When teenagers play a video game designed by researchers to teach empathy, the game affects areas of their brains related to empathy and emotional regulation, finds research in npc Science of Learning. In the game, players interact with human-like aliens and must...
Babies born to mothers who smoke tobacco are at increased risk for attention-deficit hyper-activity disorder (ADHD), finds a study of Finnish mothers and infants published in Pediatrics. Researchers looked at 1,079 Finnish children born in 1998 and 1999 who...
Teenagers are particularly sensitive to facial expressions of anger and fear and lose some of that sensitivity as they age, finds a study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Researchers tested more than 9,500 online participants, ages 10 to 85, on a...
Teenagers and young adults who take amphetamine-based stimulants to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at increased risk for developing psychosis, finds a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers analyzed the health-insurance records of nearly 222,000 young people, ages 13...
The risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is largely determined by genetics, suggests a study in JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers analyzed data from more than 2 million individuals from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Israel, and Australia born between 1998 and 2012, of...
Children born to older parents have fewer behavioral problems than those born to younger parents, according to a study in Child Development. Researchers in the Netherlands analyzed parent and teacher reports of problem behavior from 32,892 10- to 12-year-old Dutch...
Patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease may show disruptions in non-REM deep sleep, suggests a study in Science Translational Medicine. Researchers studied 119 U.S. older adults (average age 70) who were either cognitively typical or only slightly impaired. They...
People consider far less information than they think they will before making judgments, suggests a study in PNAS. Researchers asked 207 online participants to view up to 40 paintings in a novel style of art. Before viewing the paintings,...
Teenagers in treatment for depression fare better when therapists more quickly assess symptoms and adjust treatment as needed, finds a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Researchers followed 40 U.S. teenagers with depressive disorder undergoing 12 sessions of interpersonal psychotherapy over...
A pregnant woman’s exposure to air pollution could slightly increase her child’s risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), suggests a study in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers studied the medical records of more than 132,000 children born in Vancouver between 2004...