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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/methylphenidate-adhd-drug-curbs-impulsivity-in-men-only-linked-to-brain-wiring-differences/" 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;">Methylphenidate: ADHD drug curbs impulsivity in men only, linked to brain wiring differences</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 13th 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p data-start="104" data-end="463">A recent study of young adults in Israel found that a 20 mg dose of methylphenidate reduces choice impulsivity in men, but not in women, immediately after taking the drug. In men, the drug’s effects appeared to be related to the structural integrity of neural fibers in the forceps major region of the corpus callosum. The study was published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811925001995?via%3Dihub"><em data-start="450" data-end="462">NeuroImage</em></a>.</p>
<p data-start="465" data-end="886">Impulsivity refers to the tendency to act quickly without fully considering the consequences, often leading to risky or inappropriate behavior. It is a common feature of both everyday behavior and clinical conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, substance use disorders, and certain mood disorders. Impulsivity is a complex trait that can affect decision-making, emotion regulation, and self-control.</p>
<p data-start="888" data-end="1390">There are several types of impulsivity. Motor impulsivity involves acting without thinking, such as blurting out answers or interrupting others. Attentional impulsivity is characterized by difficulty staying focused and being easily distracted. Choice impulsivity refers to a preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed ones, reflecting difficulty with delaying gratification. Cognitive impulsivity involves making decisions quickly without adequately processing available information.</p>
<p data-start="1392" data-end="1942">Study author Maryana Daood and her colleagues aimed to assess whether methylphenidate affects choice impulsivity. Methylphenidate is a stimulant medication commonly used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder by increasing levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain, which can improve attention and self-control. It is sold under brand names such as Ritalin, Concerta, and Medikinet. Since impulsivity is a central feature of ADHD, verifying that a commonly used treatment reduces this specific behavior has important implications.</p>
<p data-start="1944" data-end="2136">The study included 48 young adults recruited through advertisements at the University of Haifa in Israel. The average participant age was between 26 and 27 years, and 28 participants were men.</p>
<p data-start="2138" data-end="2577">Each participant took part in two data collection sessions. During each session, they completed structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans—both at rest and while performing a delay discounting task, a measure of choice impulsivity. In one session, participants received a 20 mg oral dose of methylphenidate. In the other session, they received a placebo capsule identical in appearance but without active ingredients.</p>
<p data-start="2579" data-end="2933">Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group received methylphenidate in the first session and placebo in the second; the other group received the treatments in the opposite order. Neither the participants nor the researchers administering the treatments knew which capsule was taken in each session, making the study double-blind.</p>
<p data-start="2935" data-end="3206">In addition to the two experimental sessions, participants completed the delay discounting task on two earlier occasions. This task assesses how much a person devalues a reward based on the time they have to wait for it. It is commonly used to measure choice impulsivity.</p>
<p data-start="3208" data-end="3724">Neuroimaging data showed that men had greater white matter integrity in three brain tracts: the anterior thalamic radiation, the cingulum bundle, and the forceps minor of the corpus callosum. Methylphenidate significantly reduced choice impulsivity in men but not in women. In men, the drug’s effectiveness was greater among those with lower neural fiber integrity in the forceps major. In contrast, in women, the drug’s impact was more pronounced among those with higher white matter integrity in the forceps minor.</p>
<p>“Taken together, results uncover sex-specific effects of MPH [methylphenidate] on choice impulsivity, accounted for by inverse associations between choice impulsivity under MPH and the structural integrity of distinct segments of the corpus callosum,” study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study sheds light on the effects of methylphenidate on choice impulsivity. However, it should be noted that the study was conducted on a small group of healthy young adults, not on individuals with ADHD or with increased impulsivity. Results on larger groups or on individuals with particularly high impulsivity might differ.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121196">The impact of methylphenidate on choice impulsivity is inversely associated with corpus callosum fiber integrity across sexes,</a>” was authored by Maryana Daood , Leehe Peled-Avron , Rachel Ben-Hayun , Michael Nevat , Judith Aharon-Peretz , Rachel Tomer , and Roee Admon.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/daughters-who-feel-more-attractive-report-stronger-more-protective-bonds-with-their-fathers/" 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;">Daughters who feel more attractive report stronger, more protective bonds with their fathers</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 13th 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-025-00261-w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology</a></em> sheds light on how a father’s background and perceptions influence the kind of relationship he has with his daughter. Fathers with more education and higher incomes were more likely to have emotionally supportive, protective, and less controlling relationships with their daughters. Daughters who saw themselves as physically attractive also tended to report stronger attachments to their fathers.</p>
<p>The research draws on life history theory and the daughter-guarding hypothesis to better understand what shapes paternal behavior toward daughters. Life history theory suggests that people’s developmental strategies—such as how they invest time and resources—are shaped by environmental factors like economic stability or unpredictability in early life. The daughter-guarding hypothesis proposes that fathers are especially protective of their daughters in ways that may reflect broader evolutionary concerns, such as reproductive strategies and family reputation.</p>
<p>The researchers were interested in how these ideas could be applied to modern father-daughter relationships. In particular, they wanted to know whether characteristics like a father’s education level, religiosity, political views, and income could help explain differences in how fathers relate to their daughters emotionally and behaviorally.</p>
<p>Prior research has shown that father involvement is linked to benefits such as improved self-regulation and healthier attachment styles in daughters. At the same time, father absence has been associated with earlier sexual development and lower emotional security. However, most previous studies have not focused specifically on how fathers’ life experiences and social positioning influence their parenting choices with daughters.</p>
<p>“We were interested in how life-history factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, education) in fathers were associated with their attachments to their daughters. There is limited research on this unique relationship, and we wanted to know explore it further and potentially stimulate more research questions into this topic,” said study author Ray Garza, an assistant professor of psychology at Texas A&M International University.</p>
<p>The researchers conducted two separate studies. In the first study, they surveyed 120 daughters between the ages of 18 and 21. These participants were asked to rate their fathers on four key dimensions: attachment (how emotionally close they felt to their father), support (whether their father helped them through personal challenges), protection (how much their father looked out for their safety), and control (how often their father tried to influence their decisions).</p>
<p>Daughters also reported on their own perceptions of their physical attractiveness, their father’s level of education, religiosity, and political orientation. The researchers then looked at how these variables related to the quality of the daughter-father relationship.</p>
<p>Statistical analyses revealed that daughters with more educated fathers reported stronger emotional attachments and more support and protection. Daughters who rated themselves as more attractive also tended to report higher levels of attachment, support, and protection from their fathers. Interestingly, they also reported experiencing less control.</p>
<p>Religiosity and political orientation were less consistent predictors. Daughters with more religious fathers reported receiving less protection, which was not expected based on previous research. Fathers’ political orientation showed no clear link to any of the measured outcomes in the daughters’ reports.</p>
<p>The second study surveyed 304 fathers who had at least one daughter. These men provided their own assessments of how they related to their daughters using the same four dimensions: attachment, support, protection, and control. They also reported on their income, education, and political views.</p>
<p>The researchers found similar patterns in this sample. Fathers who had higher incomes were more likely to report strong emotional attachments to their daughters. Political orientation was again linked to weaker attachment, with more conservative fathers reporting lower emotional closeness. Education was not a significant predictor in this second study.</p>
<p>Across both studies, attachment appeared to be central. Fathers who reported being more emotionally connected to their daughters also tended to be more supportive and protective. These positive behaviors, in turn, were associated with lower levels of control. The findings suggest that when strong emotional bonds are present, fathers may not feel the need to regulate their daughters’ lives as much. Instead, they may focus on offering support and ensuring their daughters feel safe.</p>
<p>“One of the main findings were that fathers’ education and financial stability were associated with being more attached and offering more support and protection,” Garza told PsyPost. “This was noted in both studies from the daughters’ perspective (Study 1) and fathers’ perspective (Study 2). Additionally, we did find that having a stronger attachment to fathers was associated with more support and protection, but less controlling behaviors directed towards daughters.”</p>
<p>The researchers interpret these findings through the lens of life history theory. In that framework, fathers with more education and financial stability may be more likely to follow what’s known as a “slower” life history strategy, which emphasizes long-term planning, emotional investment, and stable relationships. In contrast, fathers facing economic insecurity or instability might adopt “faster” strategies that are more short-term and survival-focused, which may translate into less emotional availability or greater control over their children’s choices.</p>
<p>The results also lend some support to the daughter-guarding hypothesis. Daughters who considered themselves more attractive reported receiving more protection and support, which might reflect fathers’ concerns about their daughters’ mate value and the risks associated with sexual or social exposure. This could manifest in protective behavior intended to delay daughters’ involvement in potentially risky relationships.</p>
<p>While the findings are consistent with some aspects of evolutionary and developmental psychology, there are caveats to consider. “A limitation was that we relied primarily on self-report data and limited indicators of life-history factors,” Garza said. “For instance, collecting other markers of development, such as pubertal timing, age of first menstruation, and sexual history, could provide a more comprehensive account on the role of father-daughter relationships.”</p>
<p>“We are continuing other research projects that investigate father-daughter relationships from a life-history perspective. These include using a diverse set of life-history factors and attachment scales and potentially creating and validating a father-daughter guarding scale.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-025-00261-w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daddy’s Little Girl: The Role of Life History in Paternal Investment Towards Daughters</a>,” was authored by Ray Garza, Emily Woolman, Sepide Pazhouhi, and Farid Pazhoohi.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/brain-scans-reveal-who-may-benefit-most-from-mdma-for-trauma-related-symptoms/" 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 scans reveal who may benefit most from MDMA for trauma-related symptoms</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 13th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2833328" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JAMA Network Open</a></em> suggests that brain imaging could help identify who is most likely to benefit from MDMA as a treatment for trauma-related symptoms. In a randomized clinical trial at Stanford University, researchers found that participants with heightened brain reactivity to unconscious threat cues showed marked changes in neural activity after receiving MDMA. These changes included reduced responses in brain regions associated with fear and improved connectivity between areas involved in emotional regulation.</p>
<p>MDMA is a psychoactive compound best known as the recreational drug “ecstasy” or “molly,” but recent research has explored its use in treating mental health conditions like posttraumatic stress disorder. It has been shown to reduce defensiveness and enhance emotional openness, which may help people engage more effectively in therapy. While this approach shows promise, not everyone responds in the same way. The new study aimed to better understand the brain mechanisms involved in MDMA’s effects and to determine whether certain individuals might respond more strongly based on their brain activity before treatment.</p>
<p>The research team, led by scientists at the <a href="https://www.stanfordpmhw.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness</a>, focused on a specific brain circuit known as the “negative affect circuit,” which includes the amygdala and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex. This network helps the brain detect and regulate responses to emotional threats, especially those outside of conscious awareness.</p>
<p>Overactivity in this system is common in people with trauma histories and has been linked to poor treatment outcomes. The team hypothesized that MDMA might help normalize this circuit, but that the effect could depend on a person’s baseline level of activity in these regions.</p>
<p>“We were motivated by a central question: Who is most likely to benefit from MDMA-based treatment—and why? MDMA is emerging as a fast-acting treatment for PTSD and is currently seeking FDA approval as part of MDMA-assisted therapy,” said study authors <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/xue-zhang">Xue Zhang</a> and <a href="https://profiles.stanford.edu/leanne-williams">Leanne Williams</a>.</p>
<p>Williams is the Vincent V.C. Woo Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she directs the Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness and the PanLab for Personalized and Translational Neuroscience. She also leads the Precision Medicine Core at the VA Palo Alto’s Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center and is the author of <em><a href="https://amzn.to/3IoQRQo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Precision Psychiatry</a></em>. Zhang is a research scientist in Williams’ lab.</p>
<p>“While some individuals experience substantial benefits, others show little to no effect—suggesting that MDMA is not a one-size-fits-all solution,” the researchers said. “To understand this heterogeneity, we focused on the brain—specifically, how differences in neural circuit function might predict treatment response. PTSD is known to disrupt brain circuits involved in processing threat, including outside of conscious awareness.”</p>
<p>“We were particularly interested in whether individual variation in this ‘negative affect’ circuit might help identify who is more likely to benefit from MDMA. Our broader goal is to advance precision psychiatry based on personalized neuroscience: matching each person with the treatment most likely to work for them, based on their brain biotype.”</p>
<p>For their study, the researchers recruited 16 adults who had experienced early life trauma and were showing subclinical signs of posttraumatic stress. All participants had previously used MDMA but had not done so within the past six months. They did not meet the criteria for current psychiatric diagnoses. Each person completed four visits: one baseline session, one placebo session, and two sessions involving different doses of MDMA (80 and 120 milligrams), with the order randomized and spaced out over time.</p>
<p>During each visit, participants underwent functional MRI scans while completing a task designed to measure brain responses to nonconscious emotional threats. This involved briefly showing angry or fearful faces that were masked to prevent conscious recognition. The researchers also gathered behavioral data, such as how participants rated the likability of facial expressions and how quickly they responded to emotion recognition tasks. After each session, participants completed surveys about their emotional state and experiences.</p>
<p>Before examining the effects of MDMA, the researchers divided participants into two groups based on how reactive their amygdala was to nonconscious threats at the baseline visit. Eight participants showed high activity in this region (the NTNA+ group), while the other eight showed lower activity (the NTNA− group). This split allowed the team to compare how these subgroups responded differently to MDMA.</p>
<p>When participants in the NTNA+ group received the higher MDMA dose, their brain activity showed notable changes. The amygdala and subgenual anterior cingulate both became less active in response to threat cues. In addition, communication between these regions increased. These patterns suggest a shift toward a more balanced and regulated emotional response. In contrast, participants in the NTNA− group did not show the same neural changes after taking MDMA.</p>
<p>The NTNA+ group also showed behavioral changes that aligned with the brain data. After taking 120 milligrams of MDMA, they rated angry faces as more likable, suggesting a softening of their automatic negative reactions. Interestingly, while their brain reactivity decreased, these participants reported greater anxiety and less desire to be with others during the MDMA session compared to the NTNA− group. Their written descriptions indicated more introspective and emotionally complex experiences. Meanwhile, the NTNA− group tended to report more pleasant and euphoric effects.</p>
<p>“One striking finding was the consistency of brain circuit and behavioral findings within the negative affect biotype group,” Zhang and Williams told PsyPost. “Individuals with brain circuit hyperactivity also showed a stronger implicit threat bias, indicating that their brain activity disrupted their behavioral reaction time to respond to signals of threat that appeared outside of conscious awareness. This convergence between brain and behavior suggests that implicit behavioral responses might serve as surrogate markers of underlying brain biotypes—potentially allowing for stratification of individuals who are more likely to benefit from MDMA treatment using both behavior and brain-based measures.”</p>
<p>These results suggest that MDMA may work differently depending on how the brain processes emotional threats before treatment. For people with heightened baseline reactivity, MDMA appears to reduce brain responses linked to fear and increase connectivity in circuits involved in regulation. These effects could create a more open emotional state, potentially improving the effectiveness of therapy when combined with talk-based approaches. The study supports the idea that measuring brain activity could help match people with treatments tailored to their specific neural profiles.</p>
<p>“Our study shows that how the brain responds to threat—especially at a nonconscious level—can shape how someone responds to MDMA,” Zhang and Williams explained. “This supports the idea that treatments should be personalized, not one-size-fits-all, and that each person’s brain biotype really matters.”</p>
<p>“We identified a neural circuit-based biotype with elevated baseline activity in the negative affect circuit—a brain circuit that includes the amygdala and is involved in automatically detecting and responding to threat. Individuals in this negative affect biotype with high threat reactivity showed significant changes after a single 120 mg dose of MDMA: reduced circuit hyperactivity, more adaptive connectivity, and improved behavioral responses to threat-related cues.”</p>
<p>“These findings suggest that this biotype may be especially suited for MDMA-based therapies,” Zhang and Williams said. “More broadly, it highlights how brain circuit function could serve as an objective marker for treatment matching—bringing us closer to precision psychiatry.”</p>
<p>But it’s important to note that this was not a clinical trial of MDMA-assisted therapy. Instead, the study examined the effects of MDMA in a controlled setting without therapeutic guidance. While the results are promising, the small sample size and focus on healthy volunteers with subthreshold symptoms limit how broadly the findings can be applied. More research is needed in clinical populations, including people formally diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder.</p>
<p>“That’s the focus of <a href="https://www.stanfordpmhw.com/rbrain-mdma" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our current neuroimaging study</a>, led in collaboration with Dr. Trisha Suppes, and embedded in her clinical trial of MDMA-assisted cognitive processing therapy,” the researchers noted. “It will allow us to test whether the brain circuit biotypes we identified in our mechanistic trial can predict treatment response in real-world clinical settings.”</p>
<p>The study is part of a larger research effort funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to explore how fast-acting treatments like MDMA, ketamine, and psilocybin affect brain circuits.</p>
<p>“What set this MDMA study apart is that it’s the first to use a person’s pre-treatment brain circuit profile—what we call a biotype—to predict their acute response to the intervention,” Zhang and Williams said. “This circuit biotype-guided approach offers a promising way to improve future clinical trials and, ultimately, routine care. It could help stratify likely responders, rule out likely non-responders, minimize side effects, and streamline treatment – all key steps toward safer, more effective, and more accessible mental healthcare.”</p>
<p>In the long term, the researchers hope to build tools that use brain scans to guide personalized treatment decisions. By identifying “biotypes” based on brain activity, clinicians could better determine which interventions are most likely to help specific individuals. This could reduce the burden of trial-and-error approaches that are common in mental health care today.</p>
<p>“The next step is to validate our circuit-based biotype in individuals with PTSD, and we’re actively doing that in our ongoing neuroimaging trial,” Zhang and Williams explained. “Longer term, we aim to accelerate the clinical translation of our tools that use brain imaging to help match each person with the treatment most likely works for them. We also plan to expand the matching of biotypes to additional treatments, and determine which treatments are specific to each biotype. This precision medicine approach could lead to more effective, personalized care—dramatically reducing the burden of trial-and-error treatment.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.7803" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Negative Affect Circuit Subtypes and Neural, Behavioral, and Affective Responses to MDMA: A Randomized Clinical Trial</a>,” was conducted by Xue Zhang, Laura M. Hack, Claire Bertrand, Rachel Hilton, Nancy J. Gray, Leyla Boyar, Jessica Laudie, Boris D. Heifets, Trisha Suppes, Peter J. van Roessel, Carolyn I. Rodriguez, Karl Deisseroth, Brian Knutson, and Leanne M. Williams.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/frequent-egg-consumption-linked-to-lower-risk-of-alzheimers-dementia-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;">Frequent egg consumption linked to lower risk of Alzheimer’s dementia, 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 12th 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>Older adults who eat eggs more than once a week may be less likely to develop Alzheimer’s dementia, according to a new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.05.012" target="_blank">The Journal of Nutrition</a></em>. The researchers found that participants who ate eggs weekly had a lower rate of clinical diagnosis and fewer Alzheimer’s-related brain changes after death. The study also identified dietary choline, a key nutrient found in eggs, as one possible contributor to this protective effect.</p>
<p>Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and one of the leading causes of death among older adults. It is marked by memory loss, cognitive decline, and changes in behavior, and is associated with biological features in the brain such as the buildup of amyloid plaques and tau tangles. </p>
<p>With millions of people currently living with the disease in the United States, researchers have been searching for ways to reduce the risk or delay its onset. Diet has been one area of focus, especially nutrients that support brain health. Eggs are a natural source of several such nutrients, including choline, omega-3 fatty acids, and lutein. Prior studies suggested that egg intake may support cognitive performance, but few have examined its relationship to Alzheimer’s disease directly.</p>
<p>To investigate this link, the researchers analyzed data from 1,024 participants in the Rush Memory and Aging Project, a long-running study of older adults in the Chicago area. All participants were free of dementia at the time they completed a detailed dietary questionnaire. The survey, adapted from a well-known food frequency questionnaire developed at Harvard, asked about their typical diet over the previous year, including how often they ate eggs. Participants were then followed for an average of nearly seven years, during which they underwent yearly assessments for signs of Alzheimer’s dementia.</p>
<p>In addition to clinical evaluations, a subset of 578 participants donated their brains for research after death. These samples allowed the researchers to examine the biological features associated with Alzheimer’s disease and assess whether egg intake was related to the presence of those features.</p>
<p>The research team categorized participants into groups based on how often they consumed eggs: less than once per month, one to three times per month, once per week, and two or more times per week. They then used statistical models to compare the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s dementia across these groups. The models took into account a wide range of other factors, including age, education, physical activity, genetics, and overall diet.</p>
<p>The results showed that people who ate eggs at least once a week had a lower rate of clinical Alzheimer’s diagnosis than those who ate them rarely. Specifically, both the once-a-week and two-or-more-times-per-week groups had about half the risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia compared to those who consumed eggs less than once a month. These results remained statistically significant even after adjusting for a variety of potential confounding variables.</p>
<p>Brain autopsy data supported the clinical findings. Among deceased participants, those who had eaten eggs more than once a week were less likely to show the brain pathology typical of Alzheimer’s disease, including plaques and tangles. Again, the association remained significant after accounting for other variables.</p>
<p>To explore why egg consumption might be linked to lower Alzheimer’s risk, the researchers examined dietary choline intake as a potential mediator. Choline is a nutrient essential for producing acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory and learning. It also contributes to the structure of cell membranes in the brain. Eggs are the top dietary source of choline in the U.S. diet.</p>
<p>Mediation analysis showed that nearly 40 percent of the association between egg consumption and reduced Alzheimer’s risk could be explained by choline intake. In other words, choline appeared to play a meaningful role in the protective effect observed. Participants who ate eggs more frequently also had significantly higher average choline intake over time.</p>
<p>The study provides evidence that frequent egg consumption is linked not only to better cognitive outcomes, but also to less underlying brain pathology. The findings support the idea that dietary choices in later life can influence brain aging, and highlight eggs as a potentially beneficial food for older adults.</p>
<p>But the researchers caution that the study does not prove that eggs prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The study was observational, meaning it cannot establish cause and effect. There is also the possibility of reverse causation, since some people may change their diet in subtle ways as cognitive decline begins. The dietary questionnaire was only administered once, and it relied on self-reported data, which may introduce recall bias or inaccuracies. Additionally, the food frequency questionnaire only asked about whole egg consumption, not about eggs used as ingredients in other foods.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the study population was predominantly female, highly educated, and over the age of 80, which may limit how broadly the results apply. The relatively short follow-up period of under seven years also means the study could have missed longer-term effects. Despite these caveats, the study’s strengths include its large sample, long-running cohort, and access to detailed clinical and postmortem data.</p>
<p>Funding for the study came from the National Institutes of Health and the Egg Nutrition Center, among other sources. Several of the authors disclosed financial relationships with food and nutrition organizations, including the egg industry, though the funding sources did not influence the analysis or interpretation of the results. The researchers adhered to transparency guidelines for nutrition research involving private sector funding.</p>
<p>Looking ahead, the authors suggest that additional studies should replicate these findings in other populations, and that randomized controlled trials could help clarify whether egg consumption directly influences Alzheimer’s risk. If the link is confirmed, eggs could become part of broader dietary recommendations aimed at promoting healthy brain aging.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjnut.2024.05.012" target="_blank">Association of Egg Intake With Alzheimer’s Dementia Risk in Older Adults: The Rush Memory and Aging Project</a>,” was authored by Yongyi Pan, Taylor C. Wallace, Tasija Karosas, David A Bennett, Puja Agarwal, and Mei Chung.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/psychopathic-personality-and-weak-impulse-control-pair-up-to-predict-teen-property-crime/" 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;">Psychopathic personality and weak impulse control pair up to predict teen property crime</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jul 12th 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study suggests that adolescents with certain psychopathic personality traits and weaker executive functioning skills may be more likely to engage in property-related crimes. While both psychopathic traits and poor cognitive control were individually linked to antisocial behavior, the combination of these characteristics was particularly predictive of property offenses. The research appears in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-024-01283-w" target="_blank">Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology</a></em>.</p>
<p>Psychopathic traits involve persistent patterns of interpersonal detachment, impulsivity, and disregard for others. While these traits are often associated with adult criminal behavior, they also appear in youth and are a focus of research aimed at understanding the early roots of antisocial conduct. Executive functioning refers to mental skills like impulse control, planning, and flexible thinking, which are still developing during adolescence. Past research has linked both psychopathic traits and poor executive functioning to antisocial behavior, but the nature of their interaction remains unclear.</p>
<p>The researchers designed the current study to examine whether executive functioning might influence how strongly psychopathic traits predict violent or property-related offenses. They focused on adolescents involved in the justice system, who are at higher risk for antisocial outcomes, and included a wide range of relevant control variables, such as exposure to violence, neighborhood quality, peer influence, and previous head injury. </p>
<p>The researchers framed their investigation using neuromoral theory, which proposes that some youth may be more vulnerable to antisocial behavior due to brain-based impairments in moral reasoning and emotional regulation.</p>
<p>“An inquiry from my co-author led us to investigating the research question. It was a gap in the literature that remained unexplored but was often assumed among scholars,” said study author <a href="https://www.una.edu/faculty/jjoseph.html" target="_blank">Justin J. Joseph</a>, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of North Alabama.</p>
<p>To investigate their questions, the researchers analyzed baseline data from the Pathways to Desistance study, a large, publicly available dataset that follows serious adolescent offenders over time. The final sample included 1,330 youth aged around 16 years who had been adjudicated for serious offenses in Philadelphia or Phoenix. Both male and female participants were included.</p>
<p>Psychopathic traits were measured using the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version, a well-validated rating scale completed by trained interviewers. This measure produces scores along two dimensions: interpersonal/affective traits (such as lack of empathy and shallow emotions) and socially deviant/lifestyle traits (such as impulsivity, irresponsibility, and risk-taking). </p>
<p>Executive functioning was measured using the Stroop Color-Word Task, a common test of inhibitory control that requires individuals to name the color of a word while ignoring the meaning of the word itself—a task that taps into self-regulation and cognitive flexibility.</p>
<p>Participants also completed self-report measures indicating how often they had committed a range of violent and property-related offenses over the past six months. Violent offenses included actions like assault and weapons use, while property offenses included burglary, theft, and selling drugs. A broad set of control variables was included in the analysis to account for environmental, developmental, and psychological factors known to influence antisocial behavior.</p>
<p>The researchers used a statistical method called robust negative binomial regression, which is suited for modeling count-based outcomes like the number of offenses. They analyzed the relationship between psychopathic traits, executive functioning, and antisocial behavior in two steps: first testing the individual effects, then examining whether the interaction between traits and executive functioning mattered.</p>
<p>Initial findings showed that higher levels of psychopathic traits and lower executive functioning were each associated with more frequent violent and property offending. However, when interaction terms were added to the full models, most of these individual effects no longer reached statistical significance. </p>
<p>The only significant interaction that remained was between the socially deviant/lifestyle dimension of psychopathy and executive functioning, and it was specific to property offenses. Youth who scored high on socially deviant traits and also performed poorly on the Stroop task were the most likely to report frequent property crimes. No such interaction was observed for violent offending, suggesting that the combination of traits and cognitive control plays a more specific role in predicting property-related behavior.</p>
<p>Joseph was surprised to find “that executive functioning and the socially deviant dimension were not significantly associated with violent offending in the sample. Antisocial behavior is a complex phenomena that is not easily explained by popular talking points in the media. Hence, some of the findings in our study.”</p>
<p>As with all research, there are some limitations. The sample consisted only of serious offenders, so the findings may not generalize to adolescents involved in less severe forms of delinquency. Also, because the key measures were only available at the baseline assessment, the study could not explore how these relationships change over time. Future research should use longitudinal designs with repeated measures to better understand the developmental dynamics between traits, cognition, and behavior.</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, the study adds to a growing body of research exploring how personality and cognitive functioning jointly influence adolescent behavior. It suggests that youth with a specific combination of traits—impulsive, sensation-seeking personalities and weak self-regulation—may be at particularly high risk for engaging in property crime. Recognizing these patterns may help practitioners develop more targeted and effective approaches to reducing youth offending.</p>
<p>The authors plan to continue investigating how psychopathic traits unfold across development and how they might be measured more precisely. By identifying individual profiles associated with different types of antisocial behavior, researchers hope to guide more personalized, developmentally informed interventions. While not all adolescents with psychopathic traits will go on to commit serious crimes, understanding how cognitive and emotional vulnerabilities interact could play an important role in preventing harm and promoting healthy development.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-024-01283-w" target="_blank">Does Executive Functioning Moderate the Association Between Psychopathic Traits and Antisocial Behavior in Youth?</a>” was authored by Justin J. Joseph and Dan A. Waschbusch.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/low-sexual-activity-body-shape-and-mood-may-combine-in-ways-that-shorten-lives-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;">Low sexual activity, body shape, and mood may combine in ways that shorten lives, 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;">Jul 12th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>People in the United States who have sex fewer than a dozen times a year appear more likely to die during follow-up if they carry extra abdominal fat or score high on a standard test of depression symptoms, according to a study in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.03.129" target="_blank">Journal of Affective Disorders</a></em>. The work, which tracked nearly five thousand adults over fifteen years, indicates that a wide waist and depressed mood may amplify each other’s harmful effects, raising death risk beyond what either factor predicts on its own.</p>
<p>The research team set out to understand why sparse sexual activity so often accompanies poor health outcomes. Earlier population surveys have shown that low sexual frequency is linked to higher rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and early death. Yet it remained unclear which specific biological or psychological traits best mark that heightened danger, and whether those traits interact in a way that makes the whole risk greater than the sum of its parts. By pinpointing modifiable warning signs, the authors hoped to guide physicians toward tailored prevention strategies for a group that has received little clinical attention.</p>
<p>To explore these questions, the investigators drew on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing program that combines interviews, physical examinations, and long-term mortality tracking. They pooled six survey cycles collected between 2005 and 2016 and focused on 4,978 participants aged twenty to fifty-nine who reported having vaginal or anal sex fewer than twelve times in the previous year. Respondents lacking a sexual partner, those with intellectual impairments, and those with missing key data were excluded to keep the analysis consistent.</p>
<p>Each participant answered the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire, a widely used screening tool for depressive symptoms. A score of ten or higher flagged probable depression. The researchers also calculated five different measures of body fat distribution. Traditional body mass index, which relates weight to height, was included, but they paid special attention to A Body Shape Index. This newer metric combines waist circumference, height, and weight to capture abdominal fat more precisely than body mass index alone.</p>
<p>Deaths from any cause up to December 31, 2019 were confirmed through linkage to the National Death Index. The median follow-up time was just over two years, and the maximum was fifteen. In total, 215 participants—about four percent of the sample—died during that period.</p>
<p>Statistical models that accounted for age, sex, race, smoking, alcohol use, blood pressure, kidney function, diabetes, and other potential confounders revealed that A Body Shape Index stood out as the strongest predictor of mortality among the five fat-related measures. A value of 0.082 or higher defined the high-risk group. People at or above that threshold were nearly twice as likely to die as peers with smaller waists, even after adjustments.</p>
<p>Depression carried a similar weight. Participants who screened positive were eighty-six percent more likely to die than those with lower scores. Most striking, though, was what happened when both factors appeared together. Individuals who had a wide waist and met criteria for depression faced almost quadruple the death risk of those who had neither. </p>
<p>An interaction analysis estimated that roughly half of the deaths in this high-risk subgroup could be attributed to the combined influence of abdominal fat and depressive symptoms, meaning the two conditions seem to magnify each other rather than operate independently.</p>
<p>Survival curves painted a stark picture. Among men with both risk factors, only about seventy-six percent were alive at fifteen years, compared with ninety-one percent of similarly affected women. The sex gap echoes laboratory findings that male endothelial cells in fat tissue show more inflammatory and aging-related gene activity than female cells, which may leave men more vulnerable to the vascular damage associated with obesity. Depression may widen the divide, as men often delay care and present with more severe symptoms than women by the time they reach treatment, potentially worsening outcomes.</p>
<p>The team then built a practical tool clinicians could use to estimate survival odds in this population. Feeding ten easily obtained variables—sex, race, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, waist-based body shape index, sexual frequency, heart disease history, depression score, and age—into a machine-learning method called least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, they produced a nomogram that predicted three-, five-, and ten-year mortality with an accuracy of about seventy-eight percent. Such a chart could help physicians and counselors decide when to prioritize weight management, mental health care, or sexual health interventions during routine visits.</p>
<p>But the study, like all research, has some caveats. Sexual activity was self-reported, raising the possibility of recall errors or underreporting, especially for a sensitive topic. Because the survey asked only broad frequency categories, the threshold of fewer than twelve encounters per year lumped together people who never have sex with those who do so monthly. </p>
<p>The observational design also means the study cannot confirm cause and effect. Abdominal fat and depression might lead to lower sexual frequency, or the absence of sexual intimacy and its psychological benefits might worsen mood and metabolic health. Future investigations that track changes in these factors over time, or that test targeted interventions, are needed to untangle directionality.</p>
<p>It is also worth noting that the sample represents the United States. Cultural norms around body image, mental health, and sexual behavior differ worldwide, so studies in other countries are required before generalizing the findings. Finally, individuals without a sexual partner were not included, yet they may share health challenges with the low-frequency group.</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, the study highlights two straightforward signals—waist size adjusted for height and weight, and depressive symptoms—that clinicians can measure during a single office visit. When they appear together in adults who rarely have sex, the combination seems to foreshadow a markedly shorter life span. Screening for both factors, and addressing them in tandem, may provide a new path to improving longevity among people whose intimate lives are quieter than average but whose health risks demand louder attention.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.03.129" target="_blank">Synergistic effects of a body shape index and depression on mortality in individuals with low sexual frequency</a>,” was authored by Tian-Qi Teng, Meng-Meng Wang, De-Gang Mo, Yan-you Xie, Rui Chen, Jia-Chao Xu, Jing Liu, and Hai-Chu Yu.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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