Lack of sleep is common in anxiety disorders, but it may play a key role in revving up brain regions that contribute to excessive worrying, UC Berkeley researchers have found. Being deprived of sleep, neuroscientists have found, boosts anticipatory anxiety by sparking the brain’s amygdala and insular cortex, areas linked to emotional processing. The ensuing…
Category: Psychology
Why More Complicated Lies Are Easier To Remember
Everyone lies, whether consciously or not. But if we could put aside moral concerns one moment and watch what happens when you tell a lie, what would we learn about ourselves? What happens in the brain later, when you try to access the memory of your deception? According to a new study from Louisiana State…
The More Successful Women Are, the Worse Their Male Partners Feel
Although men may feel like they enjoy basking in the glory of their successful wives or girlfriends, their subconscious self-esteem may be taking a direct hit when a spouse or girlfriend excels. Interestingly, women’s self-esteem was unaffected by their male partners’ successes or failures, according to new research. “It makes sense that a man might…
How Anxiety Changes Your Personal Space Size
The space around your body, (‘peripersonal space’, to all you neuroscientists) has always been seen as having a gradual boundary. New research into the link between anxiety and personal space has now shown real physical limits to the space. The boundary of the ‘peripersonal space’ surrounding the face as 20-40cm away (about 8-16 inches). Also,…
Will That Sugar Rush Help You Get Stuff Done?
That afternoon candy bar may not be necessary if you’re trying to finish a tough task. Believing you have the willpower can do the trick, researchers say in a new study. “The dominant theory about willpower is that it’s easily depleted and depends on a consistent supply of glucose from the outside,” says Carol Dweck,…
Does Volunteering Benefit your Mental and Physical Health?
Survey says… Yes. Volunteering can improve mental health as well as help you live longer, finds a large meta-analysis from University of Exeter Medical School. Gathering and comparing data from multiple experimental trials and longitudinal cohort studies, researchers found about 20 per cent reduction in mortality among volunteers compared to non-volunteers in cohort studies. The…
Our Cells Respond Better To Happiness Based On Sense Of Connectedness And Purpose
Not all happiness is equally good for you, and our bodies know it at a molecular level. According to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the sense of well-being we get from a noble purpose may give cellular health benefits, but simple self-gratification might have negative effects, in spite of…
How We Learn Under Stress
When someone has to learn new knowledge under stress, the brain uses unconscious rather than conscious learning processes. Now, neuroscience researchers at the Ruhr-Universität in Germany have found out that the switch from conscious to unconscious learning systems is triggered by the functioning of mineralocorticoid receptors. The receptors are activated by stress hormones released by…
Does Materialism Cause Loneliness?
When you get depressed do you go shopping? Loneliness can make you greedy and materialistic, but does it work the other way around? A researcher at Tilburg University in the Netherlands studied 2,500 consumers over 6 years and recently published a paper on the subject, so now we know the answer. “It is widely believed…