Author: dispatchtimes news

A study led by Yuanyuan Li of Beijing Normal University has found that psychological resilience may shield children from certain brain-network changes associated with abuse, but not neglect. The research, conducted with 94 schoolchildren aged 10 to 14 from rural China, suggests resilience could buffer some neurobiological effects of adversity, though its protection against neglect remains unclear. Psychological resilience describes the ability to adapt and continue functioning during difficult circumstances. It is not necessarily a fixed personality trait, and researchers increasingly view resilience as a capacity that can change with support, relationships and intervention. The researchers aimed to determine whether…

A new study published in Evolution and Human Behavior has found that while facial and bodily attractiveness tend to align in observers’ judgments, a person’s voice provides an independent cue about traits such as health and dominance. The research, led by Tobias L. Kordsmeyer of the University of Goettingen in Germany, tested how independent raters perceive attractiveness, health and physical dominance from faces, bodies and voices. The study involved 165 men and 155 women as targets and a panel of 400 raters assessing the stimuli. The researchers frame their investigation around two competing theories. The first, known as the “one…

Donald Trump’s first term coincided with a liberal shift in American public opinion, driven largely by left-leaning and independent voters on specific issues, even as emotional hostility between the two major parties intensified. The findings are published in American Politics Research. Political scientists describe public mood as a thermostat: when a conservative administration is in power the public tends to move left, and when a liberal administration takes office the reaction is often a move to the right. These broad patterns sit alongside a growing partisan divergence on policy. That divergence refers to a widening gap between Democrats and Republicans…

A new, small exploratory study links the structure of the brain’s outer layer to how well patients with major depressive disorder respond to the antidepressant vortioxetine, measured before treatment began and assessed after around eight weeks. The research identifies several regions implicated in emotion regulation, visual processing, and bodily awareness as potential predictors of symptom improvement. Major depressive disorder is a common condition that can markedly disrupt daily life, and remission after initial treatment remains elusive for many patients. The study adds to efforts to personalise care by seeking brain-based indicators of which treatments might work best for an individual.…

A new study published in Psychology of Popular Media examines how Taylor Swift fans respond to reports of the singer’s high carbon footprint, suggesting that deeply identified fans may rationalise the emissions to protect their admiration for her. The research indicates that such rationalisation can dampen individuals’ concern for climate issues and lessen their stated intent to take pro-environment actions. The study sits against a backdrop where Generation Z is often portrayed as highly attuned to environmental concerns, yet also immersed in celebrity culture and social media. In 2022, data tracking private jet flights singled out Swift as a leading…

The brain may not spring from a single initial pool of cells after all. A Nature Neuroscience study argues it arises from two parallel neural ectoderm progenitors, one destined to form the forebrain and midbrain and another to build the hindbrain. The work, led by Rayyan T. Jokhai, Carolyn E. Dundes and Kyle M. Loh, tracked early development in mouse embryos and human stem cells, revealing two distinct populations shaping the organ long before birth. In early development, during gastrulation, some stem cells form neural ectoderm that will become the brain, while others contribute to other structures such as the…

A major new study analysing data from more than 128,000 adults suggests that the elevated risk of depression in adulthood among those who experienced parental divorce in childhood may be largely explained by parental mental illness and substance use, rather than the divorce per se. The work, published in Psychiatry Research, scrutinises whether family structure itself accounts for later distress after taking into account other adverse childhood experiences. The researchers, Mary Kate Schilke of Tyndale University and Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto, also examine adults whose parents never married. The team used data from the 2021-2024 Behavioral Risk…

A new study to be published in Psychoneuroendocrinology links severe internet addiction with lower long-term cortisol levels measured in hair, suggesting a blunted physiological stress response among those most affected. The research team was led by Hideki Tsumura of Tokushima University and Shuhei Izawa of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in Japan, who analysed hair samples from 155 university students. The researchers reported that higher internet addiction symptom scores were associated with lower hair cortisol concentrations overall, and that individuals classified as highly addicted showed lower cortisol on average than those at lower risk. The findings point…

Former citizens of East Germany who endured state-organised soft repression have higher psychological distress and signs of systemic inflammation, according to a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry. The findings come from a group of researchers led by Ruth Marheinecke and colleagues. Soft repression refers to quieter forms of control that interfere with daily life, rather than overt violence or imprisonment. The researchers describe practices such as surveillance, denunciation, restrictions on speech, harassment, and deliberate obstacles in professional or social life, all of which can foster chronic feelings of insecurity, mistrust and the need to monitor one’s own…

A Stanford University team has used a novel optical‑flow approach to track moving brain activity and found that psychedelic drugs reduce the magnitude of propagating brain waves and curb bottom‑up signals entering the brain’s default mode network. The work, conducted in humans and mice and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pinpoints a consistent pattern across MDMA, psilocybin and LSD that may illuminate how these substances reshape subjective experience. The default mode network sits at the top of a processing hierarchy in the brain, with information typically travelling from lower‑order sensory regions up to higher‑order areas…