Despite what we’re often taught to believe, daydreaming can be immensely useful. Not only can it be a source of pleasure and a way to relieve boredom, research shows that our ability to mentally escape the present can also boost creativity, problem-solving and planning, and provide an antidote to loneliness.
Daydreaming, when defined as thoughts that aren’t tied to what you’re currently doing, occupies a good chunk of our waking lives – an average of around 30% of the time if you randomly probe people. It’s part of our everyday conscious experience. You might even think of it as our default mode which we return to, especially when doing things that don’t require a lot of brain power, such as mundane tasks like hanging out washing.
But it’s estimated 2.5% of adults experience a type of excessive daydreaming which is defined as the disorder “maladaptive daydreaming”. So-called maladaptive daydreamers compulsively engage in vivid fantasies and daydreaming plots so excessively that it interferes with their ability to function in daily life.
What is maladaptive daydreaming?
Maladaptive daydreaming differs from typical daydreaming in several ways.
Unlike typical daydreams which can be fleeting (lasting seconds), maladaptive daydreamers can spend several hours at a time in a single daydream. According to one study, maladaptive daydreamers spent an average of at least half their waking hours immersed in deliberately constructed fantasy worlds. These invented worlds are often rich and fantastical, with complex plots and intricate storylines that evolve over many years.
Maladaptive daydreamers’ fantasy worlds are vivid and rewarding, and the need to continue the fantasy can be compulsive and addictive. With maladaptive daydreaming, there’s a strong urge to daydream and annoyance when this is not possible or interrupted. Most also find it difficult to stop or even reduce the amount of time they spend daydreaming.
But prioritising spending time in alternative, imagined realities at the expense of physical and social needs can create problems at work, at school and in maintaining close relationships. Many people with maladaptive daydreaming report experiencing psychological distress, difficulty sleeping and feelings of shame about their daydreaming activity – something that they may hide from others.
It’s important to note that immersive daydreaming and vivid fantasy activity isn’t by default maladaptive. What makes daydreaming “maladaptive” is when it becomes difficult to control, when time to daydream takes precedence over real life, and when the compulsion to daydream interferes with important life goals and relationships.
Why does it happen?
Researchers suspect that people who struggle with maladaptive daydreaming may have an innate ability for immersive imaginative fantasies. Many discover this ability early on in childhood, realising fantasy and daydreams can be used to regulate distress. By creating an inner world of comfort, they’re able to escape from reality.
Some – but not all – maladaptive daydreamers may use daydreaming as a coping strategy. For example, daydreaming activity can distract from an unpleasant reality which may help to cope with trauma, difficult life events or social isolation. But doing so can lead to a vicious cycle of compulsive fantasy, where using fantasy to avoid negative emotions exacerbates the urge to daydream.
In many ways, daydreaming becomes an addictive behaviour that fuels the very problems it was intended to alleviate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, maladaptive daydreaming tends to occur alongside other disorders, the most common being ADHD, anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
There seems to be a strong relationship between OCD and maladaptive daydreaming. One study found that over half of participants with maladaptive daydreaming also exhibited signs of OCD. This may suggest possible shared mechanisms between the two disorders, including intrusive thoughts, dissociation and a lack of cognitive control.
Though maladaptive daydreaming has been garnering an increasing amount of attention online and through social media, it’s not yet formally recognised in psychiatric diagnostic manuals.
This means many health professionals may be unaware of the condition, leading to misdiagnosis or dismissal of symptoms, creating further distress, isolation, and shame for maladaptive daydreamers. Many instead turn to online forums for peer support and recognition.
The fact that maladaptive daydreaming is not recognised as a psychiatric condition also means we know little about treatment options. There is one documented case study published in a peer-reviewed journal showing a 25-year-old man was able to cut the time he spent daydreaming in half – from nearly three hours daily to under an hour and a half. This was done over the course of six months using a combination of psychological treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness.
Although treatment didn’t affect how rewarding his daydreaming felt, he reported improvements in work and social functioning as well as in underlying obsessions. It’s hoped that with increasing recognition and understanding of maladaptive daydreaming, more treatment options will become available for sufferers.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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A recent study published in JAMA Network Open has shed light on the relationship between depressive symptoms and memory decline in older adults. By examining data spanning 16 years, researchers have identified a bidirectional link: depressive symptoms can lead to memory decline, while poorer memory can subsequently increase depressive symptoms.
The aging process often brings about subtle cognitive declines in older adults, and in more severe cases, it can lead to conditions like mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Simultaneously, depressive symptoms are prevalent in older adults, often triggered by severe life events or underlying health conditions.
Both cognitive decline and depressive symptoms are frequently observed together in this age group. Given their co-occurrence, understanding whether one influences the other—or if there is a bidirectional relationship—can help improve treatment and care strategies for older adults.
The researchers utilized data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging, which includes a representative sample of adults aged 50 and older in England. This study tracked participants over a 16-year period, from 2002 to 2018, ensuring a robust dataset for analysis.
The study began with 11,391 core members, eventually narrowing down to 8,268 participants who had complete data for cognitive function and depressive symptoms assessments. Cognitive functioning was measured using memory recall tests and verbal fluency tests. Memory recall involved remembering a list of 10 unrelated words immediately and after a short delay, while verbal fluency was assessed by asking participants to name as many animals as they could in one minute.
Depressive symptoms were measured using an eight-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, which asked participants about their depressive symptoms in the past week. This scale provided a score ranging from 0 to 8, with higher scores indicating more severe depressive symptoms.
The researchers found that higher levels of depressive symptoms at the beginning of the study were linked to poorer memory and a faster rate of memory decline over the 16-year period. Poorer memory at baseline, on the other hand, was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms over time. This indicates that not only can depression impact memory, but memory problems can also worsen depression.
“It is known that depression and poor memory often occur together in older people, but what comes first has been unclear,” said senior author Dorina Cadar of University College London. “Our study shows that the relationship between depression and poor memory cuts both ways, with depressive symptoms preceding memory decline and memory decline linked to subsequent depressive symptoms. It also suggests that interventions to reduce depressive symptoms may help to slow down memory decline.”
While depressive symptoms at baseline were linked to poorer verbal fluency, there was no evidence that depressive symptoms influenced changes in verbal fluency over time. In contrast, baseline verbal fluency did not significantly predict changes in depressive symptoms.
Lead author Jiamin Yin, who graduated from University College London and is now a doctoral student at the University of Rochester, New York, explained: “These findings underscore the importance of monitoring memory changes in older adults with increasing depressive symptoms to identify memory loss early and prevent further worsening of depressive function. It is also critical to address depressive symptoms among those with memory decline to protect them from developing depression and memory dysfunction.”
The study controlled for age, sex, education, wealth, long-standing illness, self-rated health, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and physical activity to account for potential confounding factors in the relationship between depressive symptoms and cognitive function. But as with all research, there are some limitations.
First, a significant number of participants were lost to follow-up, often due to death, potentially skewing the results. These participants were typically older, less educated, and in poorer health, which might mean that the true extent of the associations observed could be more pronounced.
Moreover, depressive symptoms were measured broadly, without distinguishing between different types of depressive symptoms, which could have varying impacts on cognitive functions. Future research could benefit from exploring these nuances in greater detail.
Another limitation was the shorter follow-up period for verbal fluency compared to memory. More extended follow-up periods could provide a clearer picture of the relationship between depressive symptoms and verbal fluency.
Cadar added: “Depression can cause changes in brain structures, such as the hippocampus, which is critical for memory formation and retrieval. Chronic stress and high levels of cortisol associated with depression can damage neurons in these areas. However, a further understanding of mechanisms linking memory decline and depression is crucial for developing targeted interventions aimed at improving mood and slowing cognitive decline in individuals with depression and memory impairment.”
The study, “Bidirectional Associations of Depressive Symptoms and Cognitive Function Over Time,” was authored by Jiamin Yin, Amber John, and Dorina Cadar.
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A new study has found that microdosing with LSD can lead to earlier bedtimes and longer sleep durations. Participants in the study, published in Translational Psychiatry, slept an average of 24 minutes longer on the night following a microdose. They also went to bed 25 minutes earlier than usual while waking up at their typical time.
Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD, is a potent hallucinogenic drug that alters perception, mood, and various cognitive processes. It belongs to the class of drugs known as psychedelics. LSD was first synthesized in 1938 by Albert Hofmann and became widely known in the 1960s for its mind-altering effects. It primarily interacts with serotonin receptors in the brain, leading to altered sensory experiences and sometimes profound changes in consciousness.
LSD and most other psychedelics are illegal in many countries due to their potent psychoactive effects and potential for misuse. However, recent years have seen growing interest in the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. Microdosing, the practice of taking sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelics, is claimed by some to enhance creativity, focus, and overall well-being without inducing intense hallucinations.
Individuals microdose on psychedelics hoping that it will enhance their creativity, focus, and overall well-being without experiencing the intense hallucinations associated with higher doses. Also, multiple recent studies reported beneficial effects of different psychedelics on symptoms of mental health disorders such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.
Study author Nathan Allen and his colleagues wanted to explore the effects of microdosing with LSD on sleep characteristics. They noted that previous studies mainly measured subjective changes in sleep quality. The effects these studies reported were mixed. To improve on this, they conducted an experimental study using objective measures of sleep.
The study included 80 healthy male volunteers aged 25 to 60, randomly assigned to either microdose with LSD for six weeks or receive a placebo. Participants took their assigned treatments using oral syringes.
Participants microdosing on LSD took 10 micrograms of LSD dissolved in 1 ml of water every third day for six weeks. During the study period, participants wore Fitbit Charge 3/4 devices on their wrists. This allowed the researchers to objectively monitor participants’ sleep and activity patterns. On microdosing days, participants took their dose at 11 am to avoid any potential disruption of their nighttime sleep.
Results showed that, on the night after microdosing with LSD, participants slept longer compared to the placebo group (the group that was taking doses containing only water). The duration of their REM sleep was also longer. The increase in total sleep was 24 minutes, in the time spent asleep it was 21 minutes. REM sleep phase on those nights was 8 minutes longer on average. On those nights, participants who took LSD went to bed some 25 minutes earlier. The time they woke up did not change.
“Given the significant modification in total sleep observed here with LSD microdosing and the potential clinical implications, this result provides a strong justification to incorporate wearable devices for sleep monitoring in our Phase 2 trials of LSD microdosing in patients with major depressive disorder which are currently underway. More generally, the observation that participants who microdose may require extra sleep the following night suggests that taking “off” days between microdosing days is important to allow the brain and body to recover between microdoses,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the effects microdoses of LSD have on sleep patterns. However, it should be noted that the study did not collect subjective data, so it remains unknown how the observed objective changes in sleep patterns translate into psychological effects. Additionally, all participants were healthy males, so results may differ for females or individuals with health conditions.
The study, “LSD increases sleep duration the night after microdosing”, was authored by Nathan Allen, Aron Jeremiah, Robin Murphy, Rachael Sumner, Anna Forsyth, Nicholas Hoeh, David B. Menkes, William Evans, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Frederick Sundram, and Partha Roop.
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Our nervous system is intricately designed to sense and respond to fear, a crucial survival mechanism. Fear helps us stay vigilant and avoid potential dangers, whether it’s the unsettling sounds we hear alone at night or the imminent threat of a growling animal. However, when fear manifests in the absence of real danger, it can severely impact our well-being. This phenomenon, known as fear generalization, often plagues individuals who have experienced severe stress or trauma, leading to conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite its prevalence, the underlying mechanisms of generalized fear have remained largely elusive.
A team of neurobiologists at the University of California San Diego, led by former Assistant Project Scientist Hui-quan Li and Distinguished Professor Nick Spitzer, has made significant strides in understanding these mechanisms. Their study, published in the journal Science, reveals the biochemical changes and neural circuitry involved in stress-induced generalized fear. This research not only sheds light on how fear responses are triggered but also opens up new avenues for potential interventions.
The primary motivation behind this study was to uncover the cellular and circuit mechanisms responsible for fear generalization. While fear responses are essential for survival, they can become detrimental when generalized to non-threatening situations. Such maladaptive fear responses are common in various stress-related disorders, including PTSD. The researchers aimed to identify the specific neurotransmitters and neural circuits involved in this process, hoping to pave the way for targeted treatments that could mitigate the harmful effects of generalized fear.
The researchers conducted their study using mice, focusing on a region of the brain known as the dorsal raphe, located in the brainstem. This area plays a crucial role in regulating fear responses. The team examined how acute stress affected neurotransmitter signals within neurons in this region, particularly focusing on a switch from excitatory neurotransmitters (glutamate) to inhibitory ones (GABA).
To induce stress, the mice were subjected to footshocks of varying intensities. The researchers then measured the mice’s fear responses in different contexts. Specifically, they observed the amount of time the mice spent “freezing,” a common fear response, in both the original context where the shock was administered and a new, different context. This allowed them to distinguish between conditioned fear (specific to the original context) and generalized fear (extending to the new context).
The team also employed advanced techniques to track changes in neurotransmitter expression within the dorsal raphe neurons. This involved immunostaining to identify the presence of specific neurotransmitters and their synthetic enzymes. Additionally, they utilized genetic tools to manipulate neurotransmitter synthesis, enabling them to assess the impact of these changes on fear responses.
The study revealed that strong footshocks led to generalized fear responses in mice. This was accompanied by a notable switch in the neurotransmitter signals within the dorsal raphe neurons, from glutamate to GABA. Specifically, neurons that initially co-expressed glutamate began to co-express GABA instead, a change that persisted for several weeks.
Further investigations showed that this neurotransmitter switch was critical for the development of generalized fear. When the researchers used genetic tools to suppress the synthesis of GABA in the dorsal raphe neurons, the mice did not exhibit generalized fear, even after experiencing strong footshocks. This finding underscores the pivotal role of the glutamate-to-GABA switch in mediating stress-induced fear generalization.
“Our results provide important insights into the mechanisms involved in fear generalization,” said Spitzer, a member of UC San Diego’s Department of Neurobiology and Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind. “The benefit of understanding these processes at this level of molecular detail — what is going on and where it’s going on — allows an intervention that is specific to the mechanism that drives related disorders.”
Building on their findings in mice, the researchers examined postmortem brain samples from individuals who had suffered from PTSD. They discovered a similar switch from glutamate to GABA in the dorsal raphe neurons of these individuals, suggesting that the mechanisms observed in mice are relevant to human PTSD.
The team also explored potential interventions to prevent the development of generalized fear. They found that administering an adeno-associated virus (AAV) to suppress the gene responsible for GABA synthesis in the dorsal raphe before the experience of acute stress effectively prevented generalized fear in mice. Additionally, treating mice with the antidepressant fluoxetine (commonly known as Prozac) immediately after a stressful event also prevented the neurotransmitter switch and the subsequent onset of generalized fear.
While the study provides valuable insights, it also has limitations. The research was primarily conducted on mice, and although similar mechanisms were observed in human PTSD samples, further studies are needed to confirm these findings. Additionally, the long-term effects of manipulating neurotransmitter synthesis and the potential side effects of such interventions require further investigation.
Future research could explore the broader implications of these findings. For instance, understanding whether similar neurotransmitter switches occur in response to other forms of stress, such as psychological stress, could provide a more comprehensive understanding of fear generalization. Moreover, investigating the specific neural circuits downstream of the dorsal raphe that mediate generalized fear responses could lead to more targeted and effective treatments.
“Now that we have a handle on the core of the mechanism by which stress-induced fear happens and the circuitry that implements this fear, interventions can be targeted and specific,” said Spitzer.
The study, “Generalized fear following acute stress is caused by change in co-transmitter identity of serotonergic neurons,” was authored by Hui-quan Li, Wuji Jiang, Lily Ling, Vaidehi Gupta, Cong Chen, Marta Pratelli, Swetha K. Godavarthi, and Nicholas C. Spitzer.
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Some scientists argue that evolutionary psychology is revolutionary within the field of psychology. David Buss, a prominent figure in the field, suggests that evolutionary psychology has already triggered a paradigm shift, fundamentally altering how scientists view human behavior and cognition. He draws a parallel to Kuhn’s concept of paradigm shifts, which posits the emergence of a new dominant paradigm that replaces the old one marks a scientific revolution.
Other researchers suggest that the state of evolutionary psychology is contentious, and its acceptance as the dominant paradigm is not as widespread as suggested. In recent work, researcher Andrea Zagaria conducted a bibliometric analysis to assess the prevalence of evolutionary psychology relative to the socio-cultural approach (that is, the Standard Social Science Model; SSSM), to determine whether evolutionary psychology is indeed revolutionary. This study was published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology.
Zagaria sourced data from PsycInfo, a comprehensive database of psychological literature, and compared frequency of words associated with evolutionary psychology (e.g., natural selection, ethology) and SSSM (e.g., social identity, acculturation) across a variety of peer-reviewed journals between 1950-2022. The researcher selected terms based on the APA Thesaurus to ensure a broad representation of both subdisciplines. The percentage of publications related to each approach, as well as their intersection, was calculated to visualize the growth and relative prominence of each field within psychological literature over time.
Zagaria found that while the prominence of evolutionary psychology has steadily grown over the past decade, it has not surpassed SSSM. Between 1950 to 1990, evolutionary psychology-related publications were relatively stable at roughly 3% of the total psychological literature. There was a notable increase post-1990, which peaked at approximately 4% in 2005.
However, this growth has plateaued since. SSSM-related publications significantly increased between 1950 to early 2000s, with publications surging from 5% of the total literature in the 1950s to approximately 11% by 2005, stabilizing around 10% in recent years. Zagaria argues this trend shows SSSM has maintained, if not strengthened, its position as a dominant approach in psychology.
The ratio between SSSM and evolutionary psychology has steadily increased over time, with SSSM contributions, on average, being more than twice as prevalent as evolutionary psychology contributions This gap has been widening in recent years, indicating that SSSM is growing at a faster pace than evolutionary psychology.
There were few contributions that integrated both evolutionary psychology and SSSM, showing there are minimal efforts to integrate the two bodies of research–i.e., the cultural-evolutionary approach. This lack of integration further suggests that evolutionary psychology has not achieved a revolutionary status. Engaging in interdisciplinary research may help foster the integration of evolutionary perspectives in understanding human behavior.
Zagaria maintains the continued dominance of the SSSM suggests that psychology is still a pre-paradigmatic science that is characterized by competing schools of thought, rather than one unified paradigm.
A limitation of this study is the reliance on keyword-based searches, which may not fully capture the complexity of theoretical and empirical contributions to psychology.
The study, “Is Evolutionary Psychology a Scientific Revolution? A Bibliometric Analysis”, was conducted by Andrea Zagaria.
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A new study published in the journal Nutrients has found that a combination of creatine nitrate and caffeine significantly enhances cognitive function more effectively than caffeine alone. However, this combination does not improve exercise performance. This research offers valuable insights for those seeking to enhance mental sharpness through dietary supplements.
Athletes and fitness enthusiasts often use dietary supplements like caffeine and creatine to boost performance. Caffeine is well-known for its ability to reduce fatigue and enhance alertness. Creatine, particularly creatine monohydrate, helps in quickly replenishing adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is crucial for short bursts of high-intensity exercise. Creatine nitrate, a newer form, is thought to offer the benefits of creatine while also enhancing nitric oxide production, which can improve blood flow and muscle oxygenation.
Despite the known benefits of these supplements individually, the effects of combining them have been less studied. Some evidence suggests potential interactions that could either amplify or diminish their benefits. In their new study, the researchers aimed to evaluate the cognitive and physical performance effects of a week-long high-dose intake of caffeine, creatine nitrate, and their combination in resistance-trained males.
“I was intrigued by the potential ergogenic and cognitive benefits of both creatine and caffeine, which are well-documented individually but less understood when combined. Given their popularity among athletes, it was important to explore whether their combination could yield synergistic benefits, particularly for enhancing physical and cognitive performance,” said study author Majid Koozehchian, an associate professor of kinesiology at Jacksonville State University.
The study took place at the Human Performance Laboratory of Jacksonville State University. Recruitment targeted resistance-trained males with at least two years of multi-joint resistance training experience. Participants were required to maintain their usual training and dietary habits and avoid new exercises or dietary changes during the study.
The final sample included 12 participants, aged 18 to 40, who met strict inclusion criteria. They had to be free of metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and other specific health conditions, and not on prescription medications. They also had to have a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9 and no known intolerance to caffeine or natural stimulants.
Participants underwent a familiarization session where they practiced the exercise tests and provided baseline health data. The study followed a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, with participants cycling through four treatment phases: creatine nitrate, caffeine, their combination, and a placebo. Each phase lasted seven days, separated by a week-long washout period.
The supplements included 5 grams of creatine nitrate, 400 milligrams of caffeine, a combination of both, or a placebo of maltodextrin. These were administered 45 minutes before exercise tests. The rationale for the dosages was based on previous research showing these amounts could enhance performance and cognitive function.
Performance was assessed using bench press and leg press exercises, measuring repetitions to failure and lifting volume. The Wingate test, a 30-second cycle ergometer sprint, evaluated anaerobic performance indicators like peak power, mean power, and fatigue index.
Cognitive function was assessed using the Stroop Word–Color Test, which measures attention, processing speed, and cognitive flexibility. Participants also completed the Visual Analog Scale to rate their readiness to perform, alongside comprehensive questionnaires on sleep quality, caffeine tolerance, and side effects.
Blood samples were taken to measure various markers, including muscle and liver enzymes, and a complete blood count was performed. Heart rate and blood pressure were monitored before and after exercise.
Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, no significant improvements in exercise performance were observed. Bench press and leg press repetitions and volumes, as well as Wingate test parameters like peak power and mean power, remained unchanged across all conditions. These findings suggest that while the supplements may enhance cognitive function, they do not provide additional benefits for physical performance.
“I was surprised to find that the co-ingestion of creatine nitrate and caffeine did not significantly improve exercise performance, as we initially hypothesized. This contrasts with previous findings suggesting potential ergogenic benefits from these supplements, highlighting the complex interactions and the need for personalized approaches to supplementation.”
But the researchers found that the combination of creatine nitrate and caffeine significantly improved cognitive performance on the Stroop Word–Color Test. This enhancement was more pronounced than with caffeine alone. The combination treatment showed a medium-to-large effect size, indicating a robust impact on cognitive processing.
“The primary takeaway from our study is that while the combination of creatine nitrate and caffeine significantly improved cognitive function, particularly in tasks involving cognitive interference, it did not enhance short-term exercise performance. This suggests that athletes and individuals seeking cognitive benefits may consider this combination, but those looking solely for physical performance enhancements may not see additional benefits.”
While this study offers important insights, it has several limitations. The sample size was relatively small and limited to resistance-trained males, which may not represent broader or more diverse populations. The washout period between treatments, though practical, may have been too short to fully eliminate the effects of the previous supplement phase.
“A major caveat of our study is its relatively small sample size and the focus on male resistance-trained athletes, which may limit the generalizability of the findings,” Koozehchian noted. “Additionally, the short duration of supplementation (seven days) might not capture longer-term effects, and we did not measure peak blood levels of caffeine and nitrate, which could influence the outcomes.”
Future research could explore these supplements’ effects over longer periods and in more diverse populations. Longitudinal studies could also help in understanding how these supplements affect muscle growth, intramuscular signaling pathways, and hormonal responses over time.
“Long-term, I aim to explore the effects of these supplements over more extended periods and in more diverse populations, including different athletic and non-athletic groups and both genders,” Koozehchian explained. “Additionally, investigating the underlying mechanisms through which these supplements influence cognitive and physical performance could provide more nuanced insights.”
“I believe our findings contribute to the growing body of evidence supporting a personalized approach to supplementation. The interplay between different supplements and individual responses underscores the need for tailored strategies to optimize both cognitive and physical performance.”
The study, “The Effect of Creatine Nitrate and Caffeine Individually or Combined on Exercise Performance and Cognitive Function: A Randomized, Crossover, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial,” was authored by by Gina Mabrey, Majid S. Koozehchian, Andrew T. Newton, Alireza Naderi, Scott C. Forbes, and Monoem Haddad.
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Sexual intimacy is a significant part of many people’s lives, and understanding the typical duration of sexual activity can help demystify this often private aspect of human experience. Three recent studies have provided detailed insights into the typical duration of heterosexual intercourse, with findings suggesting that the time from penetration to ejaculation varies significantly among men.
The three studies, all published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, utilized different methodologies and sample populations, yet their results offer a comprehensive view of what is considered “normal” when it comes to the duration of sex.
But why were scientists investigated this in the first place? Studies on how long sex typically lasts have been conducted to gain a better understanding of two sexual problems faced by men: premature ejaculation and delayed ejaculation.
Premature ejaculation is the most prevalent sexual complaint among men and can negatively affect the quality of life for both partners. It often leads to lowered self-esteem and sexual confidence, making it a significant concern for many couples. Delayed ejaculation, although less common, is another important issue. It involves a significant delay in reaching ejaculation, which can lead to frustration, lack of sexual fulfillment, and difficulties in procreation.
It’s important to highlight that these studies specifically examine the period from the start of penetration to ejaculation, known as ejaculation latency. This focus on penetration provides a clear, measurable endpoint that can be consistently assessed across different populations.
By excluding foreplay and other forms of sexual activity, researchers can obtain a more precise understanding of the timing related to ejaculation itself. This precision is vital for developing accurate clinical guidelines and effective treatments for both premature and delayed ejaculation.
A study published in 2023 aimed to better understand the amount of time it takes for men to ejaculate to help diagnose those who have trouble reaching orgasm. The study surveyed 1,660 men. The final sample consisted mainly of Hungarian men (77.71%) and included a significant proportion from the United States and other English-speaking countries (22.29%). The average age of participants was approximately 39 years, with a majority identifying as heterosexual.
Participants were asked to estimate the average time it took from the beginning of penile stimulation to reach orgasm during partnered sex, using a nine-point scale. The scale ranged from less than one minute to more than 25 minutes. The study tested three EL thresholds: more than 10 minutes, more than 15 minutes, and more than 20 minutes.
The study found that men without orgasmic difficulties typically ejaculated within 11 minutes during partnered sex. The analysis revealed that longer ejaculation latencies were significantly associated with greater orgasmic difficulties. Specifically, men who took more than 10 minutes to ejaculate were more likely to report significant orgasmic difficulties.
Another study, published in 2020, focused on understanding how long men typically last during sex from the perspectives of both men and their female sexual partners. The researchers recruited participants through social media platforms like Reddit and Facebook, using both unpaid and paid advertisements. Additionally, some participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. This approach resulted in a sample of 1,065 respondents, consisting of 571 men and 494 women.
Participants were asked to estimate various ejaculation latencies based on their experiences and perceptions. These included:
Typical ejaculation latency: How long they believe most men last during penetrative sex.
Ideal ejaculation latency: The duration they consider ideal for penetrative sex.
Premature ejaculation latency: The time they think qualifies as premature ejaculation.
Self-reported ejaculation latency: How long they personally last during penetrative sex.
The researchers found that both men and women estimated the typical time most men last during sex to be around 5 minutes, though there was a positive skew, resulting in average times closer to 8 minutes. The ideal duration for sex was generally longer, around 10 minutes, indicating a preference for prolonged sexual activity. For premature ejaculation, both men and women agreed on a median threshold of about 1.5 minutes, suggesting that sex lasting less than this time was considered too short.
Interestingly, there were no significant differences between men and women in their estimates of typical, ideal, and premature ejaculation times. Both genders had similar perceptions of these durations. Additionally, the study found that men with self-reported premature ejaculation estimated shorter typical and ideal durations compared to men without such issues.
The study also compared estimates from men of different sexual orientations and found no significant differences between straight, gay, and bisexual men. This consistency suggests that perceptions of ejaculation latency are similar across different groups. The number of lifetime sexual partners was found to be a factor, with those reporting more partners generally estimating longer typical and ideal durations for sex.
But the most objective evidence comes from a study published back in 2005. The study involved 500 couples from five countries: the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, and Turkey. Participants were men aged 18 years or older who had been in a stable heterosexual relationship for at least six months and engaged in regular sexual intercourse.
Participants were provided with a stopwatch and a sexual events diary. They were instructed to record the time from vaginal penetration until ejaculation for each sexual encounter over a four-week period. Either partner could operate the stopwatch, but the same person was asked to handle it consistently throughout the study. The recorded data included the date, time of day, duration of each sexual event, and whether the stopwatch was used.
The study collected data from 491 men, as some were excluded for not using the stopwatch or providing incomplete information. A total of 4,000 sexual events were timed, with a mean frequency of eight events per couple over the four weeks. The results showed that the average time from penetration to ejaculation was 5.4 minutes, with a wide range from 0.55 to 44.1 minutes.
The median ejaculation latency varied significantly between countries. For example, men in Turkey had a median latency of 3.7 minutes, while men in the United Kingdom had a median latency of 7.6 minutes. Age also played a role; younger men (18-30 years) had a longer median latency of 6.5 minutes compared to older men (over 51 years) who had a median latency of 4.3 minutes.
The study also examined the effects of circumcision and condom use on ejaculation latency. The results showed that circumcision status had minimal impact on latency except in Turkey, where all men were circumcised. The use of condoms did not significantly affect the latency either, with median values being similar for both condom users and non-users.
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A qualitative study investigating the dreams of Israelis following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks revealed that the traumatic events significantly influenced the content of participants’ dreams. This suggests a possible disruption of the psychological mechanisms typically used for coping with stress. The findings were published in the journal Death Studies.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas, the militant and political organization governing the Gaza Strip at the time, launched a surprise attack on Israel. Over the course of one day, more than 1,200 Israelis were killed, hundreds were wounded, and another 240 were abducted and taken to Gaza. The attacks included raids and the firing of thousands of missiles into Israel, impacting nearly the entire country due to its small size.
The conflict between Hamas and Israel escalated into a prolonged war, which continues today. Virtually all residents of Israel experienced the war’s horrors, whether directly through the attacks, through their friends and relatives being affected, or by participating in the ensuing conflict. These traumatic events profoundly impacted many people’s mental health, influencing their dreams.
Study author Shani Pitcho of the University of the Negev noted that when core assumptions of one’s worldview are challenged, such as in the case of traumatic events where individuals confront death, their normal mechanisms for coping against stress can be disrupted and anxiety will emerge. Usually, people hold worldviews that allow them to make them feel safe and avoid anxiety. They use their self-esteem and close relationships in the same way, relying on them to feel safe and buffer anxiety.
However, when traumatic events happen, such as those from October 7, 2023, these factors may no longer be sufficient to protect from anxiety. In some cases, this disruption may play a key role in the development of mental disorders. But is this disruption visible in the contents of dreams?
Pitcho conducted a study in which she had 242 Jewish-Israeli participants describe their dreams through a Qualtrics survey. Participants were selected to be as diverse as possible. Their ages ranged between 18 and 70 years, with the average being 43. 80% of them were female. 10% of the participants resided in close geographic proximity to the zones affected by the attack and the subsequent war, because of which they had to evacuate their homes. 12% reported losing a loved one during these events, while 23% either sustained injuries themselves or knew someone who was injured or abducted during the attack.
The survey began two weeks after the initial Hamas attacks and continued for two months. Participants provided detailed descriptions of any dreams they had since the attacks, with no requirement for the dreams to be nightmares or war-related.
A thematic analysis of the dream descriptions revealed that many dreams were about death and directly confronting mortality. Themes identified in the dreams challenged the three main factors that buffer against anxiety: worldview, self-esteem, and close relationships.
A fundamental cultural worldview is that one’s home is one’s castle, a place that is safe. Still many people dreamt dreams depicting their house as no longer safe. Their dreams depicted homes as unsafe, with intruders breaking in, an inability to escape, and a lack of protection from authorities. These dreams reflected a perceived loss of security and safety.
One’s self-esteem is important not only because it makes a person see him/herself as valuable, but also because high self-esteem makes one feel protected. In contrast to this, dreams of participants included situations where they were unable to protect themselves, had no control, failed professionally (e.g. could not remember how to do something), morally or as parents (unable to protect children). These included dreams of helplessness or unworthiness.
Close personal relationships are the third buffer against anxiety as they protect an individual against danger. Still, in these dreams, participants dreamt of their loved ones being murdered, suddenly dying, being abducted, or hurt. They dreamt of being separated from loved ones and experiencing negative emotions such as sadness, anger, guilt, shame or fear.
“The paper offers a unique glimpse into the subtle effects that traumatic national events with high mortality salience can have on the human psyche. The demonstrated breach in the three psychological anxiety buffering mechanisms may reflect collective, negative feelings of shock, uncertainty, and fear, but it may also mark the beginning of a cultural change,” the researcher concluded.
“Prior to the events of October 7, the State of Israel was rocked by months of severe civil unrest that was driven by political processes that divided the country along social and religious lines. The fact that all of the study participants, irrespective of their diverse backgrounds, described similar dreams perhaps hints at the emergence of a new existential protection mechanism grounded in the therapeutic factor of universalism.”
The study sheds light on the dreams of Israelis during the 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas war. However, the collected data does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about participants’ stress levels. Additionally, the study focused on the dreams of Israeli Jews, which are not the only group affected or involved in this war. It is possible that dreams of other ethnic groups affected by the war, Palestinians, before all, were different.
The paper, “The stuff that nightmares are made of: Israeli dreams in times of the Israel-Hamas war,” was authored by Shani Pitcho.
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In a recently published study in the journal npj Science of Learning, researchers have discovered a significant relationship between the way children tell stories and their reading abilities. This research found that children who displayed more complex narrative structures in their oral stories tended to perform better on reading tests several months later. This link appears to be independent of the child’s intelligence and understanding of others’ perspectives.
Reading is fundamental to learning, serving as the basis for understanding subjects such as history, science, and geography. As children learn to read, their cognitive abilities also develop, allowing them to handle more complex language structures. Previous research suggested that the way children tell stories could indicate their cognitive development, but it was unclear how this relates to reading skills. The researchers aimed to explore this relationship in detail, hoping to identify early indicators of reading difficulties.
“Ten years ago, I started this line of study. I knew the potential of other natural language processing tools for the application on mental health, but all of them required representative corpora,” said study author Natália Bezerra Mota, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and founder of Mobile Brain.
“As it was no corpora available in Brazilian Portuguese, I’ve developed a strategy to study the structure of language, not the content, and also associated with psychopathological signs. This strategy based on graph theory is language invariant and allows the study across languages as well.”
The study included 253 children aged 5 to 8 from private schools in São Paulo, Brazil. The researchers began their study in March, at the start of the school year, and conducted subsequent assessments in April, June, August, and October.
During these sessions, children were shown three images depicting positive scenarios (a baby, a dog, and a dessert) and asked to create stories about each one. These stories were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a graph-theoretical approach. This method involved representing each word as a node and the sequence of words as directed edges, forming a word recurrence graph. The researchers focused on three main attributes of these graphs: repeated edges (RE), largest connected component (LCC), and largest strongly connected component (LSC).
In addition to the narrative tasks, the children underwent three reading performance assessments. These included an eye-tracking text reading task to measure reading speed and comprehension, a single-word reading task to assess reading fluency, and a phonological awareness task to evaluate their ability to identify and manipulate sounds in words. The combination of these assessments provided a comprehensive view of the children’s reading abilities.
Over the school year, the children’s oral narratives showed a decrease in repeated edges and an increase in the complexity of connected components (LCC and LSC). In other words, their stories contained fewer repetitions of the same word associations and demonstrated a greater variety of interconnected words, reflecting a more complex and sophisticated narrative structure. This pattern was particularly evident when comparing data from March to June and from March to October, indicating that the school environment played a crucial role in enhancing narrative complexity.
“The same dynamic change in oral narratives that occurs when a child starts to read, happened in written narratives studying historical books, since Sumeria and Ancient Egypt up to nowadays,” Mota told PsyPost.
One of the most notable findings was the predictive value of narrative complexity for reading performance. The researchers found that higher connectedness in the oral narratives collected in March and June was positively correlated with better performance in phonological awareness, reading comprehension, and word accuracy in October.
Phonological awareness refers to the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds in words, which is fundamental for decoding new words. Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and interpret the meaning of the text. Word accuracy involves correctly identifying and pronouncing written words. This suggests that the way children organize their thoughts into stories can provide early indicators of their reading abilities several months later.
However, the study also found that this association did not extend to reading fluency. Reading fluency is the ability to read text smoothly and quickly with minimal errors. This indicates that while narrative complexity is linked to certain aspects of reading skills, other factors may influence reading fluency. Additionally, the study highlighted that girls generally exhibited higher connectedness in their narratives compared to boys, suggesting potential gender differences in language development.
While the findings are promising, the study has some limitations. The sample consisted of children from high socioeconomic backgrounds, which may not represent the broader population. Future research should include children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to see if the findings hold true across different groups.
“We are now designing tools to track narrative complexity on schools environment to follow language development in time to design pedagogical interventions and to track signs of mental disorders in target ages,” Mota said.
The study, “Speech connectedness predicts reading performance three months in advance: a longitudinal experiment,” was authored by Bárbara Malcorra, Marina Ribeiro, Luísa Jensen, Giovana Gomes, Tamara Meletti, and Natália Bezerra Mota.
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A recent study published in Frontiers in Pediatrics has found that infants exposed to cannabis in the womb tend to exhibit improved language development by their first birthday. This surprising finding sheds light on the impacts of prenatal cannabis exposure on one aspect of early childhood neurodevelopment. However, experts advise that women avoid cannabis use during pregnancy due to known risks and unknown long-term effects.
The medical community has been concerned about the rise in cannabis use among pregnant women, particularly with a large spike in use occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research on prenatal cannabis exposure is limited, but some studies have suggested that exposure to cannabis while in the womb could lead to neurodevelopmental issues in children, including cognitive abnormalities.
The research team, led by Maria M. Talavera-Barber from Avera Research Institute in South Dakota, embarked on this study to better understand the impact of exposure to cannabis while developing in a mother’s womb.
The researchers recruited 207 pregnant individuals and their 12-month-old infants who were part of The Safe Passage Study. This was a large prospective study that followed participants from 2007 to 2015.
Talavera-Barber and colleagues assessed the infants according to the Mullen Scale of Early Learning, a tool that assesses cognitive development in children from 2 days old to 68 months. The scale focuses on gross motor skills, fine motor skills, expressive language, receptive language, and visual reception, where higher scores indicate more comprehensive development.
Prenatal cannabis exposure was collected from the mothers through self-report. Participants were categorized based on whether the exposure to cannabis occurred early (first trimester only; 51 participants) or late (second or third trimester; 18 participants), and they were randomly matched with unexposed participants for comparison (138 participants).
The team then analyzed the data using statistical models to explore the relationship between cannabis exposure and developmental outcomes.
Unexpectedly, infants who were exposed to cannabis later in pregnancy scored higher in both expressive and receptive language areas than those who were not exposed.
Additionally, infants exposed early in pregnancy showed better gross motor skills, although there was no difference in fine motor skills and visual reception skills.
The authors concluded, “preclinical studies have shown abnormal brain connectivity in offspring exposed to cannabis affecting emotional regulation, hyperactivity, and language development. Results from this study link [prenatal cannabis exposure] to altered early language development within the first year of life. Exposed infants demonstrated increased expressive and receptive language scores at 12 months of age, which can translate to better performance in school. However, further research is needed to determine the implications of these results later in childhood.”
Notably, this study is not without its limitations. The data on cannabis use was self-reported, with a lack of information regarding frequency, mode, and quantity of cannabis use. Moreover, the study did not account for the potential postnatal exposure of infants to cannabis.
Despite the surprising findings, pregnant women should still avoid using cannabis. Cannabis use during pregnancy is associated with other health risks, such as low birth weight, premature birth, and developmental issues, including attention deficit/hyperactivity problems. The risks to the fetus from cannabis compounds, such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which can cross the placenta and affect fetal brain development, are well-documented in other research.
Medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, advise against the use of cannabis during pregnancy due to the potential risks to fetal development. These guidelines are based on a broad review of available evidence, which generally supports the avoidance of cannabis use.
Given these concerns, pregnant women should err on the side of caution and avoid cannabis use to protect the overall health and development of their child. The potential benefits observed in one aspect of development do not outweigh the known and unknown risks associated with prenatal cannabis exposure.
The study, “Prenatal cannabinoid exposure and early language development”, was authored by Maria M. Talavera-Barber, Evlyn Morehead, Katherine Ziegler, Christine Hockett, and Amy J. Elliott.
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In an era where political polarization seems to dominate conversations, expressing nuanced opinions might seem like a bridge-building strategy. However, a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology provides evidence that individuals who express ambivalence about political issues may pay a social price for their nuanced views. Those who articulate their stance with ambivalence are often perceived as less likeable, warm, and competent. This finding emerges across a range of policy topics.
Previous research had indicated that people often expect expressing ambivalence to be socially valued, especially in controversial contexts. This expectation made intuitive sense: if people see that someone recognizes arguments on both sides of an issue, they might perceive that person as thoughtful, competent, and less biased. The researchers aimed to test whether these positive expectations matched social reality.
“I think a big part of the story of political polarization is how it sidelines people with nuanced opinions and amplifies those with more extreme views. We were interested in whether everyday social dynamics might contribute to that by incentivizing expressing certain types of opinions – one-sided ones – and disincentivizing expressing others – ambivalent ones,” said study author Joseph J. Siev, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
In an initial pilot study, the researchers recruited 77 student participants and presented them with a hypothetical social scenario. In this scenario, participants were asked to imagine themselves in a new social setting where they wanted to make friends and be liked. During a conversation, a political topic such as COVID-19 mask mandates or U.S. immigration policy comes up, and the participants were asked how likely they would be to express their opinions in two ways: taking a clear, one-sided position or expressing a preference while acknowledging some arguments from the opposing side.
Participants indicated their likelihood of choosing each approach, providing insight into their expectations about how expressing ambivalence might affect their social standing. The results showed a strong preference for taking a two-sided, ambivalent stance over a one-sided position, suggesting that participants believed ambivalence would be socially beneficial.
Next, to examine the actual social consequences of expressing ambivalence on polarizing political issues, the researchers recruited 618 participants through the online platform Mechanical Turk. Participants first completed a questionnaire assessing their own positions and ambivalence regarding U.S. immigration policy, the death penalty, or COVID-19 mask mandates.
Participants were then exposed to a fictional target who expressed either a one-sided (univalent) or two-sided (ambivalent) opinion on the same issue. The targets were also designed to either agree or disagree with the participants’ overall stance. The researchers ensured that the overall position and the extremity of attitudes were constant across conditions to isolate the effect of ambivalence. Participants rated their liking for the target, along with perceptions of the target’s warmth, competence, and their interest in meeting the target.
The findings revealed that ambivalent targets were generally less liked than one-sided targets, particularly by participants who agreed with the target’s overall stance but were low in ambivalence themselves. This pattern was consistent across the different topics, with slight variations in strength.
Participants unsurprisingly preferred targets who shared their views over those who held opposing positions. However, expressing ambivalence did not make targets more likeable when they disagreed with participants’ stance.
“We thought things might balance out more, with some people liking ambivalent (vs. non-ambivalent) people less and others liking them more,” Siev told PsyPost. “We thought certain groups of participants might especially like ambivalent people: those who disagreed with the ambivalent person’s overall position on the issue, in which case ambivalence creates some common ground, and/or those who were also ambivalent themselves. But we didn’t find strong evidence for those possibilities.”
Siev and his colleagues then sought to replicate and extend the findings by manipulating the perceived polarization of a single issue: U.S. immigration reform. The researchers framed the topic in two ways: highly polarizing (immigration from Mexico) and less polarizing (immigration from Canada). They recruited 594 participants from the online platform Prolific. Participants first completed a questionnaire about their positions and ambivalence on the issue of immigration from either Mexico or Canada, based on their random assignment.
Participants were then presented with a target who agreed with their overall position on immigration but expressed either a one-sided or two-sided opinion. They rated their liking for the target, along with perceptions of warmth, competence, and interest in meeting the target.
Consistent with the previous findings, the results showed that ambivalent targets were less liked than one-sided targets, regardless of whether the issue was framed as more or less polarizing. Participants with high levels of ambivalence were more tolerant of ambivalent targets, while those with low ambivalence showed a clear preference for one-sided targets. These findings reinforced the idea that expressing ambivalence generally leads to reduced social liking, even when the issue is less polarizing.
“People pay a social price for expressing nuanced, ambivalent opinions about political issues,” Siev explained. “They are often less popular overall because members of their political ingroup like them less than they like those with more polarized, one-sided opinions. This might be part of the reason moderate opinions are underrepresented and political discourse seems so extreme.”
But as with all research, there are some caveats. The study’s participants were primarily Americans, and results may vary in different cultural contexts. The study also focused on specific political issues. Future research could examine other topics, including non-political ones, to see if the findings hold.
“It’s possible the results would differ in other cultural contexts, historical periods, or political systems,” Siev noted. “Our findings are most applicable to the contemporary U.S. and other contexts that are comparable to it in terms of politics and culture.”
As far as the long-term goals for this line of research, Siev hopes “to encourage nuanced contributions to political discourse and raise the profiles of people who express them. Part of that is figuring out how to make people more receptive to ambivalent opinions from ingroup members. Another part of that is understanding how people can use ambivalent opinions to reach across the political aisle.”
“Our paper resonates with and expands upon other recent research showing how people’s political beliefs affect whom they like and want to socialize with, and how these processes contribute to political polarization,” he added. “For example: Hussein & Wheeler (2024), people who are receptive to outgroups’ opinions pay social costs. Goldenberg et al. (2022), people prefer to interact with ingroup members with more (vs. less) extreme opinions.”
The study, “Endorsing both sides, pleasing neither: Ambivalent individuals face unexpected social costs in political conflicts,” was authored by Joseph J. Siev, Aviva Philipp-Muller, Geoffrey R.O. Durso, and, Duane T. Wegener.
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In recent years, the pervasive influence of social media in our lives has sparked heated debates on its potential impact on mental health, particularly concerning loneliness. A new study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships explored this issue by examining how the algorithms driving social media platforms like Instagram affect feelings of loneliness among users. The findings provide evidence that perceptions of social media algorithms are linked to feelings of loneliness.
The research was motivated by the increasing prevalence of loneliness alongside the rise of social media use. Over the past decade, the U.S. has seen a steady increase in both loneliness and the use of platforms like Instagram. Some researchers argue that social media contributes to a loneliness epidemic by displacing face-to-face interactions, while others believe it provides new opportunities for connection.
The relationship between social media use and loneliness remains highly debated, with mixed findings suggesting both positive and negative effects. This study aimed to clarify this complex relationship by focusing on the role of social media algorithms, which curate content based on user engagement and are integral to the user experience on platforms like Instagram.
“Social media companies, especially Meta, make claims that their personalization algorithms are designed to aid the formation and maintenance of social relationships. My interest is understanding how personalization can promote feelings of closeness to friends and family, because the ideas personalization and personal relationships are often presented as opposites,” said study author Samuel Hardman Taylor, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.
The primary goal was to investigate how users’ perceptions of social media algorithms influence their feelings of loneliness. The researchers hypothesized that users who perceive these algorithms as responsive and supportive would experience less loneliness, while those who see them as insensitive or dismissive would feel more isolated. The research was conducted in two parts: a cross-sectional study examining a broad age range of Instagram users and a longitudinal study focusing on young adults.
The first study involved 468 Instagram users, aged 19 to 68, recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants were surveyed about their awareness of Instagram’s algorithms and their perceptions of how responsive these algorithms were to their needs and identity.
The researchers measured two dimensions of perceived algorithm responsiveness: perceived algorithm responsiveness and perceived algorithm insensitivity. Perceived algorithm responsiveness refers to the extent to which users feel the algorithms understand and support their goals, while perceived algorithm insensitivity indicates the degree to which users feel ignored or undermined by the algorithms.
The cross-sectional analysis revealed that higher levels of perceived algorithm insensitivity were associated with greater loneliness across all age groups. Interestingly, the relationship between perceived algorithm responsiveness and loneliness varied by age.
Among younger adults, higher perceived algorithm responsiveness was linked to lower loneliness, suggesting that supportive algorithmic curation could enhance social connectedness. Among older adults, higher perceived algorithm responsiveness was associated with increased loneliness, possibly because these users might substitute online interactions for face-to-face connections.
In the second study, 155 undergraduate students aged 18 to 29 participated in a three-wave longitudinal survey conducted over four weeks. This study aimed to explore the bidirectional relationship between algorithm perceptions and loneliness over time. Participants reported their loneliness, perceptions of algorithm responsiveness, and their engagement in different types of Instagram relational maintenance (active public interactions like commenting, active private interactions like direct messaging, and passive public interactions like browsing).
While perceptions of algorithm responsiveness did not predict future loneliness, loneliness did predict subsequent perceptions of algorithm responsiveness. Specifically, lonelier individuals tended to perceive Instagram’s algorithms as less responsive over time. This suggests that loneliness can color users’ perceptions of social media algorithms, potentially creating a feedback loop where loneliness begets more loneliness due to negative perceptions of algorithmic curation.
The researchers also found that active public and passive public relational maintenance mediated the relationship between perceived algorithm responsiveness and loneliness. Users who perceived the algorithms as supportive were more likely to engage in commenting, liking, and browsing content from their social network, which in turn was associated with lower loneliness. However, perceived algorithm insensitivity’s relationship with loneliness was not explained by relational maintenance behaviors, indicating that other factors might be at play.
“Two main takeaways from this study are (1) when people felt that Instagram’s recommendation algorithms were supporting their goals and identity, they were more likely use the platform to communicate with their friends and family, (2) however; people who were lonely reported less supportive from algorithms. Thus, loneliness may beget more loneliness because of how algorithms are perceived the user,” Taylor told PsyPost.
While the study provides valuable insights, it also has limitations. The cross-sectional nature of Study 1 makes it difficult to establish causality, and the longitudinal analysis in Study 2 was limited by a short time frame. Additionally, the reliance on self-reported data introduces the possibility of demand effects, where participants might alter their responses based on their awareness of the study’s aims.
Future research should consider longer study durations to better understand the long-term effects of algorithm perceptions on loneliness. Exploring other potential mechanisms beyond relational maintenance, such as the content of algorithmically curated interactions, could also provide deeper insights. Additionally, experimental designs could help mitigate demand effects and offer more robust conclusions.
“I’m working on building this into research on the lonely algorithm problem, which scrutinizes the claims from social media companies about the interpersonal consequences of their algorithms,” Taylor said. “My goal in this research is to identify how humans and algorithms work together to produce outcomes.”
The study, “Lonely Algorithms: A Longitudinal Investigation Into the Bidirectional Relationship Between Algorithm Responsiveness and Loneliness,” was authored by Samuel Hardman Taylor and Mina Choi.
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A recent neuroimaging study revealed that after a group reaches consensus, the brain waves of its members become more synchronized. In this study, participants watched ambiguous movie clips and then discussed them to reach a common understanding. The researchers found that once agreement was reached, the brain wave patterns of the group members became more alike. The study was published in Nature Communications.
Communication is one of the most basic human necessities. Communication is necessary for babies and children to fully develop their cognitive capacities. The ability to communicate and coordinate actions through communication is what made humans the dominant species of the planet. It is very difficult for humans to maintain their mental health when they are deprived of an opportunity to communicate with others for prolonged periods.
Communication with others is also a way in which humans shape their beliefs, define their identity and achieve many things necessary for daily survival. The human society is highly specialized and humans generally obtain most of their necessities through communication and exchange with others. From all this, it is clear that communication shapes our neural processes, but it remains insufficiently clear how exactly.
Study author Beau Sievers and his colleagues wanted to explore how building consensus through conversation changes the brain activity of a group. They note that all human cultures have processes that involve groups reaching a consensus through conversation. These include juries, parliaments, group decisions in organizations, but also situations where groups of friends or family members talk about how to interpret events important to them.
The study involved 49 Master of Business Administration students from a private university in the U.S., who were previously part of a research study on social networks. The participants, aged 26 to 32, included 26 women. Prior to the study, participants completed a survey mapping their social network positions, revealing their connections and relationships with others.
The participants watched video clips from major movies while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. The clips, focused on social interactions, were chosen for their ambiguity and shown without sound, removing dialogue and music cues.
Following this, participants gathered in groups of 3 to 6 to discuss the clips and reach a consensus on their interpretations. They then completed a survey reflecting this consensus. In a final session, they re-watched the clips while undergoing another fMRI scan.
The results showed that groups that reached consensus had greater similarity in their brain activities during the third session. This alignment was particularly evident in the visual and auditory sensory areas and in higher-order areas related to attention and the default mode network, such as the temporal parietal junction, angular gyrus, posterior cingulate, medial prefrontal cortex, and temporal pole.
The researchers also observed behavioral patterns during the discussions – participants perceived as having high social status spoke more and signaled disbelief in others. Their groups had unequal turn taking, but also lower levels of neural activity alignment. On the other hand, participants who held central positions in their social networks, encouraged others to speak, leading to more equal turn-taking. Such groups showed higher levels of neural alignment in the 3rd session.
“These results suggest the possibility that thinking like one’s conversation partners facilitates social connection. Previous research on personality and social network centrality points in this direction: People with high self-monitoring personalities (i.e., those who adapt their behavior to the people around them) tend to be more socially central and they become so by making friends across disconnected cliques,” the study authors concluded.
“Although we do not know how our participants became central in their social networks, it is plausible that the ability to help groups reach consensus through a combination of influence and flexibility enabled them to grow large and diverse groups of friends. It is also possible that those in central network positions for independent reasons are motivated to develop consensus-building conversation behaviors.”
The study sheds light on the neural activity changes that happen as results of group discussions. However, the observed effects were relatively small. Also, the observed changes were the result of viewing and discussing specific movie clips. It is possible that with other movie clips or with other types of contents, affected brain areas would not be the same.
The study, “Consensus-building conversation leads to neural alignment,” was authored by Beau Sievers, Christopher Welker, Uri Hasson, Adam M. Kleinbaum, and Thalia Wheatley.
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A new study published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science has identified the most robust risk factors for problematic pornography use by analyzing 74 preexisting self-report data sets using machine learning. The findings shed light on a topic that has garnered increasing clinical and scientific attention over the past several decades.
Pornography consumption is widespread, with studies indicating that 70-94% of adults and 42-98% of adolescents have viewed pornography in the past 20 years. While many use pornography without issues, a subset of users experience problematic pornography use (PPU), characterized by uncontrollable consumption patterns leading to significant distress and functional impairment.
Estimates suggest that 1-38% of adults and 5-14% of adolescents may struggle with PPU. Understanding the risk factors for PPU is essential for developing effective prevention and treatment strategies, especially as compulsive sexual behavior disorder, which includes PPU, has been officially recognized in the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases.
“PPU seems to be as prevalent as other well-established mental health issues (e.g., depression), but it has received significantly less scientific attention in the past. For example, even though we have some empirical evidence about risk and protective factors concerning PPU, our knowledge is quite limited,” study author Beáta Bőthe, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Montreal and director of the Sexuality, Technology, and Addictions Research Laboratory (STAR Lab).
“At the same time, theoretical models in our field propose that several different factors may contribute to the development of PPU, and these factors might be in interaction with each other. With the emergence of artificial intelligence-based data analytic methods (compared to traditional statistical methods), we were able to examine these complex questions and include hundreds of potential risk and protective factors in our study.”
For their study, the researchers solicited data from 98 laboratories worldwide, ultimately including 74 datasets from 16 countries. These datasets, comprising over 112,000 participants, included both published and unpublished data and assessed PPU using various validated scales such as the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale, the Cyber-Pornography Use Inventory, and the Brief Pornography Screen.
To analyze these datasets, the researchers employed random forest models, a machine learning method that builds on classification and regression trees. This method allows for the simultaneous consideration of numerous variables and their complex interactions, providing a robust way to identify key predictors of PPU.
The random forest models were applied to each dataset individually, with the PPU score as the dependent variable and various potential predictors as independent variables. The researchers then combined the results from these models using meta-analytic methods to ensure the findings were generalizable and reliable.
The most robust predictor was the frequency of pornography use. Regular consumption of pornography was found to be strongly associated with PPU, suggesting that frequent users are more likely to experience problematic patterns of use.
“Individuals who use pornography more frequently may be at a higher risk of experiencing problems with their use,” Bőthe told PsyPost. “Yet, it is important to note that high-frequency pornography use may appear without PPU in some cases (e.g., due to strong sexual desire), and self-perceived PPU may be present even with low-frequency pornography use (e.g., due to moral disapproval of pornography use). Therefore, information about someone’s pornography use frequency in itself is not enough to decide whether they have problems with their use.”
Emotional avoidance motivation was another critical predictor. Individuals who used pornography to avoid negative emotions, such as stress or anxiety, were more likely to develop PPU. This finding highlights the role of pornography as a coping mechanism for managing emotional distress.
Moral incongruence emerged as a significant predictor as well. This refers to the conflict individuals feel when their pornography use contradicts their personal values or moral beliefs. Those experiencing higher levels of moral incongruence were more likely to report PPU, indicating that internal conflicts about pornography use can contribute to problematic patterns.
Sexual shame was also identified as a key predictor. Individuals who felt ashamed of their sexual behaviors, including their use of pornography, were more likely to develop PPU. This suggests that feelings of shame and guilt can exacerbate problematic use patterns.
Stress reduction motivation was another significant predictor. Using pornography as a way to cope with stress was strongly linked to PPU. This finding underscores the importance of addressing stress and developing healthier coping mechanisms to prevent the development of problematic use.
The findings indicate that “individuals who experience more negative emotions and use pornography to regulate them may experience higher levels of PPU,” Bőthe said.
Other notable predictors included the duration of pornography use per session, fantasy-driven motivations, and feelings of guilt. General psychological factors such as anxiety and depression symptoms were also significant predictors.
Consistent with previous research, the study found that men were more likely to experience PPU compared to women. But while gender was a (statistically) significant predictor, it was a relatively weak one.
“Based on previous findings, we expected that gender would be an important predictor of PPU (i.e., this issue is usually more common among men compared to women and gender-diverse individuals),” Bőthe explained. “Yet, somewhat surprisingly, gender did not emerge as such an important predictor in this study, it was not even among the top 10 predictors. These findings highlight the importance of being inclusive in pornography research and not focusing only on the experience of men if we want to better understand this phenomenon.”
But, as with all research, there are some caveats to consider. The reliance on self-report data can introduce biases, such as recall bias, and the overrepresentation of data from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) countries limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research should strive to include more diverse populations to enhance the applicability of the results.
Additionally, the study faced considerable heterogeneity in its findings, suggesting that further exploration is needed to fully understand the factors contributing to PPU. Longitudinal studies, which follow participants over time, could provide more detailed information about how PPU develops and changes.
“We aim to widen the scope of our work and include more underserved and underrepresented groups in our studies,” Bőthe said.
The study, “Uncovering the Most Robust Predictors of Problematic Pornography Use: A Large-Scale Machine Learning Study Across 16 Countries,” was authored by Beáta Bőthe, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Sophie Bergeron, Zsombor Hermann, Krisztián Ivaskevics, Shane W. Kraus, Joshua B. Grubbs, and the Problematic Pornography Use Machine Learning Study Consortium.
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Every few seconds, we blink our eyes — a simple, involuntary act. While it’s commonly understood that blinking keeps our eyes lubricated, a new study by researchers from the University of Rochester has uncovered a more intricate role: blinking also helps our brains process visual information more effectively. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study sheds light on how these brief closures of our eyes contribute to visual perception.
Humans spend about 3 to 8 percent of their waking hours with their eyes closed due to blinking. Given that blinking briefly obscures our vision, one might wonder why it occurs so frequently. Traditional explanations have highlighted its role in maintaining eye moisture and preventing dryness.
However, the frequency of blinks suggests that there might be additional functions beyond lubrication. Researchers Bin Yang, Janis Intoy, and Michele Rucci sought to explore these potential functions, particularly how blinking might influence visual processing in the brain.
Their study included twelve participants, consisting of both women and men with an average age of 22 years, all possessing normal vision. Participants were compensated for their time and kept unaware of the specific aims of the study to ensure unbiased results. The researchers conducted the study in a controlled laboratory environment, using advanced eye-tracking technology to monitor participants’ eye movements precisely.
Participants were tasked with viewing visual stimuli consisting of grating patterns, which are alternating stripes varying in spatial frequency. Spatial frequency refers to the level of detail in the pattern, with higher frequencies indicating finer details. These stimuli were displayed on a high-resolution monitor, and participants had to identify whether the gratings were tilted clockwise or counterclockwise.
The experimental design included two main conditions to isolate the effects of blinking on visual processing. In the “Stimulus-Blink” condition, participants were cued to blink during the presentation of the visual stimulus. In contrast, in the “No-Stimulus-Blink” condition, they were cued to blink before the stimulus appeared. The researchers controlled the timing and conditions of the blinks to ensure that any observed effects could be attributed to the act of blinking itself rather than other variables.
Eye movements were tracked using a Dual Purkinje Image eye-tracker, which provided high-resolution data on the position and movement of the participants’ eyes. This technology allowed the researchers to ensure that the participants were following instructions and that their blinks and eye movements were accurately recorded. Each experimental session consisted of multiple trials, and data were collected and analyzed to compare performance between the two conditions.
The researchers found that when participants blinked during the presentation of the visual stimulus, their performance in identifying the grating’s orientation improved significantly compared to when they blinked before the stimulus appeared. This improvement was evident in both the accuracy of their responses and their sensitivity to the visual details, measured by a standard discrimination sensitivity index.
The researchers hypothesized that this improvement was due to the luminance changes caused by blinks. Luminance refers to the brightness of the visual stimulus. When we blink, the temporary closure of our eyes creates abrupt changes in luminance. These changes may help reset the visual information entering the eye, thereby aiding the brain in processing the visual input more effectively.
“By modulating the visual input to the retina, blinks effectively reformat visual information, yielding luminance signals that differ drastically from those normally experienced when we look at a point in the scene,” explained Rucci, a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
To test this hypothesis further, the researchers conducted a control experiment where they simulated the effects of blinks by briefly dimming the visual stimulus. Participants’ performance improved in a similar manner to when they blinked naturally. This supported the idea that the luminance changes themselves, rather than the physical act of blinking, were responsible for the enhanced visual processing.
The study concluded that blinking during visual tasks enhances the brain’s ability to process visual information by introducing beneficial luminance changes. These findings suggest that blinks play a crucial role in visual perception beyond merely keeping our eyes moist. The results also imply that our visual system has evolved to use these brief interruptions in vision to improve our overall visual acuity and processing.
“We show that human observers benefit from blink transients as predicted from the information conveyed by these transients,” said Bin Yang, a graduate student in Rucci’s lab and the first author of the paper. “Thus, contrary to common assumption, blinks improve — rather than disrupt — visual processing, amply compensating for the loss in stimulus exposure.”
The study, “Eye blinks as a visual processing stage,” was published April 2, 2024.
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In a study published in the International Journal of Forensic Medicine, researchers have uncovered a striking link between aggression displayed in video games and the severity of real-world crimes committed by individuals with pronounced psychopathic tendencies and those convicted of murder. This study sheds light on the potential of video games as tools to measure and understand aggressive behavior in a controlled, replicable environment.
The researchers embarked on this study to address a crucial question in criminology and forensic psychology: Can the aggressive behaviors exhibited in video game settings provide insights into the violent tendencies of individuals convicted of severe crimes, such as murder? Previous research had highlighted connections between video game aggression and less severe offenses, but the generalizability of these findings to a broader spectrum of criminals, particularly those guilty of the most heinous acts, remained uncertain.
By focusing on a sample of real-world offenders, the researchers aimed to explore whether those with pronounced psychopathic traits and those convicted of homicide would display heightened aggression in a video game-based shooting task.
The study involved 111 male participants apprehended by the Tehran Police in 2021. After admitting guilt, these individuals were interviewed by a forensic psychologist who also led the data collection process. Although the participants’ specific ages were not recorded, most appeared to be middle-aged based on visual assessments.
A variety of measures were collected to provide a comprehensive overview of the participants’ backgrounds, behaviors, and mental health status. These measures included demographic information such as gender, primary residence location (rural or urban), and educational background, as well as detailed assessments of dark personality traits, which include psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism.
Participants engaged in a video game-based shooting decision task under the direct supervision of the forensic psychologist. The task was designed to measure their aggressive tendencies in a controlled, virtual environment. The game displays various scenarios where participants must decide quickly whether to “shoot” or “not shoot.” Participants must make rapid decisions within a brief time window, usually a few seconds. If they perceive the character as a threat, they are supposed to “shoot.” If the character appears non-threatening, they should refrain from shooting.
The study found that individuals with pronounced psychopathic traits and those convicted of murder exhibited significantly heightened aggression in the video game setting compared to other criminals. Specifically, psychopathy was associated with increased aggressive tendencies, regardless of the type of crime committed. This finding supports previous research indicating that individuals with psychopathic traits are more prone to impulsive and aggressive behaviors.
Additionally, the study revealed that homicide offenders displayed greater aggressive behavior within the game compared to their criminal counterparts. This suggests that these individuals may have an inherent bias towards violent decision-making in ambiguous contexts, aligning with recent research that highlights cognitive biases in criminals.
Interestingly, the study did not find significant differences between murderers and other criminals concerning family abuse, education, mental health, criminal history, or dark personality traits, except for the number of past crimes committed. Murderers had a lower count of past crimes compared to other criminals.
Despite its valuable insights, the study has several limitations. The sample size of homicide offenders was relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. The absence of a non-criminal control group is another limitation. Although comparing murderers to other criminals provides a straightforward comparison, incorporating a demographically matched non-offender control group could offer additional valuable insights.
“In summary, our study establishes a link between real-world violent behaviors and aggression in virtual environments,” the researchers concluded. “Both criminals with pronounced psychopathic tendencies and those convicted of the gravest crimes, such as murder, demonstrated heightened aggressive behaviors in video games. Our findings extend the boundaries of conventional video game-aggression studies, underscoring the promise of video game simulations as diagnostic instruments to dissect various criminal tendencies. Pursuing research in this domain has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of criminal behavior, rehabilitation processes, and risk management.”
The study, “From crime scenes to game screens: video game aggression among criminals with psychopathic traits and those convicted of homicide,” was authored by Armand Chatard, Soghra Ebrahimi Ghavam, Alexia Delbreil, Ghina Harika-Germaneau, and Nemat Jaafari.
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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 04:36PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 04:35PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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The FDA has authorized the marketing of 4 menthol-flavored e-cigarette products in the United States through the premarket tobacco product application pathway. These are the first nontobacco flavored e-cigarette products authorized by the FDA. https://t.co/7EETnWx9lU
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Are all single people insecure? When we think about people who have been single for a long time, we may assume it’s because single people have insecurities that make it difficult for them to find a partner or maintain a relationship.
But is this true? Or can long-term single people also be secure and thriving?
Our latest research published in the Journal of Personality suggests they can. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, not everybody tends to thrive in singlehood. Our study shows a crucial factor may be a person’s attachment style.
Singlehood is on the rise
Singlehood is on the rise around the world. In Canada, single status among young adults aged 25 to 29 has increased from 32% in 1981 to 61% in 2021. The number of people living solo has increased from 1.7 million people in 1981 to 4.4 million in 2021.
People are single for many reasons: some choose to remain single, some are focusing on personal goals and aspirations, some report dating has become harder, and some become single again due to a relationship breakdown.
People may also remain single due to their attachment style. Attachment theory is a popular and well-researched model of how we form relationships with other people. An Amazon search for attachment theory returns thousands of titles. The hashtag #attachmenttheory has been viewed over 140 million times on TikTok alone.
What does attachment theory say about relationships?
Attachment theory suggests our relationships with others are shaped by our degree of “anxiety” and “avoidance”.
Attachment anxiety is a type of insecurity that leads people to feel anxious about relationships and worry about abandonment. Attachment avoidance leads people to feel uncomfortable with intimacy and closeness.
People who are lower in attachment anxiety and avoidance are considered “securely attached”, and are comfortable depending on others, and giving and receiving intimacy.
Single people are often stereotyped as being too clingy or non-committal. Research comparing single and coupled people also suggests single people have higher levels of attachment insecurities compared to people in relationships.
At the same time, evidence suggests many single people are choosing to remain single and living happy lives.
Single people represent a diverse group of secure and insecure people
In our latest research, our team of social and clinical psychologists examined single people’s attachment styles and how they related to their happiness and wellbeing.
We carried out two studies, one of 482 younger single people and the other of 400 older long-term singles. We found overall 78% were categorised as insecure, with the other 22% being secure.
Looking at our results more closely, we found four distinct subgroups of singles:
•secure singles are relatively comfortable with intimacy and closeness in relationships (22%)
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•anxious singles question whether they are loved by others and worry about being rejected (37%)
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•avoidant singles are uncomfortable getting close to others and prioritise their independence (23% of younger singles and 11% of older long-term singles)
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•fearful singles have heightened anxiety about abandonment, but are simultaneously uncomfortable with intimacy and closeness (16% of younger singles and 28% of older long-term singles).
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Insecure singles find singlehood challenging, but secure singles are thriving
Our findings also revealed these distinct subgroups of singles have distinct experiences and outcomes.
Secure singles are happy being single, have a greater number of non-romantic relationships, and better relationships with family and friends. They meet their sexual needs outside romantic relationships and feel happier with their life overall. Interestingly, this group maintains moderate interest in being in a romantic relationship in the future.
Anxious singles tend to be the most worried about being single, have lower self-esteem, feel less supported by close others and have some of the lowest levels of life satisfaction across all sub-groups.
Avoidant singles show the least interest in being in a romantic relationship and in many ways appear satisfied with singlehood. However, they also have fewer friends and close relationships, and are generally less satisfied with these relationships than secure singles. Avoidant singles also report less meaning in life and tend to be less happy compared to secure singles.
Fearful singles reported more difficulties navigating close relationships than secure singles. For instance, they were less able to regulate their emotions, and were less satisfied with the quality of their close relationships relative to secure singles. They also reported some of the lowest levels of life satisfaction across all sub-groups.
It’s not all doom and gloom
These findings should be considered alongside several relevant points. First, although most singles in our samples were insecure (78%), a sizeable number were secure and thriving (22%).
Further, simply being in a romantic relationship is not a panacea. Being in an unhappy relationship is linked to poorer life outcomes than being single.
It is also important to remember that attachment orientations are not necessarily fixed. They are open to change in response to life events.
Similarly, sensitive and responsive behaviours from close others and feeling loved and cared about by close others can soothe underlying attachment concerns and foster attachment security over time.
Our studies are some of the first to examine the diversity in attachment styles among single adults. Our findings highlight that many single people are secure and thriving, but also that more work can be done to help insecure single people feel more secure in order to foster happiness.
Christopher Pepping, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, Griffith University; Geoff Macdonald, Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto; Tim Cronin, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, La Trobe University, and Yuthika Girme, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 03:35PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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A comprehensive meta-analysis reveals that childhood trauma significantly disrupts critical brain networks involved in self-focus and problem-solving. Published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, the study consolidates data from 14 previous studies to present an overarching view of how early traumatic experiences can “rewire” the brain.
The human brain undergoes rapid development during childhood, making it particularly vulnerable to external influences, including trauma. In the United Kingdom, approximately one in five individuals experiences some form of childhood maltreatment by the age of sixteen.
Previous research has highlighted the severe stress and long-lasting structural changes that trauma can inflict on a developing brain. While individual studies have shown detrimental effects on specific brain regions, there has been a lack of comprehensive analysis combining data from multiple studies to identify common patterns of brain activation associated with childhood trauma. This study aimed to fill that gap, providing a holistic view of how trauma affects neural development.
Researchers undertook a systematic approach to gather and analyze relevant studies. They searched academic databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and PsychInfo for task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies involving children with a history of trauma. From an initial pool of 1428 studies, only 14 met the stringent inclusion criteria. These criteria required studies to involve human participants under the age of 18 with documented trauma histories and to report whole-brain analysis data.
The studies included in the meta-analysis involved 582 child participants, aged between 8 and 20 years, with 285 having experienced trauma and 297 serving as healthy controls. The research team employed a novel data-driven Bayesian meta-analytic method to combine and compare the fMRI data from these studies. This approach allowed the identification of common brain activation patterns across different tasks and clinical groups, enabling a detailed analysis of how trauma rewires the brain.
The findings revealed disruptions in two critical brain networks: the default mode network (DMN) and the central executive network (CEN).
The default mode network (DMN) is associated with self-referential thoughts, memory, and emotion processing. The study found that children with trauma histories exhibited increased activation in the DMN during tasks related to emotional processing and social interactions. This hyperactivation was particularly notable during tasks involving emotionally charged words and facial expressions. Interestingly, healthy children showed greater DMN activation during memory and reward-processing tasks, suggesting that trauma may alter the typical functions of this network.
In addition to the DMN, the study highlighted disruptions in the central executive network (CEN), which is crucial for cognitive control, problem-solving, and regulating attention. Children with trauma histories demonstrated increased CEN activation during reward processing and trauma perception tasks. However, healthy controls exhibited greater CEN activation during tasks involving emotional words, faces, and social tasks. This finding indicates that trauma may lead to an imbalance in how the brain processes cognitive and emotional information.
The researchers also observed differences in the posterior insula and affective networks, which are involved in processing bodily sensations and emotional experiences. Children with trauma histories showed heightened activation in these regions during emotionally laden and social tasks, suggesting that trauma may cause the brain to allocate more resources to processing internal bodily states and emotions. This could potentially contribute to the difficulties in emotional regulation and self-perception commonly seen in individuals with trauma histories.
While this study provides significant insights, it also has limitations. Only 14 out of 1428 initially identified studies met the criteria for inclusion, indicating a need for more research in this area. Additionally, the type, severity, and timing of trauma were not controlled for, which could affect the results. The analysis also did not account for age and sex differences, which are important factors in brain development and trauma response.
Future research should aim to include a broader range of studies and consider these variables to provide a more detailed understanding of how different types and timings of trauma affect brain development. Longitudinal studies tracking brain changes over time in children with trauma histories could offer deeper insights into the developmental trajectory of these neural disruptions.
“The results of our study appear to reveal a common neurodevelopmental cognitive substrate that underlies having a trauma history during childhood,” the researchers concluded. “It suggests a potential imbalance in bodily and cognitive processes that may influence emotions, learning, memory, and problems with self-other processing.”
“Furthermore, activation patterns within the brain appear different during trauma triggering; the nontriggered brain state demonstrates evidence of activation deficits for bodily processing (interoceptive sensory processing) and self-other processing. Thus, the development and/or implementation of treatments that target interoception, affective, and self-other processing in children with trauma histories may be beneficial and should be explored in future studies.”
The study, “An FMRI Meta-Analysis of Childhood Trauma,” was authored by Rebecca Ireton, Anna Hughes, and Megan Klabunde.
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DATE: June 21, 2024 at 02:01PM
SOURCE: Psychiatric Times
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The repurposing of metformin has been of research and clinical interest worldwide. Learn more here. https://t.co/Bqk3JB1wJh
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