news 2022

A team from the UNIGE, in collaboration with EPFL, reveals how motivation influences the neural circuits of perception and impacts decision-making. In a good or a bad mood, focused or distracted, in dire or no need: our internal states directly influence our perceptions and decision-making. While the role of motivation on the performance of behavioural tasks has been known for more than a century - thanks to the work of psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dilligham Dodson - its precise effect on the brain remains unclear.

Study examines influence of birdsong on mood, paranoia and cognition If you hear chirpy birdsong coming soon, you should stop and listen. Because birdsong has been shown to alleviate anxiety and irrational thoughts. This is what researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf have discovered.

Some of the assessment tools which measure children's thinking skills in the US may have provided inaccurate information about poor, urban students because they are modelled on wealthier - mostly white - populations. There is a big question around how we measure executive functions: are we actually using the right tools?

Following a meditation programme for 18 months can improve attention and socio-emotional regulation capacities for people over 65, finds a new study co-led by a UCL researcher. But the researchers did not identify any significant impact of meditation on the volume and functioning of the brain structures studied, in comparison to control groups, so the potential to prevent dementia remains unclear, they report in JAMA Neurology .

Meditation as a tool to prevent dementia and improve the mental health and well-being of elderly people is one of the avenues explored by the European Medit-Ageing research program, coordinated by Inserm. As part of this program, researchers from Inserm and Université de Caen Normandie, in collaboration with French and European teams, observed the impact of 18 months of meditation training on certain brain structures involved in regulating attention and emotions in healthy people over 65.

Are depressed people simply more realistic in judging how much they control their lives, while others view the world through rose-colored lenses, living under the illusion that they have more control than they do? That's the general idea behind -depressive realism,- a theory that has held sway in science and popular culture for more than four decades.

Parents of small children can usually get away with serving apple sauce, especially if it's the chunk-free variety. Try putting something green on their plate, however, and those little teeth invariably clamp shut. Teaching toddlers and pre-schoolers a healthy diet is not easy. But children are not preordained to dislike vegetables, say PhD candidates Anouk van den Brand and Britt van Belkom.

People with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia are 2.5 times more likely than those without a psychotic disorder to eventually develop dementia, according to a review of evidence led by UCL researchers. The new systematic review and meta-analysis, published in Psychological Medicine , found that psychotic disorders may have a stronger link with dementia than other mental health disorders like depression or anxiety.

The cerebellum is known primarily for regulation of movement. Researchers at the University of Basel have now discovered that the cerebellum also plays an important role in remembering emotional experiences. The study appears in the journal PNAS. October 2022 Both positive and negative emotional experiences are stored particularly well in memory.

The prevalence of serious mental health problems among 17-year-olds could drop by as much as 16.8% for girls and 8.4% for boys if they were not subjected to sexual violence, such as sexual assault and harassment, according to estimates from UCL researchers. The new research, published today in The Lancet Psychiatry , uses information from 9,971 young people born across the UK in 2000-02, who are being followed by the Millennium Cohort Study.

Arts & Humanities Erik Rolfsen The characters you type out over and over again into your digital devices may impact your mental health more than you might expect. A new UBC and NYU Shanghai research study has found self-affirming written passwords - such as "MusicCalmsMeDown@123"- can offer a boost to one's mental health.

More than 5% of all Austrians suffer from depression. However, little is known about the biological basis of this disease. In a new study, scientists led by Alexander Karabatsiakis from the Institute of Psychology at the University of Innsbruck have now observed a strong correlation between the severity of depression and the level of the stress hormone cortisol in hair.

A new report published in the journal Scientific Reports sheds light on the current state of democracy in the United States. The research by a University of Illinois Chicago social psychologist and colleagues shows that both Democrats and Republicans personally value core democratic principles, such as free and fair elections, but severely underestimate opposing party members- support for those same characteristics.

A study has found that attachment insecurity affects sexual well-being in long-term couples. Among other things, it can shape people's motives for having sex. CONTENU - What motivates people in long-term relationships to have sex and how do those motives affect the emotions they experience during sex? Noémie Beaulieu, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology at the University of Montreal, and her fellow researchers wanted to find out.

Being able to let go of goals is a critical part of staying mentally healthy People who shelved their long-term goals during the pandemic were better able to avoid anxiety and depression, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Waterloo aimed to investigate the relationship between what they call COVID-frozen goals - goals for which progress has been disrupted due to COVID-19 - and psychological well-being.

Key takeaways Pregnancy anxiety is associated with shorter gestation times and earlier births. Screening during the first and third trimesters could help reduce early births. Latina women may experience higher levels of pregnancy anxiety than other groups. A new UCLA study has found anxiety specific to pregnancy and childbirth is associated with shorter gestation times and earlier births.

Monkeypox can sometimes lead to neurological complications such as encephalitis (brain inflammation), confusion or seizures, finds a new review of evidence led by a UCL researcher. Several studies incorporated in the systematic review and meta-analysis of evidence, published in eClinicalMedicine , also found that muscle aches, fatigue, headache, anxiety and depression were all relatively common among monkeypox patients.

Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed program to increase performance and well-being Am I over the hill? This question comes up regularly among workers over 50. A common prejudice is that older people's efficiency and stress-tolerance are continuously decreasing. But mental performance, self-confidence, psychological resilience and well-being can be improved in the 50-plus generation.

Does eye-contact always attract attention? Not in every case, as a research team at the University of Würzburg's Institute of Psychology has recently shown. Why not? Because context matters. It's a phenomenon that we have probably all experienced. You're in a packed place surrounded by a swirling mass of people, and someone looks you in the eye.

A study analyzes differences in brain asymmetry among different individuals Although the brain is divided into two halves, it is not exactly a mirror image. Some functions are processed more on the left side, others more on the right - and each person's processing is a little different. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Forschungszentrum Juelich, together with an international team of neuroscientists, have now discovered heritable underpinnings of brain asymmetry - and - how much we share with monkeys.