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Psychopathy, Empathy, and Cortical Structure in 804 Incarcerated Men

Psychopathy is not a simple “low empathy equals abnormal brain scan” story. In 804 incarcerated men, psychopathy factors tracked empathic concern, perspective taking, cortical thickness, surface area, and cortical organization—but self-reported empathy scores did not map cleanly onto cortical structure.1 Research Highlights The sample was unusually large for forensic MRI. Radecki et al. analyzed 804 …

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Cancer Survivor Neuropathic Pain: Duloxetine and Exercise Signals

MHD featured image for cancer survivor neuropathic pain treatment evidence.

A 2026 scoping review screened 956 systematic reviews/guidelines and 604 original studies on cancer-survivor neuropathic pain, but only 11 pharmacological, 2 psychological, and 3 exercise studies were eligible.1 The practical signal is narrow: duloxetine and some exercise programs have the clearest support, while psychological and interdisciplinary evidence is still too thin for confident treatment ranking. …

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Prenatal PM2.5 Linked to Autism-Relevant Newborn Amino Acid Metabolism

MHD featured image for prenatal air pollution, newborn metabolomics, and autism risk.

A matched case-control study of 50 children with autism spectrum disorder and 50 controls found that newborn amino acid metabolism overlapped with both later autism diagnosis and prenatal air-pollution exposure.1 The central pathway, aspartate and asparagine metabolism, was associated with autism (p = 0.01), pregnancy PM2.5 (p < 0.001), first-trimester PM2.5 (p < 0.001), and …

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Big Five Personality Traits and Sexual Fantasies in 5,225 Adults

Sexual fantasies are not distributed randomly, but the pattern is subtler than popular personality stereotypes imply. In 5,225 adults, conscientiousness and agreeableness tracked lower fantasy frequency, while negative emotionality—especially the depression facet—tracked higher fantasy frequency across multiple fantasy domains.1 Research Highlights 5,225-person sample: Cannoot et al. analyzed adults with mean age 58.30 years; 56.5% were …

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Eco-Anxiety in Children: Art and Philosophy Trial

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A 2026 pilot trial tested a classroom program for children's climate anxiety: art projects plus guided discussion were supposed to help students express climate emotions and build coping skills. The intervention did not work better than waitlist control, but it also did not make children more anxious. Research Highlights The intervention failed to separate: 46 …

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Infrasound Raised Cortisol and Irritability Without Conscious Detection

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A 36-person experiment found that 18 Hz infrasound raised salivary cortisol and negative mood appraisal even though participants did not detect the infrasound above chance (p = 0.241).1 The result is a controlled acute signal, not proof that every real-world low-frequency noise complaint is physiologically caused by infrasound. Research Highlights Cortisol rose with infrasound: Infrasound …

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Chlorpyrifos Exposure Linked to Up to 174% Higher Parkinson’s Risk

MHD featured image for chlorpyrifos exposure, Parkinson's risk, dopaminergic neurons, and autophagy dysfunction.

A human, mouse, and zebrafish study linked long-term chlorpyrifos exposure to Parkinson’s disease risk, with the strongest exposure-duration estimate reaching OR 2.74 for workplace proximity across the 1974-to-index-year window.1 The paper is stronger than a single epidemiology result because animal experiments pointed to dopaminergic neuron loss, microglial activation, pathological α-synuclein, and autophagy dysfunction. Research Highlights …

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