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(https://www.psypost.org/deep-neural-networks-reveal-new-insights-into-facial-traits-linked-to-attractiveness-and-kindness/) Deep neural networks reveal new insights into facial traits linked to attractiveness and kindness
Mar 7th 2025, 08:00

Deep neural networks can quantify facial characteristics more accurately than previous methods, improving predictions of in-person attraction, according to a study published in (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106632) Evolution & Human Behavior.
Facial attractiveness significantly influences human mate selection, yet current methods for measuring key facial traits like masculinity, similarity, and averageness have important limitations. Traditional approaches have relied on either subjective ratings, which are vulnerable to biases, or objective landmark-based measurements that map geometric facial structures using predefined points. While the latter offers quantitative data, these methods fail to capture important visual details such as skin texture, hair color, and facial contrast.
To overcome these limitations, Amy A.Z. Zhao and Brendan P. Zietsch investigated the potential of deep neural networks as an alternative approach. These machine-learning techniques offer a more comprehensive method for quantifying facial characteristics that addresses the shortcomings of both subjective and landmark-based assessments.
Research suggests masculinity in male faces often correlates with attractiveness, while facial similarity can signal trustworthiness or kindness. However, these findings have typically emerged from studies using static facial images rather than real-life interactions.
Zhao and Zietsch’s work explores whether deep neural networks can generate facial metrics that not only improve measurement accuracy but also better predict attraction in naturalistic settings.
The study analyzed data from 682 participants (344 women) recruited from the University of Queensland, who took part in a speed-dating experiment. To ensure consistency, all participants were required to be single, heterosexual, and fluent in English. The researchers obtained in-person ratings of facial attractiveness and kindness from 2,285 speed-dating interactions, in which participants rotated through short conversations with potential romantic partners.
To measure facial traits, the researchers collected standardized facial images of all participants under consistent lighting conditions with a fixed camera setup. They then applied three different methods to quantify facial characteristics: 1) manually placed facial landmarks, where research assistants placed 28 predefined points on participants’ faces; 2) automatically detected facial landmarks using an artificial intelligence-based system that placed 83 points; and 3) deep neural networks that extracted 4,096 facial feature coordinates from each image.
These methods were used to assess three key facial traits—averageness, masculinity, and similarity—by comparing facial features across participants and analyzing how well they predicted in-person ratings of attractiveness and kindness.
The findings showed that facial measures derived from deep neural networks could predict in-person ratings of facial attractiveness and kindness as well as, or better than, traditional landmark-based methods. Notably, neural network-derived masculinity scores for male faces were strongly correlated with attractiveness ratings, reinforcing previous findings that masculine male features are considered appealing. In contrast, masculinity in female faces was negatively correlated with attractiveness, meaning more feminine female faces were rated as more attractive.
Furthermore, neural networks provided a more robust measure of masculinity by avoiding a common limitation of landmark-based methods: their tendency to be influenced by facial pitch (the angle of head tilt in images). When measured using neural networks, masculinity scores were largely unaffected by the angle at which a person held their head in the photograph.
The study also found evidence that individuals with more masculine or feminine faces preferred similarly sex-typical partners, a pattern known as assortative mating. This effect was detected using neural networks but not with traditional landmark-based measurements, suggesting that deep learning methods may be better at capturing subtle facial features that influence real-life attraction.
Additionally, facial similarity was associated with kindness ratings, supporting prior research indicating that people tend to perceive those who look like them as more trustworthy and prosocial. This effect was evident when using both automatic landmarking and neural network-derived similarity scores but was less pronounced when measured through manual landmarks.
Facial averageness—often considered a key feature of attractiveness—was also a significant predictor of positive ratings, particularly when measured using neural networks and automatic landmarks.
One limitation is the lack of transparency in deep neural network models. Unlike landmark-based methods, which provide clear measurements of specific facial features, neural networks operate as “black boxes,” making it difficult to determine which aspects of a face contribute to a given rating.
The research, “(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106632) Deep neural networks generate facial metrics that overcome limitations of previous methods and predict in-person attraction,” was authored by Amy A.Z. Zhao and Brendan P. Zietsch.

(https://www.psypost.org/surprising-link-between-cannabis-use-and-cognitive-decline-uncovered-after-analyzing-decades-of-data/) Surprising link between cannabis use and cognitive decline uncovered after analyzing decades of data
Mar 7th 2025, 07:00

Does using cannabis earlier in life lead to faster cognitive decline as you get older? A recent study published in the journal Brain and Behavior that tracked the thinking abilities of thousands of men from young adulthood into middle age sought to answer this question. The results were unexpected: men who had used cannabis at some point in their lives did not show greater cognitive decline. Instead, they demonstrated a slightly smaller decline in cognitive function over the decades compared to men who had never used cannabis.
While we know that cannabis can have immediate effects on thinking and memory, the long-term consequences, especially in relation to age-related cognitive decline, are not well understood. Some earlier research suggested that long-term cannabis use could harm cognitive function over time, with some studies indicating a connection between regular cannabis use and steeper declines in cognitive abilities. However, other studies have not found this link, and some have even hinted at potential benefits of cannabis for cognitive function in certain contexts.
Because of these inconsistent findings and the increasing prevalence of cannabis use in society, researchers from the University of Copenhagen wanted to investigate this issue further. They aimed to determine if there was a relationship between using cannabis and the natural cognitive decline that can occur as people age from early adulthood to middle age. They also wanted to explore if factors like when someone started using cannabis or how frequently they used it made a difference in any potential link to cognitive decline.
To explore the relationship between cannabis use and cognitive decline, the researchers used data from a large, long-term study called the Danish Aging and Cognition cohort. This cohort study was designed to track factors that predict cognitive changes as people age, starting from young adulthood and continuing into later middle age. The data came from combining two similar follow-up studies.
The basis of these studies was the conscription board intelligence test, which is given to most young men in Denmark when they are between 18 and 26 years old as part of the military conscription process. The researchers re-examined the cognitive abilities of these men in their late middle age, on average 44 years after their initial conscription test. At the follow-up examination, the men also completed a detailed questionnaire about their lives, including socioeconomic factors, lifestyle choices, and health.
The study started with over 5,300 men who participated in the follow-up studies. However, due to some technical issues and missing information about cannabis use, the final study group included 5,162 men. These men were born between 1949 and 1961. Their initial intelligence tests were conducted between 1967 and 1989 when they were around 20 years old on average. The follow-up examinations took place between 2015 and 2022, when the men were around 64 years old on average.
To understand cannabis use, the researchers asked the men at the follow-up examination about their past and present use of illegal drugs in Denmark. For this particular study, they focused on cannabis use. They categorized men into two groups: those who had ever used cannabis and those who had never or almost never used cannabis. For those who had used cannabis, they also gathered information about when they started using it and how frequently they used it.
The age of starting cannabis use was grouped into three categories: before age 18, between 18 and 25, and after age 25. Information on how often they used cannabis was collected in one part of the study. Frequent cannabis use was defined as using cannabis a couple of times a week or more. The researchers also estimated the number of years each man had used cannabis frequently by looking at their reported use across different age periods.
Cognitive ability was measured using the conscription board intelligence test, called the Børge Priens Prøve. This test is known to be reliable and is similar to standard intelligence tests. It includes different types of questions, such as those involving letter patterns, word analogies, number sequences, and geometric shapes. The researchers used the scores from this test, taken both at conscription in early adulthood and at the follow-up in late middle age, to calculate cognitive decline. Cognitive decline was defined as the difference in intelligence test scores between the two time points.
In addition to cannabis use, the researchers also collected information on other factors that could influence cognitive decline. These included the length of time between the two intelligence tests, education level, alcohol consumption patterns (specifically, extreme binge drinking), smoking habits, use of other illegal drugs, any history of psychiatric disorders, and general physical health conditions, measured using a standard index called the Charlson Comorbidity Index.
On average, the men in the study experienced a cognitive decline of about 6 IQ points over the 44-year period. Interestingly, men who had used cannabis at some point in their lives actually showed slightly less cognitive decline compared to men who had never used cannabis. This finding held even after considering other factors like age, education, lifestyle, and health.
Specifically, in their most comprehensive analysis, cannabis users showed about 1.3 IQ points less decline than non-users. While this difference was statistically noticeable, the researchers noted that the size of this difference was small and might not be practically meaningful in everyday life.
When the researchers looked at different aspects of cannabis use among users, such as the age when they started using cannabis or how many years they used it frequently, they did not find any significant link to cognitive decline. Whether someone started using cannabis before age 18, between 18 and 25, or after 25 did not seem to affect their cognitive decline in late middle age. Similarly, the number of years of frequent cannabis use was not related to a greater or lesser degree of cognitive decline.
The researchers acknowledged some limitations of their study. One important limitation is the low participation rate in the follow-up study. Only a small percentage of the men who were initially invited actually participated in the follow-up examinations. This could mean that the men who participated are not fully representative of the original group, potentially affecting how broadly the findings can be applied. It is possible that men with certain characteristics, such as heavier cannabis use or greater cognitive decline, might have been less likely to participate, although it is not clear if participation would be directly related to cognitive decline based on cannabis use.
Another limitation is that the information on cannabis use was based on what the men reported themselves at the follow-up examination, which could be subject to recall errors or underreporting due to social desirability. Additionally, the study only included men, so the findings might not be the same for women, as cannabis could affect men and women differently.
Despite these limitations, the study has notable strengths, including the long follow-up period, the use of the same intelligence test at both time points, and the availability of detailed information on various factors that could influence cognitive decline. The long time between the initial and follow-up tests also reduces the impact of practice effects on the cognitive measurements.
Future research should investigate why this study found slightly less cognitive decline in cannabis users. It is possible that this finding is not directly due to cannabis itself, but rather reflects other differences between cannabis users and non-users that were not fully accounted for in the study. It is also important for future studies to include women and to examine the effects of cannabis use across different age ranges and patterns of use in more detail. Further research could also explore whether any cognitive effects of cannabis use are reversible over time if use is discontinued.
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.70136) Cannabis Use and Age-Related Changes in Cognitive Function From Early Adulthood to Late Midlife in 5162 Danish Men,” was authored by Kirstine Maarup Høeg, Rasmus Ljungbeck Frodegaard, Marie Grønkjær, Merete Osler, Erik Lykke Mortensen, Trine Flensborg-Madsen, and Gunhild Tidemann Okholm.

(https://www.psypost.org/ayahuasca-may-enhance-memory-recollection-in-experienced-users/) Ayahuasca may enhance memory recollection in experienced users
Mar 7th 2025, 06:00

Ayahuasca, a traditional Amazonian brew known for its psychedelic effects, appears to enhance certain aspects of memory, according to a recent study in the (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02698811241301216) Journal of Psychopharmacology. When experienced users took the brew before viewing a series of scenes, their memory for those scenes improved—particularly their ability to vividly recall specific details. This memory boost was selective, as it did not increase false memories or their general feeling of familiarity with the scenes.
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew originating from the Amazon region. It is traditionally made using two plants: Psychotria viridis and Banisteriopsis caapi. Psychotria viridis contains a compound called dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which produces strong psychedelic effects. Banisteriopsis caapi contains beta-carbolines, which are necessary for ayahuasca’s psychoactive properties. These beta-carbolines inhibit an enzyme that would otherwise break down DMT in the stomach, allowing it to reach the brain and take effect. Ayahuasca is used in ceremonies by several religious groups and is known for its ability to alter perception, mood, and thought processes, similar to other psychedelics.
Previous studies on psychedelics had shown a specific pattern of memory effects. These studies suggested that psychedelics tend to weaken the detailed, vivid recall of events—known as recollection—while leaving intact, or even enhancing, the more general feeling of knowing something, called familiarity. This pattern contrasts with how other substances like alcohol or ketamine impair both recollection and familiarity.
The researchers wanted to see whether ayahuasca would produce this same effect on recollection and familiarity. They were also interested in whether ayahuasca might influence false memories—memories for things that did not actually happen—since psychedelics can alter perception and increase suggestibility. They hypothesized that ayahuasca might impair recollection, enhance familiarity, and increase susceptibility to false memories.
“We (https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000455) previously (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.06.008) found that psychedelics impair the formation of hippocampal-dependent recollections (memory for details such as where and when an event took place) while sparing or even enhancing the formation of memories based on cortical-dependent familiarity (knowing that something has recently been experienced without necessarily recalling specific details),” said study author Manoj Doss, a research fellow at The University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School in the McGill Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
“This was a rather unique effect of psychedelics, as most other drugs (alcohol, ketamine, THC) tend to impair the formation of both types of memory. We were hoping to replicate this effect with another psychedelic, ayahuasca/DMT. Moreover, in contrast to how memories are formed, when one retrieves a previously formed memory under the effects of most psychoactive drugs, (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105188) there tends to be memory distortions or false memories—memories for events that were never experienced.”
To examine ayahuasca’s effects on memory, the researchers conducted a study with 24 members of the Santo Daime church, a religious group that uses ayahuasca as part of its ceremonies. These participants were highly experienced, having consumed ayahuasca hundreds of times over many years. The study took place over two sessions. In one session, participants were sober, serving as a baseline. In the other session, they consumed ayahuasca in a ceremonial setting. (The researchers did not provide the ayahuasca; instead, participants consumed their usual dose prepared by their church. However, the researchers analyzed a sample of the brew to determine the concentrations of DMT and beta-carbolines.)
During both the sober and ayahuasca sessions, participants completed a memory task designed to test different aspects of memory, including their ability to recall details and their susceptibility to false memories. The task involved three phases: encoding, misinformation, and retrieval.
In the encoding phase, participants viewed six different black-and-white scenes, such as a classroom or a beach, for 40 seconds each. They were asked to pay close attention to the details because their memory would be tested later. After viewing each scene, they rated how familiar it felt to them.
After encoding, participants completed a short, unrelated puzzle task before moving on to the misinformation phase. Here, they read descriptions of the scenes they had just viewed. These descriptions, presented as if written by other people, contained both accurate and misleading details. For example, a description of a beach scene might correctly mention a towel that was in the image but falsely suggest that there was a beach umbrella. Participants were told that some of the descriptions might contain errors.
After another puzzle task, participants moved to the retrieval phase, where their memory was tested. For each scene, they were shown a series of objects and asked whether the object had been present. Some objects had been in the scene (targets). Some had been present but also mentioned in the misleading descriptions (suggested targets). Others were not present but were falsely suggested in the descriptions (suggested lures). Some were conceptually related to objects in the scene but were not actually there (related lures). Lastly, some objects were entirely unrelated (unrelated lures). For each object, participants answered yes or no and then rated their confidence in their answer.
Doss and his colleagues analyzed the participants’ responses to see how ayahuasca affected their memory. They measured how often participants correctly identified objects that were actually in the scenes (hit rates) and how often they falsely recognized objects that were not there (false alarm rates). They also assessed metamemory, or a person’s awareness of their own memory accuracy.
The results were unexpected. Instead of impairing memory, ayahuasca enhanced it. Participants were better at correctly identifying objects they had actually seen, particularly in measures of recollection.
“We surprisingly found that ayahuasca enhanced the formation of recollections with no impact on familiarity or false memories,” Doss told PsyPost. “However, there may have been a few reasons for this. One, this study was an observational study of members of the Santo Daime community, most of whom had taken ayahuasca hundreds of times. Thus, psychedelics may differentially impact such experienced individuals.
“Another important caveat is that when the ayahuasca sample was analyzed, it turned out that the amount of DMT was extremely low, but the doses of beta-carbolines (monoamine oxidase inhibitors that allow DMT to be orally active) were substantial. Other drugs that increase synaptic monoamines can enhance the formation of hippocampal-dependent memories (e.g., amphetamine), so we speculated that the beta-carbolines may have contributed to the enhanced recollection.”
Interestingly, ayahuasca did not increase the participants’ general feeling of familiarity with the scenes, nor did it make them more prone to false memories. Participants were no more likely to mistakenly recall objects that were not there, even when those objects were suggested in the misleading descriptions. Ayahuasca also did not alter their awareness of their own memory accuracy.
“In addition to the surprising enhancement of recollection, participants appeared to have relatively high levels of familiarity both on and off ayahuasca compared to my past work,” Doss noted. “Although it’s hard to compare to past studies that used different tasks, it’s possible that repeatedly driving cortical plasticity with psychedelics over several years could lead to long-lasting enhancements of familiarity-based memory. However, heightened familiarity isn’t necessarily a good thing—it can sometimes lead to cognitive illusions such as déjà vu or presque vu (illusory insight), and in some cases, false memory.”
The researchers acknowledged some limitations. Since this was an observational study, they could not rule out the possibility that the memory enhancement was due to factors other than ayahuasca, such as practice effects. However, they argue that practice effects alone are unlikely to fully explain the findings, as the improvements were substantial and specific to recollection. Other aspects of memory, such as false memory susceptibility and metamemory, did not improve across the two sessions.
Future research could use controlled designs, including placebo groups and less experienced ayahuasca users, to confirm these findings. Further studies could also explore the specific roles of DMT and beta-carbolines in memory, potentially uncovering ways to harness ayahuasca’s memory-enhancing properties while minimizing any drawbacks.
“Many psychoactive drugs produce global cognitive impairments, including psychedelics,” Doss explained. “Using more granular measures of cognition, we’re hoping to find cognitive processes uniquely enhanced by psychedelics, which could have implications for how to better use these drugs in therapy, as well as other indications such as purported tools for facilitating creativity.”
“If beta-carbolines can truly enhance the formation of hippocampal-dependent memory, then in addition to potentiating the effects of psychedelics (they can also be administered with psilocybin to prolong/heighten psychedelic effects), they may also offset some of the recollection impairments produced by psychedelics, thereby better allowing one to remember specific details from their psychedelic experiences such as insights.”
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1177/02698811241301216) Ayahuasca enhances the formation of hippocampal-dependent episodic memory without impacting false memory susceptibility in experienced ayahuasca users: An observational study,” was authored by Manoj K. Doss, Lilian Kloft, Natasha L. Mason, Pablo Mallaroni, Johannes T. Reckweg, Kim van Oorsouw, Nina Tupper, Henry Otgaar, and Johannes G. Ramaekers.

(https://www.psypost.org/are-babies-secret-lip-readers-study-uncovers-surprising-early-language-skills/) Are babies secret lip readers? Study uncovers surprising early language skills
Mar 6th 2025, 19:50

Babies are like little detectives, constantly piecing together clues about the world around them. If you’ve ever noticed your baby staring at you while you talk, it’s because they’re picking up on more than just sounds – they’re learning how those sounds are made.
Our recent study, (https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13605) published in Developmental Science, shows this amazing process starts as early as four months old, shaking up the old belief that babies learn these patterns only after tuning in to their native language between 6 and 12 months of age.
It also gives us an earlier window to help children who might be at risk of speech or language delays.
Sorting through a buffet of sounds
By their first birthday, (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0163638384800223) babies are already fine-tuning their ears to the sounds of their native language in a process called perceptual attunement. Think of it like their brain sorting through a buffet of sounds to focus on the ones that matter most.
But in their first six months, babies can tell apart sounds from languages they’ve never even heard. For example, they might (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163638384800223) distinguish certain Hindi contrasts that are challenging for adult English speakers or (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327078in1003_3) identify unique tones in Mandarin, even if they’re growing up in an English-speaking household.
This incredible ability doesn’t last forever. Between six and 12 months, babies start narrowing their focus to the sounds they hear most often. For vowels, this fine-tuning kicks in at around (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dev.21179?casa_token=adQIPa586FYAAAAA%3A3uhnuMn6dwuH6gcgMuMEjK2NPlzM8xBCNHcYRQtLHM45nMbWs0W5lD8AyDyGLHsEqXHJLk5wT35Ll9Y) six months while consonants follow at closer to (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00468.x?casa_token=4V_W2PJj3XQAAAAA%3ApdXXvv0eHG9eRS-t1sQ0KNzkA_1gt_c7_3LhWv3e40ST7iK4mEg1IyMfzZv0WHD5kSC4IO48DTThWrM) ten months.
Think of it as babies zooming in on the sounds that matter, such as the difference between the “r” and “l” in English, while losing sensitivity to sounds they don’t hear regularly.
Until now, researchers thought this narrowing process was needed for babies to start learning more complex language skills, such as figuring out that the “b” in “bin” and the “d” in “din” differ because one is made with the lips and the other with the tongue tip.
But our study found babies as young as four months are already learning how sounds are physically made, long before this narrowing begins.
Learning mini-languages
Here’s an example to picture this. Imagine you’re listening to someone speak a language you don’t know. Even if you don’t understand the words, you might notice how their lips or tongue move to make sounds. Four-month-old babies can do this too.
To demonstrate this, we conducted an experiment with 34 babies, aged four to six months, whose parents had provided consent to participate. We created a “match-the-pattern” game using two made up mini-languages.
One language had words with lip sounds like “b” and “v”, while the other used tongue-tip sounds like “d” and “z”. Each word, like “bivawo” or “dizalo”, was paired with a cartoon image – a jellyfish for lip words and a crab for tongue-tip words. A recording of a word was played at the same time its paired image was shown.
Why cartoons? Because babies can’t exactly tell us what they’re thinking, but they can form associations in their brains. These images helped us see if the babies could link each mini-language to the correct picture.
After the babies learned these mini-languages and their picture pairings, we mixed things up.
Instead of hearing the words, they watched silent videos of a person’s face saying new words from the same mini-languages.
In some videos, the face matched the cartoon they had learned earlier. In others, it didn’t. We then tracked how long the babies looked at the videos – a common method researchers use to see what grabs their attention. Babies tend to look longer at things that surprise or interest them and shorter at things they find familiar, helping us understand how they process and recognise what they see.
The results were clear: babies looked significantly longer at the videos where the face matched what they’d learned. This showed they weren’t just passively listening earlier – they were actively learning the rules of the mini-languages and linking that knowledge to what they saw.
Connecting the dots
In simple terms, this means four-month-old babies can connect the dots between sound and sight. This early ability to spot patterns in how sounds are made is the foundation for learning language later on. It’s like their brains are already laying the groundwork for saying their first words.
This discovery changes what we thought we knew about babies’ early language learning. It suggests babies start figuring out patterns at four months, well before they begin perceptually attuning to the sounds of their native language between six and 12 months.
That opens up exciting new possibilities for helping children who might struggle with speech or language. If we can help earlier, we might make a big difference.
These findings raise several interesting questions. For example, can babies learn other differences such as voicing – whether a sound is made with a buzzing vibration, like the difference between “b” (buzzing) and “p” (no buzzing) – as early as four months? How does growing up in a bilingual home affect this ability? Could babies use this skill to learn patterns in entirely new languages?
By exploring these questions, we’ll keep uncovering the amazing ways babies’ brains set the stage for learning one of the most complex human skills: language.
 
 
This article is republished from (https://theconversation.com) The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the (https://theconversation.com/babies-as-young-as-4-months-can-tell-how-the-sounds-of-different-languages-are-made-new-research-248225) original article.

(https://www.psypost.org/study-suggests-two-children-may-be-best-for-womens-mental-health/) Study suggests two children may be best for women’s mental health
Mar 6th 2025, 12:00

A recent study published in the (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.10.037) Journal of Affective Disorders suggests that having children may offer some protection against bipolar disorder and major depression in women. Researchers analyzed data from a large sample of women in the United Kingdom and found that those who had given birth were less likely to experience these mental health conditions compared to those who had not. The findings also indicate that having two children might be associated with the lowest risk of these disorders.
The researchers at Soochow University were motivated to conduct this study because of two significant trends in global health. First, birth rates are declining in many countries around the world. At the same time, mental health disorders, including bipolar disorder and major depression, are becoming more common. Scientists know that having children can have a significant impact on a woman’s body and mind. There are physical changes during pregnancy and after childbirth, and there can be emotional and social shifts as well.
However, there is not much research looking specifically at how having children relates to the risk of bipolar disorder and major depression in women. Understanding this relationship is important, especially as societies grapple with both falling birth rates and rising rates of mental illness. The researchers wanted to provide better information to women making decisions about family planning, in light of these dual challenges.
To explore this issue, the researchers used data from a large project called the UK Biobank, a collection of health information from about half a million people living in the United Kingdom. The data was gathered between 2006 and 2010. Participants in the Biobank, who were between 37 and 73 years old at the time of enrollment, completed detailed questionnaires and underwent health assessments.
For this particular study, the researchers focused on women in the Biobank. They started with data from over 273,000 women. However, to get a clear picture, they needed to remove some participants. They excluded women who did not have information about bipolar disorder or major depression, and women who did not have information about the number of children they had given birth to. After these exclusions, the study group included just over 55,700 women.
The key piece of information the researchers looked at was the number of live births each woman reported. This information came from a touchscreen questionnaire where women were asked directly, “How many children have you given birth to? (Please include live births only)”. The women entered a number or chose “Prefer not to answer”.
The researchers then looked at whether each woman had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or major depression. This information was gathered when the women joined the Biobank using a standard psychological questionnaire and interviews with trained staff. The diagnoses were based on established guidelines used by doctors and mental health professionals.
After analyzing all the data, the researchers found a significant association between having live births and a lower risk of bipolar disorder and major depression. When they compared women who had given birth to women who had not, they discovered that women with a history of live births had a considerably lower chance of having these mental health conditions.
Specifically, they estimated that the risk was about 30% lower in women who had given birth. The researchers also investigated if there was a relationship between the number of live births and mental health risk. They found a non-linear pattern. As the number of live births increased from zero to two, the risk of bipolar disorder and major depression decreased. However, beyond two live births, the protective effect appeared to plateau, and having additional children did not further lower the risk.
In fact, having more than two children did not provide additional mental health benefits. In some analyses, the risk appeared to increase slightly, but this finding was not statistically significant. This suggests that having two children may be associated with the lowest risk of bipolar disorder and major depression for women.
Interestingly, when the researchers looked at specific subgroups of women, they found some variations. For example, in women who had experienced certain types of miscarriages or induced abortions, and in women who did not use oral contraceptives, the protective effect of live births was not as clear, or even reversed in some cases. However, in most of the subgroups analyzed, the overall finding that live births are linked to a lower risk of bipolar disorder and major depression held true.
The researchers controlled for a range of other factors that could influence mental health. These included things like age, education level, income, ethnicity, where they lived, and employment status. They also considered lifestyle factors such as body mass index, smoking habits, alcohol intake, and physical activity levels. Finally, they included clinical factors such as whether the women had been diagnosed with conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, or cancer.
They also took into account factors related to women’s reproductive health, such as whether they had ever had an abortion, used birth control pills, the age they started menstruating, whether they had used hormone replacement therapy, or had their ovaries removed.
But there are still limitations to consider. Because the researchers used data collected at one point in time, they cannot definitively say that having children causes a lower risk of mental illness. While the researchers considered many factors that could influence the results, it is always possible that other unmeasured factors, such as the level of support women receive from their families or their genetic predisposition to mental illness, could also be important. In addition, the study participants were all from the UK Biobank, and most were of European descent. This means the findings might not be exactly the same for women in other parts of the world or from different ethnic backgrounds.
For future research, the scientists suggest that long-term studies tracking women over time would provide a clearer understanding of how childbirth affects mental health. More research is also needed to explore the reasons behind the link they observed, including the biological, psychological, and social factors that might be involved.
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.10.037) Having two children might be best for women’s mental health: Evidence from UK Biobank,” was authored by Jingfang Liu, Hao Sun, Ke Zhang, Ibrar Hussain, Yuying Wang, Hongpeng Sun, and Zaixiang Tang.

(https://www.psypost.org/conscious-awareness-changes-how-the-brain-processes-conflicting-information/) Conscious awareness changes how the brain processes conflicting information
Mar 6th 2025, 10:00

A study published in (https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001483) Journal of Experimental Psychology: General found that when people are unaware of a visual cue, their brain processes it separately from their expectations, but when they become aware of it, these two processes start to interact.
Understanding how conscious awareness influences perception is a central question in neuroscience and psychology. The global neuronal workspace theory suggests that conscious perception emerges when top-down (TD) decision-driven processing and bottom-up (BU) sensory-driven processing integrate within overlapping neural networks.
Prior research has established that both objective sensory information and subjective interpretation influence behavior, but how these streams interact depending on conscious awareness is unclear.
Research using priming paradigms has demonstrated that subliminal primes (stimuli not consciously perceived) can still influence responses to subsequent targets. However, whether the neural mechanisms of TD and BU processing remain separate or integrate during different levels of awareness has not been thoroughly tested.
In a new study, Ze-Fan Zheng and colleagues investigated this question by designing two experiments to determine whether TD and BU processing remain independent in unconscious conditions or merge when stimuli are consciously perceived.
The researchers utilized two experiments using variations of the Stroop priming paradigm. The first experiment involved 31 participants. This study used a continuous flash suppression (CFS) technique to render the prime word—either the Chinese character for “yellow” or “blue”—invisible by presenting it to one eye while rapidly changing visual noise (Mondrian patterns) was shown to the other.
This technique ensured that the prime remained undetected in certain conditions while its visibility varied across different trials. Following prime exposure, participants viewed a color target (either yellow or blue) and indicated its color. They then attempted to identify the prime word in a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) discrimination task. To manipulate awareness systematically, the researchers adjusted the prime’s contrast and categorized trials based on how well participants could consciously perceive it.
The second experiment reanalyzed data from a previous study ((https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616684681) Sand & Nilsson, 2017) that used backward masking to manipulate prime visibility. Here, 67 participants were exposed to an English color word (either “RED” or “BLUE”) for six milliseconds, followed by a visual mask that prevented conscious perception in some trials. The target stimulus (a colored frame in either red or blue) appeared immediately afterward, requiring participants to identify its color.
Unlike the first experiment where prime contrast varied, in this experiment, the physical characteristics of the prime remained unchanged across trials. This allowed researchers to assess subjective visibility independently of stimulus strength. Participants reported their perceived visibility of the prime using a three-level scale (“no percept,” “unclear percept,” or “clear percept”) and attempted to identify the prime word in a 2AFC task. Researchers categorized trials as either “invisible” or “visible” based on subjective ratings.
The findings were compelling. In the first experiment, when participants were unable to consciously perceive the prime (as determined by low prime discrimination accuracy), TD and BU congruency effects influenced reaction times independently, meaning the two types of processing operated in separate neural systems. However, as prime visibility increased, an interaction between TD and BU effects emerged, indicating the two processes started to merge when the prime was consciously perceived.
Specifically, reaction times in conditions where both TD and BU representations were incongruent showed a reduced interference effect. This aligns with the hypothesis that conscious awareness enables overlapping neural networks to integrate these representations. The transition from independent to interactive effects across different visibility levels provides behavioral evidence supporting the global neuronal workspace theory, which predicts that conscious perception results from integrating sensory and decision-driven processing in a shared neural workspace.
The second experiment replicated these findings using a different paradigm, confirming that TD and BU processes interact only when the prime is consciously perceived. When participants reported no percept of the prime, TD and BU effects remained separate, with no significant interaction. However, when participants subjectively reported seeing the prime—even with unchanged physical characteristics—TD and BU effects combined non-independently, mirroring the pattern in the first experiment.
Results also indicated that BU-driven processing did not significantly influence reaction times when the prime was entirely suppressed. This suggests unconscious perception may not always generate measurable behavioral effects in certain masking conditions.
By demonstrating that TD and BU interactions depend on conscious awareness across two different experimental approaches, this research provides evidence that merging these processes is a hallmark of conscious perception rather than a byproduct of stimulus strength or task design.
Of note is that while the behavioral approach provides an accessible alternative to neuroimaging, it does not directly measure neural mechanisms.
The research, “(https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001483) Interaction Between Top-Down Decision-Driven Congruency Effect and Bottom-Up Input-Driven Congruency Effect Is Correlated With Conscious Awareness,” was authored by Ze-Fan Zheng, Shu-Yue Huang, Shena Lu, and Yong-Chun Cai.

Forwarded by:
Michael Reeder LCPC
Baltimore, MD

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