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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/single-dose-of-cbd-reduces-alcohol-craving-and-brain-reactivity-in-alcoholics/" 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;">Single dose of CBD reduces alcohol craving and brain reactivity in alcoholics</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Aug 2nd 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study of individuals with alcohol use disorder found that a single 800 mg dose of cannabidiol reduced alcohol cravings and dampened activity in a key brain region involved in addiction. Specifically, cannabidiol lowered activation in the nucleus accumbens in response to alcohol cues, such as the sight or handling of a participant’s preferred alcoholic drink. The findings were published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02869-y"><em>Molecular Psychiatry</em></a>.</p>
<p>Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-intoxicating compound found in the cannabis plant. Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis—CBD does not produce a high and is generally considered safe. It interacts with the body’s endocannabinoid system, which helps regulate mood, pain, sleep, and immune responses. CBD has attracted growing interest for its potential therapeutic properties, including reducing anxiety, inflammation, and seizures. </p>
<p>In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a CBD-based medication called Epidiolex for the treatment of rare forms of epilepsy. CBD is widely available in the form of oils, capsules, edibles, and topical creams, although scientific evidence remains limited for many of its popular uses.</p>
<p>Study author Sina Zimmermann and her colleagues tested whether CBD could reduce alcohol craving triggered by environmental cues—a phenomenon known as cue-induced craving—and whether it could reduce activation in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region involved in reward and motivation. In individuals with alcohol use disorder, exposure to alcohol-related cues such as sight, smell, or contextual reminders of drinking often triggers elevated nucleus accumbens activity and increased craving. This heightened brain response can drive compulsive use and increase the risk of relapse.</p>
<p>The researchers recruited 28 adults with mild to severe alcohol use disorder who were not currently seeking treatment. Their average age was 36. On average, participants met 5.4 of the criteria for alcohol use disorder, reported drinking about 46 grams of alcohol per day, and had 36% heavy drinking days over the past 90 days. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 800 mg of CBD (delivered as four 200 mg capsules) or an identical-looking placebo. All participants were instructed to abstain from alcohol for at least 24 hours before the study session.</p>
<p>Three hours after taking the assigned capsules—timed to coincide with peak CBD absorption—participants underwent a series of tasks. First, they completed the Trier Social Stress Test, which involved delivering a speech and performing mental arithmetic in front of evaluators. They were then shown and allowed to handle their favorite alcoholic drinks in a controlled bar-laboratory setting. This combination of stress and alcohol cues was designed to provoke craving.</p>
<p>Next, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), where they were again shown alcohol-related cues while brain activity was recorded. Throughout the session, participants reported their craving levels using the Alcohol Urge Questionnaire and a visual analog scale.</p>
<p>The results showed that participants who received CBD reported significantly lower craving levels after the stress and cue exposure compared to those who received a placebo. During the fMRI session, they also showed reduced craving and significantly lower activity in the left and right nucleus accumbens when exposed to alcohol-related images. These effects were specific to alcohol cues; CBD did not significantly affect brain activity during neutral cue blocks.</p>
<p>Importantly, participants with higher concentrations of CBD in their blood had lower self-reported craving and lower nucleus accumbens activation, indicating a dose-response relationship. The researchers found no evidence that sex, age, body mass index, or smoking status predicted CBD blood levels, suggesting individual variability in absorption or metabolism.</p>
<p>“CBD’s capacity to reduce stress- and cue-induced alcohol craving and to normalize NAc [nucleus accumbens] activation – a region critical to the pathophysiology of AUD [alcohol use disorder] – contribute to understanding the neurobiological basis of its clinical effects and support its potential as a treatment option for AUD,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study provides preliminary clinical evidence that CBD may reduce alcohol craving and blunt the brain’s reactivity to alcohol cues in individuals with alcohol use disorder. However, it also has several limitations. The sample size was small, and the study tested only a single acute dose. It remains unknown whether these effects would persist or grow stronger with repeated use, or how they might apply to individuals actively seeking treatment for alcohol use.</p>
<p>Additionally, because the fMRI scan occurred after both the stress and cue exposure, it’s difficult to disentangle whether CBD’s effects were due to reduced cue reactivity, reduced stress response, or both. Still, the procedures were consistent across groups, and the observed differences suggest that CBD could be influencing core processes involved in alcohol craving.</p>
<p>The paper “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02869-y">Acute cannabidiol administration reduces alcohol craving and cue-induced nucleus accumbens activation in individuals with alcohol use disorder: the double-blind randomized controlled ICONIC trial</a>” was authored by Sina Zimmermann, Anton Teetzmann, Joscha Baeßler, Lena Schreckenberger, Judith Zaiser, Marlen Pfisterer, Manuel Stenger, and Patrick Bach.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/simple-micro%E2%80%91actions-can-boost-psychological-well%E2%80%91being-new-research-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;">Simple micro‑actions can boost psychological well‑being, new research suggests</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Aug 2nd 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A study recently published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.2196/72053" target="_blank">Journal of Medical Internet Research</a></em> found that participating in a brief, low-effort online program designed to promote joy led to meaningful improvements in emotional well-being, stress levels, and self-reported health. The program, known as <a href="https://ggia.berkeley.edu/bigjoy" target="_blank">the Big Joy Project</a>, asked participants to complete small positive actions each day for just one week. Notably, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds—including those experiencing financial strain, lower education levels, and racial or ethnic minority status—tended to benefit the most.</p>
<p>The researchers designed the study in response to a growing need for accessible mental health interventions that can reach people across a range of social and economic circumstances. Many well-being programs have shown promise in past studies, but often require time, resources, and commitment that limit their scalability. Lengthier interventions may yield stronger effects, but participation rates can suffer due to the burden they place on users. The Big Joy Project was created to address these issues by offering a quick, free, web-based alternative that would be easy for people to complete during their daily routines.</p>
<p>“We were inspired by the <em><a href="https://missionjoy.org/" target="_blank">Mission: Joy</a></em> documentary, which shares the friendship between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu and explores how people can find joy even in the face of hardship,” said study author <a href="https://www.darwinguevarra.com/" target="_blank">Darwin Guevarra</a>, an assistant professor of psychology at Miami University.</p>
<p>“That message felt especially important during the pandemic. Together with the team at <a href="https://ggia.berkeley.edu/" target="_blank">Greater Good in Action</a>, we created the Big Joy Project to bring science-based micro-acts of joy to everyone. We wanted to see if doing small things, like expressing gratitude or helping someone, could boost emotional well-being, even when done just once a day for a week. For me personally, I’m especially interested in low-effort, less time-intensive strategies that still have meaningful psychological effects because those are the kinds of tools people are more likely to use in daily life.”</p>
<p>The resulting program included a series of seven activities, such as expressing gratitude, performing acts of kindness, or reflecting on awe-inspiring experiences. Each activity took approximately 5 to 10 minutes and was delivered via email over the course of a week.</p>
<p>Participants were recruited through a variety of open-access channels, including social media, newsletters, screenings of the film, and word of mouth. Anyone over 18 years old was eligible to participate, and there were no exclusion criteria. In total, 48,789 people signed up, and 17,598 completed both the beginning and end-of-week surveys used in the final analysis. The sample was geographically diverse, representing 169 countries, although most participants were from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Demographically, the sample was predominantly female, White, and highly educated.</p>
<p>Before and after the week-long intervention, participants responded to a short battery of questions measuring several outcomes: emotional well-being, positive emotions, perceived agency over one’s happiness, stress, self-rated physical health, and sleep quality. On average, participants completed five of the seven activities. </p>
<p>The analysis revealed consistent improvements across all outcome measures. Emotional well-being rose by nearly a full point on a 0–10 scale, positive emotions increased, and participants reported feeling more capable of influencing their happiness. Perceived stress declined significantly, while both sleep quality and self-rated health showed smaller but still significant improvements.</p>
<p>Importantly, the degree of benefit was related to how many activities people completed. Those who did more daily acts of joy saw greater improvements. Even participants who only completed a few activities experienced gains, and there was a clear trend showing a dose-response relationship: more engagement led to better outcomes. Surprisingly, even individuals who did not complete any activities but filled out both surveys showed small improvements, possibly due to self-reflection or placebo effects.</p>
<p>“You don’t need a total life overhaul to feel better,” Guevarra told PsyPost. “Even small, daily actions that take just a few minutes, like reflecting on a meaningful moment or showing appreciation, can add up to meaningful improvements in your emotional well-being. And anyone can try them, regardless of background or life situation.”</p>
<p>The researchers also examined whether the benefits varied depending on participant characteristics. They found that people from disadvantaged groups—those with lower income, education, or subjective social status—tended to benefit more from the program than their more privileged counterparts. For example, individuals with only a high school education showed greater improvements in well-being and health measures than those with graduate degrees. </p>
<p>Similarly, participants who reported financial strain or lower perceived social status experienced larger gains. Racial and ethnic minority participants, especially Black and Hispanic individuals, also tended to benefit more than White participants across several measures.</p>
<p>Age also played a role. Younger participants experienced greater increases in emotional well-being and greater reductions in stress compared to older individuals. The researchers noted that older adults had higher baseline well-being scores, which may have left less room for improvement.</p>
<p>Interestingly, gender did not appear to influence the effectiveness of the intervention. Men, women, and nonbinary participants all experienced similar improvements, a finding consistent with prior research suggesting that the benefits of well-being interventions are not strongly influenced by gender.</p>
<p>“We were pleasantly surprised by how consistent the benefits were across different types of people,” Guevarra said. “No matter someone’s age, gender, or income, most participants felt better after just one week of doing these joy practices. What really stood out was that people who were more socially disadvantaged (e.g., those reporting lower subjective social status or more financial strain) actually benefitted more. We didn’t expect that.”</p>
<p>Although the study provides encouraging evidence that short, accessible interventions can promote well-being, the authors caution that more research is needed to confirm these effects. The study lacked a randomized control group, meaning that the observed improvements could have been influenced by factors unrelated to the intervention, such as seasonal changes or participants’ expectations. Still, the short time span—just one week—makes it unlikely that external factors alone explain the size of the gains observed.</p>
<p>Another limitation is that the sample was self-selected and skewed toward individuals who were already interested in well-being and had internet access. This may limit how generalizable the results are to broader populations. The researchers also relied on brief, self-reported measures, some of which used only a single item to assess key outcomes like stress or sleep. While these items have been validated in other studies, more comprehensive assessments would help strengthen future evaluations.</p>
<p>Additionally, the study did not include a follow-up period, so it remains unclear how long the effects last. Many well-being programs show initial improvements that fade over time unless participants continue to practice the skills they learn. The Big Joy Project was designed to be brief, but researchers acknowledge the need to test whether it can create durable change, either on its own or as a first step toward longer-term habit formation.</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, the findings point to a promising approach for scaling mental health support. By making activities short, flexible, and engaging, the Big Joy Project lowered many of the barriers that prevent people from participating in traditional interventions. The fact that it reached a diverse, global audience and had stronger effects among more vulnerable groups adds to its potential public health impact.</p>
<p>The researchers plan to follow up with a randomized controlled trial to further test the Big Joy Project’s effectiveness. </p>
<p>“We want to understand how to make well-being practices more accessible, sustainable, and tailored to people’s needs,” Guevarra explained. “One next step is doing a large randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the Big Joy Project more rigorously and explore not just emotional well-being, but potential physical health benefits too. We’re also interested in tracking long-term outcomes to see whether short interventions can lead to lasting changes. Another goal is to personalize the experience so people can discover which strategies work best for them, based on their goals or life context.”</p>
<p>“In the long run, we hope to implement these low-effort, science-backed practices in real-world settings like schools, workplaces, and health care systems, places where a small boost in well-being could make a big difference.</p>
<p>“This study is a great example of how science and storytelling can come together,” Guevarra added. “The <em>Mission: Joy</em> film sparked curiosity and emotional connection, and the Big Joy Project gave people a practical way to take action. Our hope is that anyone who watches the film or tries the project walks away feeling a little more empowered to build joy in their own life and and maybe spread a bit of it to others too.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2196/72053" target="_blank">Scaling a Brief Digital Well-Being Intervention (the Big Joy Project) and Sociodemographic Moderators Single-Group Pre-Post Study</a>,” was authored by Darwin A. Guevarra, Yoobin Park, Xuhai Xu, Jin Liou, Jolene Smith, Peggy Callahan, Emiliana Simon-Thomas, and Elissa S. Epel.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/people-with-higher-intelligence-make-more-accurate-predictions-about-their-lifespan/" 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 with higher intelligence make more accurate predictions about their lifespan</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Aug 2nd 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>People with higher intelligence are better at making accurate predictions about their own futures, according to new research published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000567"><em>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology</em></a>. The study found that individuals with higher IQs consistently made more realistic forecasts about how long they would live, compared to people with lower IQs. These findings suggest that intelligence plays a direct role in shaping the quality of our beliefs about the world, and may help explain why lower intelligence is often linked to poor financial decisions and other judgment errors.</p>
<p>IQ, short for intelligence quotient, is a standardized measure of a person’s cognitive abilities, such as memory, problem-solving skills, reasoning, and verbal comprehension. It is usually assessed through a series of tests designed to measure a person’s mental performance relative to others. While the concept of IQ is sometimes debated, it remains one of the most widely used tools for evaluating general cognitive ability. IQ scores are often used in research to study how intelligence influences various life outcomes, including health, income, education, and decision-making.</p>
<p><a href="https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/chris-dawson">Chris Dawson</a>, a professor of economics and behavioral science at the University of Bath, conducted the study to explore whether intelligence is linked to the accuracy of people’s probabilistic judgments—specifically, how well individuals can estimate the likelihood of uncertain future events.</p>
<p>While many theories in psychology and economics assume that better decision-making depends on accurate beliefs about the world, few studies have directly tested whether IQ affects how well people can form these beliefs. Dawson’s work aimed to fill this gap by examining whether people with higher intelligence are more “calibrated” in their predictions—meaning their beliefs are closer to statistical reality.</p>
<p>Accurate beliefs are important because they guide decisions that affect our health, finances, and well-being. For example, someone who accurately estimates how long they will live may be better at planning for retirement or making decisions about savings and insurance. In contrast, someone who consistently overestimates their future lifespan might save too little or make poor health decisions. By studying how IQ relates to these predictive abilities, Dawson hoped to better understand one of the psychological mechanisms linking intelligence to life outcomes.</p>
<p>“There is huge amount of research looking at how people deviate from rational thinking models (like expected utility theory, where rational people weight up the probability of a decision leading to good/bad outcome and the pleasure/pain from these potential outcomes),” Dawson told PsyPost. “However, little evidence has focused on people’s ability to assess the probabilities of uncertain events, a central input into rational decision making.”</p>
<p>To test this question, Dawson used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a nationally representative panel of adults in England over age 50. The sample included 3,946 participants who were interviewed multiple times between 2002 and 2019. Across these nine waves of data collection, participants were repeatedly asked to estimate their chances of living to a certain age (such as 75 or 85), depending on how old they were at the time.</p>
<p>These subjective probabilities were compared to statistical forecasts based on national life expectancy data, allowing the researcher to calculate how far off each person’s prediction was from what actuarial tables would suggest. These differences were used to measure each person’s forecast error, or the gap between their belief and the most likely reality.</p>
<p>IQ was measured using a broad range of cognitive tasks. These included memory tests, number puzzles, executive function tasks, word recall, semantic fluency, and other mental exercises. The scores were combined into a composite IQ score for each participant, referred to in the study as “phenotypic IQ.” In addition to this behavioral data, Dawson also used participants’ genetic data to calculate polygenic scores—estimates of each person’s genetic predisposition toward higher IQ or greater educational attainment.</p>
<p>The results showed a strong and consistent relationship between IQ and the accuracy of probabilistic judgments. People with higher phenotypic IQs made predictions that were closer to reality, both on average and over time. In statistical terms, a one-standard-deviation increase in IQ was associated with a nearly 20% reduction in the size of forecast errors. High-IQ individuals were not only less biased in their predictions but also less noisy—that is, their estimates varied less from one occasion to another.</p>
<p>“Estimating probabilities accurately leads to better decision making and therefore better outcomes for individuals,” Dawson explained. “For instance, if you overestimate the probability of a business idea succeeding, you may waste all your resources starting a business destined to fail. If you underestimate the probability of dying from lung cancer, you may decide not to quit smoking. Being realistic is important and people should try and be realistic in all aspects of decision making.”</p>
<p>To support a causal interpretation, Dawson used a method called Mendelian randomization, which leverages the randomness of inherited genetic traits. By using polygenic scores for IQ as instrumental variables, the study was able to show that genetically influenced differences in IQ predicted the accuracy of people’s forecasts. The analysis also used a similar approach with genetic scores for educational attainment, which include both cognitive and noncognitive traits. While these scores were also linked to better calibration, the effect was weaker than for IQ alone, suggesting that intelligence itself plays a central role.</p>
<p>Dawson also looked at “noise”—the variability in a person’s predictions across time. Even when asked the same question at different points, lower-IQ individuals showed much more inconsistency in their responses. For example, someone with low IQ might give very different answers about their chance of living to age 80 depending on the day they are asked, while a higher-IQ person would give more stable answers that remain close to the statistical expectation.</p>
<p>These findings support the idea that intelligence helps people form beliefs that are not only more accurate but also more stable. That matters because noisy or inconsistent beliefs can lead to poor decisions even if they’re not systematically biased in one direction.</p>
<p>“I have a study that shows that <a href="https://www.psypost.org/financial-optimism-linked-to-lower-cognitive-ability/">lower IQ leads to people being a bit more optimistic</a> than usual about their future,” Dawson noted. “I thought in the current study lower IQ people may also display this optimism bias, but actually they were just more wrong in both optimistic and pessimistic directions.”</p>
<p>The study included a wide array of control variables. These covered demographic factors like age and sex, as well as health, wealth, education, and the socioeconomic status of the participants’ parents. This allowed Dawson to isolate the specific influence of intelligence on forecast accuracy, independent of other life circumstances.</p>
<p>But like all research, it was not without limitations. One issue is that all participants were over age 50 and lived in England, so the findings may not generalize to younger populations or people in other countries. In addition, even though Mendelian randomization helps to rule out some confounding factors, it cannot prove causation beyond all doubt. There could still be unknown environmental or cultural variables that influence both intelligence and prediction accuracy.</p>
<p>“The sample is on an older cohort of individuals tested on a specific probabilistic task (i.e., life expectancy),” Dawson said. “I see no reason to suspect that this result would not hold for younger people or different probability tasks, but I have no evidence for this.”</p>
<p>Despite these caveats, the study sheds light on an important psychological link between intelligence and decision quality. By showing that higher IQ is associated with more accurate and consistent probabilistic beliefs, the research suggests that cognitive ability may play a key role in shaping how people perceive the world—and by extension, how effectively they navigate it.</p>
<p>“I’m currently working with one of my PhD students (Yuyuan Wang) in assessing how low and high IQ types incorporate their probabilistic expectations into their decisions,” Dawson added. “Early evidence suggests high IQ people invest more for their retirement if they expect to live longer (this is rational as if you expect to live longer you need more resources for retirement). However, low IQ people don’t seem to use probabilistic expectations in their decision making. For this group, there was no relationship between life expectancy expectations and savings/investments for retirement.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000567">IQ, Genes, and Miscalibrated Expectations</a>,” was published online on June 12, 2025.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/microplastics-found-to-obstruct-brain-blood-vessels-troubling-new-study-shows/" 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;">Microplastics found to obstruct brain blood vessels in troubling neuroscience study</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Aug 1st 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr8243" target="_blank">Science Advances</a></em> has uncovered a previously unknown mechanism by which microplastics can disrupt brain function. Using high-resolution in vivo imaging, researchers observed that microplastics in the bloodstream are engulfed by immune cells, which then become trapped in the brain’s capillaries. These obstructions reduce blood flow in the brain and lead to neurological impairments in mice. The findings provide an important new perspective on how plastic pollution may threaten human health, particularly through impacts on the vascular system and brain.</p>
<p>Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic less than 5 millimeters in size. They can originate from degraded larger plastic items, synthetic textiles, packaging materials, and consumer products. Microplastics are now found everywhere—from oceans to mountaintops—and have made their way into human bodies through food, drinking water, air, and even medical devices. </p>
<p>Studies have already detected microplastic particles in human blood, lungs, placenta, and feces. More recently, scientists found nanoplastics, which are even smaller than microplastics, capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. But how microplastics might impair brain function without passing into brain tissue has remained unclear.</p>
<p>To investigate this question, the research team—led by Haipeng Huang, Jiaqi Hou, and Beidou Xi of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences—employed advanced two-photon imaging techniques to examine how microplastics behave inside the brains of living mice. Collaborators from Peking University, Duke University, and the National University of Singapore contributed to the study.</p>
<p>The researchers introduced fluorescently labeled polystyrene microplastic particles into mice by either oral administration or direct injection into the bloodstream. The particles were about 5 micrometers in diameter, which is similar in size to those found in real-world human exposure. The team then used in vivo imaging to track how the particles moved through cerebral blood vessels.</p>
<p>They discovered that after entering the bloodstream, the microplastic particles were engulfed by immune cells, particularly neutrophils and macrophages. These immune cells, now carrying the plastic particles, circulated through the blood and occasionally became lodged in tiny brain capillaries. The researchers referred to these plastic-bearing immune cells as MPL-cells. In many cases, MPL-cells became permanently stuck in the vessels, with some remaining for up to a week.</p>
<p>The blockages were visualized using real-time imaging and confirmed through three-dimensional reconstructions of the blood vessels. MPL-cells often became stuck at vascular branch points or in curved regions of vessels, where blood flow is slower and narrower. This mechanical obstruction reduced local blood perfusion in the brain, particularly in smaller vessels with lower flow rates.</p>
<p>To understand the physiological consequences of these blockages, the researchers performed a series of behavioral tests on the mice. Mice exposed to microplastics showed reduced movement in an open field, poorer performance in memory tasks, and impaired balance and coordination on motor tests. These symptoms resembled those observed in animals with reduced brain blood flow, supporting the idea that MPL-cell obstructions were interfering with normal brain function.</p>
<p>The team also studied the dynamics of the MPL-cells and found that the particle size significantly influenced whether blockages occurred. Cells that had engulfed smaller plastic particles—2 micrometers or less—were less likely to become trapped and were more easily cleared from the bloodstream. When the researchers used particles just 80 nanometers wide, they observed very few obstructions. This suggests that larger microplastic particles pose a greater risk for vascular blockage, while smaller particles are more easily tolerated.</p>
<p>Interestingly, even at exposure levels as low as 5 micrograms per milliliter—comparable to levels detected in human blood—MPL-cell obstructions were still observed. The study also showed that the longer the immune cells remained stuck, the more severe the behavioral symptoms became. However, by 28 days after exposure, the mice’s behavior had mostly returned to normal, and the density of blocked cells in the brain had dropped significantly, suggesting the effects may be reversible if exposure ceases.</p>
<p>One of the most significant implications of the study is that microplastics can impair brain function without entering brain tissue directly. Instead, they do so indirectly by compromising blood flow. This represents a third possible mechanism of toxicity, alongside the known pathways of endocrine disruption and direct neural invasion by nanoplastics. The obstruction of brain capillaries by MPL-cells mirrors what occurs during certain forms of stroke or vascular dementia, although on a much smaller scale.</p>
<p>The researchers also noted that the phagocytosis of microplastics altered the physical properties of the immune cells. Compared to normal neutrophils, those containing microplastics were larger and more rigid, making them more likely to clog small vessels. These changes were detected using flow cytometry, a technique that measures the size and internal complexity of cells. The cells also showed altered adhesion behaviors, which may contribute to their tendency to stick to vessel walls.</p>
<p>Although the study was conducted in mice, the authors caution that the findings may be relevant to human health. While human blood vessels are generally larger than those in mice, capillaries in both species are roughly the same size—about 8 to 10 micrometers in diameter. This means that obstructed immune cells swollen with plastic particles could plausibly become stuck in human capillaries as well, especially in individuals with preexisting vascular damage or inflammation.</p>
<p>Still, the researchers urge caution in drawing direct parallels between mice and humans. Differences in blood volume, immune system function, and vascular architecture may affect how microplastics behave in the human body. The study also only examined the effects of a single type and size of plastic particle over a 28-day period. Humans are exposed to a wide variety of microplastic materials, shapes, and sizes over a much longer time frame.</p>
<p>The study points to a need for further research using larger animal models and more realistic exposure conditions. It also underscores the importance of monitoring microplastic contamination in medical devices and fluids. If microplastics are introduced directly into the bloodstream through intravenous solutions, catheters, or other medical supplies, the risk of vascular obstruction may be higher than from dietary or airborne exposure alone.</p>
<p>The authors suggest that long-term accumulation of MPL-cell obstructions could contribute to chronic conditions like neurodegeneration or cardiovascular disease. People with narrow or damaged blood vessels may be especially vulnerable. The findings highlight the urgency of understanding the full scope of health risks associated with microplastic exposure and call for stronger regulations to limit plastic pollution in medical, food, and consumer products.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adr8243" target="_blank">Microplastics in the bloodstream can induce cerebral thrombosis by causing cell obstruction and lead to neurobehavioral abnormalities</a>,” was authored by Haipeng Huang, Jiaqi Hou, Mingxiao Li, Fangchao Wei, Yilie Liao, and Beidou Xi.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/scientists-map-the-visual-patterns-people-use-when-evaluating-others-bodies/" 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;">Scientists map the visual patterns people use when evaluating others’ bodies</a>
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<p><p>A new study has mapped the visual patterns people use when judging bodies, finding that attention is most concentrated on the chest and torso. Researchers used eye-tracking to show that these gaze patterns are influenced by a body’s mass index and the specific judgment being made. The findings were published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15060817"><em>Behavioral Sciences</em></a>.</p>
<p>While previous research has shown that people form quick and consistent impressions based on physical appearance, including body shape and size, relatively little is known about where people look during these evaluations. Most earlier studies focused on attractiveness alone, often using photos or single-sex models. The team behind the new study aimed to explore how body mass index influences not only people’s ratings of attractiveness, health, and youth, but also their gaze patterns as they make these judgments.</p>
<p>“The work was done with my undergraduate student and co-author, Marianne Lanigan. She was interested in using eye-tracking for her university research project, and so we combined this with my interest in social perception – judgements we make about other people,” said study author <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/structure-and-governance/our-people/our-staff/ed-morrison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edward Morrison</a>, a senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth.</p>
<p>“There is lots of research about how we judge other people from the way they look, including how fat or thin they are, but there is less on how people’s eye movements differ when looking at these bodies, and nothing about eye movement when making different judgements on the same bodies. In our case, we looked at judgements of attractiveness, healthiness, and youthfulness, all of which are suggested to be evolutionary indicators of fitness.”</p>
<p>To investigate this, the researchers recruited 32 participants, mostly university psychology students, with a mean age of about 20 years. Most were female and identified as heterosexual or bisexual. The study was conducted in a controlled laboratory setting, where participants viewed digital images of male and female models that varied systematically by body mass index. The computer-generated models, created using an online tool, were standardized in height but differed in body weight to simulate underweight, low healthy weight, high healthy weight, overweight, and obese categories.</p>
<p>Participants were asked to rate each model on three dimensions—attractiveness, healthiness, and youthfulness—using a six-point Likert scale. While doing so, an eye-tracking device recorded where and for how long they looked at different parts of the body, including the head, chest, midriff, thighs, and lower legs. Each image was displayed for five seconds, and participants completed a series of trials, first rating all five female models for attractiveness, then for health and youth, and repeating the same process for the male models. The image presentation order was counterbalanced to reduce bias.</p>
<p>The researchers analyzed both the eye-tracking data and the rating scores. They found that visual attention was not distributed evenly across the body. The chest and midriff received the most fixations and the longest viewing times, while the thighs and lower legs received the least. Interestingly, participants tended to look longer and more frequently at male models than at female ones. This pattern may have been influenced by the predominance of heterosexual women in the participant pool.</p>
<p>The part of the body that received the most attention shifted with the model’s body size. At lower body mass indexes, people spent more time looking at the midriff, while at higher weights, their gaze shifted more toward the chest. Attention to the head increased as the body mass index increased, possibly reflecting associations between weight and age. These changes occurred even though participants were not consciously asked to evaluate specific body regions.</p>
<p>Different types of social judgments also subtly influenced gaze behavior. When participants judged youthfulness, they tended to look more at the head, compared to when they judged attractiveness or healthiness. This makes sense given that the face carries many visual cues related to age. Ratings for healthiness led to more focus on the chest and midsection, areas associated with visible fat distribution and muscularity.</p>
<p>When it came to the actual ratings, participants judged the lower end of the healthy weight range as most attractive and most healthy. Youthfulness ratings, in contrast, peaked for the lightest bodies—those classified as underweight. This may reflect cultural and evolutionary associations between slimness, youth, and reproductive potential. As body mass index increased, youthfulness ratings declined steadily for both male and female models.</p>
<p>There were also some differences in how participants evaluated male versus female bodies. Underweight male models were rated significantly lower in attractiveness and healthiness than underweight female models. This may reflect how low musculature, which often comes with lower body weight, is viewed negatively in men. For female models, even those just under the healthy weight threshold were still rated highly for attractiveness and youth. This aligns with cultural ideals that tend to favor leanness in women more than in men.</p>
<p>The researchers also found interactions between the sex of the model, the rating type, and body mass index. For instance, the healthiest-looking male model had a slightly higher body mass index than the most attractive one, suggesting that participants may associate some muscularity with health. This contrasts with previous studies that found people often prefer slimmer bodies even if they appear less healthy. The discrepancy could be due to cultural differences, as earlier studies showing that pattern used samples from Asian populations, whereas the current study primarily involved participants of European descent.</p>
<p>“We seem to look at different parts of the body when viewing bodies of different size,” Morrison told PsyPost. “We also look at different parts of the body when making different judgements. The differences are subtle but detectable when analyzing the eye-tracking data. It is not straightforward to explain the pattern of differences, but overall they suggest that we look for subtly different physical cues when judging attractiveness vs. healthiness vs. youthfulness.”</p>
<p>While the study provides new insight into the way people use visual cues to judge others, it has some limitations. The sample size was small and heavily skewed toward young women, which may limit how well the findings apply to broader populations.</p>
<p>“Results may be different if we had enough male viewers to compare, as other studies suggest,” Morrison noted. “Our stimuli were also computer-generated models without faces or clothing (but no genitals). This was so we could experimentally control body size while keeping everything else constant. However, we may look at computer-generated models differently from real people.”</p>
<p>The researchers suggest that future studies should include a more balanced mix of participants in terms of sex and age. They also propose exploring how people’s own body image and experience might shape their judgments of others. Studies in more naturalistic settings, such as using wearable eye-trackers while observing people in public, could also help confirm whether the patterns observed in the lab reflect real-world behavior.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15060817">Shape of You: Eye-Tracking and Social Perceptions of the Human Body</a>,” was authored by Edward Morrison and Marianne Lanigan.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/the-adhd-symptom-no-one-talks-about-rejection-sensitive-dysphoria/" 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;">The ADHD symptom no one talks about: rejection sensitive dysphoria</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Aug 1st 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>Imagine your friend hasn’t replied to a message in a few hours. Most people might think, “they are probably just busy”.</p>
<p>But someone with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) might spiral into a flood of thoughts like, “they must hate me!” or “I’ve ruined the friendship!”</p>
<p>These intense emotional reactions to real or imagined rejection are part of what’s called rejection sensitive dysphoria.</p>
<p>The term isn’t a formal diagnosis, but it’s gaining traction in both research and clinical work, especially among adults seeking to understand themselves better.</p>
<p>So, what is rejection sensitive dysphoria, how does it relate to ADHD, and how can we handle it with more compassion?</p>
<h2>It’s more than just disliking criticism</h2>
<p>Everyone feels hurt when they’re criticised or left out. But rejection sensitivity dysphoria isn’t just about “not liking” feedback. The word dysphoria refers to intense emotional distress.</p>
<p>People with rejection sensitivity dysphoria describe overwhelming reactions to perceived rejection, even if no one actually said or did anything cruel.</p>
<p>A passing comment such as “I thought you were going to do it this way” can trigger feelings of shame, embarrassment or self-doubt.</p>
<p>The emotional pain often feels immediate and consuming, leading some people to withdraw, over-apologise or lash out to protect themselves.</p>
<h2>The ADHD brain and emotional hypersensitivity</h2>
<p>ADHD is often associated with attention or impulsivity, but one major (and often overlooked) component is emotional dysregulation: difficulty managing and recovering from strong emotional responses.</p>
<p>This isn’t a character flaw; it’s a neurological difference. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1087054713505322">Brain imaging studies show</a> people with ADHD tend to have differences in how their amygdala (the brain’s emotional alarm system) and prefrontal cortex (which regulates impulses and emotions) work together.</p>
<p>The result? Emotional experiences hit harder and take longer to settle.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5884954/">2018 study</a> highlights this imbalance in emotional control circuits in people with ADHD, explaining why intense feelings can seem to “take over” before logical thinking kicks in.</p>
<h2>What does the research say?</h2>
<p>Recent research from 2024 <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09388982241271511">reports</a> a strong link between ADHD symptoms and rejection sensitivity. It found students with higher ADHD symptom levels also reported significantly more rejection sensitivity, including a heightened fear of being negatively evaluated or criticised.</p>
<p>Further evidence comes from a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10802-018-0470-2">2018 study</a> which showed adolescents with ADHD symptoms were far more sensitive to peer feedback than their peers. Their brain activity revealed they were more emotionally reactive to both praise and criticism, suggesting they may perceive neutral social cues as emotionally charged.</p>
<p>This reflects what I see daily in my clinic. One 13-year-old boy I work with is creative, empathetic and full of potential, yet social anxiety tied to a deep fear of rejection often holds him back. He once told me, “if I say no, they won’t like me anymore”. That fear drives him to go along with things he later regrets, simply to keep the peace and avoid losing connection.</p>
<p>This constant social hypervigilance is mentally draining. Without support, it can spiral into shame, low confidence and ongoing mental health struggles.</p>
<p>Adults with ADHD aren’t immune either. A <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263366">2022 study</a> explored how adults with ADHD experience criticism and found many linked it to persistent feelings of failure, low self-worth and emotional reactivity – even when the criticism was constructive or mild.</p>
<p>One client I support – a high-achieving professional diagnosed in her 50s – described learning about rejection sensitive dysphoria as “finding the missing piece of the puzzle”.</p>
<p>Despite consistently excelling in every role, she had long felt anxious about how she was perceived by colleagues. When she received a minor, formal complaint at work, she spiralled into intense self-doubt and shame.</p>
<p>Instead of brushing it off, she thought: “I’m too much”. This belief<br>
had been silently reinforced for years by her emotional sensitivity to feedback.</p>
<h2>What helps?</h2>
<p>If you experience rejection sensitivity dysphoria, you’re not alone, and you’re not broken.</p>
<p>Here are some tools that may help:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>name it</strong>. Saying to yourself, “This feels like rejection sensitivity,” can give you distance from the emotional flood</li>
<li><strong>pause before reacting</strong>. Taking slow breaths, counting backwards, or stepping outside are simple grounding strategies that help calm the body’s stress response and restore balance to your nervous system. <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/relaxation-techniques-breath-control-helps-quell-errant-stress-response">Research shows</a> slowing your breath and grounding your senses can help shift your body out of fight-or-flight mode, supporting clearer thinking and emotional regulation</li>
<li><strong>challenge the story</strong>. Ask yourself, “What else could be true?” or “How would I speak to a friend feeling this way?”</li>
<li><strong>consider therapy</strong>. Working with a psychologist who understands ADHD and rejection sensitivity dysphoria can help untangle these reactions and develop healthy, self-compassionate responses. The Australian Psychological Society has a <a href="https://psychology.org.au/find-a-psychologist">Find a Psychologist</a> service: you can search by location, areas of expertise (such as anxiety, ADHD, trauma) and the type of therapy you’re interested in</li>
<li><strong>start early with kids</strong>. Helping children with ADHD learn emotional language, boundary-setting and resilience can prevent rejection sensitivity from becoming overwhelming. For parents, resources such as <a href="https://raisingchildren.net.au/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21566530992&gbraid=0AAAAADRtT2HFK1ba1H_RKXZiSPVddCphV&gclid=Cj0KCQjwvajDBhCNARIsAEE29WqiIVE-xsfseKdiE2gXcz4tCq0rWZ3-wANekSvPRT0oS1DNFJU2kpcaAi_LEALw_wcB">Raising Children Network</a> and books like <a href="https://drdansiegel.com/book/the-whole-brain-child/">The Whole-Brain Child</a> by Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson offer practical ways to teach these skills at home</li>
<li><strong>communicate gently</strong>. If you work or live with someone who has ADHD, try to give feedback clearly and kindly. Avoid sarcasm or vague phrasing. A little extra clarity can go a long way.</li>
</ul>
<p>Rejection sensitivity dysphoria isn’t about being fragile or “weak”. It’s about how the ADHD brain processes emotional and social cues. With insight, tools and support, these experiences can become manageable.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/259995/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/what-is-rejection-sensitive-dysphoria-in-adhd-and-how-can-you-manage-it-259995">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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