Mimood

A new review of current literature has found that irregular responses in the brain to challenging tasks and mistakes could be key to understanding common links between abnormal behaviors in a range of mental illness and cognitive disorders.

In women who have experienced trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms may vary over the course of the menstrual cycle, with more symptoms during the first few days of the cycle when the hormone estradiol is low, and fewer symptoms close to ovulation, when estradiol is high, new research finds.

Researchers tested the effectiveness of affordable, interactive robotic pet cats to improve mood, behavior and cognition in older adults with mild to moderate dementia. Mood and behavioral symptoms were measured along with cognition using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Intervention with this robotic cat improved all mood scores over time, with significant improvements in mood and depression. More than half of the participants scored higher on the MMSE post-test than pretest, with slight to moderate improvement in attention/calculation, language, and registration. The robotic cats also provided participants with an alternative way to express themselves.

Research on around 386,000 UK adults has found that a high genetic risk for schizophrenia and other mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder, anorexia and autism, is associated with living in and moving to urban areas. In contrast, people with low genetic risk of ADHD preferentially moved from rural/suburban environments to cities.

Research has revealed that the brain employs distinct circuitries that mediate positive, or rewarding, behaviors and negative, or aversive, ones. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has long been thought to arise from overactivity in the negative valence system, however a new study shows that people with PTSD also displayed a deficit in activation of positive valence processing soon after the trauma, suggesting it plays a role in resilience to PTSD.

An international research team investigated whether continued magnetic seizure therapy might effectively prevent the relapse of treatment-resistant depression, compared to what is known about electroconvulsive therapy, the current standard of care.

Depression and anxiety in pregnant women may be connected to the type of delivery they have, new research suggests.

Are animals born to seek rewards or avoid punishment? Researchers found that mice have pre-programmed neurons and circuits that process 'positive' and 'negative' stimuli. Their findings may be useful for studying neurological and psychiatric disorders in humans.

A study involving some 11,000 dogs demonstrated that the gender, age and breed of the dog, as well as any behavioral problems and certain environmental factors, are connected to hyperactive and impulsive behavior and inattention (ADHD).

The way a person's brain responds to stress following a traumatic event, such as a car accident, may help to predict their long-term mental health outcomes, according to new research. The study followed more than 3,000 people for up to a year after exposure to a traumatic event.