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A new study published in Child Development looked at whether older children verify adult claims because they are skeptical of those claims. “When children between four and seven years old are told something surprising, for example that a smaller object is heavier than a much larger object, they will frequently pick up those objects,” study author Samuel Ronfard, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto at Mississauga told us. “Older children engage in such exploratory behavior more frequently than younger children.” [More]

A new study published in Psychiatry Research looked at whether perceived stress can be linked to enhanced cognitive functioning and a reduced risk for psychopathology. “Our study tested whether low to moderate levels of perceived stress are associated with benefits in cognitive functions and mental health,” study author Assaf Oshri told us. “We relied on the Hormesis model, which is from the field of toxicology- assuming that not all stress is bad for the organism and that there is a threshold of stress from which stress is bad for you.” [More]

A new study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology looked at physical and mental activity, disease susceptibility, and risk of dementia. “In the present study, we aimed to assess the associations between physical and mental activity and the subsequent risk of dementia,” study author Huan Song told us. “We further hoped to explore whether such associations would differ for individuals with different susceptibility to dementia.” [More]

Fatigue is associated with anxiety and depression in patients with long COVID. Research published in the Journal of Neurology found that fatigue was correlated with cognitive deficits as well as neuropsychiatric conditions, like depression. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Neurobiology of Disease looked at organelle dysfunction in human astrocytes in Alzheimer’s Disease. “We have analyzed transcriptomic data (gene-expression data) from almost 800 patients with Alzheimer’s disease and controls to look for molecular signatures of astrocytes, a type of brain cell. Transcriptomes contain information about the cell genome, over 30,000 genes,” study author Elena Galea told us. [More]

A new study published in PubMed looked at the association between workplace absenteeism and alcohol use disorder from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. “The goal of our study was to estimate the relationship between lost work time (missed workdays) and alcohol use disorder among full time workers in the US,” study author Laura Bierut told us. “We used a large nationally representative US database to study this issue.” [More]

A new study published in JAMA looked at longitudinal associations of mental disorders with dementia, a 30-year analysis of 1.7 million New Zealand citizens. “This study is about links between mental health and dementia,” study author Barry J. Milne told us. “We wanted to investigate whether there are associations between a range of mental health disorders and subsequent dementia, and whether associations are apparent for both early- and late-onset dementia.” [More]

A significant number of people who die by suicide may have undiagnosed autism. Researchers from the University of Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre and the University of Nottingham found in a study that a notable number of people who die by suicide have evidence of autistic traits at elevated levels. [More]

Up to one billion people worldwide suffer from neurological disorders. In the United States, more than one million adults are diagnosed annually with a chronic brain disease or disorder. Studying the brain is difficult but new tools are emerging. A recent study published in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry looked at how genetically encoded sensors enable micro and nano-scopic decoding of transmission in healthy and diseased brains. [More]

Botulinum toxin is a medicine that is often used for wrinkles, to help ease migraines, for muscle spasms, and to assist with incontinence. Now research published in Scientific Reports has found that people who had botox injections across four different areas of the body reported less anxiety than their peers. [More]