A 2026 study of 250 mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) found that family burden was strongly tied to lower social support, lower family quality of life, and lower happiness. In the structural model, the burden-happiness link was explained by perceived support and family quality of life rather than a direct burden-to-happiness …
A 2026 mouse circuit study found that restraint stress progressively reduced medial prefrontal social coding: mPFC excitatory-neuron transient rates fell to roughly 70-80% of baseline after acute stress and nearly 50% after chronic stress, while suppressing either basolateral-amygdala input or hypothalamic oxytocin input restored social discrimination and behavior.1 The result is a circuit-specific oxytocin finding, …
A 2026 rat study found that foot-shock stress transiently reduced food-cue approach during the first 2 conditioned-stimulus trials (t = 2.807; P < 0.05), and inhibiting the nucleus of the solitary tract weakened that stress effect.1 The useful finding is selective: stress used an NTS-linked route to dampen cue-evoked VTA dopamine, while outcome-specific satiety reduced ...
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 …
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 …
A 40-rat early-life visceral stress study found auditory pathway sensitization without hearing-threshold loss: neonatal colorectal distension produced IBS-like visceral hypersensitivity, normal ABR thresholds, shortened auditory brainstem latencies, increased amplitudes, and 219 differentially expressed cochlear proteins.1 The result turns IBS-like stress exposure into a gut-pain and sensory-processing question. Research Highlights Visceral hypersensitivity was strong: At 20 …
A 2026 functional magnetic resonance imaging study involving 54 adults found that pairing a formerly threatening cue with positive images, a laboratory method called counterconditioning, strengthened later neural safety-memory signals in people with posttraumatic stress disorder. The experiment measured fear-learning biology, not PTSD symptom improvement after therapy.1 Research Highlights 54 adults were analyzed: Cooper et …