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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/neural-synchrony-is-shaped-by-both-relationship-type-and-task-demands/" 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;">Neural synchrony is shaped by both relationship type and task demands</a>
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<p><p>A new study finds that the alignment of brain activity between two people, known as interpersonal neural synchrony, varies based on their relationship and what they are doing together. The research, published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121532" target="_blank">NeuroImage</a></em>, found that mother-child pairs tend to have lower synchrony than adult friends or romantic partners, and that passively sharing an experience can sometimes generate more neural alignment than active cooperation.</p>
<p>Scientists have long been interested in how our brains coordinate during social interactions, but research findings have often been difficult to compare. Studies have examined different types of relationships, from strangers to romantic partners, and used a wide range of tasks, from simple cooperation games to open-ended conversations. This variability has made it challenging to build a cohesive understanding of the factors that govern brain-to-brain synchrony. </p>
<p>To address this, a team of researchers from the University of Trento in Italy and the University of Vienna in Austria, led by PhD student Alessandro Carollo and Professor Gianluca Esposito, designed a study to systematically investigate two key dimensions: interpersonal closeness and the level of social interactivity.</p>
<p>“Most neuroscience research on social interaction has relied on highly controlled, artificial tasks where people are tested alone and exposed to social stimuli such as faces or voices on a screen. While this work has deepened our understanding of how the brain processes social information, it tells us little about what happens during real interactions between people,” the researchers told PsyPost. </p>
<p>“In this study, we wanted to explore how the brain supports active coordination and communication in natural settings — across different kinds of relationships, from close friends to romantic partners and mothers with their children. Our goal was to identify the neural mechanisms that allow people to connect with one another in everyday life.”</p>
<p>The researchers recruited 142 pairs of participants, divided into three groups based on their relationship: 70 dyads of close friends, 39 romantic partner dyads, and 33 mother-child dyads. Each pair’s brain activity was recorded simultaneously using a technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS. This non-invasive method involves wearing a cap with sensors that use light to measure changes in blood oxygen levels in the brain, providing a proxy for neural activity.</p>
<p>During the experiment, each pair engaged in three distinct activities designed to elicit different levels of interaction. In a passive condition, they watched a short animated video together without speaking. In a structured active condition, they played a cooperative game of Jenga. In an unstructured active condition, they engaged in a five-minute free-form conversation. </p>
<p>The researchers focused on activity in two brain areas on both sides of the brain: the inferior frontal gyrus and the temporoparietal junction. These regions are known to be involved in social cognitive processes like understanding others’ actions and intentions.</p>
<p>First, the team confirmed that the synchrony they observed was meaningful. They compared the brain alignment in the real pairs to that of “surrogate” pairs, created by randomly matching data from individuals who had not actually interacted. The real pairs showed significantly higher neural synchrony, indicating that the alignment was a genuine product of the shared social experience. This effect was particularly strong for connections involving the right inferior frontal gyrus, a brain area associated with action observation and imitation.</p>
<p>“We found that people’s brains do tend to ‘sync up’ when they interact, and that this synchrony is influenced by both who we are interacting with and how,” Carollo and Esposito explained. “Even simple, everyday moments of connection can lead to similar patterns of brain activity among people.”</p>
<p>When examining the effect of relationship type, the study produced an unexpected outcome. The researchers had hypothesized that mother-child pairs, representing a foundational attachment bond, would show the highest levels of synchrony. </p>
<p>Instead, they found that both close friends and romantic partners exhibited significantly higher synchrony than mother-child pairs. This could suggest that the brains of close-knit adults, which are fully mature and have a long history of attuning to social equals, may coordinate more readily. The lower synchrony in mother-child pairs might also reflect ongoing developmental processes in the child’s brain, which is still maturing in its ability to engage in complex social coordination.</p>
<p>The results related to social activity were also contrary to the team’s initial predictions. They had expected that more active and unstructured interactions would require greater neural coordination, leading to higher synchrony. However, the data revealed that across all groups, the passive task of watching a video together produced the highest overall synchrony. The structured cooperative game ranked second, while the unstructured free conversation was associated with the lowest levels of synchrony. This pattern was most clear in the adult-adult pairs.</p>
<p>“We actually expected the opposite pattern regarding interpersonal closeness and social interactivity,” Carollo and Esposito told PsyPost. “We thought that closer relationships and more interactive contexts would show higher levels of brain synchrony. Instead, synchrony was sometimes stronger in less interactive settings, such as when close friends watched a movie together. This suggests that simply sharing an experience, being present together, can promote alignment between brains, even without active communication.”</p>
<p>The researchers suggest that when two people passively observe the same dynamic stimulus, their brains process the information in a similar way and at a similar pace, leading to a strong, stimulus-driven alignment. In more open-ended interactions like conversation, the social signals are less predictable and more complex, potentially leading to less consistent moment-to-moment alignment across the measured brain regions.</p>
<p>“The level of synchrony isn’t always higher in closer or more interactive relationships,” Carollo and Esposito noted. “In some cases, greater alignment may actually reflect the brain’s effort to coordinate during newer or less familiar interactions.”</p>
<p>“It’s tempting to think that higher neural synchrony means ‘better’ communication or a stronger emotional bond, but that’s not always the case. Synchrony reflects coordination at the neural level, not the depth or quality of a relationship. It’s also shaped by factors like attention, task structure, and developmental stage.” </p>
<p>“And importantly, neural synchrony is not a form of telepathy. It doesn’t mean people are literally sharing thoughts. Instead, it likely reflects how the brain aligns with shared rhythms of communication, things like gaze, speech, gestures, and mutual attention, that help us stay ‘in tune’ with and possibly understand each other during social interactions.”</p>
<p>A more detailed analysis showed that the effect of the task depended on the specific brain regions involved. While many brain connections were most synchronized during the passive video-watching task, synchrony between the left inferior frontal gyrus of both participants, and between one person’s left inferior frontal gyrus and the other’s right temporoparietal junction, peaked during the cooperative Jenga game. </p>
<p>This suggests that while passive shared experience drives one form of neural alignment, active, goal-directed cooperation relies on the coordination of a different set of neural pathways involved in joint action and strategic thinking.</p>
<p>“Our results suggest that neural synchrony can act as a kind of ‘neural signature’ of social coordination, much like the behavioral, physiological, or hormonal synchrony seen in earlier studies,” Carollo and Esposito said. “Over time, these brain-to-brain measures could help us better understand how social experiences shape development, relationships, and individual differences in social functioning. Ultimately, our findings reinforce the idea that the human brain is profoundly social. It is wired to respond to, adapt to, and resonate with the dynamics of our interpersonal world.”</p>
<p>The study has some limitations. The data for the adult pairs and mother-child pairs were collected in two different countries using slightly different equipment, though procedures were standardized as much as possible. The study also did not include fine-grained behavioral analysis, which could link specific actions like eye contact or gestures to fluctuations in neural synchrony. The inherent age difference between mother-child pairs and adult pairs also makes it difficult to completely separate the effects of relationship type from developmental factors.</p>
<p>Future research could build on these findings by including other types of relationships, such as non-parental adult-child pairs or child-child friendships, to better isolate the influence of development and interpersonal closeness. </p>
<p>“We hope to contribute to a more standardized framework for studying neural synchrony across labs,” the researchers said. “Future work will look more closely at how synchrony relates to specific relational variables, for instance, co-regulation in mother–child pairs or the quality of friendship among peers. In the longer term, we aim to understand how brain-to-brain alignment functions in larger groups and whether it might predict collective performance in collaborative or team settings.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121532" target="_blank">Interpersonal neural synchrony across levels of interpersonal closeness and social interactivity</a>,” was authored by Alessandro Carollo, Andrea Bizzego, Verena Schäfer, Carolina Pletti, Stefanie Hoehl, and Gianluca Esposito.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/a-simple-illusion-can-unlock-your-childhood-memories-according-to-new-psychology-research/" 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;">A simple illusion can unlock your childhood memories, according to new psychology research</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 3rd 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study has found that people can better access detailed memories from their childhood by experiencing an illusion of owning a younger version of their own face. The research, published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-17963-6" target="_blank">Scientific Reports</a></em>, suggests a profound link between how we perceive our bodies and our ability to recall events from our personal history. This finding is the first to show that temporarily changing one’s sense of bodily self can facilitate the retrieval of remote memories.</p>
<p>The investigation was led by a team of neuroscientists at Anglia Ruskin University who were exploring the connection between the self, the body, and autobiographical memory. Our memories are not just recordings of external events; they are experiences that happened to us while we inhabited a particular body. The researchers reasoned that since our bodies change throughout our lives, the physical self we had in childhood is different from the one we have as adults.</p>
<p>“When our childhood memories were formed, we had a different body,” said senior author Jane Aspell, who leads the Self & Body Lab at Anglia Ruskin University. “So we wondered: if we could help people experience aspects of that body again, could we help them recall their memories from that time?” This question formed the basis for their experiment, which sought to see if reintroducing body-related cues from the past could help reactivate memories associated with that period.</p>
<p>To test this idea, the researchers recruited 50 healthy adults for an online experiment. Participants were randomly split into two groups. In the experimental group, individuals viewed a live video of their own face that had been digitally altered with a filter to look like a childlike version of themselves. The control group viewed a live, unaltered video of their adult faces.</p>
<p>The scientists then induced what is known as an “enfacement illusion.” Participants were instructed to move their heads in time with a metronome. For both groups, the face on the screen would mirror their movements, creating a powerful sensation that the face they were seeing was their own, similar to looking in a mirror. This synchronous movement was designed to create a strong feeling of ownership over the on-screen face.</p>
<p>To test the strength of the illusion, the experiment also included a condition with asynchronous movement. In this part, the face on the screen moved in the opposite direction to the participant’s head movements, which tends to weaken the feeling of ownership. After each session of head movements, participants answered a questionnaire to measure how strongly they felt that the face on the screen was their own.</p>
<p>Immediately following the illusion, participants engaged in an autobiographical memory interview. While still viewing either their childlike or adult face, they were asked to recall specific events from two different time periods: their childhood (up to age 11) and the past year. The researchers provided cues like “home” or “holiday” to prompt the memories.</p>
<p>The study’s primary interest was not just whether people could remember events, but the richness of those memories. The interviews were recorded and scored based on the level of detail provided. Specifically, the researchers distinguished between two types of memory. </p>
<p>One is semantic memory, which involves factual information, like the name of a place you visited. The other is episodic memory, which involves the ability to mentally re-experience an event, recalling sensory details, emotions, and the feeling of being there. This is often described as a form of mental “time travel.”</p>
<p>The results showed a clear difference between the two groups. Participants who experienced the illusion with their childlike face recalled significantly more episodic details about their childhood memories compared to the control group who saw their adult faces. This effect was specific to childhood memories; the illusion had no impact on the recall of recent events from the past year. It also did not affect the recall of semantic, or factual, details about childhood.</p>
<p>Lead author Utkarsh Gupta, who conducted the study as part of his PhD, explained the potential mechanism behind the results. “All the events that we remember are not just experiences of the external world, but are also experiences of our body, which is always present,” he said. “We discovered that temporary changes to the bodily self, specifically, embodying a childlike version of one’s own face, can significantly enhance access to childhood memories.” </p>
<p>He added, “This might be because the brain encodes bodily information as part of the details of an event. Reintroducing similar bodily cues may help us retrieve those memories, even decades later.”</p>
<p>The researchers noted some limitations and areas for future exploration. The strength of the illusion, whether induced by synchronous or asynchronous movement, did not appear to affect the amount of memory detail recalled. This may suggest that simply viewing and identifying with the childlike face was enough to trigger the memory enhancement, a phenomenon that could be related to priming. Future studies could directly compare the embodiment illusion with a simpler priming condition, such as just looking at a static picture of a young face, to separate these effects.</p>
<p>Another limitation was that the digital filter was a generic approximation of a younger face, not a personalized rendering based on participants’ actual childhood photos. Future experiments in a lab setting could use more advanced technology to create more realistic and personalized younger selves, possibly strengthening the effect. Researchers also suggest that modifying the protocol to administer the illusion questionnaire after the memory interview could help avoid biasing participants’ responses.</p>
<p>Despite these limitations, the findings open up new possibilities for understanding memory. They suggest that the self is not a single, static entity but is fluid, and that our memories are deeply intertwined with our physical form at the time they were made. </p>
<p>“These results are really exciting and suggest that further, more sophisticated body illusions could be used to unlock memories from different stages of our lives – perhaps even from early infancy,” said Aspell. She suggested that in the future, it might be possible to adapt these techniques “to create interventions that might aid memory recall in people with memory impairments.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-17963-6" target="_blank">Illusory ownership of one’s younger face facilitates access to childhood episodic autobiographical memories</a>,” was authored by Utkarsh Gupta, Peter Bright, Waheeb Zafar, Pilar Recarte-Perez, Alex Clarke, and Jane E. Aspell.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/how-higher-states-of-consciousness-can-forever-change-your-perception-of-reality/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">How higher states of consciousness can forever change your perception of reality</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 2nd 2025, 18:00</div>
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<p><p>A few years ago I climbed over a gate and found myself gazing down at a valley. After I’d been walking for a few minutes, looking at the fields and the sky, there was a shift in my perception. Everything around me became intensely real. The fields and the bushes and trees and the clouds seemed more vivid, more intricate and beautiful.</p>
<p>I felt connected with my surroundings. What was inside me, as my own consciousness, was also “out there”. Within me, there was a glow of intense wellbeing.</p>
<p>This is an example of a higher state of consciousness – or, in my preferred term, an awakening experience. Awakening experiences are a temporary expansion and intensification of awareness that transforms our perception of the world.</p>
<p>As a psychologist, I <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/the-leap/">have been studying</a> such experiences for more than 15 years. Awakening experiences are sometimes viewed as mysterious and random, but I have found that, to a large degree, they can be explained.</p>
<p>My research has found that they have three main triggers.</p>
<p>The most common trigger may seem counter-intuitive. Around one-third of awakening experiences are linked to psychological distress, such as stress, depression and loss. For example, a man described to me, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022167811404944">as part of my research</a>, how he went through inner turmoil due to confusion about his sexuality, which led to the breakdown of his marriage.</p>
<p>But amid this turbulence, he experienced an awakening experiences in which, he said: “Everything just ceased to be. I lost all sense of time. I lost myself. I had a feeling of being totally at one with nature, with a massive sense of peace. I was a part of the scene. There was no ‘me’ anymore.”</p>
<p>Second, around one-quarter of the experiences are induced by the beauty and stillness of nature. A woman reported an awakening experience <a href="https://www.academia.edu/33073441/SPONTANEOUS_AWAKENING_EXPERIENCES_BEYOND_RELIGION_AND_SPIRITUAL_PRACTICE">to me</a> that occurred when she was swimming in a lake.</p>
<p>She said she “felt completely alone, but part of everything. I felt at peace… All my troubles disappeared and I felt in harmony with nature.” These types of experiences were often described by poets such as Wordsworth and Shelley.</p>
<p>The third most significant trigger (with a similar proportion to contact with nature) is spiritual practice. This primarily means meditation but also includes prayer and psycho-physical practices such as yoga or tai chi.</p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, I haven’t found that psychedelics are a major trigger of higher states. It may be that this is because my samples have been drawn from the general population, and not so many people have tried psychedelics. And psychedelics by no means always induce awakening experiences. They may simply induce perceptual distortions, or a state of dissociation.</p>
<h2>Causes of awakening experiences</h2>
<p>Some <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6664802/">neuroscientists</a> have suggested that awakening experiences are the result of stimulation of the temporal lobes (one of the most important parts of the brain, associated with memory, language comprehension and emotion). This is partly because some reports of higher states of consciousness come from people who suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/jcs/2000/00000007/f0020011/1064">Another theory</a> is that experiences of oneness arise when the part of our brain responsible for our awareness of boundaries (the superior posterior parietal cortex) is less active than normal.</p>
<p>However, such theories have been criticised by <a href="https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/neuroscience-soul">other researchers</a> for a lack of control groups and successful replication. While some people who suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy may have awakening-type experiences, they are more likely to experience anxiety and disorientation.</p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2018/06/Mystical-experiences-associated-with-seizures.pdf">other studies</a> show no connection between seizures and higher states of consciousness. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11418859/">Other neuroscientists</a> dispute the claim that spatial awareness is associated with the posterior parietal cortex.</p>
<p>Perhaps it makes more sense to explain awakening experiences in psychological rather than neurological terms.</p>
<p>Many awakening experiences are related to relaxation and mental quietness, induced by meditation or contact with nature. Normally, our awareness switches off to familiar objects and surroundings, as a way of saving energy.</p>
<p>But in moments of inner quietness, we expend less mental energy than normal. As a result, mental energy may intensify, generating more vivid awareness.</p>
<p>But how can we explain awakening experiences linked to psychological turmoil? A sense of shock and loss may bring a deconstruction of normal psychological processes.</p>
<p>In most states of turmoil, this may only cause further distress. But occasionally this may cause a transcendence of familiar modes of perception, and even a dissolution of our normal sense of ego, causing a sense of oneness.</p>
<p>Awakening experiences really are “higher states.” We tend to assume that our normal way of seeing the world is reliable and objective, offering a “true” vision of reality. But higher states teach the opposite: that our typical consciousness is limited and filtered.</p>
<p>We are normally trapped in a familiarised automatic perception of the world. This is why higher states carry a strong sense of revelation – because they reveal a wider reality to us.</p>
<p>As a result, even though awakening experiences typically only last from a few moments to a few hours, they often have a life-changing effect. Many people <a href="https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/books/the-leap/">in my research</a> described an awakening experience as the most significant moment of their lives.</p>
<p>In a study of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331000405_EXPLORING_AWAKENING_EXPERIENCES_A_STUDY_OF_AWAKENING_EXPERIENCES_IN_TERMS_OF_THEIR_TRIGGERS_CHARACTERISTICS_DURATION_AND_AFTER-EFFECTS">90 awakening experiences</a>, my colleague Krisztina Egeto-Szabo and I found that the most significant after-effect was a positive shift, with increased trust in life, confidence and optimism. For example, one person reported that: “To know that it’s there (or here, I should say) is a great liberation.”</p>
<p>It would be a stretch to say that we can induce higher states of consciousness. However, we can create the conditions that make them more likely to occur. We do know that many are linked to relaxation and inner quietness. So we can create try to try to cultivate a still and relaxed state of mind – for example, through meditation and contact with nature. In doing so, we might find ourselves awakening to a wider and deeper reality.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/265151/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/how-higher-states-of-consciousness-can-forever-change-your-perception-of-reality-265151">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/text-based-therapy-might-be-as-effective-as-video-for-depression/" 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;">Text-based therapy might be as effective as video for depression</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 2nd 2025, 16:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study suggests that psychotherapy delivered through text-based messaging can be as effective as live video sessions for treating depression. The research, which compared outcomes for hundreds of adults using a commercial mental health platform, also found that patients were less likely to drop out of message-based therapy. These findings were published in <em><a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2840708" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JAMA Network Open</a></em>.</p>
<p>Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and while effective psychotherapies exist, many people face barriers to accessing care. Video-based therapy has expanded access by removing geographic constraints, but it still requires patients and therapists to coordinate schedules for live appointments.</p>
<p>Researchers wanted to investigate a more flexible alternative: message-based psychotherapy, which allows patients and therapists to communicate asynchronously through text, audio, or video messages. This method allows for more frequent contact and creates a written record of sessions that patients can review.</p>
<p>A team of researchers from the University of Washington partnered with the commercial digital mental health company Talkspace to conduct a large-scale clinical trial. They aimed to directly compare the effectiveness of message-based therapy with video-based therapy and to see if combining the two approaches could help patients who did not initially respond to treatment.</p>
<p>To conduct the study, the research team recruited 850 adults from across the United States who were diagnosed with depression. These participants were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups for 12 weeks. One group received message-based psychotherapy, where they could exchange messages with their therapist at any time. The other group received weekly video-based psychotherapy, which consisted of scheduled 30- to 45-minute live video sessions. The study was designed in two phases.</p>
<p>After the first six weeks, the researchers assessed which participants were showing improvement. Those who were not responding to their assigned treatment were then randomly assigned again to a combination of therapies. For instance, non-responders in the messaging group had either weekly or monthly video sessions added to their treatment. Similarly, non-responders in the video group had messaging added to their existing sessions.</p>
<p>Throughout the study, participants regularly completed questionnaires to measure the severity of their depression symptoms and their ability to participate in social roles and activities. The researchers also collected data on treatment engagement, the quality of the patient-therapist relationship, and overall satisfaction with the care they received.</p>
<p>The results showed no significant difference in clinical outcomes between the two methods. Both groups experienced similar reductions in depression symptoms and similar improvements in social functioning over the 12-week period. The proportion of patients who responded to treatment or achieved remission from depression was nearly identical for both message-based and video-based therapy.</p>
<p>A notable difference appeared in patient engagement. The study found that participants assigned to weekly video sessions were significantly more likely to disengage from treatment within the first five weeks compared to those in the messaging group.</p>
<p>When examining the patient-therapist relationship, known as the therapeutic alliance, the researchers observed a nuanced pattern. Among patients who were not responding well to treatment early on, those in the video therapy group tended to report a stronger bond with their therapist compared to non-responders in the messaging group. This finding suggests that live video interaction may help in building initial rapport.</p>
<p>However, for patients who did not improve after six weeks, adding the alternative therapy method did not lead to better outcomes. Combining messaging with video for non-responders was not more effective than continuing with a single modality. The frequency of the added video sessions, whether weekly or monthly, also did not make a difference in patient improvement. Both groups reported high levels of satisfaction, though participants who received video therapy were slightly more likely to recommend the treatment to others.</p>
<p>The study has several limitations. It did not include a no-treatment control group, which means the researchers cannot completely rule out the possibility that some improvement occurred naturally over time. They note, however, that the remission rates in the study were higher than the typical rates of spontaneous recovery from depression.</p>
<p>The research team also disclosed potential conflicts of interest, as several of the study’s authors were employees of Talkspace, the platform on which the therapy was delivered. The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, which had no role in the study’s design, data analysis, or the decision to publish the results.</p>
<p>For future research, the authors suggest exploring ways to enhance the therapeutic alliance in message-based therapy from the outset. One possibility could be incorporating an initial video session to help establish a stronger connection between the patient and therapist. The findings support the expansion of insurance coverage for message-based psychotherapy, which would make this flexible and effective form of treatment more widely accessible.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2840708" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Message-Based vs Video-Based Psychotherapy for Depression: A Randomized Clinical Trial</a>,” was authored by Michael D. Pullmann, Julien Rouvere, Patrick J. Raue, Isabell R. Griffith Fillipo, Brittany A. Mosser, Patrick J. Heagerty, Nicole Fridling-Cook, Aarthi Padmanabhan, Thomas D. Hull, and Patricia A. Areán.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/hair-shine-linked-to-perceptions-of-youth-and-health-in-women/" 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;">Hair shine linked to perceptions of youth and health in women</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 2nd 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study provides evidence that specific hair characteristics, namely alignment and shine, play a significant part in how a woman’s age, health, and attractiveness are perceived. The research, published in the <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ics.70028" target="_blank" rel="noopener">International Journal of Cosmetic Science</a></em>, suggests that women with straighter and shinier hair are consistently judged as being younger, healthier, and more attractive.</p>
<p>Scientific investigations into female physical appearance have historically concentrated on facial features like symmetry or skin condition. In many of these studies, information about hair is intentionally removed, either by having participants wear a hairband or by digitally editing it out of images. This approach has left a gap in understanding how hair, which is easily altered, contributes to social perceptions.</p>
<p>“Research investigating female physical appearance mostly considered the role of facial features in assessments of, for example, attractiveness. Hair has typically been removed or covered in rating studies,” said study author Bernhard Fink, who is affiliated with the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna and is the CEO of Biosocial Science Information.</p>
<p>“Yet people report high concern with the appearance of their hair, and poor hair condition can impact self-perception and self-esteem. We had evidence from previous research using computer-generated (rendered) female hair that human observers are sensitive to even subtle variations of hair diameter, density, and style. Here, we extend this evidence to the study of natural hair wigs, worn by female models, and the systematic manipulation of hair alignment, shine, and volume.”</p>
<p>The research consisted of two experiments in which female participants rated images of a woman wearing different wigs. In the first experiment, the researchers focused specifically on the impact of hair shine. They prepared 10 pairs of natural Caucasian hair wigs that varied in color, length, and style, including straight and curly options. For each pair, one wig was treated to be high-shine, while the other was treated with a dry shampoo to appear low-shine.</p>
<p>A female model wore each of the 20 wigs and was photographed from a three-quarter back view, so that her facial features were not visible. These image pairs were then shown to 1,500 female participants from three countries: the United States, Germany, and Spain. Participants were asked to look at each pair and choose which image showed a woman who appeared younger, healthier, or more attractive.</p>
<p>The results of this first experiment were consistent across all three countries. For nearly all wig styles, the high-shine version was selected as appearing more youthful and more attractive. The preference for high-shine hair was even stronger when participants were asked to judge health, with the shiny version being chosen for all 10 hair types. This suggests that hair shine is a potent signal of health and vitality that is recognizable across different Western cultures.</p>
<p>The second experiment was designed to explore a more complex picture by adding two more hair features: alignment and volume. The researchers prepared wigs in both neutral blonde and dark brown. They created eight different versions for each color by combining high and low levels of shine, alignment, and volume. For example, one wig might have high alignment (very straight), high shine, and low volume.</p>
<p>A model was photographed wearing each of these wigs from three different angles: front, three-quarter front, and three-quarter back. A group of 2,000 women in the United States then rated the resulting images for youth, health, and attractiveness. This design allowed the researchers to determine the relative importance of each hair feature and see if the effects changed with hair color or viewing angle.</p>
<p>The findings from this experiment pointed to hair alignment as the most influential factor. Hair that was straight-aligned was consistently perceived as the most youthful, healthy, and attractive, regardless of its color or the angle from which it was viewed. High shine also had a positive effect on ratings, though its impact was not as strong as that of straight alignment.</p>
<p>“Most participants provided their assessments of hair images on mobile devices,” Fink noted. “One would assume that subtle variations in hair condition are evident only when presented and viewed on larger screens. This was not the case. Although the hair manipulations were subtle, especially those of alignment and shine, participants were sensitive and provided systematic responses. This has practical implications, as consumers’ assessment of ‘beautiful hair,’ e.g., through viewing on the Internet, influences their wishes for their own hair.”</p>
<p>In contrast, high volume did not receive such positive assessments. The combination that was rated most favorably across the board was hair with high alignment, high shine, and low volume. The study also detected some minor interactions between the hair features and the viewing angle, but the main effects of alignment and shine were far more significant. These results suggest that the smooth, orderly appearance of straight, shiny hair sends powerful positive signals.</p>
<p>“The key message of the study is that female head hair plays a role in assessments of age, health, and attractiveness,” Fink told PsyPost. “Straight hair and shiny hair are perceived as youthful, healthy, and attractive. This observation was made by systematically manipulating hair features using natural hair wigs, thus carefully controlling hair alignment, shine, and volume. High volume did not have as positive an impact on hair assessments as alignment and shine had. The positive effect of shiny hair on assessments was observed in raters from three countries (USA, Germany, Spain).”</p>
<p>But as with all research, there are limitations to consider. The experiments used only natural Caucasian hair wigs, so the findings may not apply to hair from other ethnic groups, which can have different fiber characteristics. It is also worth noting that the participants in both experiments were women judging images of other women. This means the results capture a female-to-female perspective, and it remains unclear whether these preferences would be shared by male observers.</p>
<p>The researchers also disclosed that several authors are employees of or consultants for The Procter & Gamble Company, a leading manufacturer of hair care products. “I would like to note that this study was conducted in collaboration with partners from Procter & Gamble,” Fink said. “This is important because the systematic manipulations of hair were made by professional stylists. Likewise, the imaging setup required work, resulting in a system dedicated to capturing the subtle hair feature variations, especially those that result from light interacting with hair fibers.”</p>
<p>For future directions, the researchers aim to expand this research to non-Western populations, such as in Asian countries, to see if the preference for shiny, aligned hair is a more universal phenomenon. Examining how hair features interact with other variables, like skin pigmentation, is another avenue for further investigation.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ics.70028" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Perceptions of female age, health and attractiveness vary with systematic hair manipulations</a>,” was authored by Susanne Will, Mandy Beckmann, Kristina Kunstmann, Julia Kerschbaumer, Yu Lum Loh, Samuel Stofel, Paul J. Matts, Todd K. Shackelford, and Bernhard Fink.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/the-psychology-of-a-troll-may-start-with-a-specific-type-of-envy/" 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 psychology of a troll may start with a specific type of envy</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 2nd 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study reveals a psychological pathway that connects narcissistic personality traits with the tendency to engage in social media trolling. The research suggests this link is partially explained by a person’s feelings of malicious envy and their exposure to antisocial media content. The findings were published in the journal <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2025.2547922" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Behaviour & Information Technology</a></em>.</p>
<p>To understand the study, it helps to first understand the concepts involved. Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance, a need for admiration, and a sense of entitlement. Trolling, in the context of social media, refers to the act of posting inflammatory or provocative messages to intentionally upset others and disrupt online conversations. The researchers, Mars A. Brown and Masahiro Toyama from the Department of Psychology at Marshall University, sought to explore the mechanisms behind the known association between these two phenomena.</p>
<p>Previous research has shown mixed results on the connection between narcissism and trolling, but recent studies have more consistently found a link. The Marshall University team wanted to build on this work by examining potential intermediary factors. They focused on two distinct types of envy.</p>
<p>The first, benign envy, is a feeling that motivates a person to improve themselves to match someone they admire. The second, malicious envy, involves hostility and a desire to see a more successful person brought down. The researchers hypothesized that malicious envy, not benign envy, might serve as a bridge between narcissism and trolling. They also investigated whether exposure to antisocial media content, such as media depicting fighting or rule-breaking, played a role in this dynamic.</p>
<p>To test their ideas, the researchers recruited 326 adults from the United States using an online platform called Prolific. The participants completed a detailed online questionnaire designed to measure several psychological characteristics. They answered questions that assessed their level of narcissism, their tendencies toward both malicious and benign envy, and their self-reported trolling behaviors on social media.</p>
<p>The survey also gauged their frequency of exposure to antisocial media content. The questionnaire included standard psychological scales for these measures, as well as questions about personality traits like agreeableness and openness to experience, and demographic information like age and gender.</p>
<p>The analysis of the survey data produced a clearer picture of the relationship between these factors. The first major finding confirmed a direct association: individuals with higher narcissism scores were more likely to report engaging in social media trolling. This held true even when other personality traits and demographic factors were taken into account.</p>
<p>The researchers then looked at the role of envy. Their analysis showed that people with higher narcissism scores also reported higher levels of malicious envy. In turn, higher levels of malicious envy were associated with more frequent trolling. This suggests that for some people with narcissistic traits, seeing others succeed online can trigger a hostile envy that leads them to lash out through trolling. Benign envy, on the other hand, was not significantly connected to either narcissism or trolling in this study.</p>
<p>The study also identified a more complex, multi-step pathway. Narcissism was linked to higher malicious envy, which was then linked to a greater frequency of consuming antisocial media content. This increased exposure to antisocial media was, in turn, associated with a higher likelihood of trolling. In this model, narcissistic tendencies can foster a malicious envy that makes content depicting aggression and social defiance more appealing, and consuming this content may normalize or encourage trolling behavior.</p>
<p>Interestingly, even when these indirect pathways through malicious envy and media consumption were accounted for, a direct link between narcissism and trolling remained. This indicates that these intermediary factors are part of the story, but not the whole explanation. Other aspects of narcissism, such as a need for attention or a desire to feel superior by provoking others, may also directly contribute to trolling. The study also noted that individuals with lower levels of the personality trait agreeableness showed patterns similar to those with high narcissism.</p>
<p>The researchers acknowledge several limitations to their work. The study’s design is correlational, which means it shows associations between different factors but cannot prove that one causes another. The data was collected at a single point in time, and future studies that follow participants over time could provide more insight into how these behaviors develop.</p>
<p>Additionally, the study’s participants were recruited from the United States and were, on average, more highly educated than the general population. This means the findings may not be applicable to people in other countries or from different backgrounds. The study also treated narcissism as a single concept, while other research suggests it is a complex trait with multiple dimensions, such as grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, which could have different relationships with trolling.</p>
<p>Future research could explore these different facets of narcissism and investigate other potential factors, like a lack of empathy or the pleasure derived from others’ misfortune, known as schadenfreude.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2025.2547922" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inside the link between narcissism and social media trolling: the involvement of malicious envy and exposure to antisocial media content</a>,” was authored by Mars A. Brown and Masahiro Toyama.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/a-popular-theory-about-ultra-processed-foods-and-dopamine-just-took-a-major-hit/" 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;">A popular theory about ultra-processed foods and dopamine just took a major hit</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 2nd 2025, 11:00</div>
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<p><p>A neuroimaging study of young, healthy adults showed that consuming a milkshake did not, on average, result in a significant release of dopamine in the striatum region of the brain. While dopamine levels did increase in some individuals, this variability was not associated with whether a person had a normal weight, was overweight, or had obesity. The research was published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2025.02.002" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cell Metabolism</a></em>.</p>
<p>Ultra-processed foods are industrially manufactured products made mostly from refined ingredients and additives, with little or no whole foods. They are often engineered to be highly palatable, so that consuming them engages the brain’s reward circuits more intensely than natural foods do.</p>
<p>This is usually achieved by ensuring that ultra-processed foods contain large quantities of easily digestible sugars and fats. Because humans have separate neural pathways connecting the gut to the brain’s reward areas that are triggered by fats and sugars, eating foods rich in both is often more rewarding than eating foods rich in fats or in sugars alone. This is particularly true if these sugars and fats are easier to digest than those found in natural foods, as is the case with many industrially added sugars and fats.</p>
<p>This intense reward potential has led to a popular theory that ultra-processed foods may be addictive. The core of this theory is the idea that their consumption elicits an outsized dopamine response in the brain’s reward regions, a surge similar in nature to that caused by drugs of abuse.</p>
<p>According to this model, this powerful initial reward reinforces consumption. Over time, repeated exposure is thought to cause the brain to adapt, leading to a down-regulation of dopamine receptors and a blunted response. This state, known as tolerance, could then compel an individual to consume even more of the food to achieve the same initial level of pleasure, creating a cycle of compulsive eating.</p>
<p>It was this hypothesis that study author Valerie L. Darcey and her colleagues set out to test. They investigated whether humans exhibited an exaggerated dopamine release after drinking a milkshake, a food frequently used in studies as a proxy for an ultra-processed product because it is rich in both easily digestible fat and sugars and often contains flavor-enhancing additives. Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in this process; it is a chemical messenger that helps signal reward and motivation in the brain, reinforcing behaviors that lead to pleasurable or satisfying experiences.</p>
<p>Study participants were 50 young, healthy adults, 38 of whom were women. They were recruited to cover a full range of body mass index values, with roughly even numbers of participants with normal weight, overweight, and obesity.</p>
<p>After joining the study, participants were supplied with meals designed to provide the exact number of calories needed to maintain their current body weight for a period of 3-5 days. All meals were prepared in the NIH Clinical Center Nutrition Department Metabolic Kitchen with all foods and beverages weighed on a gram scale. Participants were instructed to consume all the foods and beverages they were given. Any food and beverages not consumed were returned and weighed. This procedure aimed to stabilize their diets.</p>
<p>After this period, participants were admitted to the center that carried out the study for several days, where they continued taking similar meals under observation. On the day of the experiment, participants first completed positron emission tomography (PET) scans of their brains in the morning, after having fasted overnight. After that, they rested for 75 minutes, at the end of which they received a glass of vanilla milkshake to consume.</p>
<p>Thirty minutes after drinking the milkshake, participants had their second PET scan. They also provided ratings of how pleasant the milkshake was, whether they wanted more, and how it compared to their expectations. Participants also completed several assessments of food-related behaviors, experiences, and depression.</p>
<p>Results showed no significant average increase in dopamine after drinking a milkshake in the striatum region of the brain. The study’s authors focused on the striatum because it is a brain region central to the reward system that processes dopamine signals. They found pronounced differences between individuals in how their striatum reacted to the milkshake, but these differences were not associated with participants’ adiposity.</p>
<p>In other words, while the brains of some individuals reacted to the milkshake by releasing dopamine, the brains of others did not, and the presence or intensity of this reaction was not related to a participant’s body weight.</p>
<p>Data indicated that dopamine responses might be related to how hungry participants felt and how enjoyable they found the milkshake to be. The dopamine response was also found to be weakly associated with the ad libitum (free) intake of ultra-processed cookies. This means that individuals whose brains reacted to the milkshake with a greater dopamine release tended to eat more cookies later when given the opportunity to eat as much as they wanted.</p>
<p>Discussing the findings in the context of whether ultra-processed foods can be considered addictive, the study’s authors concluded that “post-ingestive striatal dopamine responses to an ultra-processed milkshake were likely substantially smaller than for many addictive drugs and below the limits of detection using standard PET methods.”</p>
<p>The study contributes to the scientific understanding of neural processes related to food intake. However, the authors note that the study did not include a control group. The design compared dopamine levels before and after drinking the milkshake. Therefore, the possibility remains that other factors could have influenced the changes in dopamine observed in some individuals.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2025.02.002" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brain dopamine responses to ultra-processed milkshakes are highly variable and not significantly related to adiposity in humans</a>,” was authored by Valerie L. Darcey, Juen Guo, Meible Chi, Stephanie T. Chung, Amber B. Courville, Isabelle Gallagher, Peter Herscovitch, Paule V. Joseph, Rebecca Howard, Melissa La Noire, Lauren Milley, Alex Schick, Michael Stagliano, Sara Turner, Nicholas Urbanski, Shanna Yang, Nan Zhai, Megan S. Zhou, and Kevin D. Hall.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/exercise-induced-orgasms-scientists-are-diving-deep-into-the-unusual-phenomenon/" 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;">Exercise-induced orgasms: Scientists are diving deep into the unusual phenomenon</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Nov 2nd 2025, 10:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-025-03237-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Archives of Sexual Behavior</a></em> provides the most detailed account to date of women’s experiences with orgasms that occur during physical exercise. Through in-depth interviews, researchers found that these experiences often begin in childhood, are felt as a deep, internal sensation, and can be integrated into a person’s sexual life. This work builds on more than a decade of research that challenges the common understanding of orgasm as a strictly sexual event.</p>
<p>The research was conducted by a team at The Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, led by Debby Herbenick, a prominent sexuality researcher. The scientific rationale for these studies stems from a desire to understand the full spectrum of human orgasmic response. Before this work began, the phenomenon was mostly a subject of popular curiosity, often called a “coregasm” in magazines and online forums because of its frequent association with abdominal workouts.</p>
<p>While orgasm is almost exclusively discussed in sexual contexts, historical medical literature and early sexuality research, like the Kinsey reports, had occasionally noted orgasms occurring during non-sexual activities. However, these observations were limited, and a scientific gap remained between the popular buzz and empirical evidence. By systematically investigating this phenomenon, the researchers hoped to gain a clearer picture of the physiological and psychological processes of orgasm, independent of sexual fantasy or direct genital stimulation.</p>
<p>This line of inquiry began with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2011.647902" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a foundational study</a> in 2011. The researchers conducted an anonymous, internet-based survey of 530 women who had experienced either orgasm or sexual pleasure during exercise. The goal was to systematically describe a phenomenon that had, until then, been confined to popular media articles and scattered case reports. This initial study was exploratory, aiming to identify which exercises were most commonly associated with these experiences and what the experiences felt like for the women involved.</p>
<p>The findings from that first survey established a baseline understanding. Among women who reported exercise-induced orgasms, the most common activities were abdominal exercises, climbing poles or ropes, and lifting weights. A large portion of these women reported feeling self-conscious about their experience, particularly when exercising in public.</p>
<p>The data also showed that sexual thoughts or fantasies were rarely associated with these orgasms, suggesting the experience was primarily physiological rather than psychological in origin. For women who experienced sexual pleasure without orgasm, biking or spinning was frequently identified, along with abdominal exercises and weight lifting.</p>
<p>Seeking to understand the prevalence of this phenomenon in the general population, the research team conducted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-01996-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a follow-up study</a> using data from the 2014 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior. This survey involved a nationally representative probability sample of over 2,000 U.S. adolescents and adults, allowing for a much broader and more generalizable analysis. This study was the first to provide population-level estimates for exercise-induced orgasm and included men in its analysis.</p>
<p>The 2021 study revealed that approximately 9% of the survey respondents reported having experienced an orgasm during exercise at least once in their lifetime. There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence between men and women. The researchers did find a gender difference in the age of first experience, with women reporting a mean age of about 23, while men reported a mean age of about 17.</p>
<p>The types of exercises associated with the first experience were consistent with the 2011 findings and included abdominal exercises, climbing, and weight lifting for both genders. The analysis also identified an association between having an exercise-induced orgasm and having an orgasm during sleep, but not with having an orgasm during a recent partnered sexual event.</p>
<p>The most recent study, published in 2025, moved from quantitative surveys to qualitative interviews to capture the rich, lived experiences of women. The research team conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 21 women, ranging in age from 19 to 68, who had a history of exercise-induced orgasms. The interviews took place in a setting equipped with exercise mats and a Roman chair, allowing participants to demonstrate, if they felt comfortable, the specific movements that led to their experiences. This method allowed for a detailed exploration of their personal histories, physical sensations, and emotional responses.</p>
<p>A key finding from these interviews was that the first experience with exercise-induced arousal or orgasm often occurred during childhood or early adolescence. Many women recalled feeling these sensations as young as five or six years old while climbing poles on a playground, doing gymnastics, or performing sit-ups in physical education class.</p>
<p>At the time, they were often confused by the sensations, with several participants describing the initial feeling as a sense that they needed to urinate. They lacked a framework for understanding what was happening to their bodies, but they recognized the feeling was pleasurable and, in some cases, sought to reproduce it.</p>
<p>The participants often described an “aha” moment, which typically occurred later in adolescence or adulthood, when they gained more sexual knowledge from peers, media, or their own sexual experiences. It was at this point they connected their childhood sensations with the concept of arousal and orgasm. One woman recounted how making out with someone for the first time made her realize, “This is the same feeling, how strange.” This moment of recognition helped them make sense of a long-standing, and sometimes bewildering, bodily experience.</p>
<p>The interviews provided detailed descriptions of how an exercise-induced orgasm feels physically. Many women characterized it as a deep, internal sensation, originating in the lower abdomen between the belly button and the pelvis. They often contrasted this with orgasms from direct clitoral stimulation, which they described as more external.</p>
<p>Some participants noted a progression of sensations, starting with a warmth or tingling in their core that would build and radiate downward. The experience was often predictable, with women learning that orgasm would occur after a certain number of repetitions of an exercise, such as after 50 leg lifts or during the third set of pull-ups.</p>
<p>The emotional responses to these experiences were complex and often evolved over time. Embarrassment and shame were common, especially when the orgasms occurred in public spaces like a gym or during a group fitness class. Participants worried that others might notice their facial expressions or hear them make sounds.</p>
<p>Some developed strategies to mask the experience, like keeping a serious facial expression, or to avoid it altogether by choosing different exercises. These feelings were sometimes rooted in cultural or familial taboos around sexuality, which made experiencing an orgasm in a non-sexual, public setting feel inappropriate or wrong.</p>
<p>Despite these negative feelings, many women came to accept and even enjoy their ability to have orgasms through exercise. Some viewed it as a motivator to work out, an “added perk at the end of the 100 reps.” Others described it as an empowering experience that gave them a sense of control over their own pleasure, independent of a partner. One woman explained that if she was not getting the attention she needed from her husband, exercise was another way to achieve the stress release of an orgasm.</p>
<p>A significant finding was how some women integrated their knowledge of exercise-induced orgasms into their sexual lives. After learning which muscle contractions produced pleasure during exercise, they were able to apply similar movements during partnered sex. One participant explained that she could tense her core muscles to achieve a stronger or faster orgasm, sometimes allowing her to climax at the same time as her partner. For some, exercise became a form of masturbation or foreplay, and for one woman, it was the only way she had been able to experience orgasm until recently.</p>
<p>These studies have some limitations. The initial survey used a convenience sample, which cannot be used to determine prevalence. The new qualitative study involved a small number of participants who were mostly young, white, and living in the United States, so their experiences may not reflect those of a more diverse population. Future research is needed to explore these experiences among men, gender-diverse individuals, people from different cultural backgrounds, and older adults.</p>
<p>A major direction for future research is to understand the physiological mechanism behind exercise-induced orgasms. It is still not known precisely how muscle contractions during certain exercises trigger an orgasmic response.</p>
<p>Subsequent studies could involve biomechanical analysis, neuro-imaging, or other physiological measures to investigate the roles of muscle tension, nerve pathways, and the sympathetic nervous system. A better understanding of the mechanism could have practical applications for physical therapists, personal trainers, and even military personnel who must pass rigorous fitness tests.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14681994.2011.647902" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Exercise-induced orgasm and pleasure among women</a>,” was authored by Debby Herbenick and J. Dennis Fortenberry.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-01996-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Exercise-Induced Orgasm and Its Association with Sleep Orgasms and Orgasms During Partnered Sex: Findings From a U.S. Probability Survey</a>,” was authored by Debby Herbenick, Tsung-chieh Fu, Callie Patterson, and J. Dennis Fortenberry.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-025-03237-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Women’s Experiences with Exercise-Induced Orgasm: Findings from Qualitative Interviews</a>,” was authored by Debby Herbenick, Callie Patterson Perry, J. Dennis Fortenberry, Ruhun Wasata, Jodi Wilson, Owen Miller, Kayla Willens, Alyssa Williams, and Georgia Frey.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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