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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/new-brain-stimulation-method-shows-promise-for-treating-mood-anxiety-and-trauma-disorders/" 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;">New brain stimulation method shows promise for treating mood, anxiety, and trauma disorders</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 2nd 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in the journal <em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-025-03033-w" target="_blank">Molecular Psychiatry</a></em> provides initial evidence for a non-invasive brain stimulation technique aimed at reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and trauma-related disorders. Researchers found that targeting the amygdala using focused ultrasound led to measurable changes in brain activity and symptom relief across multiple psychiatric diagnoses. The approach was found to be safe, well tolerated, and potentially effective, but the authors stress that more rigorous trials are needed before it can be considered a viable treatment.</p>
<p>Mood and anxiety disorders are often linked to overactivity in the amygdala. While some treatments like medication and talk therapy may help regulate this region, non-invasive brain stimulation options like transcranial magnetic stimulation have limited ability to reach deeper brain areas. Focused ultrasound, by contrast, can target these deeper areas directly and precisely. However, until now, very little was known about whether this technique could safely and effectively reduce symptoms in people with mental health conditions.</p>
<p>“A primary motivation for us is to improve treatment outcomes for individuals with mood, anxiety, and trauma-related disorders,” said <a href="https://sites.utexas.edu/fonzolab/" target="_blank">Gregory A. Fonzo</a>, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-director of the Charmaine and Gordon McGill Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy at the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School.</p>
<p>“Although we have effective treatments, not everyone will derive a substantial benefit from existing approaches. Thus, it is particularly important to design and test out novel approaches that might perform better for some individuals.” </p>
<p>“I have a strong interest in brain-based treatments, or treatments that work directly on the brain to promote a therapeutic benefit. The ability for focused ultrasound to directly modulate the function of deep, subcortical brain regions is an exciting advance in the neurotechnology space, and we were excited to explore its potential in improving symptoms in individuals with mood, anxiety, and trauma-related disorders.”</p>
<p>The study was conducted in two phases. First, the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to guide brief, single sessions of focused ultrasound to the left amygdala while participants were inside the scanner. This phase included 29 adults with diagnosed mood, anxiety, or trauma-related disorders and 23 healthy participants as a comparison group. Each participant received both a real and a sham (placebo) version of the ultrasound in a double-blind design. This phase was designed to test whether the stimulation could alter brain activity during and immediately after treatment, as measured by changes in blood oxygenation.</p>
<p>In the second phase, the same patients with mental health conditions underwent a three-week course of focused ultrasound treatments. They returned to the lab every weekday for 15 total sessions. These repeated sessions were not blinded and were intended to assess safety, treatment feasibility, and any changes in symptoms or brain function over time. Patients completed symptom questionnaires before and after treatment and underwent another MRI scan to assess how their brains responded to emotional stimuli after the intervention.</p>
<p>The first phase of the study showed that active ultrasound stimulation reduced activity in the left amygdala more than sham stimulation. This was observed in both patients and healthy participants, suggesting that the technology was capable of directly modulating this brain region. </p>
<p>About two-thirds of the participants showed some level of reduced amygdala activity. The researchers also found that individuals with higher levels of emotional distress tended to show stronger reductions in amygdala activity, hinting that people with more severe symptoms may benefit most from the treatment.</p>
<p>Beyond the amygdala, focused ultrasound also affected other brain regions. It altered activity and connectivity in parts of the hippocampus, insula, and prefrontal cortex—areas known to work together with the amygdala in emotional processing. These effects were different between patients and healthy individuals, particularly in the right hemisphere of the brain. This pattern may reflect disrupted communication between brain hemispheres in people with mental health disorders, though further research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms.</p>
<p>The second phase of the study examined what happened when the ultrasound treatment was repeated daily over three weeks. This part showed that the intervention was well tolerated and that most participants completed the full course of treatment. Side effects were generally mild and temporary, with no serious adverse events reported. The most common complaints were brief headaches, lightheadedness, or tingling sensations, most of which occurred during the first session inside the MRI scanner.</p>
<p>Importantly, patients showed improvements in symptoms after the full treatment. The main measure of improvement was a questionnaire assessing general emotional distress, which showed moderate to large reductions in symptom severity. Nearly half of the patients experienced symptom relief that exceeded what would be expected from measurement error alone. Many also reached scores that were more similar to healthy participants. </p>
<p>Additional improvements were found in measures of depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, and quality of life. Some of these effects remained significant even after adjusting for multiple comparisons, strengthening the evidence that the treatment may be helpful across a range of psychiatric symptoms.</p>
<p>Changes were also seen in how the brain responded to emotional images after the three-week treatment. In particular, both the left and right amygdalae showed reduced activity across several emotional conditions. The most notable decrease was in response to angry faces, a type of stimulus known to strongly activate the amygdala in people with depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress. Patients who showed greater decreases in amygdala activity also tended to report larger improvements in their symptoms, suggesting a possible brain-based marker of treatment response.</p>
<p>“I was quite pleasantly surprised that we saw such a broad ranging degree of benefit across multiple different types of psychiatric symptoms,” Fonzo told PsyPost. “This suggests that our brain target, the amygdala, is ripe for future efforts to optimize our initial approach. It also underscores the idea that a common treatment approach can be beneficial across many different diagnoses that are characterized by similar symptoms (and similar brain circuits).”</p>
<p>“There are new and exciting opportunities on the horizon to improve psychiatric treatments through integration and optimization of novel technologies. Low-intensity focused ultrasound is one such promising approach, and scientists are constantly working to improve and optimize our available options. I would hope this inspires hope in the typical mental health consumer that there is hope for relief from depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder.”</p>
<p>Although the findings are promising, the researchers emphasize that this was an early-stage trial and several limitations remain. The most important is that the repeated treatment phase did not include a control group. Everyone knew they were receiving the real treatment, which makes it impossible to rule out placebo effects or improvements due to other factors, such as increased attention or hope. </p>
<p>The sample size was also relatively small, and although the study included people with a variety of diagnoses, this made it difficult to assess whether the treatment works better for some conditions than others. In addition, the researchers relied on self-report questionnaires rather than clinical interviews to track symptom changes. While these are useful tools, future studies would benefit from combining them with more comprehensive clinician assessments.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the technology itself is still being refined. The researchers did not use advanced modeling tools to predict exactly how the ultrasound energy would interact with each person’s skull and brain anatomy, which could affect how precisely the treatment reached the amygdala. They also noted that the effects of treatment might vary depending on how active the brain is before stimulation, how precisely the ultrasound is targeted, and how well different brain regions are connected.</p>
<p>“We need to conduct a larger study using a randomized design with a placebo comparator condition to truly demonstrate potential efficacy of low-intensity focused ultrasound neuromodulation,” Fonzo explained. “Our results are encouraging but do require additional studies until we can be more confident in the therapeutic potential of this approach.”</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, the study represents an important step forward. It is the first to show that low-intensity focused ultrasound can directly target the amygdala and reduce its activity in people with emotional disorders. It also provides early evidence that repeated stimulation may lead to meaningful symptom improvements without serious side effects.</p>
<p>“The next steps would be to see if we can optimize or enhance our existing findings through testing additional sets of stimulation parameters as well as examining other factors that might impact the magnitude and durability of symptom reductions,” Fonzo said. “The longer-term goal would be to conduct one or more randomized controlled trials to assess efficacy of this approach in the most rigorous design.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03033-w" target="_blank">Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound amygdala neuromodulation: a double-blind sham-controlled target engagement study and unblinded single-arm clinical trial</a>,” was authored by Bryan R. Barksdale, Lauren Enten, Annamarie DeMarco, Rachel Kline, Manoj K. Doss, Charles B. Nemeroff, and Gregory A. Fonzo.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/peppermint-tea-boosts-memory-and-attention-but-why/" 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;">Peppermint tea boosts memory and attention—but why?</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 2nd 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hup.70005" target="_blank">Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental</a></em> adds to growing evidence that peppermint can improve memory and attention in healthy adults. The findings show that drinking a modest dose of peppermint tea improved several types of cognitive performance compared to a placebo. These benefits were accompanied by increased blood flow in the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for functions such as attention and working memory. But unexpectedly, these vascular changes did not explain the improvements in cognition, suggesting that other mechanisms may be responsible.</p>
<p>Previous research has suggested that peppermint can improve attention, working memory, and even mood. Some scientists have proposed that these benefits arise because peppermint increases cerebral blood flow, especially in the prefrontal cortex. This would allow more oxygen and nutrients to reach the brain, potentially enhancing mental performance. Others have pointed to peppermint’s active ingredients, such as menthol, which may influence neurotransmitter systems involved in cognition. The current study aimed to test whether improved blood flow really acts as a bridge between peppermint and better thinking.</p>
<p>“The project was conceptualized and executed by my master’s student, Luka Netzler, who has now gone onto to study for a PhD,” explained corresponding author Brian Lovell, an associate professor at Northumbria University.</p>
<p>“The cognitive enhancing effects of peppermint are well established, but little attention has been paid to the possible mechanisms, particularly neurovascular mechanisms, that might underlie these effects. Here, we wanted to explore this more, asking whether acute (short term) positive changes in cognition, particularly memory and attention, following consuming small amounts of peppermint team might be mediated by increased oxygenated blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, assessed with fNIRS.”</p>
<p>The researchers at a UK-based institution recruited 25 healthy adult volunteers, aged between 20 and 56 years, and randomly assigned them to one of two groups. One group consumed a cup of peppermint tea, while the other received a placebo—a cup of warm water that participants were told contained peppermint extract. This single-blind design ensured that participants were unaware of which condition they were in, helping to control for expectation effects.</p>
<p>Participants completed a battery of computerized tasks both before and after drinking their assigned beverage. These tasks measured a range of mental functions, including memory, attention, and visuospatial processing. For example, the picture recall task tested episodic memory by asking participants to recognize previously viewed images. Another task, called serial threes, required participants to subtract three repeatedly from a large number, which tests attention and working memory. The study also included tasks for short-term word recall and visuospatial memory.</p>
<p>At the same time, researchers used near-infrared spectroscopy, or NIRS, to monitor changes in brain activity by measuring blood oxygenation levels. This non-invasive method tracks the relative concentrations of oxygenated and total hemoglobin in the brain and is especially well suited to measuring blood flow in the prefrontal cortex. Measurements were taken both at rest and during task performance, both before and after the intervention.</p>
<p>The results showed that participants who drank peppermint tea performed better on all four cognitive tasks after consumption. They showed greater improvements in episodic memory, working memory, short-term word recall, and visuospatial memory compared to the placebo group. These differences were statistically significant and consistent across the different tasks. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the placebo group actually showed a slight decline in performance on some tasks during the second round of testing, which might reflect the effects of fatigue or reduced motivation—something that peppermint appears to have buffered against.</p>
<p>In addition to cognitive improvements, those in the peppermint group also showed increased blood oxygenation in the prefrontal cortex. Two key markers of hemodynamic activity—oxygenated hemoglobin and total hemoglobin—were significantly higher after drinking peppermint tea. These effects were not observed in the placebo group, supporting the idea that peppermint promotes greater cerebral blood flow.</p>
<p>“Peppermint, consumed as a tea, engenders short term improvements in cognition, particularly memory and attention,” Lovell told PsyPost. “Our protocol did not permit us to investigate the sustainability of these beneficial cognitive effects.”</p>
<p>Despite this, the researchers found no connection between changes in blood flow and improvements in cognitive performance. Statistical analyses showed that the rise in blood oxygenation did not predict how much a participant’s memory or attention improved. Even after adjusting for blood flow changes, the cognitive benefits of peppermint remained significant. This suggests that increased blood flow is not the reason why peppermint improves thinking, at least in the short term.</p>
<p>This result was somewhat surprising to the research team, who had expected blood flow to play a mediating role. It’s possible that the small sample size limited their ability to detect a relationship, Lovell said. Larger studies are generally needed to test mediation effects reliably, especially when the links between variables are subtle. The researchers also noted that the way NIRS data was handled may have influenced the outcome. Future studies might benefit from more detailed analyses of the timing and location of blood flow changes.</p>
<p>One alternative explanation is that peppermint affects brain chemistry in ways that are independent of blood flow. Menthol, a major compound in peppermint, interacts with receptors involved in the cholinergic system, which plays a key role in learning and memory. Menthol may help preserve acetylcholine levels in the brain by blocking enzymes that break it down, enhancing the transmission of signals between neurons. It also activates certain receptor channels that influence alertness and sensory processing. These chemical pathways may offer a better explanation for peppermint’s cognitive effects than changes in blood supply alone.</p>
<p>The study’s findings are in line with previous work showing that peppermint can sharpen mental performance. Unlike many earlier studies that used peppermint aroma, this one used a relatively small dose of peppermint tea—just 200 milliliters. The low dose and simple preparation suggest that peppermint may be a practical and natural tool for improving cognitive performance in everyday settings. The fact that the placebo group’s performance declined on some tasks while the peppermint group improved raises the possibility that peppermint may help combat short-term mental fatigue.</p>
<p>While the results are promising, the authors caution that the study has limitations. Most notably, the sample size was small, and the design only assessed short-term effects. It is unknown how long the cognitive benefits of peppermint might last. The study also did not control for participants’ diet, caffeine intake, or physical activity, all of which can influence cognition and blood flow.</p>
<p>The study also raises questions for future research. For instance, if blood flow is not the mediator, what is? Further studies could explore other physiological or chemical processes, such as changes in neurotransmitters, that might account for the observed effects. It may also be useful to test different doses of peppermint or to examine whether specific compounds in the plant are more responsible for its benefits. Menthol is likely not the only active ingredient—peppermint contains a range of other chemicals, including menthone and limonene, which might also influence brain function.</p>
<p>In the long run, Lovell said he hopes to build on these results by conducting larger studies with more post-intervention assessments and more precise imaging techniques. By examining how different compounds in peppermint affect the brain and how long the benefits last, they aim to better understand the potential of this everyday herb to support cognitive health.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hup.70005" target="_blank">A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial Exploring the Short-Term Cognitive and Cerebrovascular Effects of Consuming Peppermint Tea: A Mediation Study</a>,” was authored by Luka Netzler and Brian Lovell.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/psychedelic-compound-blurs-boundary-between-self-and-others-in-the-brain-study-finds/" 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;">Psychedelic compound blurs boundary between self and others in the brain, study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 2nd 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study has found that a psychedelic formulation inspired by ayahuasca can significantly alter how the brain processes faces—especially one’s own. The research shows that the compound changes both early visual perception and later self-referential processing, effectively weakening the brain’s usual distinction between self and others. These findings, published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925002502" target="_blank">NeuroImage</a>, could help explain why psychedelics often produce feelings of ego dissolution and connectedness, and may shed light on their therapeutic potential for mental health conditions involving rigid self-focus.</p>
<p>Ayahuasca is a traditional psychoactive brew from the Amazon, typically made by combining a DMT-containing plant with another that inhibits the breakdown of DMT in the body. DMT, short for N,N-dimethyltryptamine, is a powerful psychedelic compound that, when taken on its own, is rapidly broken down by enzymes in the gut. The other ingredient, usually a vine containing harmine or other beta-carbolines, blocks this breakdown and allows the DMT to take effect. Together, these two substances produce an intense psychedelic experience characterized by vivid visuals, altered perception of self, and emotional insights.</p>
<p>The researchers behind the new study set out to investigate how this combination of substances influences one specific domain of perception: how we recognize faces and distinguish between ourselves and others. Previous research has shown that psychedelics affect visual perception and the brain’s default mode network, which is associated with self-referential thought. However, there has been little exploration of how psychedelics affect face recognition and the brain’s response to familiar and unfamiliar faces.</p>
<p>“We were fascinated by how psychedelics like DMT alter the sense of self and blur boundaries between self and others,” said study author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dila-suay/" target="_blank">Dila Suay</a>, a postdoctoral researcher at the IMT School for Advanced Studies and the University of Zurich.</p>
<p>“These effects are often described subjectively, but less is known about their neural basis, especially in relation to face perception, which plays a central role in social identity. This study aimed to investigate whether a DMT/harmine formulation could measurably affect how the brain differentiates between self and other faces.”</p>
<p>To examine this, the researchers conducted a placebo-controlled experiment involving thirty healthy male volunteers. Each participant took part in three experimental sessions. In one session, they received a placebo; in another, they were given only harmine; and in the third, they received both DMT and harmine. The DMT was administered through a nasal spray, while harmine was taken in tablet form. Each session was separated by a two-week washout period.</p>
<p>During each session, participants completed a face recognition task while wearing an EEG cap that recorded electrical activity in the brain. The task involved viewing a series of images on a screen, including pictures of their own face, faces of well-known celebrities they recognized, and completely unfamiliar faces. Occasionally, scrambled images were included as targets to ensure participants stayed focused.</p>
<p>The EEG allowed the researchers to track brain responses to the faces at different time points, focusing on three specific brain signals. The P1 signal appears very early, around 100 milliseconds after seeing a stimulus, and is associated with basic visual processing. The N170 signal, which occurs slightly later, is related to the brain’s ability to recognize faces as faces. The P300 signal appears later still, and reflects deeper cognitive processing, such as distinguishing between familiar and unfamiliar information and allocating attention to self-relevant stimuli.</p>
<p>The results showed that the combination of DMT and harmine altered face processing at all three stages. Across all face types—self, familiar, and unknown—the DMT/harmine mixture enhanced the P1 response. This suggests that the drug increased early visual responsiveness, making the brain more reactive to incoming visual information. At the same time, it reduced the N170 response, which points to a disruption in the brain’s ability to structurally process faces. In other words, while participants’ visual systems were more sensitive overall, they became less efficient at recognizing faces as coherent, structured identities.</p>
<p>But the most interesting effects appeared in the P300 signal. Under placebo and harmine-only conditions, the brain showed a strong distinction between self and other faces in this later stage of processing. The self-face triggered a larger P300 response, reflecting its special significance and the brain’s tendency to give it more attention. </p>
<p>However, under the influence of DMT/harmine, this difference shrank. The P300 response to the self-face became more similar to the response to familiar and unfamiliar faces. This suggests that the brain was no longer treating the self as uniquely special. The neural boundary between self and others had become less defined.</p>
<p>“We were surprised by how consistent the neural flattening was across participants and face types,” Suay told PsyPost. “Even early visual markers like the N170, which typically reflect facial recognition, were significantly dampened. It suggests that DMT not only alters conscious experience but also disrupts fundamental stages of face perception, challenging how we define the “self” at the perceptual level.”</p>
<p>Importantly, the brain’s response to familiar faces, such as celebrities, remained relatively stable across all conditions. This indicates that the drug did not simply disrupt all face processing indiscriminately. Instead, it appeared to target self-referential processing in a selective way, diminishing the sense of distinction between self and other without erasing recognition of socially meaningful faces.</p>
<p>The researchers also found that these changes in brain activity were related to participants’ subjective experiences. Reductions in the N170 and P300 signals under DMT/harmine were associated with stronger reports of ego dissolution, spiritual experiences, and vivid imagery. This suggests that the neural blurring of self-other boundaries may contribute to the felt experience of losing one’s sense of a separate self, a hallmark of many psychedelic experiences.</p>
<p>These findings help explain how psychedelics can produce profound changes in the sense of self. The attenuation of the P300 response to one’s own face may reflect a reduction in the brain’s usual tendency to prioritize self-relevant information. This could underlie the feeling of being less self-centered or more connected to others. At the same time, the fact that familiar faces were still processed normally suggests that the brain retains an anchor to social reality, even as the boundaries between self and other begin to shift.</p>
<p>“Our results suggest that under the influence of this ayahuasca-inspired formulation, the brain becomes less distinct in how it processes one’s own face compared to familiar or unfamiliar faces,” Suay explained. “This supports the idea that psychedelics can dissolve rigid self-other boundaries, which may underlie some of their therapeutic and empathic effects. It also adds to a growing understanding of how identity and self-perception are dynamically constructed in the brain.”</p>
<p>This dynamic may be part of what makes psychedelics therapeutically promising for conditions like depression or social anxiety, where people can become overly fixated on negative self-referential thoughts. By loosening the brain’s grip on the self as a distinct and fixed entity, psychedelics may create space for new perspectives and emotional flexibility.</p>
<p>As with all research, the study has limitations. It only included healthy male participants. The effects observed were tied to a specific dose and route of administration, so they might not apply to other psychedelic compounds or delivery methods. Also, while EEG offers detailed timing of brain activity, it lacks spatial precision, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly which brain areas are responsible for the observed effects.</p>
<p>“The effects we observed may differ in clinical populations or across repeated exposures. Additionally, although EEG allowed us to track real-time changes in brain activity with high precision, it doesn’t provide detailed spatial information about which brain areas are involved. Future studies combining EEG with techniques like fMRI or source localization could deepen our understanding of where and how these alterations occur in the brain.”</p>
<p>Another important consideration is that ego dissolution is not always experienced as positive. In this study, reductions in the brain’s differentiation between self and others were more strongly associated with feelings of anxious disorientation than with blissful unity. This highlights that psychedelics can produce a range of psychological experiences, and not all of them are therapeutic. Understanding what determines whether ego dissolution is beneficial or distressing is an important goal for future research.</p>
<p>The researchers suggest that future studies should explore how these brain responses change over time and whether the effects on self-referential processing persist after the psychedelic experience ends. They also propose looking at connectivity patterns in the brain to see how information flows between regions during these altered states.</p>
<p>“We’re currently exploring more nuanced analyses, including connectivity patterns, to better understand how self-related processing is reconfigured under psychedelics,” Suay said. “In the long run, we hope to bridge this kind of basic neuroscience with clinical applications, especially in therapies targeting self-related disorders like depression, trauma or identity disturbances.”</p>
<p>“I think what’s most compelling is that we’re starting to see how subjective changes in identity during psychedelic experiences can be objectively tracked in the brain. That opens new doors for both science and therapy, especially for conditions where people feel disconnected from themselves or others.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121247" target="_blank">Ayahuasca-inspired DMT/HAR formulation reduces brain differentiation between self and other faces</a>,” was authored by Dila Suay, Helena D. Aicher, Michael Kometer, Michael J. Mueller, Luzia Caflisch, Alexandra Hempe, Camilla P. Steinhart, Claudius Elsner, Ilhui A. Wicki, Jovin Müller, Daniel Meling, Dario A. Dornbierer, Milan Scheidegger, and Davide Bottari.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/could-creatine-slow-cognitive-decline-mouse-study-reveals-promising-effects-on-brain-aging/" 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;">Could creatine slow cognitive decline? Mouse study reveals promising effects on brain aging</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 1st 2025, 20:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.4767" target="_blank">Food Science & Nutrition</a></em> suggests that creatine supplementation may help protect the brain from age-related memory and learning impairments. The researchers found that creatine increased the activity of a key brain enzyme involved in energy metabolism—called creatine kinase BB (CK-BB)—and reversed memory deficits and structural damage in the brains of aging mice. These results point to creatine as a potential nutritional intervention to help preserve brain function in later life.</p>
<p>The research, conducted by scientists at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, focused on understanding the biological mechanisms that underlie age-related declines in cognitive ability—and whether these could be influenced by creatine. Cognitive aging, which includes declines in memory, attention, and problem-solving, is a growing concern as the global population continues to age. </p>
<p>Brain aging contributes significantly to the risk of developing neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. As a result, researchers are increasingly focused on identifying strategies that could preserve brain function or slow the progression of age-related decline. One area of interest is how the brain maintains energy balance, particularly in regions like the hippocampus that are critical for learning and memory.</p>
<p>Creatine, a naturally occurring compound found in the body and in certain foods, plays a key role in this process. It helps the brain and other high-energy-demand tissues regenerate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecule that powers most cellular activities. Inside the brain, creatine is converted to phosphocreatine through the action of CK-BB. This system acts like a backup battery, rapidly restoring energy during times of increased demand. </p>
<p>While creatine is widely used by athletes to enhance muscle performance, recent studies suggest that it may also support brain function by helping neurons maintain energy levels needed for communication and plasticity.</p>
<p>To explore these potential effects, the researchers used a common model of brain aging in mice. They repeatedly injected the animals with D-galactose, a sugar known to cause oxidative stress and mimic the effects of aging. Mice that received either moderate or high doses of D-galactose developed memory impairments, signs of oxidative damage, and reductions in CK-BB expression and activity. These animals also showed physical changes in brain structure, including fewer and shorter dendritic spines in the hippocampus—a brain area essential for memory.</p>
<p>In a second set of experiments, the researchers used a virus-based technique to reduce the expression of CK-BB specifically in the hippocampus, without using D-galactose. Mice with lower levels of this enzyme displayed many of the same impairments as the aging model, including memory deficits, signs of oxidative stress, and structural damage to brain cells. These findings suggested that lower CK-BB levels could directly contribute to cognitive problems by disrupting the brain’s energy balance and weakening synaptic connections.</p>
<p>Finally, the scientists tested whether creatine supplementation could reverse or prevent these negative effects. They added 3% creatine to the diet of aging-model mice and observed notable improvements. Mice that received creatine showed increased CK-BB expression and activity, restored dendritic structure in the hippocampus, and better performance on memory tests. These animals also had lower levels of oxidative stress markers, suggesting that creatine helped protect their brains from damage caused by aging.</p>
<p>The behavioral tests used in the study included two well-established tasks: the Morris water maze and the Y-maze. These tasks measure an animal’s ability to learn and remember spatial locations and recognize new environments. In both tests, creatine-fed mice performed significantly better than their counterparts who received D-galactose alone. Notably, creatine supplementation did not impair motor or visual abilities, which means the improvements in memory were not due to enhanced movement or perception.</p>
<p>At the cellular level, creatine-fed mice had higher levels of brain proteins associated with synaptic health, including PSD-95, BDNF, and NF-L. These proteins are critical for the formation and maintenance of synapses, the tiny junctions where neurons communicate. The researchers used staining techniques to visualize and measure these structural features and found that creatine restored spine density and dendritic length in the hippocampus to near-normal levels.</p>
<p>These findings build on previous research that has shown links between creatine and cognitive performance. For example, prior human studies have found that older adults may experience improved memory and reasoning abilities after taking creatine supplements. People with genetic disorders that impair creatine metabolism often suffer from intellectual disabilities, but early creatine supplementation can help reduce the severity of symptoms.</p>
<p>In this new mouse study, the researchers provide additional evidence that creatine’s benefits may stem from its effects on CK-BB, a brain-specific enzyme that helps maintain energy balance. CK-BB plays a key role in regenerating ATP, the molecule that powers nearly all cellular activities. In energy-demanding organs like the brain, this process is especially important for maintaining synaptic activity and supporting learning and memory.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the study also examined gene expression data from human brain tissue to confirm the relevance of CK-BB in age-related disorders. By analyzing publicly available datasets, the authors found that the gene encoding CK-BB (known as CKB) was significantly downregulated in people with Alzheimer’s disease compared to healthy controls. This supports the idea that reductions in CK-BB may be a shared feature of aging and neurodegenerative diseases.</p>
<p>Although the findings are promising, the researchers acknowledge some limitations. While the experiments showed a strong link between CK-BB levels and cognitive performance in mice, the exact pathways by which CK-BB affects synaptic plasticity are still unknown. The authors speculate that reduced CK-BB could disturb mitochondrial energy production or increase the brain’s vulnerability to oxidative stress. More work is needed to confirm whether these mechanisms are at play, and whether similar results would occur in humans.</p>
<p>Another limitation is the method used to reduce CK-BB expression in the brain. The researchers used a viral vector to knock down the CKB gene in a specific brain region, but more precise tools—such as genetically engineered knockout mice—could help clarify the role of this enzyme throughout development and aging. Future studies may also explore whether creatine can offer protective effects in models of other brain conditions, such as stroke or Parkinson’s disease.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.4767" target="_blank">Long-Term Creatine Supplementation Improves Cognitive and Hippocampal Structural Plasticity Impairments in a D-Gal-Induced Aging Model via Increasing CK-BB Activity in the Brain</a>,” was authored by Zhu Zhu, Hantao Zhang, Qianlin Li, Xu Han, Tiantian Wang, Wenjing Zhang, Feiyan Chen, Ling Gu, Qi Yao, Lin Chen, and Yunan Zhao.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/chatgpt-and-cognitive-debt-new-study-suggests-ai-might-be-hurting-your-brains-ability-to-think/" 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;">ChatGPT and “cognitive debt”: New study suggests AI might be hurting your brain’s ability to think</a>
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<p><p>Since ChatGPT appeared almost three years ago, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies on learning has been widely debated. Are they handy tools for personalised education, or gateways to academic dishonesty?</p>
<p>Most importantly, there has been <a href="https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2024/is-ai-making-us-dumber-.html">concern</a> that using AI will lead to a widespread “<a href="https://www.psypost.org/catastrophic-effects-can-ai-turn-us-into-imbeciles-this-scientists-fears-for-the-worst/">dumbing down</a>”, or <a href="https://www.psypost.org/ai-tools-may-weaken-critical-thinking-skills-by-encouraging-cognitive-offloading-study-suggests/">decline in the ability</a> to think critically. If students use AI tools too early, the argument goes, they may not develop basic skills for critical thinking and problem-solving.</p>
<p>Is that really the case? According to a <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872">recent study</a> by scientists from MIT, it appears so. Using ChatGPT to help write essays, the researchers say, can lead to “cognitive debt” and a “likely decrease in learning skills”.</p>
<p>So what did the study find?</p>
<h2>The difference between using AI and the brain alone</h2>
<p>Over the course of four months, the MIT team asked 54 adults to write a series of three essays using either AI (ChatGPT), a search engine, or their own brains (“brain-only” group). The team measured cognitive engagement by examining electrical activity in the brain and through linguistic analysis of the essays.</p>
<p>The cognitive engagement of those who used AI was significantly lower than the other two groups. This group also had a harder time recalling quotes from their essays and felt a lower sense of ownership over them.</p>
<p>Interestingly, participants switched roles for a final, fourth essay (the brain-only group used AI and vice versa). The AI-to-brain group performed worse and had engagement that was only slightly better than the other group’s during their first session, far below the engagement of the brain-only group in their third session.</p>
<p>The authors claim this demonstrates how prolonged use of AI led to participants accumulating “cognitive debt”. When they finally had the opportunity to use their brains, they were unable to replicate the engagement or perform as well as the other two groups.</p>
<p>Cautiously, the authors note that only 18 participants (six per condition) completed the fourth, final session. Therefore, the findings are preliminary and require further testing.</p>
<h2>Does this really show AI makes us stupider?</h2>
<p>These results do not necessarily mean that students who used AI accumulated “cognitive debt”. In our view, the findings are due to the particular design of the study.</p>
<p>The change in neural connectivity of the brain-only group over the first three sessions was likely the result of becoming more familiar with the study task, a phenomenon known as the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fh0025848">familiarisation effect</a>. As study participants repeat the task, they become more familiar and efficient, and their cognitive strategy adapts accordingly.</p>
<p>When the AI group finally got to “use their brains”, they were only doing the task once. As a result, they were unable to match the other group’s experience. They achieved only slightly better engagement than the brain-only group during the first session.</p>
<p>To fully justify the researchers’ claims, the AI-to-brain participants would also need to complete three writing sessions without AI.</p>
<p>Similarly, the fact the brain-to-AI group used ChatGPT more productively and strategically is likely due to the nature of the fourth writing task, which required writing an essay on one of the previous three topics.</p>
<p>As writing without AI required more substantial engagement, they had a far better recall of what they had written in the past. Hence, they primarily used AI to search for new information and refine what they had previously written.</p>
<h2>What are the implications of AI in assessment?</h2>
<p>To understand the current situation with AI, we can look back to what happened when calculators first became available.</p>
<p>Back in the 1970s, their impact was regulated by making exams much harder. Instead of doing calculations by hand, students were expected to use calculators and spend their cognitive efforts on more complex tasks.</p>
<p>Effectively, the bar was significantly raised, which made students work equally hard (if not harder) than before calculators were available.</p>
<p>The challenge with AI is that, for the most part, educators have not raised the bar in a way that makes AI a necessary part of the process. Educators still require students to complete the same tasks and expect the same standard of work as they did five years ago.</p>
<p>In such situations, AI can indeed be detrimental. Students can for the most part offload critical engagement with learning to AI, which results in “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13544">metacognitive laziness</a>”.</p>
<p>However, just like calculators, AI can and should help us accomplish tasks that were previously impossible – and still require significant engagement. For example, we might ask teaching students to use AI to produce a detailed lesson plan, which will then be evaluated for quality and pedagogical soundness in an oral examination.</p>
<p>In the MIT study, participants who used AI were producing the “same old” essays. They adjusted their engagement to deliver the standard of work expected of them.</p>
<p>The same would happen if students were asked to perform complex calculations with or without a calculator. The group doing calculations by hand would sweat, while those with calculators would barely blink an eye.</p>
<h2>Learning how to use AI</h2>
<p>Current and future generations need to be able to think critically and creatively and solve problems. However, AI is changing what these things mean.</p>
<p>Producing essays with pen and paper is no longer a demonstration of critical thinking ability, just as doing long division is no longer a demonstration of numeracy.</p>
<p>Knowing when, where and how to use AI is the key to long-term success and skill development. Prioritising which tasks can be offloaded to an AI to reduce cognitive debt is just as important as understanding which tasks require genuine creativity and critical thinking.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/259450/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
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<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/mit-researchers-say-using-chatgpt-can-rot-your-brain-the-truth-is-a-little-more-complicated-259450">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/frequent-dreams-and-nightmares-surged-worldwide-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/" 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;">Frequent dreams and nightmares surged worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 1st 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>Frequent dreams and nightmares became more common worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new international study published in the <em><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsr.70070" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Journal of Sleep Research</a></em>.</p>
<p>While dreaming has long fascinated scientists, much of what is known about how often people recall dreams or experience nightmares has come from studies conducted in individual countries—mostly in Europe. These studies often used different definitions and tools, making it difficult to compare findings across populations.</p>
<p>A new study, led by an international team of researchers from institutions across Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australia, aimed to provide a clearer picture of how frequently people recall dreams or experience nightmares—and how these patterns vary by age, gender, and sleep duration.</p>
<p>Led by Courtney J. Bolstad, the research team was particularly interested in how the global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced sleep and dream experiences.</p>
<p>To investigate this, the researchers surveyed 15,854 adults aged 18 to 99 (69.9% women) using a standardized online questionnaire as part of the International COVID-19 Sleep Study. Data were collected between May and November 2021 across 16 countries. Importantly, the same survey instrument was used in every country to ensure consistency.</p>
<p>Participants were asked to report how often they recalled dreams or had nightmares in two time periods: retrospectively for 2019 (pre-pandemic) and currently in 2021 (during the pandemic). They also reported their average nightly sleep duration for both years.</p>
<p>In 2021, 54% of participants reported recalling dreams at least once a week, compared to 51.1% in 2019. Nightmares showed a sharper increase: 11% of participants reported experiencing nightmares at least weekly in 2021, compared to just 6.9% in 2019.</p>
<p>There were notable differences between countries. In 2021, Brazil had the highest rates of frequent dream recall and nightmares, while Germany reported some of the lowest rates of both. In 2019, the United States had the highest rates for both frequent dreams and nightmares. Israel consistently reported the lowest rates of nightmares across both years.</p>
<p>Demographic factors also played a significant role. Younger adults were more likely than older adults to frequently recall dreams and experience nightmares. Women reported both experiences more often than men in 2021, though in 2019, men reported slightly more nightmares.</p>
<p>Sleep duration was another key factor. People who slept longer were more likely to recall dreams frequently—a relationship that followed a linear pattern. Nightmares, however, followed a U-shaped pattern: they were more common among both short sleepers (less than 6 hours) and long sleepers (more than 9 hours), and least common among those who slept 6 to 9 hours per night.</p>
<p>“We suspect insomnia may explain the relation between nightmares and short sleep duration, while increased REM sleep may explain the association between long sleep duration and dream recall and nightmares,” the authors noted.</p>
<p>However, the study also has some caveats. Because people were asked in 2021 to remember their 2019 sleep patterns, their memories might not be perfectly accurate. Recruitment methods varied slightly by country, and the research didn’t explore other factors such as stress, trauma, or COVID-19 infection – which could all influence dreaming.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70070" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Prevalence Rates of Frequent Dream Recall and Nightmares by Age, Gender and Sleep Duration in 16 Countries</a>,” was authored by Courtney J. Bolstad, Bjørn Bjorvatn, Ngan Yin Chan, Frances Chung, Yves Dauvilliers, Luigi De Gennaro, Colin A. Espie, Brigitte Holzinger, Yuichi Inoue, Maria Korman, Adrijana Koscec Bjelajac, Anne-Marie Landtblom, Tainá Macêdo, Kentaro Matsui, Ilona Merikanto, Charles M. Morin, Sérgio Mota-Rolim, Thomas Penzel, Giuseppe Plazzi, Cátia Reis, Serena Scarpelli, Yun Kwok Wing, and Michael R. Nadorff.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/vagus-nerve-signals-influence-food-intake-more-in-higher-socio-economic-groups/" 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;">Vagus nerve signals influence food intake more in higher socio-economic groups</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 1st 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105491" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Food Quality and Preference</a></em> suggests that the way our bodies signal hunger and fullness might be shaped by our socio-economic background. Researchers found that signals from the vagus nerve—an important biological pathway connecting the gut and brain—were more strongly linked to food consumption in individuals from higher socio-economic backgrounds. Individuals from lower socio-economic groups, on the other hand, appeared less influenced by these internal cues when deciding how much to eat.</p>
<p>The vagus nerve plays a key role in transmitting information between the gut and brain. It helps regulate digestion, appetite, and emotional responses to stress. A common way to assess vagal activity is by measuring heart rate variability, or HRV, which reflects how flexibly the body adjusts its heart rate. Higher HRV tends to be associated with better self-regulation and emotional control, including the ability to resist impulses like overeating. Researchers have long theorized that physiological self-regulation, like that provided by vagal tone, plays an important role in eating behavior.</p>
<p>The current study was designed to test how vagal tone might interact with socio-economic status to shape eating habits. To do this, the researchers focused on a very specific behavior: chocolate consumption. Chocolate is a high-fat, high-sugar food known to trigger cravings and emotional eating, making it a good model for studying self-regulation. The study included 96 university students in the United Kingdom who came from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds.</p>
<p>To assess participants’ socio-economic status, the researchers used two approaches. First, they asked students to report their perceived status compared to other students. Second, they recorded the highest level of education achieved by each participant’s parent or guardian. This two-pronged approach allowed them to capture both subjective and objective aspects of socio-economic background.</p>
<p>Once in the lab, participants were fitted with sensors to record their heart activity. The researchers collected HRV data during a rest period and also during two tasks designed to cause mild stress. One task involved mentally subtracting sevens from a large number under time pressure, while the other required participants to give a short speech about what it would be like to die from cancer.</p>
<p>After these tasks, participants entered a relaxation phase and then took part in a “taste test” that was, in fact, the key measure of eating behavior. They were left alone with a plate of 70 milk chocolate droplets and told they could eat as many as they liked while evaluating the taste.</p>
<p>The main question was whether participants’ vagal tone, as measured through HRV, would predict how much chocolate they ate—and whether this relationship would be different depending on their socio-economic status. The researchers tested three possible patterns.</p>
<p>First was the “blunting” hypothesis: that people from lower socio-economic backgrounds might have lower baseline HRV, leading to less effective self-regulation and more eating. Second was the “hyperreactivity” hypothesis: that stress would trigger stronger physiological responses (such as vagal withdrawal) in low-SES individuals, leading to more eating. Third was the “dissociation” hypothesis: that internal physiological signals (like vagal tone) might only guide behavior among higher-SES individuals, while lower-SES individuals would show weaker alignment between those signals and their eating.</p>
<p>The results did not support the first two ideas. There was no significant relationship between socio-economic status and baseline vagal tone, and vagal tone alone did not predict how much chocolate participants consumed. Similarly, there was little evidence that stress responses (vagal withdrawal) were higher in low-SES individuals or that such responses predicted more eating.</p>
<p>However, the third hypothesis—the dissociation hypothesis—was supported. Among participants from higher socio-economic backgrounds, higher baseline vagal tone was linked to eating fewer chocolates. This suggests that in these individuals, the body’s internal regulation systems were more closely aligned with their eating behavior. In contrast, among those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, there was no significant link between vagal tone and chocolate consumption. Even though their bodies may have sent signals of satiety or restraint, those signals did not appear to influence how much they ate.</p>
<p>These patterns held even after accounting for factors like hunger, body mass index, how much participants liked the chocolate, and whether they were actively trying to restrict their food intake. The researchers also repeated the analyses using slightly different methods and found consistent results.</p>
<p>This dissociation between physiological signals and behavior may help explain why people from lower socio-economic backgrounds are more vulnerable to overconsumption in environments filled with processed, high-calorie foods. If internal signals are less likely to influence behavior, external cues like portion size, advertising, and emotional triggers may play a larger role. This could lead to patterns of eating that are less in tune with actual energy needs, contributing over time to health problems such as obesity or diabetes.</p>
<p>One explanation for this dissociation may be differences in early life stress. People who grow up in unpredictable or unsafe environments—conditions more common in low-income households—may develop habits that favor immediate rewards over internal regulation. Other research has shown that early life adversity can reduce what scientists call “interoceptive sensitivity,” or the ability to detect and respond to internal bodily signals like hunger and fullness. Over time, this might impair the brain’s ability to use physiological signals to guide eating decisions.</p>
<p>“The findings suggest that while the vagus nerve plays a key role in transmitting signals between the gut and the brain, the extent to which these signals guide eating behaviour can vary with one’s socio-economic status,” the study’s lead author, Mario Weick of Durham University, explained. Our research indicates that internal signals may be more closely aligned with eating behaviour in individuals from higher socio-economic backgrounds. In contrast, those from lower socio-economic groups appear to show a weaker link between these physiological signals and their food consumption.”</p>
<p>The study has some limitations. It focused only on chocolate consumption and included a relatively young, university-based sample. Future research will need to determine whether these findings extend to other kinds of food, different types of stress, or more diverse populations. The researchers also acknowledge that their design does not prove causation—it cannot definitively say whether socio-economic status causes changes in vagal regulation or whether other variables are at play.</p>
<p>Co-author Professor Milica Vasiljevic emphasized that the study should not be interpreted as blaming individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds. “Our study does not support the idea that individuals from lower socio-economic groups eat more or are inherently more impulsive,” she said. “Rather, it highlights that the internal regulation of eating – how our bodies naturally signal when to eat and when to stop – may function differently depending on our socio-economic backgrounds. This could have important implications for understanding broader health inequalities.”</p>
<p>Future studies might explore whether practices like mindfulness, yoga, or biofeedback can help boost vagal tone and interoceptive sensitivity, especially in disadvantaged groups. If so, such interventions could offer a promising way to support healthier eating habits from the inside out.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105491" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Socio-economic status modulates the link between vagal tone and chocolate consumption</a>,” was authored by Mario Weick and Milica Vasiljevic.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/people-who-think-everyone-agrees-with-me-are-more-likely-to-support-populism/" 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;">People who think “everyone agrees with me” are more likely to support populism</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 1st 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pops.70026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Political Psychology</a></em> suggests that people who overestimate how many others share their political views are more likely to hold populist attitudes and mistrust democratic institutions. Using survey data from Germany, the researchers found that these “false consensus beliefs” are strongly linked to support for the idea that a unified “will of the people” should prevail over political elites. The results held regardless of respondents’ political orientation and remained consistent across different ways of measuring both beliefs and attitudes.</p>
<p>Populism is often framed as a response to dissatisfaction with democracy. Across many countries, growing numbers of voters feel that elected leaders are out of touch with the needs and preferences of ordinary citizens. This perception of a “democratic deficit”—a gap between what people want and what politicians do—has fueled the rise of populist movements. These movements argue that the true will of the people is being ignored or suppressed by corrupt elites.</p>
<p>But why do some people feel more strongly than others that democracy is failing to represent them? The researchers behind this study propose that one answer lies in the way people perceive public opinion. Many individuals assume that their own views are widely shared—even when that isn’t true. This tendency to project one’s own beliefs onto the broader population is known in psychology as the “false consensus effect.”</p>
<p>In this study, the researchers examined whether people who hold false consensus beliefs are more likely to embrace populist ideas. They reasoned that when individuals believe that their personal opinions reflect the views of a majority, they may interpret disagreement from political leaders as a sign of elite betrayal. If someone thinks “everyone agrees with me,” then any failure by politicians to act accordingly might feel like a direct rejection of the popular will.</p>
<p>“We initially became interested in people’s perceptions of public opinion because we wanted to investigate whether individuals are more likely to support referendums when they expect their preferred side to win,” said study author <a href="https://www.nilssteiner.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nils D. Steiner</a>, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) Mainz.</p>
<p>“Our data then revealed another intriguing pattern: people’s perceptions of public opinion often align with their own views. While this is a well-established phenomenon in social psychology, we recognized that it may have significant political implications. Specifically, citizens who strongly overestimate how many others share their views may be more likely to adopt a populist worldview—believing that political elites are unresponsive to what they perceive as the will of the people.”</p>
<p>The researchers analyzed data from the GESIS Panel.pop, a large and nationally representative survey of German adults. Around 3,500 participants were included in the final analysis. The researchers asked participants for their views on a range of controversial policy issues, such as lifting pandemic restrictions, increasing taxes on the wealthy, abolishing the right to asylum, and enforcing gender quotas. Participants were also asked to estimate how many other Germans shared their position on each issue.</p>
<p>This setup allowed the researchers to calculate how much each respondent’s belief about public opinion deviated from actual public opinion within the same survey. The more someone overestimated agreement with their views, the stronger their false consensus beliefs.</p>
<p>The researchers then measured populist attitudes using a widely accepted scale. This scale captures three elements of populist thinking: the belief that the people are a unified and morally good group (popular sovereignty), the view that elites are corrupt and self-serving (anti-elitism), and a tendency to see politics as a battle between good and evil (Manichean outlook).</p>
<p>The results showed a connection between false consensus beliefs and populist attitudes. People who believed that their views were widely shared were more likely to support the idea that government should directly enact the will of the people. They were also more likely to distrust elites and to view politics in moral, black-and-white terms.</p>
<p>This relationship held even when accounting for the specific policy positions participants held and where they placed themselves on the political spectrum. In fact, the link between false consensus beliefs and populism was found among both left-leaning and right-leaning individuals. However, it was strongest among those who identified with the far right.</p>
<p>People on the far right also showed the highest levels of false consensus beliefs. This suggests that a belief in widespread agreement with their views—despite evidence to the contrary—may help reinforce a populist mindset. In these cases, people may not only feel that their opinions are being ignored by elites, but also that the entire system is working against the supposed will of the people.</p>
<p>“People should be aware of a common psychological tendency: we often overestimate how many others share our own views,” Steiner told PsyPost. “Recognizing this can be a helpful reminder that society is more diverse in opinion than it may seem. By becoming more mindful of this bias, individuals may be less likely to fall for overly simplistic populist messages that frame politics as a battle between ‘the people’ and ‘the elite’ — as if these were unified, homogenous groups.”</p>
<p>To ensure their findings were not driven by the specific way they measured beliefs, the researchers tested several alternative approaches. In every case, the pattern remained the same: false consensus beliefs were consistently associated with stronger populist attitudes.</p>
<p>The researchers also examined how false consensus beliefs relate to other indicators of political discontent. People with stronger false consensus beliefs reported lower trust in political institutions and lower feelings of political efficacy—the belief that they can influence political outcomes. These individuals were also more likely to say they intended to vote for populist parties, particularly the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD).</p>
<p>One limitation of the study is that it is observational. While the findings show a strong association between false consensus beliefs and populist attitudes, they cannot determine whether one causes the other. It’s possible that people who already hold populist views are more likely to assume that others agree with them. Alternatively, both beliefs could stem from broader psychological traits, such as a need for certainty or a tendency toward black-and-white thinking.</p>
<p>“It’s difficult to establish the exact causal relationship between false consensus beliefs and populist attitudes,” Steiner noted. “While we suggest that overestimating public support for one’s political views may contribute to populist sentiment, it’s also possible that a populist mindset influences how people perceive public opinion in the first place. Additionally, elite messaging may play an important role: when politicians claim that a ‘silent majority’ supports their policies, their followers may adopt those narratives and further misjudge the actual level of support. These dynamics likely interact in complex ways, and more research is needed to untangle them.”</p>
<p>The study raises important questions about how people form beliefs about public opinion. In today’s fragmented media landscape, individuals often consume information that aligns with their views, leading to “echo chambers” or “filter bubbles.” Social media platforms, online communities, and partisan news outlets may all contribute to the illusion that one’s own opinions are widely held.</p>
<p>Future research could explore whether correcting false consensus beliefs might reduce populist attitudes. For example, would people change their views about democracy or elites if they learned that their opinions were not as common as they thought? The researchers suggest that survey experiments could help answer this question.</p>
<p>Another avenue for future work is to investigate how media environments shape public opinion perceptions. While some studies suggest that personalized online content increases political polarization and false beliefs, others have questioned the extent of such “filter bubbles.” More research is needed to understand how people form beliefs about what others think—and how those beliefs affect political behavior.</p>
<p>“Our longer-term goal is to deepen our understanding of the causal relationships between false consensus beliefs, populist attitudes, and elite messaging,” Steiner explained. “We are also interested in exploring why some individuals are more prone to false consensus beliefs than others, and whether evolving media environments— especially social media—contribute to these misperceptions. Ultimately, we hope this research will inform strategies to foster a more accurate understanding of public opinion and reduce the appeal of polarizing populist narratives.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.70026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">False consensus beliefs and populist attitudes</a>,” was authored by Nils D. Steiner, Claudia Landwehr, and Philipp Harms.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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