A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Curing insomnia in people with depression could double their chance of a full recovery, scientists are reporting. The findings, based on an insomnia treatment that uses talk therapy rather than drugs, are the first to emerge from a series of closely watched studies of sleep and depression to be released in the coming year. via [...]
New research has uncovered the reason why some people seem to dislike everything while others seem to like everything. Apparently, it's all part of our individual personality – a dimension that researchers have coined "dispositional attitude." via Why do haters have to hate? Newly identified personality trait holds clues.
Babies who are exposed to lots of traffic-related air pollution in the womb and during their first year of life are more likely to become autistic, according to a US study. The findings, which appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry, support previous research linking how close children live to freeways to their risk of [...]
A SIMPLE idea underpins science: “trust, but verify”. Results should always be subject to challenge from experiment. That simple but powerful idea has generated a vast body of knowledge. Since its birth in the 17th century, modern science has changed the world beyond recognition, and overwhelmingly for the better. But success can breed complacency. Modern [...]
“Why do we sleep? To clean our brains, say US scientists,” The Guardian reports. A US research team, studying mice, has suggested sleep helps clear the brain of 'waste products’. Although sleep is an intrinsic part of our lives, scientists are still uncertain why a good night’s sleep makes us feel better or why lack [...]
With subjective experience new cells are incorporated into the brain and new circuits are created, altered, strengthened or weakened. The static view of the brain has been disproven and it is now known that the brain is very active—constantly changing connections and growing circuits, thought-by-thought, minute-by-minute and day-by-day. Many different brain mechanisms alter neuronal connections—in [...]
The development of the human brain is fascinating. We see a huge migration of cells to various parts of the developing brain in the second trimester of pregnancy, and in the early years after birth the infant brain grows in density and wires up in response to what is seen, heard, smelt, tasted, felt and [...]
Richard Lowe, professor of psychology at Drexel University in Philadelphia, says neuroimaging studies have shown that in the presence of high-fat, high-sugar or high salt food, areas of the brain related to pleasure ‘‘light up’’, in a similar way to the brain changes seen in drug or alcohol addicts. The release of dopamine, a chemical [...]
Men who have smaller testes are more likely to be better dads to their toddlers, according to a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from Emory University in Georgia set out to determine why some fathers invest more energy in parenting than others, after prior research has shown that [...]
If keeping the brain spry were as simple as pumping iron, everyone would want to own the ultimate piece of cognitive exercise equipment. But designing activities to reverse the mental effects of aging is tricky. A new videogame created by neuroscientists shows promise in reversing some signs of decline. Now, the researchers behind it aim [...]
