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<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News</span></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/spider-fear-inflates-size-perception-highlighting-the-role-of-emotion-in-threat-assessment/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Spider fear inflates size perception, highlighting the role of emotion in threat assessment</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 26th 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>“Do we see what we feel?” A new study in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2510388"><em>Cognition & Emotion</em></a> finds that people who fear spiders tend to overestimate their size, while spider experts are more accurate in their assessments.</p>
<p>Fear can shape the way we perceive the world. Numerous studies have shown that individuals with specific phobias tend to exaggerate threat-related features, such as overestimating the size or proximity of the feared object. In the case of spider phobia, research has consistently demonstrated that fearful individuals perceive spiders as larger than they actually are. This finding aligns with evolutionary theories suggesting that heightened perception of threats may aid in survival.</p>
<p>However, while fear-related perceptual biases are well-documented, less is known about whether people with expertise in a domain show similar distortions. Experts might be expected to be more accurate due to their knowledge, but some studies suggest they may still be biased, particularly when the stimulus is central to their field.</p>
<p>Yahel Dror Ben-Baruch and colleagues explored this question by directly comparing perceptual biases in three groups: spider-fearful individuals, spider experts, and control participants. Their goal was to understand how emotion (fear) and knowledge (expertise) interact in shaping perceptions of the size of spiders.</p>
<p>Importantly, while past research has examined each group in isolation, this study is the first to place them side by side in a single design. Participants were asked to estimate the size of spiders, wasps, and butterflies, allowing researchers to assess whether distortion was specific to spiders and whether it occurred across different levels of familiarity and emotional relevance.</p>
<p>The final sample included 169 adults, aged 18–70, divided into three groups: 58 highly fearful of spiders, 59 spider experts, and 52 control participants. Spider-fearful and control participants were recruited via social media, while experts — defined as students in biology, ecology, zoology, entomology, or life sciences with formal coursework in arachnology — were contacted through targeted emails.</p>
<p>All participants completed the Spider Phobia Questionnaire (e.g., “I shudder when I think of a spider”), with high scorers assigned to the fearful group and low scorers to the control or expert group. Anyone with a high fear of butterflies or wasps was excluded to isolate spider-specific effects.</p>
<p>Participants completed the study online via Qualtrics. They viewed 90 images — 30 each of spiders, butterflies, and wasps — standardized in display size but varied by species. In the size estimation task, participants rated the real-life size of each animal on a visual scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represented the size of a fly.</p>
<p>A separate task asked participants to rate how unpleasant they found each animal on a scale from -100 (very pleasant) to 100 (very unpleasant). Unpleasantness was measured to differentiate fear-based responses from general discomfort. The actual size of each species was recorded by a co-author (Y.Z.), a trained entomologist, allowing researchers to assess the accuracy of size perceptions.</p>
<p>Participants fearful of spiders significantly overestimated the size of spiders compared to butterflies, despite the actual spiders being smaller. On average, they rated spiders as 1.17 times larger than butterflies and 1.80 times larger than wasps. In contrast, the expert group accurately rated butterflies as larger than spiders, aligning with actual species measurements. The control group rated spiders and butterflies as nearly equal in size, an inaccurate perception given that the butterflies were objectively larger.</p>
<p>Unpleasantness ratings revealed that the spider-fearful group found spiders far more unpleasant than the other insects, consistent with their phobic status. The control group also rated spiders as more unpleasant than butterflies or wasps, though to a lesser degree.</p>
<p>Experts reported low levels of unpleasantness across all insects, reflecting emotional neutrality. Interestingly, although wasps were also considered threatening, they were not overestimated in size by any group. This suggests that size distortion is not simply a function of threat or unpleasantness, but the combined result of threat and personal relevance — such as the fear of spiders.</p>
<p>One limitation is that conducting the experiment online may have introduced variability in screen display that could affect perceived size. However, this was mitigated by using a mental anchor (the size of a fly) rather than relying on an on-screen reference.</p>
<p>Overall, this study demonstrates that emotional fear, not just threat, can distort how people perceive the size of objects, while expertise may help maintain perceptual accuracy.</p>
<p>The research “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2510388">Do we see what we feel? A comparative study of spider size estimation among experts and people who are highly fearful of spiders</a>,” was authored by Yahel Dror Ben-Baruch, Yoram Zvik, and Noga Cohen.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/brain-connectivity-shift-across-puberty-may-explain-autism-risk-in-22q11-2-deletion-syndrome/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Brain connectivity shift across puberty may explain autism risk in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 26th 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq2807" target="_blank">Science Advances</a></em> sheds light on how changes in brain connections before and after puberty might explain why some children with a rare genetic condition called 22q11.2 deletion syndrome have a higher risk of autism and schizophrenia. The findings point to the powerful role that puberty plays in reshaping brain connectivity and hint at molecular factors that drive this process.</p>
<p>22q11.2 deletion syndrome is a genetic condition caused by the loss of a small piece of DNA from the long arm of chromosome 22. This tiny deletion affects roughly 1 in 3,000 to 6,000 births and is one of the strongest known genetic risk factors for a range of developmental and psychiatric disorders. Individuals with this syndrome can experience heart defects, learning disabilities, and delays in speech and motor skills, as well as an increased risk for conditions like autism and schizophrenia. The syndrome is highly variable — some people have mild symptoms, while others face more significant medical and behavioral challenges throughout their lives.</p>
<p>Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. It is marked by differences in social communication, behavior, and sensory processing. Autism has many causes, including both genetic and environmental factors, making it a complex and diverse condition. Researchers have long tried to understand how changes in the brain, especially in how different areas connect and communicate, relate to the traits and challenges associated with autism.</p>
<p>The new study aimed to shed light on how 22q11.2 deletion syndrome affects brain connectivity and its role in increasing the risk for autism and schizophrenia. The scientists were interested in understanding how connections in the brain evolve across puberty, a critical developmental window when many psychiatric illnesses emerge. </p>
<p>“My lab is interested in why and how brain regions lose their ability to communicate properly. We chose to study 22q11.2 deletion syndrome because it’s both common and uniquely suited to bridge human data and animal models,” said study author <a href="https://www.iit.it/it/people-details/-/people/alessandro-gozzi" target="_blank">Alessandro Gozzi</a>, a senior scientist and director of the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Italian Institute of Technology.</p>
<p>By using a mouse model of the syndrome alongside brain scans from human participants, the researchers hoped to trace when and where these connectivity changes occur and link them to underlying cellular and molecular events. Their goal was to gain a clearer picture of why certain people with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome are more susceptible to autism and other psychiatric conditions, opening the door for more targeted treatments and earlier interventions.</p>
<p>In their mouse model, called the LgDel mouse, they used brain scans before and after puberty to track changes in connectivity across brain regions. At a younger, prepubertal age, the mouse brains showed widespread hyperconnectivity — too many connections between brain regions. As the mice matured and passed through puberty, this pattern changed, with certain areas, such as the hippocampus, becoming under-connected.</p>
<p>The research team also looked closely at the structure of the brain, focusing on tiny protrusions called dendritic spines, which connect neurons and help with information flow. In juvenile LgDel mice, these spines were too dense, suggesting too many connections between neurons. By adulthood, spine density had decreased sharply, aligning with the drop in connectivity seen in the brain scans. This shift suggested that changes at the level of the synapse, where neurons communicate, could drive the changes in brain connectivity.</p>
<p>One molecular culprit that emerged was an enzyme called GSK3β. In LgDel mice, this enzyme was overactive and linked to abnormal spine densities and brain connectivity. To test this, the researchers treated juvenile mice with a GSK3β inhibitor and found that it normalized both spine densities and connectivity levels. However, this benefit didn’t last into adulthood, suggesting that the timing of treatment may be critical.</p>
<p>Importantly, the researchers found that these changes weren’t just occurring in mice. In brain scans of human carriers of the 22q11.2 deletion, connectivity patterns also evolved across puberty. In childhood, certain brain areas were too connected, while in adolescence and early adulthood, connectivity weakened. These changes aligned with molecular data, highlighting genes associated with synapse structure and function, including those linked to autism.</p>
<p>“We didn’t expect the brain to shift from hyperconnectivity to hypoconnectivity so sharply during development, and even less so to see the same pattern in humans,” Gozzi told PsyPost. “That was a real eye-opener.”</p>
<p>The researchers also found a link between connectivity and behavior. In children with the deletion, increased connectivity in certain sensory and motor areas was associated with higher autism-related traits, while reduced connectivity after puberty appeared related to a shift in these traits.</p>
<p>“Our study shows that brain connectivity problems linked to neurodevelopmental conditions can shift dramatically during adolescence,” Gozzi explained. “Understanding when these changes happen might be just as important as understanding what causes them.”</p>
<p>Although this study provides valuable insights, it has some limitations. The human data didn’t cover every critical point of brain development, making it harder to pinpoint precisely when connectivity shifts occur. Additionally, mouse models can’t capture the full complexity of human behavior and cognition.</p>
<p>“A key limitation is that we didn’t have detailed clinical data in the human cohort, so we couldn’t test whether the connectivity changes we observed actually predict risk for conditions like schizophrenia,” Gozzi noted. “This will be a crucial step for future research.”</p>
<p>Future studies will build on these findings to better understand the molecular changes that drive connectivity across puberty and to explore treatments that might reduce psychiatric risk in people with the 22q11.2 deletion. By linking genes, brain connectivity, and behavior across species, this research brings us closer to understanding how early brain changes can shape long-term mental health outcomes.</p>
<p>“Our next goal is to dig deeper into the biological mechanisms behind this shift and explore whether targeting them (like we did with GSK3β) can prevent long-term brain dysfunction,” Gozzi said. “For me, this study shows how much we can gain by connecting experimental neuroscience with clinical research. The collaboration with <a href="https://beardenlab.semel.ucla.edu/" target="_blank">Dr. Carrie Bearden</a> was a perfect example of this synergy, and we hope it inspires more bridges between the lab and the clinic.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adq2807" target="_blank">Synaptic-Dependent Developmental Dysconnectivity in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome</a>,” was authored by Filomena Grazia Alvino, Silvia Gini, Antea Minetti, Marco Pagani, David Sastre‑Yagüe, Noemi Barsotti, Elizabeth De Guzman, Charles Schleifer, Alexia Stuefer, Leila Kushan, Caterina Montani, Alberto Galbusera, Francesco Papaleo, Wendy R. Kates, Declan Murphy, Michael Vincent Lombardo, Massimo Pasqualetti, Carrie E. Bearden, and Alessandro Gozzi.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/how-people-end-romantic-relationships-new-study-pinpoints-three-common-break-up-strategies/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">How people end romantic relationships: New study pinpoints three common break up strategies</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 26th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>People end intimate relationships for countless reasons, and a new study published in the journal <em><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886925002351" target="_blank">Personality and Individual Differences</a></em> sheds light on how this is done. The researchers identified three broad strategies and 45 distinct ways that people try to break up with their partners. They found that most people try to do so gently, explaining their reasons and hoping for an amicable separation, while only a few disappear abruptly or end the relationship through indirect means.</p>
<p>Although many studies have examined why people break up, few have looked closely at how breakups happen, especially within the context of a specific culture. The researchers aimed to fill this gap by focusing on people in Greece. They also wanted to understand if certain personality traits influenced the strategies people used to end relationships, with a special focus on traits like agreeableness and a set of less well-regarded characteristics known as the Dark Triad: psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism.</p>
<p>“Most people will experience the end of an intimate relationship (usually several times), with either themselves or their partners initiating it. Because this phenomenon is relatively common and painful, I was motivated to ask how people actually do so, which the current research aimed to address,” said study author <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/menelaosapostolou/Menelaos-Apostolou" target="_blank">Menelaos Apostolou</a>, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Nicosia.</p>
<p>The researchers conducted two studies. In the first, 228 Greek-speaking adults (122 women and 105 men) were asked to imagine themselves in an unhappy relationship and write down how they would end it. The participants came from a range of ages, averaging about 30 years old for women and 31 years old for men. The researchers then reviewed the participants’ responses, grouped similar answers together, and ended up with 45 distinct ways people might break up with a partner.</p>
<p>The second study involved 392 participants (185 women, 201 men, two identifying as ‘other’, and four choosing not to specify) with an average age of roughly 34 for women and 38 for men. These participants were asked how likely they were to use each of the 45 breakup methods. To measure their personalities, participants also completed questionnaires assessing traits associated with the Big Five theory — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — as well as Dark Triad traits.</p>
<p>The researchers grouped the 45 breakup methods into nine strategies. These included approaches like “cold and distant” (gradually pulling away), “explain the reasons” (offering a direct and honest conversation), “ghosting” (disappearing with no notice), “take the blame” (ending the relationship while accepting responsibility), “have been unfaithful” (citing infidelity or interest in someone else), “take some time off” (requesting a break), “see you as a friend” (offering friendship), “we’d be better off apart” (explaining that separation is best), and “avoid ending it face to face” (using a phone call or text). </p>
<p>The researchers then discovered that these nine approaches fit into three broader strategies.</p>
<p>The first and most popular approach was “soften the blow,” used by roughly 86 percent of people surveyed. This method combined acts like explaining the reasons for the breakup, accepting some or all of the blame, and trying to convince the partner that separating would benefit both people. </p>
<p>The second approach was “take a break,” used by about 24 percent of people. Here, the person ending the relationship suggests a temporary separation, allowing both parties to assess their feelings and decide if the relationship should continue. </p>
<p>The least common approach was “avoid confrontation,” used by roughly 16 percent of people, in which someone disappears or becomes distant until the relationship quietly ends.</p>
<p>“People employ three main strategies to end an intimate relationship,” Apostolou told PsyPost. “The most preferred one is ‘Soften the blow,’ involving explaining the breakup reasons, taking responsibility, and convincing the partner that separation is beneficial for both. The second most preferred one is ‘Take a break,’ where individuals express a desire for a temporary separation to reassess feelings. ‘Avoid confrontation,’ involving gradually fading away or disappearing without explanation, is the least preferred strategy.”</p>
<p>The researchers also examined how these strategies connected to the participants’ personality traits. They found only a few significant connections. Individuals higher in agreeableness, a trait associated with kindness and consideration for others, were less likely to use the “cold and distant” approach. </p>
<p>Conversely, those with higher levels of Machiavellianism, associated with manipulativeness, were more inclined to use this approach. Meanwhile, participants with higher levels of psychopathy, a trait linked with impulsivity and a lack of empathy, were more prone to blame their partner for the breakup. In general, personality characteristics had little bearing on which strategies people used.</p>
<p>The researchers concluded that, regardless of sex, age, or most personality traits, people tend to adopt fairly predictable ways of ending relationships. “I was expecting to find more pronounced sex, age, and personality differences in people’s willingness to use each of the identified strategies, but these differences were very small or inexistent,” Apostolou said.</p>
<p>The results also hint at the role of social norms and evolved behavior. Humans have long depended on intimate connections for survival and reproduction, making breakups potentially dangerous in the ancestral environment. By employing strategies that reduce conflict, individuals might have improved their long-term prospects for finding a new partner and maintaining their social reputation.</p>
<p>Although the study provides a thorough examination of how people end relationships, it has some limitations. All the participants were Greek-speaking, making it unclear if these findings apply to other cultures. The data also came from self-reports, which can be influenced by memory or a desire to present oneself in a certain way. The sample was recruited online, making it challenging to generalize the results to the wider population. Additionally, the study only focused on how people say they would end relationships, not what they actually do.</p>
<p>“The phenomenon is complex,” Apostolou noted. “A single piece of research gives only a general idea about how people end an intimate relationship.”</p>
<p>Future research could investigate how these strategies work in practice and whether certain approaches lead to better outcomes for both partners. It might also be worth exploring how other factors, such as attachment styles or cultural background, shape the ways people end relationships. Understanding these dynamics could help counselors and therapists guide clients through breakups in ways that minimize harm, especially when children are involved or when future interaction is unavoidable.</p>
<p>“My ultimate objective is to understand how intimate relationships work,” Apostolou explained. “An important step in this direction is to understand the interactions between intimate partners, and the present research falls within this objective.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2025.113273" target="_blank">Soften the blow, avoid confrontation, take a break: Three strategies that people use to terminate an intimate relationship</a>,” was authored by Menelaos Apostolou and Antonios Kagialis.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/mild-cognitive-impairment-linked-to-lower-mindfulness-and-weaker-brain-connections-for-emotion-regulation/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Mild cognitive impairment linked to lower mindfulness and weaker brain connections for emotion regulation</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 25th 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>People experiencing early signs of memory problems may also struggle with mindfulness, a mental trait that involves focusing on the present moment, a new study published in the journal <em><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-024-02500-9" target="_blank">Mindfulness</a></em> suggests. Researchers examined older adults with subjective cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment to understand how changes in brain structure and activity relate to differences in mindfulness. The findings indicate that mindfulness levels drop as cognitive challenges grow, and point to changes in a brain area linked to emotional regulation as an important part of this shift.</p>
<p>The prevalence of dementia is rising sharply across the globe. The number of people living with this condition doubled between 1990 and 2016, and by 2050, one in every 85 people worldwide may be affected. Before overt signs of dementia appear, many people experience changes in their thinking and memory. </p>
<p>These early changes can range from subjective cognitive decline, where a person feels their memory is worsening despite testing normally, to mild cognitive impairment, where test results reveal noticeable lapses in thinking that still do not affect daily life. Understanding how mindfulness levels shift along this path, and which brain changes accompany them, could open the door to new ways of supporting people in early cognitive decline.</p>
<p>Mindfulness has gained attention for its potential role in preserving cognitive health. Defined as a focused, accepting awareness of the present moment, it can be developed intentionally through practice, but it also exists as a natural trait that varies from person to person. Earlier studies have linked mindfulness to improved attention and memory, as well as changes in brain areas related to emotion and focus. But almost all such studies have been conducted in people with no cognitive issues. This new research aimed to fill the gap by exploring mindfulness in older adults who were experiencing subjective cognitive decline or mild cognitive impairment.</p>
<p>The team recruited 90 participants between the ages of roughly 66 and 69 from the Czech Brain Aging Study. All volunteers had been classified as having either subjective cognitive decline (48 people) or mild cognitive impairment (31 people). Everyone underwent a battery of tests, including clinical interviews, cognitive testing, and brain scans. To measure mindfulness, researchers used a behavioural approach called the Breath Counting Task, which asks people to focus on their breathing and count from one to nine repeatedly. Each person performed this task for 18 minutes, pressing a key every time they counted to nine. The researchers then calculated how accurately participants kept track of their breathing counts.</p>
<p>Each person also had magnetic resonance scans conducted, including structural scans to measure brain volume, diffusion scans to assess tissue health, and resting‑state scans to measure connectivity between brain areas. The team focused on brain regions implicated in attention, emotion, and self‑awareness, such as the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, and the posterior cingulate cortex.</p>
<p>The results showed a clear difference in mindfulness levels between the two groups. The participants with mild cognitive impairment performed worse on the Breath Counting Task than those with subjective cognitive decline. This suggests that people further along the path of cognitive decline may struggle more with focusing attention and sustaining present‑moment awareness.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the researchers found that higher activity and connectivity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex was associated with better breath‑counting performance in the group with mild cognitive impairment, but not in those with subjective cognitive decline. This area of the brain is thought to play an important role in emotional regulation and in controlling internal thoughts and distractions. In people with mild cognitive impairment, a stronger link between this area and other brain regions appeared to support their ability to stay mindful despite the early signs of cognitive loss.</p>
<p>In contrast, no significant connections emerged between mindfulness and other brain areas tested. The volume and tissue health of the hippocampus, the rostral anterior cingulate cortex, and the posterior cingulate cortex were not linked to performance on the Breath Counting Task. The researchers also found no evidence that scores for verbal memory, attention, or executive function predicted mindfulness abilities in either group.</p>
<p>These findings highlight that mindfulness levels vary across early stages of cognitive decline and point to a specific role for the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in supporting mindfulness when cognition is under strain. This area of the brain is involved in making sense of emotions and controlling internal mental activity, and its role may become more important as other cognitive abilities begin to wane.</p>
<p>The results are in line with earlier studies conducted in healthy adults, which have found that stronger activity in this part of the brain supports better emotional resilience and attention. It is also in line with clinical observations that mindfulness training can aid older adults experiencing changes in memory and thinking. The findings support the idea that mindfulness might be especially relevant for those with mild cognitive impairment, who could benefit from exercises that focus attention and reduce emotional reactivity.</p>
<p>The researchers acknowledge that the study has limitations. Its cross‑sectional design means that it can only describe links between mindfulness and brain activity at one point in time. It cannot establish that changes in brain connectivity cause changes in mindfulness. The results also stem from a specific group of volunteers recruited from one clinical setting, making it unclear how well the findings apply to a more diverse population. </p>
<p>Additionally, the study only included participants with subjective cognitive decline or mild cognitive impairment, making it challenging to understand how these findings compare with people with more advanced forms of dementia or with completely healthy cognition.</p>
<p>Future studies could track changes in mindfulness and brain activity over longer periods to clarify how these relationships evolve as cognitive decline progresses. Including a wider range of participants could shed more light on the role that mindfulness might play in the prevention or management of cognitive loss across different populations. Another avenue for future research is to investigate how mindfulness training affects the brain in people with mild cognitive impairment and to determine whether such interventions could help preserve mental focus and emotional resilience as cognitive changes occur.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02500-9" target="_blank">Present Mind in the Ageing Brain: Neural Associations of Dispositional Mindfulness in Cognitive Decline</a>,” was authored by Rastislav Šumec, Pavel Filip, Martin Vyhnálek, Stanislav Katina, Dusana Dorjee, Jakub Hort, and Kateřina Sheardová.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/anxious-minds-dont-always-fixate-on-danger-according-to-new-study/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Anxious minds don’t always fixate on danger, according to new study</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 25th 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>Anxiety does not appear to impair people’s ability to disengage attention from threatening stimuli when they are sufficiently motivated to do so, according to a study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2514625"><em>Cognition & Emotion</em></a>.</p>
<p>Attentional biases toward threat are widely implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety. Individuals with higher anxiety are thought to have difficulty disengaging attention from threatening stimuli, potentially fueling hypervigilance and a sense that danger is always present. Many cognitive models and therapies, including attentional bias modification, assume that this delayed disengagement is involuntary and resistant to motivational control.</p>
<p>Agnes Musikoyo and colleagues examined whether delayed disengagement from threat-related stimuli is truly an involuntary feature of anxiety or whether it might reflect voluntary attentional choices. Prior studies have often confounded initial orienting with disengagement and rarely considered the role of motivation in disengagement. The authors designed three pre-registered experiments using central fixation paradigms that isolate the disengagement process and manipulated participants’ motivation to disengage using punishment or reward.</p>
<p>Experiment 1 included 142 undergraduate participants who were assigned to low or high anxiety groups based on their DASS-21 scores (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales). After a Pavlovian conditioning phase where participants learned to associate one colored circle with an aversive noise (CS+) and another with no noise (CS–), they completed an eye-tracking task.</p>
<p>Participants had to saccade to a peripheral target while a CS+ or CS– stimulus appeared at fixation. Disengagement was penalized with a noise if too slow, incentivizing quick responses. Key measures included saccade latency from the central stimulus and self-reported anxiety, aversiveness ratings, and noise expectancy.</p>
<p>In Experiments 2 and 3, larger samples of participants (201 and 195 respectively) completed remote reaction-time tasks. Participants saw centrally presented images (angry/fearful/neutral faces in Experiment 2; angry/happy/neutral faces and snakes/spiders in Experiment 3) followed by a visual search task. Motivation was manipulated: half the participants received monetary incentives for quick responses, while the rest received only correctness feedback. Anxiety was measured using the DASS-21 (Experiment 2) and STAI-T (State Trait Anxiety Inventory; Experiment 3), and disengagement was inferred from slower response times when threat stimuli were shown.</p>
<p>In Experiment 1, participants were consistently slower to move their eyes away from the CS+ stimulus compared to the CS–, even though such delay increased their chance of being punished with the aversive noise. This suggests that motivationally salient threat signals can involuntarily capture attention. However, this effect was not influenced by participants’ anxiety level. High- and low-anxiety individuals showed comparable disengagement latencies. Even when analyzed using more sensitive trial-level models and including all participants, there was no evidence that anxiety predicted greater difficulty in disengaging from threat under high-motivation conditions.</p>
<p>In Experiment 2, the researchers found no evidence that emotional facial expressions, whether angry or fearful, slowed participants’ disengagement from the central stimulus, regardless of anxiety level or motivational context. While participants who were motivated by rewards responded faster overall, their disengagement speed did not differ depending on the emotional content of the face. Moreover, anxious individuals did not show any greater tendency to dwell on negative faces. The results were consistent across multiple analytic strategies, and again, no anxiety-related attentional bias emerged.</p>
<p>In Experiment 3, participants did exhibit slower responses when disengaging from images of snakes and spiders, suggesting these stimuli were indeed more attentionally captivating. However, this pattern did not interact with anxiety level or motivational condition, and no consistent effects emerged for emotional faces, even when participants had time to process them before the search task began.</p>
<p>Altogether, the findings across the three experiments suggest that attentional disengagement from threat is not inherently impaired in anxious individuals. Instead, the tendency to dwell on threat-related stimuli may be more situational and influenced by task demands and stimulus properties, rather than being a stable, anxiety-driven deficit.</p>
<p>Of note is that the threat stimuli used may not have been equally motivationally relevant across participants, particularly the use of emotional faces.</p>
<p>The research, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2514625">The role of motivation in delayed disengagement from threat in anxiety</a>,” was authored by Agnes Musikoyo, Andrew E. Rayment, and Poppy Watson.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/more-time-in-bed-benefits-morning-and-evening-type-teens-differently-new-study-suggests/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">More time in bed benefits morning and evening-type teens differently, new study suggests</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 25th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study has found that teenagers who tend to stay up late and have shorter sleep patterns also experience higher levels of depression, anxiety, irritability, and fatigue than their morning- or intermediate-type peers. The research, published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70062" target="_blank">Journal of Sleep Research</a></em>, shows that when these adolescents were allowed an extra hour in bed, both groups increased their total sleep, but evening-type teens delayed their waking times as well, suggesting a unique biological and behavioral response to extended rest.</p>
<p>Teenagers are in a unique position when it comes to sleep. As puberty progresses, the body’s internal clock tends to shift later, making it harder for many adolescents to fall asleep early despite early morning school start times. At the same time, academic and social demands can further reduce the total amount of rest teens get. Chronic short sleep has long been associated with struggles in mood, behavior, and daily functioning. The researchers wanted to understand if adolescents with different internal clock patterns responded differently when given a chance to extend their time in bed.</p>
<p>“My research is focused on adolescent sleep health and the association of sleep with physical and mental health in teens,” said study author Stacey L. Simon, an associate professorat the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and associate director of behavioral sleep medicine at Children’s Hospital Colorado.</p>
<p>“We know that the majority of adolescents obtain less than the recommended amount of sleep for their age, and tend to go to bed late despite needing to wake early for school. Not getting enough sleep can have significant impacts on academic, social, and emotional functioning, and increase risk for health problems. This study examined how teens with different sleep timing preferences (morning vs evening preferences) responded to a sleep extension intervention where we helped them to get more sleep for one week.”</p>
<p>For their study, the researchers recruited 26 high school students between the ages of 14 and 19 who were sleeping an average of seven hours or fewer on school nights. The volunteers were recruited through school and social media ads and screened thoroughly to ensure they were otherwise healthy, did not have psychiatric or sleep disorders, and were not using medications that affect sleep. </p>
<p>The participants came from a range of racial and ethnic backgrounds, and the sample was primarily female. The researchers classified each adolescent as a morning, intermediate, or evening type using a standard questionnaire about their sleep habits and daily activity patterns.</p>
<p>Each adolescent participated in a randomized, crossover design experiment. In one condition, they kept to their usual school-week routine, called “typical sleep,” and in the other condition, called “sleep extension,” they increased their time in bed by at least an hour each night for five nights. The order of these conditions was randomized, and a one-month washout period was used between conditions. </p>
<p>During both conditions, participants wore a wrist device called an actigraph that tracked their activity and estimated their sleep, kept a diary of their sleep habits, and came into the lab at the end of the study period for more detailed measurement of their internal biological clock.</p>
<p>In the lab, participants stayed in a dimly lit room and gave hourly saliva samples throughout the evening and the following morning. These samples were used to measure melatonin, a hormone that signals the body to prepare for sleep. By doing this, researchers were able to pinpoint the participants’ “dim light melatonin onset” and “dim light melatonin offset” — times when the body naturally ramps up and down its release of the hormone — providing a biological marker of each person’s internal clock.</p>
<p>At the start of the study, the researchers found significant differences between evening-type adolescents and those classified as morning or intermediate types. The evening types had higher scores for depression and anxiety and were more irritable and sleepy throughout the day. They also experienced more symptoms related to chronic lack of sleep. </p>
<p>When the participants increased their time in bed, both morning/intermediate and evening types were able to advance their bedtimes and sleep longer. However, only evening-type participants delayed their wake times in the extended-sleep condition. In other words, while both groups adjusted when they fell asleep, only evening types also adjusted when they woke up, indicating that their internal biological clock played a strong role in their ability to sleep longer.</p>
<p>The researchers also looked closely at changes in the biological markers associated with the body’s internal clock. The phase angle — or the interval between when the body began producing melatonin and when a person fell asleep — narrowed significantly for morning and intermediate types when they went to bed earlier. Meanwhile, the interval between when evening types stopped producing melatonin and when they woke up increased significantly when their time in bed was extended. </p>
<p>This suggests that evening types may have a harder time aligning their internal biological clock with an earlier waking time, making it more challenging for them to maintain a longer sleep duration when their alarm goes off early.</p>
<p>This finding adds an important piece to the puzzle of adolescent sleep health. The results point to the benefit of considering an adolescent’s natural sleep tendency when making recommendations for increasing rest and aligning circadian rhythms. Evening-type adolescents may require different approaches, such as focusing more on later wake times or using targeted interventions to shift their internal clock earlier.</p>
<p>“All teens in the study were successful at increasing their sleep duration with the intervention,” Simon told PsyPost. “They all shifted their bedtimes earlier to achieve additional sleep. However only the adolescents with an evening preference also delayed their wake time in the morning as a way to get additional sleep. This suggests that individualized approaches may be needed to help adolescents improve their sleep.”</p>
<p>The study has some limitations. The sample was relatively small and largely homogenous, making it challenging to generalize the results to all adolescent populations. The one-week experimental period also may not fully capture how longer or more sustained changes in sleep behavior affect adolescents with differing internal clock patterns. The researchers acknowledge the need for larger, longer studies that could also investigate how extending sleep impacts academic performance, emotional well‑being, and long‑term health.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70062" target="_blank">Evening Chronotype Is Associated With Daytime Impairment and Differential Sleep and Circadian Response to a Sleep Extension Manipulation in Short Sleeping Adolescents</a>,” was authored by Stacey L. Simon, Emily Cooper, Angel Bernard, Anne E. Bowen, Sydney Holtman, John T. Brinton, Stephen M. M. Hawkins, Melanie G. Cree, Kristen J. Nadeau, and Kenneth P. Wright Jr.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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