Psychology & Psychiatry

It’s hard to imagine now, but people once believed that the bumps on your head could reveal your personality. For one thing, it’s so hard to locate the bumps on your head, let alone the thirty or so bumps the phrenologists said could be discerned. So why was phrenology such an attractive idea for such a long time?

Researchers evaluating a nature-based program of activities for patients with mild to moderate mental health conditions have shown that improvements in mood and anxiety levels can be seen in as little as 12 weeks.

Researchers at Zhejiang University found that acute stress increases natural repair mechanisms in the brain, while chronic stress suppresses them. Autophagy was most affected in the lateral habenula, a brain region linked to emotional regulation. Several antidepressant drugs were tested and found to reverse this suppression, pointing to autophagy in the lateral habenula as a common therapeutic pathway in these treatments.

The same chemicals and receptors that control the sensation of pain in the opioid system also play a role in regulating social behavior. The body produces natural opioid substances which are drawn to receptors throughout the nervous system, sending signals through neurons that induce pain relief, pleasure, and more.

A study led by Rutgers University-New Brunswick researchers suggests that tiny facial movements—too slight for the human eye to notice—could help scientists better understand social communication in people with autism.

Mel May only realized she was different while reading a news article one day.

The DAM-Decision and Memory group at Universitat Jaume I in Castelló, led by Raphael Kaplan and composed of researchers from Spain, Italy and the United States, has recently published the results of two studies that provide new insights into human brain behavior in everyday activities such as decision-making and social interaction.

Exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke was associated with increased visits to emergency departments (ED) for mental health conditions, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Virtual reality reveals that curiosity is key in shaping our spatial memory and mental map formation, finds new research by Cardiff University and Royal Holloway, University of London.

In his new book, No More Normal, psychiatrist Alastair Santhouse recalls an experience from the 1980s when he was a university student in the UK helping deliver supplies to “refuseniks”—Soviet citizens who were denied permission to leave the USSR. These people often faced harsh treatment, losing their jobs and becoming targets of harassment. Some were even diagnosed with a psychiatric condition called “sluggish schizophrenia.”