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Researchers examined 190 young adults and followed them for ten years. They were directly tested on their response to alcohol vs. placebo beverage in initial testing sessions and then they returned five and ten years later to a laboratory in Chicago to undergo identical re-examination testing. “We flew people in from all over the country (and the world!) to come back for their returning sessions,” study author Andrea King told us. “We also conducted regular follow-up interviews semi-annually in that period. I am grateful the participants were so connected to the study, as 99% of those still living continued to participate over the decade.” [More]

Teenagers who are unhappy with how they look have a significantly heightened risk of depression by adulthood. In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, researchers found the increased risk of depression ranged from 50 per cent to 285 per cent, with boys being more likely to experience severe depression than their female peers. [More]

Did you know that adults need an average of seven to nine hours of sleep per day and that adolescents need eight to ten hours? According to statistics from the Institute of Medicine, American adults and teens aren’t getting enough sleep. How does lack of sleep or sleep deprivation affect our brain’s reward system? An average of 50-70 million American adults have a sleep disorder. The most common sleep disorder is insomnia. Approximately 30 per cent of American adults say they have experienced short term insomnia while 10 per cent say they experience chronic insomnia. A new study published in eNeuro looked at sleep-deprivation and rewards using mice and cocaine. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of American Academy of Pediatrics looked at kindergarten readiness, later health, and social costs. “We used kindergarten readiness measures to forecast later academic, psychological, and health risks by end of high school,” study author Linda Pagani told us. “We wanted long term evidence of the importance of ensuring that all children are ready to learn at the time of school entry was crucial to support the idea of that prevention for all kinds of social problems have their origins in early childhood.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Nature Communications looked at social cues and the b [More]

Doing good deeds and being kind to others can be good for health and wellbeing. Research published by the American Psychological Association found pro-social behavior like acts of kindness and helping others could be beneficial, but not all good deeds could provide equal benefits. [More]

ADHD-like behavior caused by lack of sleep may be beneficial for entrepreneurial activity. For some people, bad sleep can result in feelings of hyperactivity the following day, along with impulsive behavior and shifting attention spans. These behaviours all resemble those of ADHD. Now a new study suggests this could lend itself to entrepreneurial behavior. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research looked at tactics for drawing youth to vaping. The study consisted of two parts. First, researchers gathered a substantial amount of evidence about why youth are drawn into vaping. Then, the researchers took all of these reasons that youth cite for taking up e-cigarettes and used it as a framework to see if e-cigarette advertisements tap into any of them. [More]

Are you a great multitasker? According to research studies, only two per cent of the population is actually proficient at multitasking. Considered an asset, especially in the workforce, studies are now finding that multitasking actually accounts for a 40 per cent drop in productivity, costing the U.S. economy $650 billion annually. It also results in a 10 per cent drop in IQ. But there are some of us that can do it successfully. So what makes the two per cent of the population who can multitask efficiently different from the rest of us? A new study published in eNeuro looked at the brain and multitasking to get a better sense of where in the brain these functions occur. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry looked at maternal prenatal body mass index (BMI) and human fetal brain development. “Given knowledge that the physical well-being of a mother during pregnancy is important for the long-term brain health of her child, we sought to discover whether and how maternal BMI may relate brain development in the womb,” study author Moriah E. Thomason told us. [More]