Author: dispatchtimes news

New preclinical research from Middlebury College suggests that the timing and duration of testosterone exposure can determine whether newly formed brain cells survive to maturity. In a study published in Neuroscience, male rats showed the most robust survival of young neurons when testosterone was present during the later stages of their development, particularly within a hippocampal region tied to spatial learning and memory. Adult neurogenesis—the process by which the mature brain generates new neurons—occurs largely in the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped structure deep in the temporal lobe essential for learning, memory formation and stress regulation. Newly born cells originate in the…

A new batch of online experiments suggests that simply encountering a conspiracy theory can inflate a person’s perception of how many others share the belief, and that providing hard statistics about public scepticism can reduce belief in those theories. The research, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, involved six studies with 2,906 participants from the United States and the United Kingdom and was led by Jan-Willem van Prooijen of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Descriptive norms—our sense of how common a belief is within a group—play a key role in how conspiracy theories spread. The researchers note that people often…

Researchers using data from the UK Biobank have found that people exposed to Britain’s sugar rationing in the womb and in early life appear to have a lower risk of dementia and slower brain aging decades later. The study reports a 27% lower risk of dementia, a 46% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, an 11% lower risk of depression, and a 20% lower risk of anxiety compared with those born after rationing ended, and brain scans suggest a modestly younger brain age in this group. The findings are published in npj Aging. Neurological and psychiatric disorders such as dementia, depression,…

A study drawing on electronic health records at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre has found that conversational AI chatbots are associated with a worsening of psychotic symptoms in a small minority of mental health patients, with those experiencing their first episode most at risk. The analysis identified 28 patients whose psychosis appeared to worsen after chatbot use, from a pool of 73 unique patients across 187 encounters, representing about 0.013% of those receiving behavioural health care during the study period. The findings, published in JAMA Psychiatry, were led by Julia M. Sheffield of Vanderbilt, with colleagues including Zachary Bergson. Psychosis is…

A neuroimaging study has found that LSD not only weakens conventional brain waves but also accelerates them and raises the complexity of neural signals, with the strongest effects in regions involved in sensory processing, language, emotion and mental imagery. Movement-related areas appeared largely spared. The findings, published in Communications Biology, also touch on how listening to music might modulate these drug-induced changes, though that aspect did not hold under strict statistical correction. LSD is a potent psychedelic that temporarily alters perception, mood and self-awareness. Like other classic psychedelics, it largely acts on serotonin 2A receptors, though it also binds to…

A new study suggests that anger about the state of the country shapes political action in ways that depend on people’s race and gender. The research finds that angry Black women and white women engage across a wider range of political avenues than their male counterparts, a pattern described as the “intersectional anger gap.” The findings were published in Public Opinion Quarterly and are based on analyses by Sara Morell of The College of New Jersey and Marzia Oceno of Florida International University. Political scientists routinely examine emotion as a driver of political participation. Anger is seen as a catalyst…

A new study published in the journal Emotion examines whether shared fear in recreational settings can strengthen social bonds. Focussing on adults who voluntarily take part in frightening activities with others — notably a commercial haunted attraction in Florida — the research finds that such experiences can enhance a sense of closeness, but only if participants engage in post-event reflection and discussion. The work, Haunted Attraction: The Effects of Recreational Fear on Interpersonal Bonding, is led by Jane K. Wiley, an undergraduate from the University of Florida and an incoming social psychology doctoral student at the University of Virginia. Humans…

A preregistered neuroimaging study published in Psychological Medicine finds that higher natural levels of the hormone progesterone are associated with less distinct brain activity patterns when healthy young women must override automatic emotional impulses, suggesting progesterone may blur neural signals underpinning emotional control. In everyday life, people naturally gravitate toward positive or rewarding things and pull away from threats or unpleasant situations. Psychologists refer to this automatic habit as approach-avoidance behavior. Overriding these instincts, such as stepping toward an angry person or walking away from something appealing, requires active emotional control. This regulatory process relies heavily on the lateral frontal…

A blood test harnessing a brain-enriched circular RNA could predict whether a patient will respond to SSRI antidepressants, according to findings described in two independent clinical trials. The biomarker, a molecule known as CDR1as, was identified as a potential predictor of sertraline response and was associated with class-wide SSRI outcomes in the research published in Molecular Psychiatry. The work was led by Grigorios Papageorgiou, Eleni T. Tzavara and Nikolaos Mellios of Circular Genomics, with collaborators from US and French institutions, and Madhukar H. Trivedi of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Major depressive disorder affects millions globally, and doctors…