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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/study-finds-weak-but-intriguing-links-between-olfactory-ability-and-intimacy-in-romantic-relationships/" 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;">Study finds weak but intriguing links between olfactory ability and intimacy in romantic relationships</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 9th 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A recent study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03145-y" target="_blank">Archives of Sexual Behavior</a></em> provides new insights into how our sense of smell and feelings of disgust may be related to the way we experience intimacy in romantic relationships. The researchers found that emotional and intellectual intimacy showed small but statistically significant associations with better olfactory ability, while physical and social intimacy were modestly linked to greater sensitivity to certain types of disgust.</p>
<p>Intimacy is a foundational part of romantic relationships, encompassing emotional connection, physical closeness, intellectual engagement, and shared activities. While much of the psychological literature on intimacy focuses on communication, attachment styles, and sexual satisfaction, there has been growing interest in how less obvious traits—such as olfactory perception and disgust sensitivity—might also shape intimacy. Although there is evidence connecting olfaction and disgust to relationship processes, these two factors have rarely been studied together in the context of intimacy. The researchers aimed to bridge this gap.</p>
<p>“Research into people who have lost their sense of smell reveals that they often report less satisfying relationships, including reduced sexual satisfaction. However, very little work has looked at how smell and intimacy might be related in the general population. We wanted to better understand this connection and whether other factors, like disgust sensitivity, also play a role in intimacy,” said study author <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiona-wylie-ba9134135/" target="_blank">Fiona Wylie</a>, a research assistant in the Food, Flavour, and Fragrance Lab at Macquarie University.</p>
<p>“On a personal level, I noticed that without my sense of smell, life felt a bit flatter. Food became boring, and everyday experiences lost their richness. Therefore, I was inspired to better understand how our sense of smell interacts with our daily lives. Smell is a sense that many of us take for granted, and its importance often becomes obvious only when it’s lost. This was exemplified by the rise in olfactory dysfunction due to COVID-19.”</p>
<p>“Research has shown us that smell is tied to our emotions, memory, and even our relationships. The success of the perfume industry shows that people care about their body odours, but we still know surprisingly little about how they influence our relationships. For me, this project was a chance to explore that gap, and asking: does our ability to smell shape the way we connect with others?”</p>
<p>The study included 74 participants ranging in age from 17 to 56, most of whom were young adults (average age of about 23). The sample was predominantly female and heterosexual, although it also included a small number of non-binary and bisexual individuals. Participants were recruited through a university participant pool, email invitations, and social media. To be eligible, individuals had to have been in a romantic relationship at some point in their lives.</p>
<p>Participants completed a series of online questionnaires and one in-person smell test in a university laboratory. The online portion included a widely used intimacy scale known as the Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships. This tool measures five aspects of intimacy: emotional, physical, intellectual, social, and recreational. Each subscale asked participants to rate how well different statements described their relationship, such as whether they felt emotionally supported or whether they enjoyed spending time together.</p>
<p>To assess disgust sensitivity, the researchers used the Three Domains of Disgust Scale. This questionnaire measures how strongly people react to different kinds of potentially offensive stimuli, including signs of disease (pathogen disgust), moral violations (moral disgust), and sexual behaviors (sexual disgust). Higher scores indicate greater sensitivity to these domains.</p>
<p>Participants also completed a shortened version of the Sniffin’ Sticks test, a validated method of evaluating olfactory ability. In this test, individuals were asked to smell five distinct odors—such as peppermint, rose, and fish—and identify them from a list of options. Higher scores indicated better odor identification ability.</p>
<p>The results offered partial support for the researchers’ initial hypotheses. As predicted, there was a small positive correlation between emotional intimacy and olfactory ability. This suggests that people who are better at identifying smells may feel more emotionally connected in their relationships. However, this association became non-significant when controlling for other variables like gender and whether participants were currently partnered.</p>
<p>Contrary to expectations, olfactory ability was not related to physical intimacy. This finding stands in contrast to earlier studies suggesting that people with better smell sensitivity tend to have more frequent or satisfying sexual experiences. The researchers speculated that the gender imbalance in their sample—where most participants were women—may have influenced the results, since previous research has suggested that men may place more emphasis on sexual aspects of relationships.</p>
<p>Unexpectedly, the researchers found that higher levels of pathogen and sexual disgust were positively associated with physical intimacy. In other words, people who reported being more sensitive to disease cues and certain sexual behaviors also tended to report higher satisfaction with the physical aspects of their relationship. This was surprising, as previous research has often linked high disgust sensitivity with lower sexual desire or avoidance of close contact. The researchers proposed that this may reflect differences in how intimacy is defined and measured. Rather than focusing on short-term mating or sexual arousal, this study examined broader aspects of physical closeness and comfort with a partner.</p>
<p>Exploratory analyses revealed additional findings. Intellectual intimacy showed a weak positive correlation with olfactory ability, suggesting that people who are better at identifying odors may also enjoy deeper conversations or cognitive engagement with their partners. Social intimacy was moderately associated with pathogen disgust, and olfactory ability uniquely predicted recreational intimacy in regression analyses. Moral disgust, on the other hand, showed no significant relationship with any form of intimacy in this study.</p>
<p>“Although preliminary, the findings suggest that there is indeed a connection between how well someone can smell and their experiences of intimacy in romantic relationships,” Wylie told PsyPost. “This adds to the growing evidence that our sense of smell, though often overlooked, can influence social and emotional aspects of our lives.”</p>
<p>Gender differences also emerged. Women scored higher than men on physical intimacy, olfactory ability, and sexual disgust sensitivity. These differences may reflect broader gender-based trends in emotional and sensory processing. Being in a current romantic relationship was also consistently linked to higher intimacy scores across all domains.</p>
<p>As with all research, there are limitations to consider. First, the olfactory test used only five odors, which may have limited the ability to detect more nuanced differences in smell identification. A longer version of the test might provide more reliable results. Second, the sample size was relatively small and skewed toward young, female, university-affiliated participants. This limits the generalizability of the findings to other populations.</p>
<p>Additionally, the study’s design was correlational, meaning it cannot determine causality. Future studies using experimental or longitudinal designs could help clarify the direction of these associations.</p>
<p>“This was an exploratory study with a relatively small number of participants, so the results should be viewed as preliminary,” Wylie said. “In other words, further research is needed to replicate these findings and explore whether they apply across different cultures, age groups, and types of relationships. It’s also important to remember that correlation does not imply causation. Our sense of smell may be just one small but meaningful piece of this larger puzzle.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-025-03145-y" target="_blank">The Scent of Intimacy: Exploring the Associations Between Intimacy, Disgust, and Olfactory Ability</a>,” was authored by Ellen L. Murphy, Fiona E. Wylie, and Mehmet K. Mahmut.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/meditation-may-protect-sleep-architecture-and-brain-activity-in-older-adults-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;">Meditation may protect sleep architecture and brain activity in older adults, study suggests</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 9th 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70161" target="_blank">Journal of Sleep Research</a></em> has found that long-term meditation practice is associated with more resilient sleep architecture and preserved brain activity in older adults. The findings indicate that elderly expert meditators not only slept longer and spent less time in light sleep, but also showed unique patterns of brain activity during rest and sleep, suggestive of enhanced cognitive processing and possibly sustained awareness even during non-REM sleep.</p>
<p>As people age, they tend to experience sleep disturbances, reduced deep sleep, and alterations in brain activity, which are often linked to cognitive decline. At the same time, meditation has been gaining attention as a potential non-pharmacological approach to improve well-being, reduce stress, and support mental health. Previous research has shown that meditation can influence brain function during both active practice and rest. However, most of these studies have focused on younger adults, and relatively little is known about how long-term meditation might shape sleep and brain function in older populations.</p>
<p>The research team, led by Pierre Champetier and Géraldine Rauchs of <a href="https://neuropresage.fr/" target="_blank">the NeuroPresage Team</a>, aimed to explore whether the potential cognitive and emotional benefits of meditation extend into older age—particularly in ways that might influence how the brain functions during rest and sleep. They were especially interested in whether long-term meditation experience might buffer against age-related sleep deterioration and whether it could enhance markers of brain complexity and alertness.</p>
<p>“The study was part of <a href="https://neuropresage.fr/silver-sante-study/" target="_blank">the Medit-Ageing/Silver Santé Study</a> that investigates the impact of meditation training on mental health and wellbeing in the ageing population. Given the aging of the world population and expected surge of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, our research group tested the effect of meditation as a non-pharmacological intervention to promote healthy ageing,” explained Champetier, a postdoctoral fellow at the Paris Brain Institute.</p>
<p>“Notably, the aim was to 1) assess the effect of an 18-month meditation training on meditation-naïve older adults, and to 2) explore long-term effects of meditation practice by comparing meditation-naïve older adults (before the meditation intervention) and elderly ‘expert meditators’ (>10,000 h of meditation practice in their lifetime). In this particular study, we investigated sleep (using polysomnography, questionnaires) and brain activity (using EEG) during resting-state wakefulness in expert meditators.”</p>
<p>The study included 27 expert meditators aged 65 to 84 who had accumulated more than 10,000 hours of meditation practice over their lifetimes. These individuals practiced various forms of meditation, including mindfulness, loving-kindness, and compassion-based approaches, often dedicating time in retreat settings as well. Their results were compared with those of 135 meditation-naive older adults of similar age.</p>
<p>Participants completed several sleep-related questionnaires and underwent objective assessments using polysomnography—a method that records brain waves and physiological signals during sleep. The researchers also recorded resting-state EEG data while participants were awake with eyes closed. These data were analyzed using standard spectral techniques and more advanced complexity measures, such as permutation entropy, which captures how rich and unpredictable brain activity patterns are.</p>
<p>The researchers focused on multiple aspects of sleep: architecture (how much time was spent in each sleep stage), microstructure (detailed characteristics of sleep spindles and slow waves), and brain dynamics during both non-REM and REM sleep. They also tested whether these features correlated with meditation experience.</p>
<p>Although both groups reported similar sleep quality on questionnaires, objective measures revealed notable differences. The expert meditators slept longer and spent more time in N2 sleep—a stage associated with stable sleep and memory processing. They also spent less time in N1 sleep, the lightest stage of sleep that tends to increase with age and is often linked with more fragmented rest.</p>
<p>No differences were found in the amount of deep sleep (N3) or REM sleep. However, expert meditators showed altered patterns of brain activity during these stages. During non-REM sleep, meditators exhibited lower delta power—a marker of slow-wave activity—but higher alpha power and greater complexity in the theta frequency band. These patterns suggest a more dynamic or potentially more conscious brain state during sleep.</p>
<p>Although most features of sleep microstructure—such as the density and amplitude of sleep spindles and slow waves—did not significantly differ between the groups, the meditators did show a trend toward higher slow spindle amplitude, although this did not survive stricter statistical correction.</p>
<p>During REM sleep, there was a trend for higher theta power in expert meditators, particularly in fronto-central brain regions. This pattern is often linked to emotional memory consolidation and executive processing. Interestingly, within the expert meditator group, individuals who scored higher on meditation expertise tended to show greater theta power in this region, suggesting a potential dose-response relationship.</p>
<p>“Despite no differences in subjective sleep quality, several objective metrics indicated a better sleep quality in elderly expert meditators compared to meditation-naïve older adults (e.g., longer sleep duration, lower proportion of the lightest sleep stage),” Champetier told PsyPost. “Importantly, some of these metrics were associated with meditation expertise within the expert meditator group.”</p>
<p>The researchers also found that certain EEG features during sleep—especially during non-REM sleep—tended to resemble patterns observed in states of higher consciousness or cognitive engagement. For example, the combination of reduced delta power, increased alpha power, and higher EEG complexity is seen in individuals who report being aware during dreamless sleep or those with lucid dreaming experiences.</p>
<p>“We also noticed brain activity patterns that could reflect potential ‘preserved conscious processes’ during sleep in expert meditators,” Champetier explained. “However, this interpretation should be taken with caution as our study was not specifically designed for this purpose and lacks direct assessments of conscious processing during sleep.”</p>
<p>In resting wakefulness, expert meditators had lower delta power, a signal often associated with pathological aging, and higher brain signal complexity in the delta band over posterior brain regions. These patterns resemble those found in younger, cognitively healthy individuals and may reflect more preserved neural functioning.</p>
<p>While the study provides intriguing evidence that meditation may influence sleep and brain function in older adults, some limitations should be noted. The sample of expert meditators was relatively small, which may have reduced the ability to detect more subtle effects. Additionally, participants slept in different environments—controls slept at home while meditators stayed in a hotel near the lab—which could have influenced the sleep data.</p>
<p>The study’s cross-sectional design also limits conclusions about causality. It is unclear whether meditation caused these brain and sleep changes or whether people with these characteristics are more likely to take up meditation in the first place. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess how brain activity and sleep change over time with meditation training.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70161" target="_blank">EEG Brain Rhythms During Resting-State Wakefulness and Sleep in Elderly Expert Meditators</a>,” was authored by Pierre Champetier, Anaïs Hamel, Claire André, Valentin Ourry, Tristan Lacroix, Stéphane Rehel, Léa Chauveau, Sacha Haudry, Françoise Bertran, Vincent de la Sayette, Denis Vivien, Gaël Chételat, Antoine Lutz, Géraldine Rauchs, and the Medit-Ageing Research Group.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/progestin-only-birth-control-during-adolescence-linked-to-impaired-fear-regulation-in-adulthood/" 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;">Progestin-only birth control during adolescence linked to impaired fear regulation in adulthood</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 9th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study suggests that hormonal contraceptive use during adolescence may impair the brain’s ability to retain fear extinction memories—a process thought to be important for regulating anxiety. In a series of experiments using female rats, researchers found that a progestin-only hormonal contraceptive disrupted fear extinction during adolescence and into adulthood, while a combined formulation containing synthetic estrogen did not have this effect. </p>
<p>These findings raise questions about how early exposure to certain hormonal contraceptives could influence vulnerability to anxiety-related difficulties later in life. The research has been published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2025.105789" target="_blank">Hormones and Behavior</a></em>.</p>
<p>Hormonal contraceptives are medications commonly used to prevent pregnancy, regulate menstrual cycles, or manage conditions such as endometriosis and acne. They often contain synthetic versions of sex hormones like estrogen and progesterone. These compounds suppress the natural production of hormones by interfering with the body’s reproductive signaling pathways. While generally considered safe and effective, researchers have increasingly examined whether hormonal contraceptives may influence brain development and mental health.</p>
<p>“There is a sex bias in preclinical research on anxiety. Despite anxiety disorders being nearly twice as common in women compared to men, data analyzed in the Graham lab showed that, as of a few years ago, only 32% of anxiety research included females, and only 7% studied females specifically,” explained study author Madison Brooke of the University of New South Wales.</p>
<p>“Preclinical research on anxiety disorders often examine extinction learning in rodents. Rodents will be trained to associate a neutral cue (like a tone), with something fearful (like a shock). After repetitive exposures to the tone and shock together, rodents become fearful of the tone itself. Extinction learning involves repetitively exposing the rodent to the tone alone, so that the tone is no longer associated with anything fearful. Extinction learning therefore demonstrates that ability to regulate fear.”</p>
<p>“It’s important to correct this sex bias, as sex-specific factors like female sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone) are important for extinction learning. While we often think of these hormones in the context of their reproductive function, these hormones are synthesised in the brain, and during adolescence they are critical for the development of brain regions that are involved in fear and extinction learning.”</p>
<p>“Hormonal contraceptives lower the production of natural sex hormones, and studies in adults consistently demonstrate (in rodents and women) that these hormones are important for extinction learning, such that hormonal contraceptives impair extinction learning in adults,” Brooke explained. “But despite many hormonal contraceptive users starting during adolescence, no research had looked at their effects on extinction during this developmental period.”</p>
<p>Brooke and the senior author of the study, Bronwyn M. Graham, conducted four experiments using adolescent female rats. In these experiments, they tested the effects of two types of hormonal contraceptives: a high dose of levonorgestrel, which models a progestin-only contraceptive, and a combination of levonorgestrel with ethinyl estradiol, which represents a combined oral contraceptive.</p>
<p>The rats were treated with one of these two hormone formulations—or a control substance—for nine days starting on postnatal day 35, a developmental stage corresponding to early adolescence in rats. After treatment, some rats underwent fear conditioning and extinction training during adolescence, while others underwent the same procedures as adults, two weeks after the hormone treatment had ended.</p>
<p>Fear conditioning involved pairing a sound with a mild foot shock, teaching the rats to associate the sound with threat. During extinction training, the sound was played repeatedly without the shock, allowing the rats to learn that the stimulus was now safe. Retention of this extinction memory was later tested by measuring how much the rats froze—a common fear response—when hearing the sound again.</p>
<p>The research team also used hormonal assays and examined vaginal cytology to confirm whether the treatments disrupted natural hormone cycles. In additional experiments, they used a behavioral test known as the elevated plus maze to assess whether the hormone treatments influenced general anxiety-like behavior.</p>
<p>Across both adolescent and adult testing conditions, rats that received levonorgestrel alone showed impairments in extinction retention compared to controls. This means that these rats continued to freeze more in response to the conditioned sound, suggesting they had difficulty learning that the sound no longer signaled danger. These impairments persisted even after the levonorgestrel treatment had ended and natural hormone cycling had resumed.</p>
<p>In contrast, rats treated with the combined levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol formulation did not show these impairments. In some cases, these rats even exhibited improved extinction retention compared to controls, depending on when they were tested and the stage of their reproductive cycle.</p>
<p>“Adolescence appears to be a vulnerable window where hormonal contraceptives produce lasting extinction impairments,” Brooke told PsyPost. “As difficulties in regulating fear can increase the risk of developing anxiety disorders, this can have important implications for the development and persistence of anxiety disorders in adolescent hormonal contraceptive users (even beyond cessation). In addition, as extinction learning is the basis for exposure therapy – the gold standard treatment for anxiety disorders – this could have implications for treating anxiety in women who began hormonal contraceptives as adolescents.”</p>
<p>“Importantly, these effects do appear to be formulation dependent – that is, we found differences between a combined formulation (akin to the combined oral contraceptive) and a progestin-only formulation (akin to progestin-only contraceptives like the IUD or the minipill). More research needs to be done to determine whether these effects are specific to the type of synthetic hormones used in our study, the dose used, or both!”</p>
<p>“Ultimately our finding adds to a growing area of research highlighting the need to consider age of usage as a critical factor in research on hormonal contraceptives long-term effects.”</p>
<p>Both hormone treatments suppressed natural hormone levels during the treatment period, but neither produced lasting changes in hormone levels two weeks after the treatments ended. This suggests that the impairments in extinction retention caused by levonorgestrel were not simply due to lower hormone levels. </p>
<p>“The Graham lab has done extensive research demonstrating that sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone) are important for fear extinction,” Brooke said. “Hormonal contraceptives mainly work by administering synthetic versions of these sex hormones, which in turn hijacks females’ reproductive system and prevents the production of natural estrogen and progesterone. It was therefore previously assumed that hormonal contraceptives impair extinction via lowering natural sex hormone levels. However, as we found that both our contraceptive formulations similarly lowered natural sex hormones, but differentially impacted extinction, it suggests that extinction impairments are not simply impacted by natural sex hormones, but may result from exposure to specific synthetic hormones.”</p>
<p>The elevated plus maze results indicated that the hormone treatments did not affect general anxiety-like behavior. This suggests that the effects observed were specific to extinction learning rather than a broad increase in fearfulness or stress.</p>
<p>This study builds on previous work showing that hormone levels affect extinction learning. In adult rats, extinction retention is better when it occurs during high-hormone phases of the reproductive cycle. Similarly, in women, low estrogen levels have been linked to poorer outcomes in exposure-based therapy for anxiety. Hormonal contraceptives can lower natural estrogen levels by suppressing ovulation, raising concerns that they may interfere with this type of learning. The new findings extend this research by showing that the timing of hormone exposure matters.</p>
<p>“What is novel with our research is that we have shown that previous hormonal contraceptive exposure as an adolescent causes’ persistent impairments (beyond usage), whereas existing research has demonstrated that previous hormonal contraceptive exposure as adults, does not lead to persistent extinction impairments,” Brooke said. “Our findings fit with a growing body of research suggesting that adolescence may be a particularly vulnerable period where hormonal contraceptives can produce lasting effects (beyond their usage).”</p>
<p>The researchers suggest that the negative effects of levonorgestrel on extinction learning may not stem solely from hormone suppression but might also involve direct effects of the synthetic hormone on the brain. Levonorgestrel may influence the development of neural circuits involved in learning and emotional memory, such as those in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Another possibility is that levonorgestrel interferes with the stress-regulation system (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis), which also undergoes developmental changes during adolescence and plays a role in emotional learning.</p>
<p>But the study, like all research, includes some caveats. The study used animal models, and although rats are useful for studying brain development and behavior, results may not directly translate to humans. The hormone doses and duration of treatment in this study were designed to model specific contraceptive formulations, but human use patterns are more variable and typically involve much longer exposure.</p>
<p>“There are various formulations of hormonal contraceptives and the synthetic sex hormones used in different formulations vary largely according to chemical structure,” Brooke noted. “Here we compared two formulations, but it is likely that the type of progestin used may influence the effects hormonal contraceptives have on extinction. In addition, the window of adolescence in rodents is far shorter than the window of adolescence in humans. As such, it is important to confirm how these results translate to women.”</p>
<p>“Our next step is to translate these results to women. We want to confirm that these effects, observed in rodents, translates to extinction learning and exposure therapies in women. Ultimately, we would like to work out what is driving these effects. Discovering what drives these effects, whether that be identifying specific formulations and dosages, or identifying effects that hormonal contraceptives have on systems involved in extinction learning (e.g. fear circuitry), will allow women to make more informed choices when it comes to selecting hormonal contraceptives, and help develop more effective treatment options for women experiencing anxiety from hormonal contraceptives.”</p>
<p>“It’s important to note that though we found that hormonal contraceptives could impair extinction long-term (and extinction learning is important for the development, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety disorders) it is a small population of women who report experiencing anxiety as a side effect of hormonal contraceptives,” Brooke added. “Our research shows age of exposure, and formulation may be important factors in this, but it’s also important to consider that it is likely not all women who are vulnerable to developing anxiety as a function of dysregulated extinction learning. My hope is that our research will help improve treatment options for the women that are.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2025.105789" target="_blank">Birth controlling your fears: The long-term effects of adolescent exposure to hormonal contraceptives on fear extinction in long-evans female rats</a>,” was authored by Madison Brooke and Bronwyn M. Graham.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/neuroscience-reveals-the-brain-disconnect-behind-music-anhedonia/" 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;">Neuroscience reveals the brain disconnect behind music anhedonia</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Sep 8th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>When I ask a lecture theatre full of students how they would feel if they could never listen to a piece of music again, most are horrified. Many have been plugged into their headphones until the moment the class begins. But without fail, one or two will shyly admit that their lives would not change at all if music didn’t exist.</p>
<p>Psychologists call this “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-30906-008">music anhedonia</a>”, meaning an absence of pleasure for music. And <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(25)00178-0?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1364661325001780%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">a new paper</a> from neuroscientists in Spain and Canada suggests it is caused by a problem with communication between different parts of the brain.</p>
<p>For many of us, apathy towards music seems unfathomable. Yet, <a href="https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nyas.14241?casa_token=KT8pN6CuTJYAAAAA%3ATVhnlwiwaOlNdAxSHYsj3qA6P6QzTONwI2PT4q1yjoUmaVMWhwqRjnLx0jpCX1wqdC_YUSoH1NlrOQ">for 5%-10% of the population</a>, this is their norm.</p>
<p>I see it often in my own <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32564690/">research</a> and <a href="https://mempathy.podbean.com/e/episode-6-the-power-of-music/">practice</a> in people with memory loss, where I ask people to select favourite songs as a way of accessing significant memories.</p>
<p>It has always fascinated me that some people look at me blankly and say, “I’ve never been that bothered by music”. It is such a contrast to the majority who love to talk about their first record, or the tune played at their wedding.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(25)00178-0?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS1364661325001780%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">Recent evidence</a> shows considerable variation in the depth of people’s emotional response to music. Around 25% of the population are hyperhedonic, which is an almost obsessive urge to engage intensely and frequently with music.</p>
<p>Research in this field typically uses the <a href="https://www.brainvitge.org/bmrq_eng.html">Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire</a> (BMRQ), which asks people about the significance of music in daily life: how often they listen to records, whether they hum along, and if there are songs that give them a shiver down the spine.</p>
<p>Low scorers are classified as having music anhedonia and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1611211113">many researchers</a> further verify this in the lab by measuring heart rate, sweat response and breathing while music is playing. For most of us, these physiological markers change dramatically during emotional songs. But in those with music anhedonia, there are often no physiological effects at all.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395613001556?casa_token=S5L6gr41yagAAAAA:udg9Is-k4l5WDYBsyKtUS15JZeFkiV2qSI7-pyFCCJV_IK4gn2leoIwThnH-PEgrHJARtgFc">One theory</a> is that reduced enjoyment for music may reflect a more generalised anhedonia, an absence of pleasure for anything. Often, this is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395613001556?casa_token=S5L6gr41yagAAAAA:udg9Is-k4l5WDYBsyKtUS15JZeFkiV2qSI7-pyFCCJV_IK4gn2leoIwThnH-PEgrHJARtgFc">linked to disruption</a> to the reward pathways in the brain, in areas such as the nucleus accumbens, orbitofrontal cortex and insula.</p>
<p>It is a common feature of depression, which, along with other mood disorders, can correlate with a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-70293-x.pdf">lack of response to music </a>. However, this does not explain specific music anhedonia, where people happily enjoy other rewards such as food, socialising and films, but remain <a href="https://brainvitge.org/website/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/mas-herrero-PBR-2018.pdf">indifferent to music</a>.</p>
<p>An alternative possibility is that people with reduced interest in music <a href="https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/9946/1/mp.2012.30.1.1.pdf">simply don’t understand it</a>, perhaps due to difficulties with processing melody and harmony. To test this, we can look at people with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128234938000146">amusia</a> – a deficit in music perception, which affects the ability to identify familiar tunes or detect wrong notes. This occurs when there is reduced activity in key regions in the frontotemporal cortex in the brain, which handles complex processing of pitch and melody. However, some people with the condition have an extreme and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13554794.2016.1263339?casa_token=NGJmU3O3DSgAAAAA:8bC5oqibcsoO1VbjMpQVFlHt_E-_xi0iDM_XliOG8DFZas046efuSBvDpVtFinZCMQERycgtEknE">obsessional love of music</a>.</p>
<p>In any case, other <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(14)00133-X?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000618">research</a> shows that those with music anhedonia often have normal musical perception, with no problem recognising songs or distinguishing major from minor chords.</p>
<p>So, what is going on? The new paper provides a detailed analysis of all the research in this field to date. The researchers explain that while the brain networks underlying music perception and reward are both intact in people with music anhedonia, the communication between them is severely disrupted. There is little to no traffic between the auditory processing parts of the brain and the reward centre.</p>
<p>People with typical responses to music have significant activity in this pathway, which is higher for pleasant music than for neutral sounds. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0241-z">A 2018 study</a> showed that you can increase music-induced pleasure by artificially stimulating these communication tracts using magnetic pulses.</p>
<p>The new analysis may give scientists insights into clinical conditions where everyday rewards seem to be reduced or enhanced, for example eating disorders, sex addictions and gambling problems.</p>
<p>These findings also challenge the common assumption that everyone loves music. Most people do, but not all, and the variation comes down to differences in the wiring of the brain. Sometimes it follows <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393217300362?casa_token=5Uhtcy-D5E8AAAAA:Kzo2cy9tn3qyZz_sH4_NcTxdhU13QBJYS4MMyUh7eRM-VyDwborACBr2F-GC8w6fAIjdWSxH">brain injury</a>, but more often people are born this way, and a March 2025 study <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58123-8">found evidence</a> of a genetic link.</p>
<p>Music is everywhere – in shops, gyms, restaurants, healthcare settings – and it can be incredibly powerful. But perhaps we should resist the urge to see it as a panacea and respect the fact that for some, silence is golden.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/263066/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/some-people-just-dont-like-music-it-may-be-down-to-their-brain-wiring-263066">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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