Can Physical Touch Help With Mental Well-Being? A new systemic review and multivariate meta-analysis published in the Journal of Nature Human Behaviour looked at the physical and mental health benefits of touch interventions. “Our study is a meta-analysis, meaning that we collected data from all available studies and merged it together, on the effects of touch interventions on health benefits,” study author Julian Packheiser told us. [More]
Middle Aged Americans Are Lonelier Than Their European Counterparts Middle aged Americans are experiencing significantly higher levels of loneliness than their European peers. Research published in American Psychologist found that baby boomers in particular are experiencing high levels of loneliness. [More]
US Drops Out Of Top 20 Happiest Countries The United States has fallen out of the world’s top 20 happiest countries. The World Happiness Report revealed the US fell from number 15 to number 23, putting it out of the top 20 for the first time since the report was published in 2012. [More]
New Study Looks At Aphantasia And Autobiographical Memory Deficits A new study published in eLife looked at how hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia. “Our study is about the relationship between inner images and our ability to recall personal past events (autobiographical memory),” study author Cornelia McCormick told us. [More]
New Study Looks To Add Insight Into Gut-Brain Connection A new study published in Cell and Tissue Research looked at the identification of vagal afferent nerve endings in the mouse colon and their spatial relationship with enterochromaffin cells. “The purpose of this study was to identify for the first time, the sensory nerve endings of the vagus nerve in the inner lining (called the mucosa) of the colon,” study author Nick Spencer told us. [More]
What Effect Does Separating Pets Have On Their Owners During Crisis Situations? A new study published in Taylor & Francis looked at forced separation between people and their companion animals. “The research was about people and pets that shared a human-animal bond and had experienced a crisis situation, such as domestic violence, homelessness and natural disasters,” study author Jasmine Montgomery told us. [More]
New Study Looked At Happiness Levels In Ukraine Following the Pandemic And the Invasion A new study published in PLOS One looked at reactions to macro-level shocks and re-examination of adaptation theory using Big Data “Our study wanted to determine whether two different types of macro-level shocks (lockdown – endogenous and the invasion of Ukraine – exogenous to the countries under investigation) affected happiness differently,” study author Stephanié Rossouw told us. [More]
Why Saying No To An Invitation Isn't As Bad As We Think You’ve been invited to a party that you’re dreading. But you feel rude declining the invitation. But there’s good news: research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that people often overestimate the social consequences of saying no. [More]
More Siblings Results In Poorer Mental Health For Teenagers Teenagers who grow up in large families have poorer mental health than their peers who grew up in a family with fewer siblings. Researchers from Ohio State University found that in an analysis of children growing up in the US and China, a larger number of siblings had ramifications for the mental health of teenagers. [More]
New Study Wants To Address How We Build Cities That Impact Kids’ Mental Health A new study published in Cities and Health looked at associations between real-time, self-reported adolescent mental health and urban and architectural design concepts. “First, we designed a walking route (1.7km) with seven stops, and quantified the actual spaces according to a number of features of pedestrian and transit oriented design,” study author Leia Minaker told us. “Next, we took 70 kids between nine and 17 years old on a walk, and had them fill out these surveys at each stop.” [More]