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amygdala

·September 14, 2020·3 min read

Smartphones Can Predict Brain Function Associated With Anxiety and Depression

Data collected from smartphones can accurately predict connectivity between brain regions associated with emotional processing. Analyzing cellphone data, such as social activity, screen time, and location, alongside fMRI brain scans, researchers found smartphone data activity mirrors brain activity associated with depression and anxiety.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 6, 2020·4 min read

Face Masks: Why Your Eyes Might Be Saying More Than You Realize

Researchers investigate how the eyes play a critical role in emotional expression and finding a potential mate.

This drawing has covid 19 in the head in place of a brain

Featured Neurology Neuroscience Psychology

·September 5, 2020·4 min read

Coronavirus: The Pandemic Is Changing Our Brains

Coronavirus can cause several significant neurological disorders, and the pandemic has been linked to a rise in people reporting mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. Researchers examine how COVID-19 affects brain and mental health and provides some techniques which can help to improve well-being during the pandemic.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 28, 2020·8 min read

Which OCD Treatment Works Best? New Brain Study Could Lead to More Personalized Choices

Neuroimaging predicts whether a person with OCD will respond to stress-reduction therapy or exposure-based therapy best. Analyzing brain activity may help to provide tailored treatments to individuals suffering from OCD.

Featured Psychology

·August 10, 2020·1 min read

Prenatal Depression Alters Child’s Brain Connectivity and Affects Behavior

Prenatal depression can have a significant influence on a child's brain development and behavior. Greater symptoms of prenatal depression were associated with weaker white matter connections between areas of the brain involved in emotional processing. The weakened white matter connectivity was linked to increased aggression and hyperactivity in male children. The change could lead to dysregulated emotional states in children and explain why children whose mothers experienced PND are more prone to developing depression later in life.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 5, 2020·2 min read

Your Amygdala Gets Bigger If You’re Anxious and Depressed

Depression and anxiety have a profound effect on brain areas associated with memory and emotional processing. In people with depression and anxiety, researchers noted shrinkage to the hippocampus. By contrast, the amygdala increased in size.

Featured Psychology

·August 3, 2020·8 min read

Brain Scans of 9- to 11-Year-Olds Offer Clues About Aggressive and Antisocial Behavior

Compared to typically developing children, those with disruptive behavioral disorders, characterized by antisocial behaviors and aggression, had less gray matter in the amygdala and hippocampus.

Featured Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·August 3, 2020·5 min read

Experiencing Childhood Trauma Makes Body and Brain Age Faster

Children who experience early life adversity experience faster biological aging than children with no history of exposure to abuse. Trauma was associated with biological aging in early puberty, cellular aging, and alterations in brain structure. The findings may explain why children who experienced adversity early in life often suffer poor health as they age.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 31, 2020·3 min read

‘Talkative’ Brain Regions Create Self-Control Challenges for Teens With Obesity

Obesity risk in teens appears to be associated with stronger connectivity within and between regions of the brain implicated in determining the salience of stimuli. This may have implications for reward processing. Researchers report executive control efforts in the brain decrease when salience and reward-processing regions are engaged in teens with obesity.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 27, 2020·4 min read

Brain Cell Types Identified That May Push Males to Fight and Have Sex

Mouse study reveals "on-off switch" nerve cells for male mating and aggression in the amygdala. MPN signaling cells in the amygdala that communicate with the hypothalamus are associated with reproductive behavior, and VMHvL signaling cells play a critical role in aggression.

Autism Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·July 14, 2020·4 min read

Autism Researchers Map Brain Circuitry of Social Preference

Study reveals how two neural circuits dictate the choice between social approach and avoidance. The network connecting the infralimbic cortex to the basolateral amygdala (BLA) impairs social behavior if there is a decrease in neural activity. Another network connecting the prelimbic cortex to the BLA similarly impairs social behavior if the neural activity is increased.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·July 13, 2020·3 min read

Why Are Memories Attached to Emotions so Strong?

Hippocampal neurons that respond to fearful stimuli relay that information to the amygdala. These neurons synchronize when memories of the stimuli are later recalled. The synchrony is critical to establish fear memories and the greater the synchrony, the stronger the memory becomes.