Summary: Many people struggle to sleep during hot weather. Researchers review evidence and offer practical strategies to improve sleep quality during heatwaves. Source: Wiley As heatwaves become more frequent, researchers from the European Insomnia Network examined how rising night-time temperatures influence body temperature and sleep quality. Their literature review, published in the Journal of Sleep … Read more

Summary: Researchers are reassessing psychedelics — from microdosing to enhance cognition to using substances such as psilocybin, LSD and DMT in clinical settings — and exploring their potential benefits and limits as medicines for mental health. Source: The Conversation For decades, substances like LSD, psilocybin and dimethyltryptamine (DMT) were widely perceived as dangerous recreational drugs. … Read more

Summary: People seeking abortions face a threefold greater risk of having a mental health disorder, and experts warn that limits on abortion access are likely to increase the number of people who develop mental health problems. Forced continuation of pregnancy also generates physical and emotional stress that can negatively affect fetal brain development and raise … Read more

Summary: Researchers have used brain imaging and machine learning to identify six distinct biological subtypes of depression and anxiety, called biotypes, and linked some of these subtypes to treatments more likely to succeed. This advance in precision psychiatry aims to reduce the current trial-and-error approach to prescribing treatments and improve the odds that patients receive … Read more

Summary: In mice fed a high‑fat diet, increasing levels of the cytokine TSLP triggered substantial abdominal fat and overall weight loss. The reduction in adipose tissue was not due to eating less or a higher metabolic rate. Instead, TSLP activated immune pathways that caused the skin’s sebaceous glands to secrete energy‑rich sebum, effectively expelling lipids … Read more

Summary: Researchers have identified neurons in the brains of praying mantises that encode three-dimensional direction and distance. These discoveries improve our understanding of insect stereopsis and could inspire simpler, more efficient algorithms for machine and robotic vision. Source: Newcastle University Newcastle University scientists identify neurons that compute 3D distance and direction in praying mantises Researchers … Read more

Summary: New research finds that mothers and daughters who embrace feminist beliefs tend to have healthier body image and experience less body shame than those who do not. Source: University of Georgia Feminist attitudes are linked to more positive body image for both mothers and daughters, a University of Georgia study reports. Published in Body … Read more

New neuroimaging evidence links a specialized psychotherapy to measurable changes in brain activation in people with borderline personality disorder (BPD), suggesting the treatment may produce biological changes that accompany clinical improvement. Researchers led by Mark F. Lenzenweger, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Binghamton University, conducted a longitudinal neuroimaging study of ten women diagnosed with BPD … Read more

Summary: Researchers used large-scale computer simulations to reveal how protein switches in the brain open and close ion channels — a discovery that could guide the development of safer, more targeted anesthetics and other therapies. Source: RMIT University Advancing safer, more effective drugs and anaesthetics Scientists at RMIT University in Melbourne have used supercomputing resources … Read more

Summary: New research reveals how neurons in the motor cortex coordinate with muscles to produce different types of movement. Using optogenetics in mice, the team found that the motor cortex communicates with muscles in distinct temporal and network patterns depending on the behavior—insights that clarify how the brain controls walking versus skilled grasping. Source: Zuckerman … Read more