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A new study published in the Journal of Imaging Neuroscience looked at the Lateral Occipitotemporal Cortex (LOTC), a brain region crucial for body part representation, to compare the representational structure of body parts between adults with Austin Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) adults. “Individuals with ASD often struggle to interpret emotions and intentions from others' faces and bodies,” study author Yuto Kurihara told us. “This communication challenge has long been debated as stemming from either basic visual processing deficits or higher-order cognitive problems.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Health Economics looked at adolescent mental health and the impact of introducing earlier compulsory school grades. “The study is about the relationship between age when exposed to school grades for the first time and wellbeing,” study author Anna Linder told us. "We wanted to see if there was an effect of introducing earlier grades, in 6th instead of 8th grade, on childrens’ mental health.” [More]

Horses could be the answer in addressing the growing mental health crisis among children. Researchers in Australia have found that equine therapy benefits not only children but also the practitioners providing the intervention. [More]

Widowhood can be one of the most upsetting experiences a person can go through. Now researchers have confirmed that no matter how resilient a person was before widowhood, depressive symptoms can still develop in the immediate aftermath of losing a spouse. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Sleep Health looked at the social epidemiology of bedtime screen use behaviors and sleep outcomes in early adolescence. “Our study looks at bedtime screen habits in early adolescents, with a focus on the associations between screen use at bedtime and sleep outcomes,” study author Jason M. Nagata told us. “We were hoping to find out how many tweens have devices in their bedrooms, how many are woken up by notifications from these devices in the nighttime, and how many continued to use their device after being woken up by notifications and before going back to sleep." [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Current Psychology looked at suicide prevention and intervention for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “Our report examined the suicide risk among young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), a population that’s been historically excluded from suicide prevention research,” study senior author Alex Fields told us. "We wanted to understand what evidence-based strategies exist to support suicide prevention and intervention for this community, and identify where the gaps are. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Emotion looked at hope as a meaningful emotion. “We were interested in examining the relation between hope and meaning in life,” study author Megan E. Edwards told us. “We predicted that hope would be a particularly important emotion for fostering meaning in life.” Feeling like life is meaningful is an important aspect of well-being, Edwards explained. Yet when we experience hardships or suffering, we tend to feel like life is less meaningful. [More]

A newly released book, Beyond Difficult: An attachment-based guide to dealing with challenging people, is about understanding what’s really driving difficult behavior and how to deal with it to build better relationships. “There’s a wealth of information and scientific evidence about what makes relationships thrive or flounder, and we believe this knowledge should be more accessible to everyone,” co-author Dr. Jessie Stern told us. “Our hope is that the book can be a guide for parents, educators, therapists, leaders, and anyone who has dealt with a difficult relationship at home or at work.” [More]

A new study published in Frontiers of Medicine looked at the effects of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and health education on carotid intima-media thickness and major adverse cardiovascular events in Black men and women. “This study was a follow-up assessment of cardiovascular events in individuals with evidence or early CV disease, who underwent a one-year intervention of either Transcendental Meditation or health education,” study author Dr. Keith Norris told us. “We were interested in seeing if there might be a long-term positive impact on CV events such as hospitalization due to myocardial infarction, unstable angina, coronary revascularization, stroke, or heart failure, or as death from CVD.” [More]

People are more likely to trust those who grew with less money than those who went to private school. Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that those who had a lower socio economic status in childhood were more likely to be considered trustworthy. [More]