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Psychology

·July 7, 2025·5 min read

Timing of Prozac Treatment Shapes Lasting Mood, Brain Changes

New research reveals that the developmental timing of fluoxetine (Prozac) treatment profoundly influences long-term mood and brain function. In a rodent model, early postnatal treatment in males led to persistent anxiety and depression-like behaviors, while adolescent treatment reduced these behaviors.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 7, 2025·3 min read

Emotional Neglect in Childhood Undermines Trust in One’s Own Body

A new meta-analysis links childhood emotional abuse and neglect to reduced trust in one’s bodily signals, highlighting the long-term mental health risks. Researchers analyzed 17 studies with 3,705 participants, finding that while maltreatment did not generally impair interoception, emotional maltreatment was strongly tied to lower body trust.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 7, 2025·4 min read

Anxious Mondays Leave Lasting Mark on Stress

A new study reveals that anxiety felt on Mondays uniquely elevates stress hormones, even in retirees, with potential consequences for heart health. Researchers found older adults who reported Monday anxiety had 23% higher long-term cortisol levels than peers anxious on other days.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 6, 2025·5 min read

Why Your Brain Is Better at Gossip Than You Realize

A new study reveals how humans instinctively calculate who to gossip with by weighing popularity and social distance. This cognitive process allows gossip to spread widely while minimizing the risk of it reaching the wrong person.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 2, 2025·6 min read

TikTok ADHD Misinformation Can Mislead Young Minds

College students increasingly turn to TikTok for information, including on mental health. A new study found that exposure to misinformation about ADHD on the platform reduced students’ factual knowledge but increased their confidence in that knowledge. Participants who viewed misleading content were also more likely to seek both scientifically supported and unproven treatments.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 1, 2025·4 min read

Universally Cool: Personality Traits That Cross Cultural Lines

What makes someone “cool” appears to be remarkably consistent across cultures, according to a global psychology study. Researchers surveyed nearly 6,000 people from 13 countries and found that cool individuals are consistently described as extraverted, powerful, open-minded, adventurous, and independent.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·July 1, 2025·5 min read

AI Facial Analysis Detects PTSD

Diagnosing PTSD in children is often hindered by limited communication and emotional awareness, but new research is using AI to bridge that gap. By analyzing facial movements during interviews, researchers created a privacy-preserving tool that can identify PTSD-related expression patterns. Their system does not use raw video but instead tracks non-identifying facial cues such as eye gaze and mouth movement.

This shows a person drawing with both hands.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 30, 2025·4 min read

Left-Handed Creativity Myth Debunked

The long-standing belief that left-handed people are more creative has been challenged by a new meta-analysis of over a century of research. After reviewing nearly 1,000 studies, researchers found no consistent advantage in creative thinking for lefties—in fact, right-handers slightly outperformed on some tests.

Autism Featured Genetics Neuroscience Psychology

·June 30, 2025·3 min read

Tiny RNA Mark Helps Explain Brain Wiring and Mental Disorders

New research reveals how a tiny chemical mark on RNA helps wire the brain during development. Scientists discovered that m6A methylation regulates the production of proteins essential for axon growth, including APC and β-actin.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 30, 2025·3 min read

Brain Tracks Emotional Transitions Through Music

New research reveals how the brain navigates emotional transitions, using music as a tool to map changing neural patterns. Scientists found that emotional responses in the brain depend heavily on the listener’s prior emotional state.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 30, 2025·4 min read

People Prefer Human Empathy, Even When AI Says the Same Thing

A new study shows that people rate empathic responses as more supportive and emotionally satisfying when they believe they come from a human—even if the same response is AI-generated. Across nine experiments with over 6,000 participants, responses labeled as human were consistently seen as more genuine, especially when they involved emotional sharing and care.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience Psychology

·June 28, 2025·6 min read

One Gene Rewires Fear Circuits and Fuels Anxiety

Researchers have uncovered how losing the autism-linked gene PTEN in a specific set of inhibitory neurons reshapes brain circuits tied to fear and anxiety. Using advanced circuit-mapping techniques, they found that deleting PTEN in somatostatin-expressing neurons of the amygdala disrupted local inhibition by 50% while strengthening excitatory input from nearby brain regions.