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emotion

This shows a child surrounded by bacteria.

·October 30, 2025·6 min read

Toddler Gut Bacteria Linked to Childhood Anxiety and Depression

A new study suggests that a child’s gut microbiome at age 2 may influence their emotional health years later. Researchers found that higher levels of bacteria from the Clostridiales order and Lachnospiraceae family were linked to stronger connectivity across emotion-related brain networks and a higher risk of anxiety and depression symptoms by age 7½.

Featured Neuroscience

·October 22, 2025·6 min read

Hungry Brain Rewrites Emotional Priorities

New research reveals that hunger can flip female mice from nurturing to aggressive—but only during specific hormonal phases. Scientists discovered that neurons controlling appetite (AgRP neurons) interact with a brain region linked to parental care, the medial preoptic area (MPOA).

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 21, 2025·6 min read

When a Hug Turns Dark: How Manipulative Partners Use Touch

Touch can strengthen bonds and calm stress, but not all affection is sincere. A new study reveals that people with “dark triad” traits—narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism—often use physical touch to control or manipulate their romantic partners.

This shows a person surrounded by sound waves.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 15, 2025·5 min read

Feeling the Music: Touch Amplifies Emotional Power of Sound

A new study shows that combining touch with hearing profoundly intensifies emotional responses to music. Using a custom-built device that transforms sound into tactile vibrations, researchers found that people experienced more joy, connection, and reduced anxiety when they could both hear and feel the music.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·October 15, 2025·6 min read

Astrocytes, Not Neurons, Hold the Key to Emotional Memory

New research reveals that astrocytes — not neurons — are responsible for stabilizing emotional memories by re-engaging during recall. After an emotionally intense event, such as fear, specific astrocytes become biologically tagged with adrenoreceptors, making them responsive when the memory is later reactivated.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 7, 2025·7 min read

What You Choose to Remember Shapes Memory More Than Emotion

A new study reveals that intentional memory control—deciding what to remember or forget—is more powerful than emotional influence when forming long-term memories. Participants were more likely to recall words they were told to remember than those carrying emotional weight, even though emotion sometimes strengthened recall or caused false memories.

This shows people walking with album covers and sound waves in the background.

Featured Neuroscience Neuroscience Videos Psychology

·October 5, 2025·6 min read

How Growing Up Changes the Way We Hear, and Feel, Music

Our music preferences evolve across life — from youthful exploration to nostalgic reflection. A large-scale analysis of 40,000 users’ streaming data over 15 years revealed that young listeners engage broadly with new and popular music, while adults settle into more personal and emotionally rooted tastes.

This shows the outline of a woman, a heart and a brain.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·September 28, 2025·5 min read

Every Heartbeat Shapes Thoughts and Emotions

Researchers emphasize that the heart and brain are deeply interconnected, with every heartbeat influencing cognition and emotion within milliseconds. This link helps explain why cardiovascular diseases like hypertension often coincide with mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 24, 2025·6 min read

Emotional Events Rescue Weak Memories, Making Them Last Longer

A new study reveals that emotionally charged or surprising events can retroactively and proactively rescue weak memories, ensuring they persist. The brain doesn’t just preserve the striking moment itself, but also mundane experiences connected to it, depending on timing and similarity.

This shows a map, half Is red and covered in negative emojis, the other is blue and covered with positive emojis, symbolizing the effect heat has on mood.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 31, 2025·6 min read

Extreme Heat Makes People More Negative

A large-scale global study shows that extreme heat affects not just our bodies, but also our emotions. Researchers analyzed over a billion social media posts and found that when temperatures exceeded 95°F (35°C), expressed sentiments became more negative, particularly in lower-income countries where effects were three times stronger.

This shows the outline of a woman, pills, and "negative memories" flowing from her head.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 29, 2025·5 min read

Hormonal Contraceptives Influence Memory of Emotional Events

A new study reveals that hormonal contraceptives may shape both emotional responses and memory processing in women. Compared with naturally cycling women, users of hormonal birth control had stronger emotional reactions and remembered fewer details of negative events when using regulation strategies like distancing or reinterpretation.

Featured Neuroscience

·August 28, 2025·5 min read

Immune Cells Found to Shape Teen Brain Circuits

Adolescence is a critical period for the brain’s frontal cortex, where executive functions mature and vulnerabilities to psychiatric disorders emerge. A new study shows that microglia, the brain’s immune cells, directly shape dopamine circuits during this time by strengthening axonal connections.

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emotion

Toddler Gut Bacteria Linked to Childhood Anxiety and Depression

Hungry Brain Rewrites Emotional Priorities

When a Hug Turns Dark: How Manipulative Partners Use Touch

Feeling the Music: Touch Amplifies Emotional Power of Sound

Astrocytes, Not Neurons, Hold the Key to Emotional Memory

What You Choose to Remember Shapes Memory More Than Emotion

How Growing Up Changes the Way We Hear, and Feel, Music

Every Heartbeat Shapes Thoughts and Emotions

Emotional Events Rescue Weak Memories, Making Them Last Longer

Extreme Heat Makes People More Negative

Hormonal Contraceptives Influence Memory of Emotional Events

Immune Cells Found to Shape Teen Brain Circuits

Deep Brain Stimulation Promising for Severe, Resistant Depression

Rare ADHD Gene Variants Linked to 15-Fold Higher Risk

Animal-Free Brain Tissue Breakthrough Could Transform Drug Testing

Next-Gen Wearable Lets You Control Machines with Simple Gestures

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