In a systematic review of existing studies, researchers found that air pollution such as fine particulate matter can interfere with regions of the brain responsible for emotional regulation.
Children living in low-income neighborhoods with ‘hands-off’ norms about safety showed higher levels of reactivity in a region of the brain associated with emotion processing and threat detection.
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The latest findings add to the understanding of how social disadvantage such as poverty and low-quality, unsafe housing can affect early child development.
Children who grow up in disadvantaged areas seem to react more strongly to facial expressions showing anger or fear. But social connections between neighbours can help.
People can have several thousand thoughts per day, many of which can be classified as spontaneous or involuntary.
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Emotions play a key role in many types of spontaneous thoughts. Even microemotions — which are often fleeting and unconscious — can affect thoughts and influence attention.
Why do so many students say they have a hard time studying? Recent advances in cognitive sciences have found some answers.
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Students say they have a hard time studying and cognitive science proves they’re not trying to dodge work: there’s a link between negative emotions and difficulties in concentrating.
It’s hard not to be scared of an invisible and spreading threat.
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It can feel like everyone is stewing in anxiety about COVID-19 and seeing other people freak out can make you freak out more. A psychiatrist explains this phenomenon, and how to keep it in check.
Officials guide students off a bus and into a recreation center where they were reunited with their parents after a shooting at a suburban Denver middle school Tuesday, May 7, 2019, in Highlands Ranch, Colo.
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Mass shootings bring terror in ways that people watching from afar can only imagine. And yet, society at large is also affected, a trauma psychiatrist writes.
The character of Kayla in ‘Eighth Grade’ is a true-to-life representation of an anxious teen.
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Almost a third of American adolescents have anxiety disorders. Researchers in developmental neuroscience are figuring out that how the brain matures over time may be part of the reason why.
A traumatic memory can be near impossible to shake.
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Our neural circuits lead us to find comfort in those like us and unease with those who differ, resulting in a battle between reward and distrust. But these brain connections aren’t the end of the story.
Violence in communities may have an additional unseen victim: young peoples’ developing brains.
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Darby Saxbe, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Experiencing and witnessing violence in their communities can lead to emotional, social and cognitive problems for kids. A new study shows it affects how their developing brains grow, as well.
Alcohol contributes to close to 90,000 deaths a year. Because repeated binge drinking damages the brain, it’s hard to know when we’ve developed a problem. Here are some things to consider.
Our mood is a transient frame of mind that influences how we think and view the world.
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Genevieve Rayner, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Many regions fundamental to mood are buried deep in the most primordial parts of the brain; that is, they are thought to have been among the first brain regions to develop in the human species.
Traumatic events can stop the brain storing the context in which they took place.
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Humans are highly social creatures. Our brains have evolved to allow us to survive and thrive in complex social environments. Accordingly, the behaviors and emotions that help us navigate our social sphere…
Race is one way we categorize ourselves among in-groups and out-groups.
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Race-related demonstrations, Title IX disputes, affirmative action court cases, same-sex marriage bans. These issues made headlines in all spheres of the media this year. However, thoughtful articles on…