Childhood Abuse Doubles Psychiatric and Health Risks

Summary: New research finds that adults who experienced both physical and sexual abuse in childhood are about twice as likely to suffer chronic physical and mental health issues, such as…

Eating Seafood Linked to Kinder, More Socially Skilled Young Children

Summary: Children who regularly eat seafood at age 7 exhibit more positive social behaviors—such as sharing, helping, and interacting kindly—by ages 7 and 9, compared to those who rarely consume…

Prenatal Stress Timing Shapes Infant Stress Response

Summary: New research reveals that the timing of stress during pregnancy has gender-specific effects on infants, altering how boys and girls respond to stress differently. Scientists found mid-pregnancy stress has…

Maternal Diet Influences ADHD and Autism Risk

Summary: A large study analyzing over 60,000 mother-child pairs found that a Western diet during pregnancy—high in fat, sugar, and processed foods—was associated with a significantly increased risk of ADHD…

Multilingualism Starts Early: Study Challenges View on Language Learning

Summary: A new study of 121 infants in Accra, Ghana, reveals that babies regularly hear between two and six languages from multiple caregivers. Unlike the Western model of learning one…

Early Life Stress Rewires Brain Circuits Linked to Social Motivation

Summary: New research shows that early life stress disrupts dopamine signaling, altering social motivation and behavior. Scientists found that mice raised in stressful conditions were less likely to engage in…

Prenatal Stress Hormones Alter Brain Development

Summary: Environmental factors like stress and medication exposure during pregnancy can shape brain development, but the mechanisms remain unclear. Researchers used brain organoids to study the effects of synthetic glucocorticoids,…

Genetics, Not Maternal Sickness, Drives Autism Risk

Summary: A large study analyzing over 1.1 million pregnancies found no strong evidence that maternal health conditions during pregnancy cause autism. Instead, nearly all previously reported associations between maternal diagnoses…

Empathy Peaks in Young Adults

Summary: A new study reveals that young adults show the strongest empathic responses to others in physical or social pain, compared to adolescents and older adults. Researchers measured brain activity…

AI Mimics Toddler-Like Learning to Unlock Human Cognition

Summary: A new AI model, based on the PV-RNN framework, learns to generalize language and actions in a manner similar to toddlers by integrating vision, proprioception, and language instructions. Unlike…