade found that mentally engaging parenting practices are linked to protected cognitive development in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The research was published in Learning and Individual Differences.
Working memory is the mental capacity to temporarily hold and manipulate information. It acts as a mental workspace for tasks like reasoning, planning, and understanding language. In a classroom, a child uses working memory to remember multi-step instructions or to solve mental math problems. This cognitive skill is strongly linked to how well children learn when they enter formal schooling.
During early childhood, this mental capacity grows rapidly. A family’s socioeconomic status, which encompasses household income, parental education, and job prestige, is closely tied to this early cognitive development. Children raised in families with fewer resources often face chronic stress and have less access to educational materials. These factors are frequently associated with slower cognitive growth compared to peers from wealthier backgrounds.
Past research has shown mixed results about whether these early cognitive gaps widen, remain the same, or shrink as children progress through school. Researchers Li Zhao, Stephanie W.Y. Chan, and Shuyang Dong wanted to map exactly how working memory changes across childhood. They also examined whether specific parenting behaviors could alter the statistical relationship between a family’s socioeconomic background and a child’s cognitive growth.
The team analyzed data from a large study of 15,437 children in the United States. The information came from a national education database that followed a representative group of students from their kindergarten year in 2010 through the fifth grade. To measure working memory, the original survey administrators used a backward digit span task. Children listened to a sequence of numbers and had to repeat them back in reverse order.
The number sequences grew longer as the children succeeded, testing the limits of their mental capacity. This test was given to the students multiple times between kindergarten and the fifth grade. During the kindergarten year, parents answered survey questions about their household income, education levels, and occupations.
Parents also reported on three dimensions of their parenting behavior. They answered questions about cognitive stimulation, which included how often they read, sang, or did arts and crafts with their children. The survey also asked about parental warmth, such as how often parents expressed affection or felt close to their child. Finally, parents reported on negative discipline, specifically whether they spanked their child and how many times they had done so in the past week.
Using all these data points, the researchers built statistical models to track cognitive growth over time. Overall, working memory increased steadily for most children as they progressed through elementary school. The growth happened fastest in the early years and began to level off as the children approached the fifth grade.
A family’s socioeconomic status was linked to exactly how this growth happened. Children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds started kindergarten with better working memory scores than their less wealthy peers. However, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds actually showed a faster initial rate of cognitive growth during the early school years.
This early burst of growth allowed disadvantaged children to narrow the cognitive gap slightly. The researchers suspect that entering a structured school environment provides an initial boost to children who lacked resources at home. Yet, their working memory growth started to plateau much earlier than that of their wealthier peers. Children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds experienced a steadier, more prolonged period of working memory development.
Because of this longer growth period, the cognitive gap remained evident by the end of fifth grade. Over time, cumulative disadvantages like limited access to enriching extracurricular activities can continue to restrict cognitive development. Wealthier children keep benefiting from sustained access to enriched resources, allowing their mental capacities to grow for a longer period.
The researchers then looked at how parenting behaviors altered these trends. They found that cognitive stimulation was associated with a buffering effect against the negative impacts of a lower socioeconomic background. Children whose parents frequently engaged them in reading, puzzles, and nature activities tended to start kindergarten with higher working memory scores.
These engaging activities were also linked to changes in the trajectory of the children’s cognitive growth. Children receiving high levels of cognitive stimulation experienced a delayed plateau in their working memory development. This means their cognitive skills continued growing for a longer time, following a pattern more similar to the growth of children from wealthier families.
Other parenting behaviors did not alter the relationship between family wealth and cognitive growth. The results were not statistically significant for parental warmth modifying the socioeconomic disparities in working memory. The researchers noted that most parents in the survey reported very high levels of warmth, which might have made it difficult to detect any subtle statistical variations.
Spanking also failed to change the trajectory of socioeconomic disparities. While spanking was generally linked to poorer working memory across all groups, it did not uniquely associate with a change in the cognitive gap tied to socioeconomic status. Physical discipline appeared to be negatively linked to cognitive development regardless of a family’s income or education level.
There are a few limitations to the study design. All data on parenting behaviors were reported by the parents themselves. People often answer surveys in ways that make them look better, which can introduce bias into the results. Future projects could use direct observations of parent-child interactions to get more objective measurements.
Additionally, the researchers only used data on family income and parenting behaviors from the children’s kindergarten year. Families experience financial changes, and parenting styles evolve as children grow. By only looking at a single point in time, the study cannot account for how shifting family dynamics over the next five years might have shaped the students’ development.
The measurement of physical discipline was also quite narrow. The survey asked parents if they spanked their child and how many times they had done so in the past week. This short timeframe makes it hard to capture chronic patterns of harsh discipline. A longer assessment period would be needed to see how consistent physical discipline associates with cognitive growth over years.
The backward digit span task only assesses one specific type of cognitive processing. Working memory has multiple components, including the ability to remember spatial information. Using a wider variety of cognitive tests would provide a more complete picture of a child’s mental capabilities.
Finally, the data came exclusively from a sample of children in the United States. Educational systems and cultural parenting norms vary widely around the world. The ways that wealth and parenting interact to shape cognitive growth might look different in other countries.
The study, “Development of working memory through childhood: The interplay of family socioeconomic status and parenting behaviors,” was authored by Li Zhao, Stephanie W.Y. Chan, and Shuyang Dong.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/mentally-engaging-parenting-linked-to-better-working-memory-development/
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 09:20AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: Scientists discover a hidden brain rhythm that could improve Parkinson’s treatment
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011148.htm
Scientists have pinpointed a brain network—and its distinctive electrical rhythm—that appears to drive the benefits of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease. The discovery could lead to more precise, personalized stimulation settings and better results for patients.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011148.htm
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 10:36AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY PSYCHOLOGY FEEDTITLE: Ozempic may have revealed the brain’s hidden “craving center”
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011138.htm
Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding experiences. Packed with GLP-1 receptors, it may act as a crucial control point between thinking about a reward and feeling compelled to pursue it. The discovery could open new approaches to treating addiction as well as obesity.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011138.htm
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 11:00AM
SOURCE:
NEW YORK TIMES PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGISTS FEEDTITLE: Look Up at the Sky Tonight. The Perseid Meteor Shower Will Awe You.
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/opinion/perseid-meteor-shower-awe-inspiring.html
Experiencing awe makes us happier, healthier and more fulfilled. Why not watch the Perseid meteor shower to have a bit more awe in your life?
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/opinion/perseid-meteor-shower-awe-inspiring.html
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 09:20AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Scientists discover a hidden brain rhythm that could improve Parkinson’s treatment
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011148.htm
Scientists have pinpointed a brain network—and its distinctive electrical rhythm—that appears to drive the benefits of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease. The discovery could lead to more precise, personalized stimulation settings and better results for patients.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011148.htm
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DATE: August 11, 2026 at 09:12AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: MIT neuroscientists discover the brain can reason without words
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011140.htm
MIT neuroscientists have found striking evidence that language and logical reasoning are powered by separate systems in the brain. Even people with severe language impairments caused by stroke were able to solve challenging logic puzzles as well as people without those impairments, while brain scans showed that language-processing regions stayed largely quiet during reasoning tasks.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011140.htm
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 08:43AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: The adult brain can repair itself better than scientists thought
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260812015158.htm
The adult brain may be far better at repairing itself than scientists once believed. In mice, researchers discovered a special group of support cells called astrocytes that respond to damaged brain tissue by rebuilding lost cellular networks. Rather than simply moving into the injured area, these cells perform a remarkable maneuver: they create new nuclei and send them traveling through long cellular extensions to repopulate damaged regions.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260812015158.htm
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 10:36AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Ozempic may have revealed the brain’s hidden “craving center”
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011138.htm
Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding experiences. Packed with GLP-1 receptors, it may act as a crucial control point between thinking about a reward and feeling compelled to pursue it. The discovery could open new approaches to treating addiction as well as obesity.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011138.htm
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DATE: August 10, 2026 at 09:49PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Exercise may help the aging brain “take out the trash”
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260810015719.htm
Regular exercise may help the brain clear away harmful waste that can build up with age. Researchers found that physical activity supports several processes linked to the brain’s glymphatic cleanup system, including better sleep, lower inflammation, and healthier blood vessels. Because this waste-removal system becomes increasingly important as we get older, exercise could play a meaningful role in protecting against cognitive decline.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260810015719.htm
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 10:51AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS MENTAL HEALTHTITLE: Opinion: The Lindsay Clancy case shows the limits of postpartum psychiatry
The Lindsay Clancy case has become one of the most painful and polarizing stories in recent American memory. At its center are the unimaginable deaths of three young children and a mother whose mental state has become the subject of intense legal, medical, and public scrutiny. The criminal justice system will determine legal responsibility, but regardless of the trial’s outcome, the case exposes a larger and uncomfortable truth: Our understanding and treatment of postpartum psychiatric illnesses remain profoundly inadequate.
For many observers, the debate has become a binary one. Either Clancy was suffering from a severe postpartum psychiatric disorder, or she was not. Either she is guilty of murder or she is not. Either the system failed her or it did not. And, despite numerous attempts to seek medical care, she was either inappropriately medicated or not.
Read the rest…
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DATE: August 12, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Newly engineered psychedelic shows therapeutic promise without gastrointestinal distress
A recent study published in Science Signaling provides evidence that a newly engineered psychedelic compound can produce antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects in mice without causing gastrointestinal side effects. By altering the chemical structure of an existing psychedelic drug, researchers created a variant that targets specific brain receptors linked to mental health benefits but avoids receptors associated with nausea and physical discomfort.
“Psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD are showing therapeutic potential for individuals with severe psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety and PTSD,” explained study co-authors Javier González-Maeso, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and Malgorzata Dukat, a professor of medicinal chemistry at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy. “However, like most therapeutic drugs, psychedelics can also produce unwanted side effects.”
“Another interesting aspect of this field is that essentially all psychedelics currently being studied clinically belong to three major chemical classes: phenethylamines, such as mescaline; tryptamines, such as psilocybin; and ergolines, such as LSD,” the authors noted. “Despite their chemical differences, many of their hallucinogenic and potentially therapeutic effects are mediated through the serotonin 2A receptor (or 5-HT2A receptor) in the brain, as first proposed by Prof. Richard A. Glennon (coauthor of the manuscript) in 1984.”
The serotonin 2A receptor mediates positive mood and neural adaptability, but the drugs that target it often lack specificity. “We became interested in quipazine, a serotonergic compound first described in the 1960s and originally investigated as a potential antidepressant,” the authors explained. “Quipazine was never developed for routine medical use, in part because it also activates another serotonin receptor, the 5-HT3 receptor, which is highly expressed in the gastrointestinal system and can produce significant gastrointestinal side effects.”
To separate the therapeutic benefits from adverse physical reactions, the authors sought to chemically redesign quipazine. “Our goal was to combine medicinal chemistry in Dr. Dukat’s laboratory with molecular and behavioral pharmacology in Dr. Maeso’s laboratory to design, synthesize and test new compounds derived from quipazine,” the researchers said.
“The Dukat team had already investigated 5-HT2 and 5-HT3 structure-activity relationships and found that quinazolines bind at, but are devoid of, 5-HT3 receptor activation,” the authors told PsyPost. “We wanted compounds that retained activity at the 5-HT2A receptor while minimizing activity at the 5-HT3 receptor; hence, investigation of quipazine/quinazoline hybrid molecules. That effort led us to design VCU-1012, a novel quinazoline compound that activates the 5-HT2A receptor while showing minimal activity at the 5-HT3 receptor.”
The authors synthesized several variations of the quipazine molecule and tested these new compounds on human embryonic kidney cells. When the scientists screened VCU-1012 against a panel of over 40 other receptors, it showed minimal off-target activity. VCU-1012 completely failed to activate the serotonin 3 receptor, indicating it might bypass the physical distress seen with the original drug.
This broad testing approach relied on multiple areas of scientific specialty. “This study was a highly collaborative effort,” González-Maeso and Dukat noted. “It brought together the medicinal chemistry expertise of Dr. Dukat’s laboratory and the molecular and behavioral pharmacology expertise of the Maeso laboratory, along with important contributions from other teams at VCU. These included the laboratory of Scott Ramsey, which helped characterize effects at the 5-HT3 receptor; the laboratory of Imad Damaj, which contributed expertise in mouse behavioral models, and the laboratory of Hamid Akbarali, which evaluated gastrointestinal motility.”
To test the physical side effects in a living organism, the researchers evaluated gastrointestinal function in male mice, using six to eight animals per group. They fed the mice a harmless charcoal solution and measured how far the charcoal traveled through the small intestine over a 30-minute period. Mice injected with the original quipazine drug at a dose of 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight experienced a severe slowdown in digestion. In contrast, mice given VCU-1012 at 1 milligram per kilogram showed normal intestinal movement that was indistinguishable from mice given a plain saline vehicle injection.
Next, the team evaluated behavioral effects by measuring a specific head-twitch behavior in groups of six mice. This rapid side-to-side head movement is a standard animal proxy for hallucinogenic effects. VCU-1012 prompted a robust increase in head twitches within the first 15 minutes of administration, which was completely blocked when mice were pretreated with a drug that selectively prevents serotonin 2A receptor activation.
To evaluate potential antidepressant properties, the researchers used a forced-swim test. Mice were placed in a beaker of water for a short time to induce a passive coping state, which is characterized by floating rather than swimming. Twenty-four hours after receiving VCU-1012, the classical psychedelic psilocybin, or a saline vehicle, the mice were retested. The researchers also performed this test on a separate group of eight to ten genetically modified mice lacking the serotonin 2A receptor.
Both psilocybin and VCU-1012 reduced floating time in normal mice, which suggests an antidepressant-like effect lasting well beyond the drug’s immediate hallucinogenic window. In the genetically modified mice lacking the serotonin 2A receptor, VCU-1012 had no behavioral effect. Psilocybin still reduced floating time in the modified mice, which indicates psilocybin relies on additional biological pathways that VCU-1012 does not engage.
The researchers also explored whether the compound could alleviate anxiety caused by medical treatments. They repeatedly administered the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel to groups of seven or eight mice to induce a prolonged state of anxiety. Anxiety was measured by observing how much time the mice spent in the brightly lit section of a specialized testing box.
Paclitaxel noticeably reduced the time mice spent in the light area. A single dose of VCU-1012 given 24 hours prior restored normal exploratory behavior, countering the chemotherapy-induced anxiety without altering the animals’ general movement levels.
To understand how the drug alters the brain on a microscopic level, the scientists examined dendritic spines. These are tiny protrusions on the branches of brain cells that help form synapses, or connections, with other neurons. The team used a fluorescent virus to visually highlight neurons in the frontal cortex, analyzing 40 to 106 neurons from three or four mice per group.
Both psilocybin and VCU-1012 increased the density of mature, mushroom-shaped dendritic spines 24 hours after a single dose. This change indicates enhanced brain plasticity and stronger neural connections. Just as in the behavioral tests, this structural brain plasticity did not occur in mice lacking the serotonin 2A receptor.
Finally, the researchers used computer modeling and mutated receptor cells to see exactly how VCU-1012 fits into the serotonin 2A receptor. “One particularly interesting finding came from examining how VCU-1012 interacts with the 5-HT2A receptor,” the authors observed. “You can think of the receptor’s binding pocket as a small three-dimensional lock. A drug with the right shape and chemical properties can fit into that lock and change how the receptor behaves.”
“We found that VCU-1012 occupies this binding pocket in a different three-dimensional orientation from serotonin, the neurotransmitter that naturally activates the receptor,” they continued. “That finding suggests that there may be additional ways to chemically engage the 5-HT2A receptor beyond those used by classical psychedelics. This opens new possibilities for designing chemically distinct classes of psychedelic compounds and investigating how different interactions with the same receptor influence their biological and behavioral effects.”
The data suggests that VCU-1012 fits into the receptor’s primary binding pocket in a slightly different orientation than the body’s natural serotonin, relying on a specific network of hydrogen bonds. “Our study shows that it is possible to design a psychedelic-like compound from a new chemical class that produces potentially beneficial behavioral and brain-plasticity effects in mice while avoiding an important receptor associated with gastrointestinal side effects,” the researchers said.
Animal models of anxiety and depression, such as the forced-swim test and the light-dark box, cannot fully capture the complexity of human psychiatric disorders. A mouse’s physical responses do not perfectly translate to the subjective emotional experiences or hallucinogenic trips reported by humans. The therapeutic efficacy observed in these experiments might not completely predict actual clinical outcomes in human patients.
“These findings are preclinical, and VCU-1012 is not ready for use in humans,” the authors noted. “Although we were able to greatly reduce its activity at the 5-HT3 receptor, VCU-1012 still interacts with other receptors, including the 5-HT2B receptor. Activation of this receptor can be associated with peripheral side effects, including cardiac valvulopathy.”
Because cardiac valvulopathy involves damage to the heart’s valves, avoiding this off-target receptor is an important safety consideration. “Therefore, additional medicinal chemistry will be necessary to improve the selectivity and safety profile of this new class of compounds before considering clinical development,” they added. All behavioral and neurological tests in this study were conducted exclusively on male mice. Because biological sex often influences how bodies process drugs, future research will need to include female animals to determine if these effects apply universally.
“One major goal is to conduct additional structure-activity relationship studies to design compounds with greater selectivity for the 5-HT2A receptor and fewer off-target effects,” the authors explained. They also hope to answer fundamental questions about how these drugs work. “A broader question we hope to address is whether the hallucinogenic effects produced by classical psychedelics, and by compounds such as VCU-1012, are necessary for their potentially beneficial effects on behavior and brain plasticity.”
“Understanding whether these properties can be separated could help guide the development of the next generation of psychedelic-inspired therapeutics,” they concluded. “The study illustrates how combining medicinal chemistry, molecular pharmacology and animal models can help us understand how psychedelic drugs work and, ultimately, guide the design of compounds with improved therapeutic and safety profiles.”
The study, “Design of a new psychedelic quipazine analog with therapeutic efficacy and potentially fewer side effects,” was authored by Jason Younkin, Ajay H. Bansode, Somdatta Saha, Archana Paymode, Jessica L. Maltman, Charles B. Jones, Justin M. Silverman, Belle Buzzi, Alaina M. Jaster, Michael Fiorillo, Jeremy Rolquin, George D. Miller, Roya Abedi, Minho Kang, Maya Gaines-Smith, Enrique I. Valenzuela Lesme, Mattias Embretsen, Jennifer T. Wolstenholme, Richard A. Glennon, Hamid I. Akbarali, M. Imad Damaj, I. Scott Ramsey, Małgorzata Dukat, and Javier González-Maeso.
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DATE: August 12, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Early giftedness rarely lasts into adulthood, large developmental study finds
Children identified as highly intelligent at an early age rarely maintain their high cognitive scores by the time they reach adulthood. A large study of child development suggests that early gifted programs may be relying on unstable measures, as cognitive ability shifts dramatically before stabilizing in adolescence. The research was published in the journal Intelligence & Cognitive Abilities.
General cognitive ability represents a broad measure of how well a person acquires knowledge, solves problems, and processes information. This trait is typically assessed using standardized intelligence tests that yield a cumulative score spanning verbal and non-verbal skills. Psychologists have debated how early in life this trait becomes a permanent fixture of an individual’s psychological profile.
High scores on early childhood intelligence tests frequently lead to placements in specialized gifted programs. Educational systems often assume that a child who demonstrates advanced reasoning skills at age four or seven will maintain that same intellectual advantage into adulthood. Researchers wanted to test the reality of this assumption by mapping out the actual cognitive trajectories of thousands of developing children.
The study was led by Angel Blanch, a psychologist at the Universitat de Lleida in Spain. Blanch collaborated with Sergio Escorial at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Roberto Colom at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The research team sought to identify what specific personal and situational factors predict whether a child will keep or lose a high cognitive score over time.
To answer this, the researchers analyzed data from the Twins Early Development Study. This cohort includes detailed longitudinal data on child development spanning thousands of families in the United Kingdom. The researchers focused on a large sample of 11,119 participants who had their cognitive abilities tested repeatedly at ages four, seven, twelve, sixteen, and twenty-one.
The cognitive assessments changed as the participants matured to capture age-appropriate skills. Early testing involved parent-administered vocabulary and grammar scales alongside non-verbal puzzles. By age twenty-one, the participants were completing complex web-based gamified tests measuring advanced verbal reasoning and matrix-based problem-solving.
The participants were divided into two main groups based on their test scores at age seven. The normative group consisted of 3,958 individuals who scored in the average range, between 99 and 115 points. The high-ability group included 1,580 individuals who scored above 115 points on the standardized assessments.
The research team used statistical tools called latent curve models to track how each participant’s scores changed as they aged. This method allowed the scientists to map average starting points and the rate of change over a period of fourteen years. They then introduced several predictive variables into the models to see what related to these cognitive shifts.
These predictive variables included a mix of biological and environmental factors. On the biological side, the team looked at polygenic scores, which estimate an individual’s genetic likelihood for a certain trait based on variations across their entire genome. Environmental factors included the socioeconomic status of the parents, home chaos, behavioral problems, school engagement, and stressful life events.
The data revealed a high degree of cognitive mobility among the children. Only 16 percent of the participants who scored in the high-ability tier at age seven maintained that high status by age sixteen. The vast majority of early high-scorers saw their cognitive scores drift downward toward the average range as they matured.
Cognitive stability increased as the children reached early adolescence. Of the participants who showed high cognitive ability at age twelve, about 23 percent kept their high scores into their late teens. A similar stability rate was observed for those scoring high at age sixteen, indicating that age twelve might be a more reliable time for identifying sustained intellectual advancement.
Upward mobility was also relatively rare for the children who started with average scores. Among the normative group at age seven, only 8 percent experienced enough cognitive growth to cross into the high-ability tier by age sixteen. It was statistically three times more likely for a high-ability child to maintain their rank than it was for an average-ability child to climb into the top tier.
When examining predictors of these shifts, the researchers found that genetic and personal factors showed stronger associations than situational metrics. Higher polygenic scores and parental socioeconomic status were robustly associated with maintaining higher cognitive scores and experiencing positive developmental trajectories. In contrast, environmental variables like a chaotic home life or early behavioral problems had very little association with the rate of cognitive change.
This insulation from environmental factors was particularly pronounced in the high-ability group. These individuals were largely unaffected by negative life events or a disorganized home environment when it came to their long-term intellectual growth. For the average-scoring group, stressful life events did show a mild negative association with cognitive scores at older ages, though the impact was secondary to genetic predictors.
School engagement was one of the few situational variables that positively predicted cognitive growth across both groups. Adolescents who reported higher engagement with their schoolwork and teachers tended to experience greater upward shifts in their cognitive scores. Even so, the biological markers remained the strongest overall predictors of intellectual development.
These findings align with a developmental concept known as the Wilson effect, which describes how the heritability of intelligence increases as people age. Children’s brains dynamically mature according to intrinsic genetic programs that express themselves differently across various developmental stages. As individuals grow older, they naturally gravitate toward the intellectual levels predicted by their genomes, overriding many early environmental advantages or disadvantages.
The strong association between socioeconomic status and cognitive maintenance comes with a biological caveat. Socioeconomic status in this study was based on the educational and occupational credentials of the parents. Because parents pass down both their genes and their social standing, separating the purely environmental impact of wealth from inherited cognitive traits remains a persistent challenge in developmental psychology.
The study relied entirely on behavioral tests and questionnaires rather than direct physical measurements. The researchers did not collect brain imaging data, preventing them from observing the physical cortical changes that accompany these cognitive shifts. Identifying specific neural markers could help explain why some children lose their early cognitive advantages while others retain them.
The statistical models required participants to have consistent data points across multiple ages, which limited the types of variables the team could include. Certain developmental milestones might have been missed between the specific testing ages of seven, twelve, sixteen, and twenty-one. Future studies tracking these cognitive transitions on a year-by-year basis could provide a more detailed map of intellectual maturation.
The results suggest that educational systems should exercise caution when relying on cognitive assessments administered in early childhood. Placing young children into rigid educational tracks based on preschool or early elementary testing often results in misclassification. Regular re-evaluation throughout adolescence presents a much more accurate picture of a student’s long-term intellectual potential.
The study, “Developmental changes in high cognitive ability children: The role of nature and nurture,” was authored by Angel Blanch, Sergio Escorial, and Roberto Colom.
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DATE: August 12, 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. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Frequent cannabis use is linked to higher morning cortisol levels
URL: https://www.psypost.org/frequent-cannabis-use-is-linked-to-higher-morning-cortisol-levels/
New research published in the journal Cannabis indicates that adults who frequently use cannabis tend to have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol immediately upon waking compared to non-users. The findings suggest that higher morning cortisol levels might act as a biological marker for problematic cannabis use, though the overall daily rhythm of cortisol release appears similar between users and non-users.
The human body manages stress through a network called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or HPA axis. This neuroendocrine system coordinates a chain of chemical signals that result in the release of cortisol, a primary hormone that helps mobilize energy and respond to environmental demands. In a typical daily cycle, cortisol levels rise sharply within the first thirty minutes after waking up. This spike is known as the cortisol awakening response.
The cortisol awakening response acts as a physiological indicator of how well the body prepares for the day ahead. Repeated activation of the HPA axis from chronic stress or heavy substance use can cause physiological wear and tear, eventually disrupting this natural rhythm. Disruptions in daily cortisol patterns often accompany mental health challenges, such as anxiety and depression.
Research into other conditions, such as alcohol use disorder, indicates that chronic substance consumption can blunt this natural morning spike. Because cannabis is frequently used as a coping mechanism for daily stressors, scientists wanted to understand whether frequent marijuana consumption alters the body’s natural cortisol rhythms in a similar way.
“There had been limited research on whether frequent cannabis use is associated with changes in individuals’ diurnal stress activity, which can be measured by examining the cortisol awakening response,” said Anita Cservenka, an associate professor and director of the Substance Use Neurocognition Lab in the School of Psychological Science at Oregon State University.
“However, some previous studies had shown that the typical rise of cortisol in the morning, which is thought to be a marker of our body’s preparation for managing the stressors of the day, may be blunted among individuals with alcohol use disorder,” Cservenka added. “A recent study by Glodosky et al., 2026, also suggested this may be the case among those with chronic cannabis use, so we attempted to replicate those findings.”
To conduct the study, the researchers recruited 82 adult participants. The sample included 39 frequent cannabis users who consumed the substance at least three days a week over the past year and reported past-month use. The remaining 43 participants were healthy controls who used cannabis no more than one day a month and had no past-month use.
To prevent outside variables from influencing the stress hormone readings, the authors excluded individuals with a lifetime diagnosis of any psychiatric disorder, severe medical conditions, and those taking psychotropic or steroid medications.
Participants visited a laboratory to provide a urine sample and complete a breathalyzer test to ensure they were not acutely intoxicated. They then completed several surveys assessing their sleep quality, depression, anxiety, and perceived stress over the previous month. The frequent cannabis use group also completed a questionnaire evaluating recent negative consequences related to their consumption, such as social or occupational problems.
After the lab visit, participants collected their own saliva samples at home on two consecutive weekdays. They were instructed to avoid eating, drinking, consuming caffeine, or brushing their teeth right before sampling. They took saliva samples at the exact time of awakening, thirty minutes after waking, and in the evening at 9:00 PM. Along with each sample, participants recorded their momentary subjective stress levels on a scale from zero to ten.
The frequent cannabis users reported higher rates of depression, anxiety, perceived stress, and poorer sleep quality compared to the healthy controls. However, both groups reported nearly identical average sleep durations of roughly seven and a half hours, alongside similar wake times. The majority of the frequent use group consumed marijuana flower, most commonly using a water pipe.
Laboratory analysis of the saliva samples showed no statistically significant group differences in the cortisol awakening response. Both groups experienced a similar relative increase in cortisol during the first thirty minutes after waking. The researchers also found no group differences in the evening cortisol levels.
“We were surprised that we were unable to replicate the findings by Glodosky et al., 2026 who found a blunted cortisol awakening response in individuals with chronic cannabis use relative to controls, as our study showed no group differences,” Cservenka said. “However, it is possible that differences in statistical approaches or other demographic differences could explain the lack of replication. Thus, these nuances may be very important and sensitive to assessing the cortisol awakening response.”
Despite having a similar thirty-minute morning spike, frequent cannabis users had higher absolute baseline levels of cortisol at the exact moment of awakening. Within the frequent cannabis use group, the elevated morning cortisol levels were positively associated with the severity of cannabis-related consequences. The self-reported number of cannabis use days in the past month did not predict morning cortisol. Instead, the specific score of negative life consequences related to cannabis use corresponded with the higher cortisol readings at waking.
“Although we did not find group differences in the cortisol awakening response (the difference in cortisol 30 minutes post-awakening and at the time of awakening) between individuals who engaged in frequent cannabis use relative to controls, we did find that cannabis use may be related to higher levels of cortisol at the time of awakening and this was significantly related to cannabis use consequences,” Cservenka said. “These findings could inform treatment efforts aimed at trying to reduce the negative consequences individuals may experience from their cannabis use that could also have potential beneficial effects on their physiological stress systems.”
When examining subjective stress, the researchers found that higher self-reported stress correlated with higher cortisol levels across all participants during the morning hours. This positive association between perceived stress and cortisol release tended to be stronger in the healthy control group than in the cannabis use group.
Exploratory analyses separating the participants by sex indicated that the positive link between subjective stress and morning cortisol was present in males. However, the statistical models for females did not show this association.
Observational studies of this nature cannot determine cause and effect. It is not possible to conclude whether frequent cannabis use directly increases basal morning cortisol levels, or if individuals with naturally higher baseline cortisol are more drawn to heavy cannabis consumption to cope with stress. The relationship between neurobiology and substance use often involves complex interactions.
“It remains to be seen whether these stress neuroaxis alterations are a predisposing factor for frequent cannabis use or if frequent cannabis use can lead to these changes, as there is very limited research in this area,” Cservenka said. “Future longitudinal studies that track individuals over time before and after engaging in cannabis use will be needed to answer the question related to the neuroendocrine changes that are preexisting or a result of chronic cannabis use.”
The frequent cannabis users in the sample were older on average, at roughly 25 years old, than the healthy controls, who averaged 21 years of age. Age differences can sometimes influence hormonal rhythms, though statistical models in this study did not find age to be a driving factor for cortisol levels. The sample size was also relatively small, with only 82 total participants.
When the researchers separated the data by sex for exploratory analyses, the statistical power dropped. This reduction makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about how male and female stress systems might react differently to heavy cannabis use. Future research using larger sample sizes and comparing different methods of cannabis consumption is needed to build a more complete picture of hormonal stress responses.
The study, “Subjective Stress and Diurnal Salivary Cortisol in Adults with Frequent Cannabis Use,” was authored by Julia Donner, Alexia N. Obrochta, and Anita Cservenka.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/frequent-cannabis-use-is-linked-to-higher-morning-cortisol-levels/
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