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rumination

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·October 5, 2025·8 min read

Misophonia Might Be a Brain Regulation Disorder

A new study shows that misophonia, strong negative reactions to certain sounds, is closely linked to cognitive and emotional inflexibility. Participants with high misophonia severity struggled to shift between emotional tasks and reported rigid thinking in daily life.

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·November 12, 2024·4 min read

App Shows Promise in Reducing Depression by Curbing Rumination

A new digital health intervention, developed over a decade of research, uses a gamified app to help reduce depressive symptoms by disrupting ruminative thought patterns. The app, which features five mini-games, encourages users to progress through thoughts more flexibly, aiming to break negative cycles. In an 8-week trial, participants who used the app reported faster symptom improvement compared to those who didn’t. These benefits persisted up to four weeks after the study, suggesting long-lasting effects.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·January 23, 2024·5 min read

Rumination Alters Brain’s Response to Social Rejection

A new study reveals that adolescent girls who ruminate show distinct brain activity patterns when facing social rejection. Using fMRI scans, the research demonstrates increased activity in brain areas related to self-concept and emotional states in girls prone to rumination.

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·September 20, 2023·8 min read

Is Suppressing Negative Thoughts A Path to Improved Mental Health?

A new study challenges the traditional belief surrounding the suppression of negative thoughts and mental well-being. Researchers trained participants to suppress fears and worries, observing that these thoughts became less vivid and participants' mental health improved.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 29, 2023·4 min read

Decoding Repetitive Negative Thoughts: Machine Learning Predicts Rumination

A team of researchers have developed a predictive model to recognize patterns of persistent negative thinking, or rumination, using machine learning. Researchers hypothesized that the variance of dynamic connectivity between certain brain regions, such as the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), could be associated with rumination.

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·March 17, 2023·4 min read

Repetitive Negative Thinking During Low Mood Linked to Suicidal Thoughts

Cognitive rumination, or repetitive negative thinking, while in a "low mood" was associated with increased suicidal thoughts in young adults with major depression.

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·July 14, 2022·3 min read

How People Control Unwanted Thoughts

Proactively avoiding an association that triggers an unwanted thought or memory is more effective than reactive control is more effective when trying to prevent repetitive looping of unwanted thoughts.

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·May 20, 2022·4 min read

Ruminating on Our Ruminations Causes More Depression

Negative metacognitions and rumination can exacerbate symptoms of depression, researchers say.

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·October 1, 2021·6 min read

What Our Wandering Thoughts Can Teach Us About Mental Health

Ten minutes of idle thought can tell us a lot about the potential risk of depression, researchers say. Those who tend to ruminate and were more past or negatively focused in their idle thoughts had an increased risk of depression.

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·December 18, 2020·5 min read

How Can You Declutter Your Mind?

If you want to conjure a new thought in your mind, you have to force yourself to stop ruminating on old thoughts. The insight could help with the treatment of PTSD and other disorders associated with rumination.

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·August 29, 2020·3 min read

Researchers Uncover Network Mechanism Underlying Rumination

Researchers have uncovered the neural mechanism underlying rumination. The study reports when rumination occurs, coupling between the core and medial temporal lobe subsystems of the default mode network becomes elevated, while coupling between the core and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex decreases.

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·June 8, 2020·5 min read

Repetitive negative thinking linked to dementia risk

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in those aged over 55 is associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline and deposition of proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease. People who exhibited higher levels of RNT experienced more cognitive and memory problems over four years. They were more likely to have both amyloid-beta and tau protein deposits throughout the brain.