Summary: Mindfulness exercises paired with music were found to engage both neural and cardiac systems, potentially reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. A recent study showed that live and virtual…
Category: Neuroscience
Shared Brain Circuit Links Insomnia, Anxiety, and Depression
Summary: A large brain imaging study suggests that insomnia, depression, and anxiety, often co-occurring, share overlapping brain abnormalities. Researchers found reduced cortical surface area, smaller thalamic volume, and weaker brain connectivity…
Brain-Body Links in Emotion and Health
Summary: Researchers have developed D-PSCAN, a novel imaging technique that enables high-resolution, minimally invasive observation of the brainstem’s nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) in living animals. The NTS, a vital relay…
Happiness Is as Unique as You Are
Summary: A large international study shows that happiness does not stem solely from either external circumstances or internal attitudes, but varies widely between individuals. Some people’s happiness is shaped mostly…
Parents Often Miss Early Clues About How Kids Feel at School
Summary: Parents often misread how their children feel about school during their first year, usually taking a full year to align with their child’s actual experiences. While most parents believed…
Girls With ADHD Face Higher Risk of Anxiety
Summary: A new study reveals that in girls, symptoms of inattentive-type ADHD significantly increase the likelihood of developing anxiety during adolescence. Inattention and anxiety appear to reinforce each other in…
Negative Expectations Worsen Pain More Than Positive Ones Ease It
Summary: New research shows that negative expectations, known as nocebo effects, exert a stronger and longer-lasting impact on pain perception than positive expectations, or placebo effects. In a two-session study,…
Dopamine Signals Teach the Brain to Unlearn Fear
Summary: A new study reveals that dopamine release along a specific brain circuit helps extinguish fear by activating reward-related neurons in the amygdala. Researchers showed that dopamine from the ventral…
