Summary: A new wearable wrist device can alert caregivers to an impending aggressive outburst by a person with autism about one minute before it occurs, by monitoring physiological signs of stress. Source: Northeastern University Overview: Predicting an event even 60 seconds before it happens may not sound like much, but for caregivers of people with … Read more

Summary: Whether we view moral goodness or moral badness as innate and biological or as learned and changeable shapes how forgiving and generous we are toward others’ misbehavior. Source: Columbia University Hannibal. Voldemort. Skeletor. Gargamel. Villains like these feel irredeemable. But imagine someone suggests the Joker became violent because of his environment and could, in … Read more

Medications commonly prescribed for older adults may slow recovery after brain or spinal injury, according to research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) in collaboration with other UK universities and the NHS, published in the journal Brain Injury. Drugs with anticholinergic properties—used to treat frequent conditions such as urinary incontinence, depression and insomnia—are … Read more

Summary: Stress, boredom, and increased free time appear linked to a rise in cigarette consumption among many smokers during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Source: Penn State Overview A Penn State College of Medicine study found that nearly a third of surveyed smokers reported increasing the number of cigarettes they smoked per day … Read more

Summary: New research indicates that stress experienced by mothers during pregnancy can negatively shape their children’s food preferences and diets, with potential long-term health consequences. Source: Columbia University According to research led by Michele Belot, a professor in the Cornell University Department of Economics, exposure to stress during pregnancy is associated with poorer dietary outcomes … Read more

Summary: New research from the University of Virginia suggests that out-of-body experiences (OBEs)—moments when people feel separated from their physical bodies—may often serve as a dissociative coping mechanism triggered by trauma or intense stress rather than being a direct symptom of mental illness. An online survey of more than 500 adults found that those who … Read more

Summary: A new study finds that in Parkinson’s disease, surviving neurons in a brainstem region called the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) contain higher numbers of mitochondrial DNA copies and more mitochondrial DNA damage, a discovery that helps explain cell loss in this area and points to new cell-specific therapy targets. Source: Newcastle University Researchers at Newcastle … Read more

Summary: New research finds that people often treat internally generated, “filled-in” visual percepts as more reliable than comparable external images. Source: eLife People rely more on inferred visual objects produced by the brain than on equivalent external images, new research shows. Researchers at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, report that when observers are presented with … Read more

Summary: A new population study links more frequent chronic headaches with lower serum vitamin D levels. Source: University of Eastern Finland. Vitamin D deficiency appears to increase the risk of chronic headache, according to a new analysis from the University of Eastern Finland published in Scientific Reports. The findings come from the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart … Read more

Summary: Low, microdose lithium delivered in a brain-permeable formulation appears to stop progression of Alzheimer’s-related pathology and restore cognitive function in an animal model. Source: McGill University There is ongoing debate in the scientific community about lithium’s potential to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Conflicting results stem from widely varied study designs, formulations, dosing regimens, timing of … Read more