College students who felt more academic stress and trusted AI more reported leaning harder on generative AI for their writing, according to a 2026 survey of 229 journalism students at 2 universities in China. Students with stronger AI literacy reported less dependence once other factors were taken into account.1 Research Highlights Stress had the strongest …
In a 2026 interview study involving 6 adults with long-term chronic pain in Quebec, participants said their deepest suffering came less from how much they hurt than from what pain did to their social lives: loneliness, judgment and the strain of trying to look normal.1 Research Highlights Social losses, not pain intensity, defined suffering: all …
Among Swedish memory-clinic patients without dementia, more stressful life events were linked to a spinal-fluid sign of Alzheimer’s amyloid buildup, but only in people with moderate-to-high insomnia symptoms, according to a 2026 study.1 Research Highlights Stress and insomnia worked together: in 103 patients with spinal-fluid tests, lifetime stressful events and insomnia symptoms interacted in relation …
A virtual reality (VR) headset and a simple hand massage from a companion both eased pain and anxiety during emergency room stitches, compared with usual care alone, in a 2026 randomized trial involving 87 adults in Iran.1 Research Highlights 3 arms: 90 adults with cuts needing sutures were randomized to usual care, usual care plus …
In a 2026 survey of 420 middle school students in eastern China, more physically active teens reported more cognitive reappraisal (reframing stressful situations), better stress-management habits and better health-related quality of life.1 Research Highlights Activity linked to quality of life through coping scores: the researchers’ model combined proposed links through reframing stressful situations and stress-management …
A new study reanalyzed a widely cited target-shooting experiment used to support the scarcity mindset theory. That theory says money shortages focus attention on immediate needs and make future costs easier to overlook.1 Giving players fewer or more shots changed their opportunities to score and borrow, explaining results previously attributed to narrowed attention. The findings …
A zebrafish experiment found that one 1-hour ayahuasca exposure reversed several effects of 14 days of unpredictable chronic stress: impaired sociability, anxiety-like behavior, stress-related hyperlocomotion, elevated cortisol, and reduced whole-brain BDNF.1 The result is mechanistic animal evidence, not a clinical trial of ayahuasca for human depression or anxiety. Research Highlights 14 days of chronic stress …