Topic description and stories

Person providing a drop of blood for a medical test

Simple blood test can help diagnose bipolar disorder

25 Oct 2023

Researchers have developed a new way of improving diagnosis of bipolar disorder that uses a simple blood test to identify biomarkers associated with...

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Young people smoking

Reduced grey matter in frontal lobes linked to teenage smoking and nicotine addiction

15 Aug 2023

Findings may demonstrate a brain and behavioural basis for how nicotine addiction is initiated and then takes hold in early life, say scientists.

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Imaging of the Supplementary Motor Area (left) and the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (right) from the study

Chemical imbalance in the forebrain underpins compulsive behaviour and OCD

27 Jun 2023

Neuroscientists say that the findings are a “major piece of the puzzle” in understanding OCD, and could open up new lines of treatment.

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Father and son talking

Assisted reproduction kids grow up just fine – but it may be better to tell them early about biological origins

13 Apr 2023

Landmark study finds no difference in psychological wellbeing or quality of family relationships between children born by assisted reproduction (egg...

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A Humboldt's squirrel monkey is fooled by a French drop as part of the experiment.

Sleight-of-hand magic trick only fools monkeys with opposable thumbs

03 Apr 2023

Illusion involving a hidden thumb confounds capuchin and squirrel monkeys for the same reason as humans – it misdirects the expected outcomes of...

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Humanoid QT robot and toy-like Misty robot

Robots can help improve mental wellbeing at work – as long as they look right

15 Mar 2023

Robots can be useful as mental wellbeing coaches in the workplace – but perception of their effectiveness depends in large part on what the robot...

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Foolproof: A psychological vaccine against fake news

06 Feb 2023

In an edited extract from his new book ‘Foolproof: Why We Fall for Misinformation and How to Build Immunity’, Prof Sander van der Linden takes us...

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Wiping down the countertop

Men may not ‘perceive’ domestic tasks as needing doing in the same way as women, philosophers argue

22 Dec 2022

By adding a gender dimension to the theory of “affordance perception” and applying it to the home, a new hypothesis may help answer questions of why...

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Robot shaking hands with Dr Micol Spitale

Robots can be used to assess children’s mental wellbeing, study suggests

01 Sep 2022

Robots can be better at detecting mental wellbeing issues in children than parent-reported or self-reported testing, a new study suggests.

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How to 'inoculate' millions against misinformation on social media

24 Aug 2022

Briefly exposing social media users to tricks behind misinformation boosts awareness of dangerous online falsehoods – even amid intense ‘noise’ of...

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Young boy making his way through a dense forest of trees and cow parsley. He stands out in the green in his bright red jumper.

Developmental dyslexia essential to human adaptive success, study argues

24 Jun 2022

Researchers say people with Developmental Dyslexia have specific strengths relating to exploring the unknown that have contributed to the successful...

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Musical preferences unite personalities across the globe

10 Feb 2022

Research involving more than 350,000 participants from six continents has found that links between musical preferences and personality are universal...

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