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emotion

·June 23, 2025·3 min read

Emotional Music Boosts Memory, But the Details Depend on You

Music has long been used to aid memory in conditions like Alzheimer’s, but how it works on the brain has remained unclear. A new study finds that the emotional intensity a person feels when listening to music determines which aspects of a memory are strengthened.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 19, 2025·4 min read

Childhood Emotion Struggles Linked to Teen Anxiety and Depression

Children who have trouble managing their emotions at age seven are more likely to experience anxiety and depression during their teenage years, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, tracking emotional development and mental health from childhood to age 17.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 12, 2025·4 min read

Negative Surroundings Skew Emotions in People with Depression

People with depressive symptoms are more likely to interpret neutral images as negative when those images are surrounded by unrelated negative visuals. This emotional “spillover” effect shows how peripheral cues—like background imagery or context—can shape our emotional responses more than we realize.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 3, 2025·7 min read

Infant Brain Wiring Predicts Emotional Growth Months Before It Shows

The brain’s white matter microstructure at just three months of age can predict how an infant’s emotions will develop over time. Using an advanced imaging technique called NODDI, scientists mapped the organization of neural pathways that govern emotional processing. They found that specific brain tracts were linked to increases in either positive or negative emotionality by nine months.

Autism Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 2, 2025·4 min read

Board Game Helps Autistic Players Express Emotions Through Images

A new study finds that the storytelling board game Dixit may help people with autism express their thoughts and emotions. By selecting from illustrated cards, players can convey personal experiences and discuss complex topics like identity, anxiety, and social misunderstanding.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 31, 2025·4 min read

How Personality Shapes Emotional Intimacy

While neuroticism is strongly associated with lower relationship satisfaction, the behavioral mechanisms driving this link have remained unclear. In a week-long daily diary study involving 246 participants, researchers identified specific negative and positive behaviors in romantic relationships.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 29, 2025·16 min read

Emotions Echo: Brainwide Timing Patterns Reveal Roots of Feeling

Emotions help guide our behavior, but when they persist too long or arrive at the wrong time, they can cause serious mental health issues. In a landmark study, researchers mapped brainwide activity patterns triggered by an unpleasant but harmless stimulus—eye puffs—in both humans and mice.

This shows two people sitting and thinking.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 25, 2025·4 min read

The Nature of Nostalgia: How Time Transforms Emotion in Memory

New research reveals that nostalgic memories don’t remain emotionally static, they evolve over time. While these memories are typically rich in positive feelings at the time they occur, those feelings tend to fade, making space for rising negative emotions like regret and loneliness.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 24, 2025·4 min read

Stress Hampers Emotional Regulation in Anxiety, Depression & BPD

New research reveals that acute stress can impair key brain functions involved in emotion regulation, particularly in individuals with distress-related disorders like depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder. The study found that executive functions—such as working memory, impulse control, and cognitive flexibility—are more likely to be disrupted in these individuals during high-stress moments.

This shows a robot with a brain and heart.

Featured Neuroscience

·May 22, 2025·4 min read

AI Shows Higher Emotional IQ than Humans

A new study tested whether artificial intelligence can demonstrate emotional intelligence by evaluating six generative AIs, including ChatGPT, on standard emotional intelligence (EI) assessments. The AIs achieved an average score of 82%, significantly higher than the 56% scored by human participants.

This shows a person wearing headphones and a brain.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 18, 2025·4 min read

How Music Can Emotionally Reshape Your Memories

A new neuroscience study reveals that music can alter the emotional content of our memories when played during recollection. Participants who listened to emotionally charged music while recalling neutral stories later remembered those stories with emotional tones matching the music.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 15, 2025·5 min read

The Brain Learns to Fear Through Inference, Not Just Experience

A new study reveals how rats can learn to fear through inference, offering insights into the neural basis of higher-order emotions. By pairing a neutral sound and image, then associating the image with an unpleasant experience, researchers showed that rats later feared the sound alone—demonstrating inferred emotional learning.