Why your brain has to work harder in an open-plan office than private offices: study

Arlington Research/Unsplash, CC BY Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, Bond University

Since the pandemic, offices around the world have quietly shrunk. Many organisations don’t need as much floor space or as many desks, given many staff now do a mix of hybrid work from home and the office.

But on days when more staff are required to be in, office spaces can feel noticeably busier and noisier. Despite so much focus on getting workers back into offices, there has been far less focus on the impacts of returning to open-plan workspaces.

Now, more research confirms what many suspected: our brains have to work harder in open-plan spaces than in private offices.

What the latest study tested

In a recently published study, researchers at a Spanish university fitted 26 people, aged in their mid-20s to mid-60s, with wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets. EEG testing can measure how hard the brain is working by tracking electrical activity through sensors on the scalp.

Participants completed simulated office tasks, such as monitoring notifications, reading and responding to emails, and memorising and recalling lists of words.

Each participant was monitored while completing the tasks in two different settings: an open-plan workspace with colleagues nearby, and a small enclosed work “pod” with clear glazed panels on one side.

The researchers focused on the frontal regions of the brain, responsible for attention, concentration, and filtering out distractions. They measured different types of brain waves.

As neuroscientist Susan Hillier explains in more detail, different brain waves reveal distinct mental states:

• “gamma” is linked with states or tasks that require more focused concentration
• “beta” is linked with higher anxiety and more active states, with attention often directed externally
• “alpha” is linked with being very relaxed, and passive attention (such as listening quietly but not engaging)
• “theta” is linked with deep relaxation and inward focus
• and “delta” is linked with deep sleep.

The Spanish study found that the same tasks done inside the enclosed pod vs the open-plan workspace produced completely opposite patterns.

It takes effort to filter out distractions

In the work pod, the study found beta waves – associated with active mental processing – dropped significantly over the experiment, as did alpha waves linked to passive attention and overall activity in the frontal brain regions.

This meant people’s brains needed progressively less effort to sustain the same work.

The open-plan office testing showed the reverse.

Gamma waves, linked to complex mental processing, climbed steadily. Theta waves, which track both working memory and mental fatigue, increased. Two key measures also rose significantly: arousal (how alert and activated the brain is) and engagement (how much mental effort is being applied).

In other words, in the open-plan office participants’ brains had to work harder to maintain performance.

Even when we try to ignore distractions, our brain has to expend mental effort to filter them out.

In contrast, the pod eliminated most background noise and visual disruptions, allowing participant’s brains to work more efficiently.

Researchers also found much wider variability in the open office. Some people’s brain activity increased dramatically, while others showed modest changes. This suggests individual differences in how distracting we find open-plan spaces.

With only 26 participants, this was a relatively small study. But its findings echo a significant body of research from the past decade.

What past research has shown

In our 2021 study, my colleagues and I found a significant causal relationship between open-plan office noise and physiological stress. Studying 43 participants in controlled conditions – using heart rate, skin conductivity and AI facial emotion recognition – we found negative mood in open plan offices increased by 25% and physiological stress by 34%.

Another study showed background conversations and noisy environments can degrade cognitive task performance and increase distraction for workers.

And a 2013 analysis of more than 42,000 office workers in the United States, Finland, Canada and Australia found those in open-plan offices were less satisfied with their work environment than those in private offices. This was largely due to increased, uncontrollable noise and lack of privacy.

Just as we now recognise poorly designed chairs cause physical strain, years of research has shown how workspace design can result in cognitive strain.

What to do about it

The ability to focus and concentrate without interruption and distraction is a fundamental requirement for modern knowledge work.

Yet the value of uninterrupted work continues to be undervalued in workplace design.

Creating zones where workers can match their workplace environment to the task is essential.

Responding to having more staff doing hybrid work post-pandemic, LinkedIn redesigned its flagship San Francisco office. LinkedIn halved the number of workstations in open plan areas, instead experimenting with 75 types of work settings, including work areas for quiet focus.

For organisations looking to look after their workers’ brains, there are practical measures to consider. These include setting up different work zones, acoustic treatments and sound-masking technologies, and thoughtfully placed partitions to reduce visual and auditory distractions.

While adding those extra features in may cost more upfront than an open plan office, they can be worth it. Research has shown the significant hidden toll of poor office design on productivity, health and employee retention.

Providing workers with more choice in how much they’re exposed to noise and other interruptions is not a luxury. To get more done, with less strain on our brains, better design at work should be seen as a necessity.

Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, MBA Director & Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→February 16, 2026

IIT Bombay’s new smart platform to help researchers decode brain diseases

(Photo: IIT Bombay) IANS

New Delhi, (IANS) A team of bioengineers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has developed new smart platforms --BrainProt and DrugProtAI -- that unify data on scattered brain diseases to help researchers find markers, explore treatments, and pinpoint druggable targets.

BrainProt v3.0 is a database that combines various types of biological data -- from genes to proteins -- into a single platform to enable systematic insights into human brain function in both healthy and diseased states.

It is the first system to integrate multi-disease data from genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and biomarker research and multi-database information into one portal.

“BrainProt also includes resources to identify and understand protein expression differences between the left and right hemispheres of the human brain across 20 neuroanatomical regions. This is the first resource of its kind,” said Prof. Sanjeeva Srivastava from the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay.

BrainProt includes data on 56 human brain diseases and 52 multi-omics datasets derived from more than 1,800 patient samples. These datasets include transcriptomic data for 11 diseases and proteomic data for six diseases.

For each disease, users can examine genes and proteins frequently associated with the disease, assess how strongly these genes and proteins are already supported by existing medical and scientific databases, and how their activity levels change in patient samples.

DrugProtAI was developed to understand whether a protein can be druggable (has the biological and physical characteristics needed to be a useful drug target) before doing costly experiments.

This is crucial because only about 10 per cent of human proteins currently have an FDA-approved drug, with another 3-4 per cent under investigation.

“Before investing years of work in a protein target, DrugProtAI predicts whether the protein is druggable by looking beyond the protein’s sequence, such as cellular location, structural attributes, and other unique characteristics it has,” said Dr. Ankit Halder, co-author of the study.

The tool generates a “druggability index” -- a probability score indicating how likely a protein is to be druggable. A higher score suggests that the protein shares many properties with proteins that already have approved drugs, while a lower score indicates that drug development would be more challenging.“By integrating DrugProtAI directly into BrainProt, we created a pipeline where researchers can move from identifying a disease marker to examining its expression patterns to evaluating its druggability and exploring existing compounds or clinical trials, all within an hour,” Halder said. IIT Bombay’s new smart platform to help researchers decode brain diseases | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→January 23, 2026

The science of weight loss – and why your brain is wired to keep you fat

When you lose weight, your body reacts as if it were a threat to survival. pexels/pavel danilyuk, CC BY

Valdemar Brimnes Ingemann Johansen, University of Copenhagen and Christoffer Clemmensen, University of Copenhagen

For decades, we’ve been told that weight loss is a matter of willpower: eat less, move more. But modern science has proven this isn’t actually the case.

More on that in a moment. But first, let’s go back a few hundred thousand years to examine our early human ancestors. Because we can blame a lot of the difficulty we have with weight loss today on our predecessors of the past – maybe the ultimate case of blame the parents.

For our early ancestors, body fat was a lifeline: too little could mean starvation, too much could slow you down. Over time, the human body became remarkably good at guarding its energy reserves through complex biological defences wired into the brain. But in a world where food is everywhere and movement is optional, those same systems that once helped us survive uncertainty now make it difficult to lose weight.

When someone loses weight, the body reacts as if it were a threat to survival. Hunger hormones surge, food cravings intensify and energy expenditure drops. These adaptations evolved to optimise energy storage and usage in environments with fluctuating food availability. But today, with our easy access to cheap, calorie-dense junk food and sedentary routines, those same adaptations that once helped us to survive can cause us a few issues.

As we found in our recent research, our brains also have powerful mechanisms for defending body weight – and can sort of “remember” what that weight used to be. For our ancient ancestors, this meant that if weight was lost in hard times, their bodies would be able to “get back” to their usual weight during better times.

But for us modern humans, it means that our brains and bodies remember any excess weight gain as though our survival and lives depend upon it. So in effect, once the body has been heavier, the brain comes to treat that higher weight as the new normal – a level it feels compelled to defend.

The fact that our bodies have this capacity to “remember” our previous heavier weight helps to explain why so many people regain weight after dieting. But as the science shows, this weight regain is not due to a lack of discipline; rather, our biology is doing exactly what it evolved to do: defend against weight loss.

Hacking biology

This is where weight-loss medications such as Wegovy and Mounjaro have offered fresh hope. They work by mimicking gut hormones that tell the brain to curb appetite.

But not everyone responds well to such drugs. For some, the side effects can make them difficult to stick with, and for others, the drugs don’t seem to lead to weight loss at all. It’s also often the case that once treatment stops, biology reasserts itself – and the lost weight returns.

Advances in obesity and metabolism research may mean that it’s possible for future therapies to be able to turn down these signals that drive the body back to its original weight, even beyond the treatment period.

Research is also showing that good health isn’t the same thing as “a good weight”. As in, exercise, good sleep, balanced nutrition, and mental wellbeing can all improve heart and metabolic health, even if the number on the scales barely moves.

A whole society approach

Of course, obesity isn’t just an individual problem – it takes a society-wide approach to truly tackle the root causes. And research suggests that a number of preventative measures might make a difference – things such as investing in healthier school meals, reducing the marketing of junk food to children, designing neighbourhoods where walking and cycling are prioritised over cars, and restaurants having standardised food portions.

Scientists are also paying close attention to key early-life stages – from pregnancy to around the age of seven – when a child’s weight regulation system is particularly malleable.

Indeed, research has found that things like what parents eat, how infants are fed, and early lifestyle habits can all shape how the brain controls appetite and fat storage for years to come.

If you’re looking to lose weight, there are still things you can do – mainly by focusing less on crash diets and more on sustainable habits that support overall wellbeing. Prioritising sleep helps regulate appetite, for example, while regular activity – even walking – can improve your blood sugar levels and heart health.

The bottom line though is that obesity is not a personal failure, but rather a biological condition shaped by our brains, our genes, and the environments we live in. The good news is that advances in neuroscience and pharmacology are offering new opportunities in terms of treatments, while prevention strategies can shift the landscape for future generations.

So if you’ve struggled to lose weight and keep it off, know that you’re not alone, and it’s not your fault. The brain is a formidable opponent. But with science, medicine and smarter policies, we’re beginning to change the rules of the game.

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This article was commissioned as part of a partnership collaboration between Videnskab.dk and The Conversation. You can read the Danish version of this article, here.

Valdemar Brimnes Ingemann Johansen, PhD Fellow in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen and Christoffer Clemmensen, Associate Professor and Group Leader, Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→December 16, 2025

Rapid BP fluctuations may signal risk of brain degeneration in elderly

(Photo: AI generated image/IANS)

New Delhi, (IANS) Older adults whose blood pressure fluctuates widely may indicate a greater risk of brain shrinkage and nerve cell injury, according to a new study.

The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, reveals that short-term “dynamic instability” in blood pressure -- moment-to-moment changes measured over just minutes -- is linked to loss of brain tissue in regions critical for memory and cognition, as well as to blood biomarkers of nerve cell damage.

“Our findings show that even when average blood pressure is normal, instability from one heartbeat to the next may place stress on the brain,” said Daniel Nation, from the University of Southern California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

“These moment-to-moment swings appear to be associated with the same kinds of brain changes we see in early neurodegeneration,” added the Professor of Gerontology and Medicine.

While high average blood pressure has long been known to increase the risk of dementia, this study focuses on blood pressure variability, or how much blood pressure rises and falls over short time periods.

Recent evidence suggests that such fluctuations can strain small blood vessels in the brain and reduce their ability to deliver steady blood flow.

In this study, the researchers combined two complementary measures: Average Real Variability (ARV) and Arterial Stiffness Index (ASI).

ARV captures how much systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) changes between each heartbeat, while ASI reflects how flexible or stiff the arteries are as they respond to those changes in pressure.

Together, these measures indicate how much blood flow changes over a short period of time, or what the researchers call “blood pressure dynamic instability.”

"This study suggests that excessive fluctuations could be a sign of vascular ageing that contributes to brain injury,” Nation explained.

The team conducted MRI scans of 105 community-dwelling older adults between the ages of 55 and 89 who were generally healthy and had no major neurological disease.

Participants with both high ARV and high ASI were found to have smaller hippocampal and entorhinal cortex volumes -- brain regions vital for learning and memory, also the first affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

Blood samples showed that the same individuals also had higher levels of neurofilament light (NfL), a blood-based marker that rises when nerve cells are damaged.The findings open a new window into how cardiovascular changes contribute to cognitive decline and may offer novel prevention strategies. Rapid BP fluctuations may signal risk of brain degeneration in elderly | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→November 01, 2025

Poor sleep may make your brain age faster – new study

Abigail Dove, Karolinska Institutet

We spend nearly a third of our lives asleep, yet sleep is anything but wasted time. Far from being passive downtime, it is an active and essential process that helps restore the body and protect the brain. When sleep is disrupted, the brain feels the consequences – sometimes in subtle ways that accumulate over years.

In a new study, my colleagues and I examined sleep behaviour and detailed brain MRI scan data in more than 27,000 UK adults between the ages of 40 and 70. We found that people with poor sleep had brains that appeared significantly older than expected based on their actual age.

What does it mean for the brain to “look older”? While we all grow chronologically older at the same pace, some people’s biological clocks can tick faster or slower than others. New advances in brain imaging and artificial intelligence allow researchers to estimate a person’s brain age based on patterns in brain MRI scans, such as loss of brain tissue, thinning of the cortex and damage to blood vessels.

In our study, brain age was estimated using over 1,000 different imaging markers from MRI scans. We first trained a machine learning model on the scans of the healthiest participants – people with no major diseases, whose brains should closely match their chronological age. Once the model “learned” what normal ageing looks like, we applied it to the full study population.

Having a brain age higher than your actual age can be a signal of departure from healthy ageing. Previous research has linked an older-appearing brain to faster cognitive decline, greater dementia risk and even higher risk of early death.

Sleep is complex, and no single measure can tell the whole story of a person’s sleep health. Our study, therefore, focused on five aspects of sleep self-reported by the study participants: their chronotype (“morning” or “evening” person), how many hours they typically sleep (seven to eight hours is considered optimal), whether they experience insomnia, whether they snore and whether they feel excessively sleepy during the day.

These characteristics can interact in synergistic ways. For example, someone with frequent insomnia may also feel more daytime sleepiness, and having a late chronotype may lead to shorter sleep duration. By integrating all five characteristics into a “healthy sleep score”, we captured a fuller picture of overall sleep health.

People with four or five healthy traits had a “healthy” sleep profile, while those with two to three had an “intermediate” profile, and those with zero or one had a “poor” profile.

When we compared brain age across different sleep profiles, the differences were clear. The gap between brain age and chronological age widened by about six months for every one point decrease in healthy sleep score. On average, people with a poor sleep profile had brains that appeared nearly one year older than expected based on their chronological age, while those with a healthy sleep profile showed no such gap.

We also considered the five sleep characteristics individually: late chronotype and abnormal sleep duration stood out as the biggest contributors to faster brain ageing.

A year may not sound like much, but in terms of brain health, it matters. Even small accelerations in brain ageing can compound over time, potentially increasing the risk of cognitive impairment, dementia and other neurological conditions.

The good news is that sleep habits are modifiable. While not all sleep problems are easily fixed, simple strategies: keeping a regular sleep schedule; limiting caffeine, alcohol and screen use before bedtime; and creating a dark and quiet sleep environment can improve sleep health and may protect brain health.

How exactly does the quality of a person’s sleep affect their brain health?

One explanation may be inflammation. Increasing evidence suggests that sleep disturbances raise the level of inflammation in the body. In turn, inflammation can harm the brain in several ways: damaging blood vessels, triggering the buildup of toxic proteins and speeding up brain cell death.

We were able to investigate the role of inflammation thanks to blood samples collected from participants at the beginning of the study. These samples contain a wealth of information about different inflammatory biomarkers circulating in the body. When we factored this into our analysis, we found that inflammation levels accounted for about 10% of the connection between sleep and brain ageing.

Other processes may also play a role

Another explanation centres on the glymphatic system – the brain’s built-in waste clearance network, which is mainly active during sleep. When sleep is disrupted or insufficient, this system may not function properly, allowing harmful substances to build up in the brain.

Yet another possibility is that poor sleep increases the risk of other health conditions that are themselves damaging for brain health, including type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Our study is one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, benefiting from a very large study population, a multidimensional measure of sleep health, and a detailed estimation of brain age through thousands of brain MRI features. Though previous research connected poor sleep to cognitive decline and dementia, our study further demonstrated that poor sleep is tied to a measurably older-looking brain, and inflammation might explain this link.

Brain ageing cannot be avoided, but our behaviour and lifestyle choices can shape how it unfolds. The implications of our research are clear: to keep the brain healthier for longer, it is important to make sleep a priority.

Abigail Dove, Postdoctoral Researcher, Neuroepidemiology, Karolinska Institutet

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........→October 17, 2025

Egyptians Performed Brain Surgery 4,000 years ago: A Discovery Called a ​​‘Milestone in the History of Medicine’

Evidence of the man’s malignant tumor – supplied by Tondini, Isidro, Camarós

As with many things, a discovery from ancient Egypt has put a time stamp on the development of something: cancerous tumor removal from the brain.

A man living sometime between 2,686 BCE and 2,345 BCE was nearing 40 when he developed malignant brain tumors, scarring on his cranial walls revealed.

But scientists studying the skull with micro-computed tomography (CT) scans found evidence of tiny cut markets from sharp implements, meaning that ancient Egyptian physicians were either attempting to remove the malignancies or were performing an autopsy to study them.

Either way, scientists at the Duckworth Laboratory at Cambridge in the UK say it’s a first in medical history.

“It was the very first time that humanity was dealing surgically with what we nowadays call cancer,” senior study author Dr. Edgard Camarós, a professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Coruña told CNN.

“If those cut marks were done with that person alive, we’re talking about some kind of treatment directly related to the cancer,” or “it means that this is a medical autopsy exploration in relation to that cancer.”

Evidence of cranial surgery from the Neolithic period has been found, but this is the first case of it involving cancer.

The medical knowledge of Egyptian physicians is known to be sophisticated, as several treatises and medical dictionaries have come down to us on papyrus. They detail lists of ailments and treatments, including one in which a woman is marked as having breast cancer tumors. Interestingly, one such text, called the Edwin Smith papyrus, notes there’s no cure or treatment for breast cancer.

It’s a fascinating indication that cancer was for these ancient physicians a kind of frontier science, and the tumors removed from the man’s skull would have been critical to expanding the scope of their understanding.Skull E270 – supplied by Tondini, Isidro, Camarós

Another skull from the Duckworth collection labeled E270, dating about 2,000 years later, also showed evidence that malignant tumors had damaged the bone. While the tumors were not removed, this woman’s skull had signs of a prior medical intervention for a fracture which she carried for years before her death.

In perhaps both cases, treatment to the skull would have been incredibly painful, and couldn’t not be accomplished neatly without some kind of anesthesia. The Egyptians must therefore have had ways to create powerful painkillers beyond the application of simple analgesic plants.

The Duckworth skulls provide an incredible snapshot of the capabilities of ancient surgeons, as well as demonstrate that cancer isn’t just limited to humans who enjoy the longer lifespans of today, but has instead played a role in human mortality even in the distant past.SHARE Thi Egyptians Performed Brain Surgery 4,000 years ago: A Discovery Called a ​​‘Milestone in the History of Medicine’

Read More........→August 28, 2025

Brain stimulation can help injured people walk: study

BERN - Scientists said that electrically stimulating a particular region in the brain could help people with injured spinal cords walk more easily, with one patient describing how the technique allowed him to conquer his fear of stairs.

The new technique is intended for people with spinal cord injuries where the connection between their brain and spinal cord has not been totally severed, and who still have some movement in their legs.

Wolfgang Jaeger, one of two patients who took part in an early trial, said that it immediately made a "big difference" to his mobility.

"Now when I see a staircase with just a few steps, I know I can handle it on my own," the 54-year-old said in a video released alongside a new study in the journal Nature Medicine.

The research was conducted by a Swiss team that has pioneered several recent advances, including using electrical stimulation of the spinal cord to let several paralysed patients walk again.

This time around, the researchers wanted to figure out which region of the brain was most responsible for people recovering from spinal cord injuries.

- 'I feel the urge to walk' -

Using 3D imaging techniques to map out the brain activity of mice with these injuries, the team created what they called a "brain-wide atlas".

They were surprised to find that the brain region they were looking for was in the lateral hypothalamus, which is otherwise known as a regulator for arousal, feeding and motivation.

A particular group of neurons in this region "appears to be involved in the recovery of walking after spinal cord injury," neuroscientist Gregoire Courtine at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne told AFP.

Next, the team sought to amplify the signal from these neurons using a procedure called deep brain stimulation, which is commonly used to treat movement problems in people with Parkinson's disease.

It involves a surgeon implanting electrodes in the brain region, which are connected to a device implanted in the patient's chest. When switched on, the device sends electrical pulses up to the brain.

First, the team tested their theory on rats and mice, finding that it "immediately" improved walking, the study said.

The first human participant of the 2022 Swiss trial was a woman who, like Jaeger, has an incomplete spinal cord injury.

Neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch told AFP that when the women's device was turned on for the first time, she said: "I feel my legs."

When they turned up the electrical current, the women said, "I feel the urge to walk," according to Bloch.

The patients could turn on their device whenever they needed, and also went through months of rehab and strength training.

The woman's goal was to walk independently without a walker, while Jaeger's was to climb stairs by himself.

"Both of them reached their goal," Bloch said.

- 'No problem' -

Jaeger, who is from the Swiss municipality of Kappel, spoke about facing eight steps down to the sea during a holiday last year.

With the device turned on, "walking up and down the stairs was no problem," he said.

"It's a great feeling when you don't have to rely on others all the time."

Over time, he "became faster and could walk longer" even when the device was switched off, he added.

More research is still needed -- and this technique will not be effective for all patients, Courtine emphasised.

Because it depends on boosting the brain's signal to the spinal cord, it depends how much signal was getting through in the first place.

And while deep brain stimulation is now fairly common, some people are not so "comfortable with someone operating on their brain," Courtine added.

The researchers believe that in the future, the best option for recovering from these kinds of injuries could be stimulating both their spinal cord and lateral hypothalamus.

by Daniel LawlerThe information contained in the article posted represents the views and opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of eNCA.com. Brain stimulation can help injured people walk: study

Read More........→July 28, 2025

Probiotics May Improve Mood Via Gut–Brain Axis

There is growing interest in the possibility that probiotics improve not only gut health but also mental health.

Probiotics are "good" bacteria in the form of drinks or tablets that you can buy in the supermarket and are also found in foods like yogurts, fermented cheese and sauerkraut. There is growing interest in the possibility that probiotics improve not only gut health but also mental health. "The gut–brain connection provides various routes through which bacteria in the gut can influence how we feel and behave, including via the vagus nerve, immune system and hormones", says Johnson.

Daily mood reports

While animal studies have previously found promising effects of probiotics on the brain and behaviour, human studies have yielded inconsistent results. Johnson and Steenbergen therefore used a combination of methods to capture how probiotics might influence the ability to regulate our emotions and affect our moods. These included psychological questionnaires, daily mood reports and computer tasks testing how people process emotions. The study was conducted in young, healthy adults who took a probiotic (containing bacteria such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium) daily for a month.

This is the first study to use daily mood reports to assess the effects of probiotics. It clearly shows that probiotics can reduce negative feelings compared to a placebo. This could mean a reduction in feelings such as anxiety, stress, fatigue or depressive tendencies. ‘It is striking that by simply asking participants how they were feeling each day, we could detect the beneficial effects of probiotics on mood’, says Steenbergen. ‘In contrast, the standard psychological questionnaires that are common in this field were not sensitive enough to pick up these changes.’

No substitute for antidepressants

The researchers found that it took about two weeks for the probiotics to improve negative feelings. It takes about the same amount of time for antidepressants to work, but whereas antidepressants tend to reduce both negative and positive mood, the results showed that the probiotics only reduced negative mood. This could be a possible benefit, although the researchers stress that probiotics should not be considered a substitute for antidepressants.

Who would benefit most from probiotics?

When the researchers observed the decrease in negative feelings, they were keen to explore whether they could predict who would benefit most from probiotics. "We found that various traits, most notably a propensity for risk avoidance, were associated with a greater effect of probiotics on mood", says Johnson.

In addition, the researchers found evidence that probiotics may affect the way participants process emotional cues. The participants who received probiotics were slightly more accurate at recognising facial expressions.

Probiotics could be used in a targeted way in the future

Many questions remain unanswered about how exactly probiotics work and their long-term effects. ‘Perhaps in the future probiotics could be used in a targeted way as an early intervention to reduce the chances of negative feelings progressing to mental health conditions such as depression, though more research would be needed to confirm that’, says Steenbergen.

Johnson and Steenbergen hope their findings will also spur other mental health researchers to include simple daily measures of mood in their studies. As they conclude in their paper, "In an attempt to delineate the complexity of the human brain and emotion, we cannot lose sight of asking the obvious. Sometimes the most simple questions reveal the most meaningful answers."

Reference: Johnson KVA, Steenbergen L. Probiotics reduce negative mood over time: the value of daily self-reports in detecting effects. npj Mental Health Res. 2025;4(1):1-9. doi: 10.1038/s44184-025-00123-z

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here. Probiotics May Improve Mood Via Gut–Brain Axis | Technology Networks

Read More........→June 16, 2025

Scientists use AI to reveal the neural dynamics of human conversation

New York, (IANS): By combining artificial intelligence (AI) with electrical recordings of brain activity, researchers have been able to track the language exchanged during conversations and the corresponding neural activity in different brain regions, according to a new study.

The team from Department of Neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US investigated how our brains process language during real-life conversations.

“Specifically, we wanted to understand which brain regions become active when we're speaking and listening, and how these patterns relate to the specific words and context of the conversation,” said lead author Jing Cai in a paper published in Nature Communications.

They employed AI to take a closer look at how our brains handle the back-and-forth of real conversations. The team combined advanced AI, specifically language models like those behind ChatGPT, with neural recordings using electrodes placed within the brain.

This allowed them to simultaneously track the linguistic features of conversations and the corresponding neural activity in different brain regions.

“By analysing these synchronised data streams, we could map how specific aspects of language–like the words being spoken and the conversational context–were represented in the dynamic patterns of brain activity during conversation,” said Cai.

They found that both speaking and listening during a conversation engage a widespread network of brain areas in the frontal and temporal lobes.

What's interesting is that these brain activity patterns are highly specific, changing depending on the exact words being used, the context and order of those words.

“We also observed that some brain regions are active during both speaking and listening, suggesting a partially shared neural basis for these processes. Finally, we identified specific shifts in brain activity that occur when people switch from listening to speaking during a conversation,” said the authors.The findings offer significant insights into how the brain pulls off the seemingly effortless feat of conversation. Scientists use AI to reveal the neural dynamics of human conversation | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→April 23, 2025

Newly Identified Neural Stem Cells Could Transform Parkinson's Treatment

Credit: Gerd Altmann/ Pixabay

The detection of peripheral neural stem cells could transform treatment of Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injuries.

A team of researchers from more than ten laboratories in Europe, Asia and North America examined newly identified cells in mice called peripheral neural stem cells. These cells share important molecular and functional characteristics with neural stem cells of the brain. Peripheral neural stem cells have the same cell morphology, self-renewal and differentiation capacity as neural stem cells of the brain. They express several specific markers and have genome-wide transcriptional and epigenetic profiles that are consistent with those of neural stem cells in the brain. Furthermore, many peripheral neural stem cells that migrate out of the neural tube can differentiate into mature neurons and, to a limited extent, glial cells during embryonic and postnatal development.

The discovery of the new cell type not only provides new insights into the development of the mammalian nervous system. Their existence also challenges a long-standing hypothesis in neuroscience and, because they can be grown in substantial numbers in the petri dish, opens up new possibilities for regenerative medicine. Furthermore, obtaining neural stem cells from the brain is not a favoured method. By contrast, obtaining neural stem cells from other organs or tissues appears to be a viable and practical approach. “This was the longest-running project in my career. Originally, we wanted to replicate experiments that were published more than 10 years ago, namely, to induce pluripotent stem cells through low pH. Like other laboratories, we were unable to reproduce this. But fortunately, our attempts were not in vain: We found previously unknown peripheral neural stem cells, challenging the long-held dogma that neural stem cells do not exist outside the central nervous system,” says Hans Schöler from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine and the senior author of the study.

Dong Han, the lead researcher of the study, who carried out most of the experiments in this work as a member of Schöler's laboratory, emphasised the possible implications of this result: “If these cells exist in humans and can be propagated indefinitely as they can in mice, they could have enormous therapeutic potential. This is particularly exciting because accessible peripheral neural stem cells could provide a new avenue for neural repair and regeneration, bypassing many of the challenges associated with sourcing stem cells from the central nervous system.”

Plasticity in the nervous system

The discovery of peripheral neural stem cells outside the central nervous system suggests a previously unrecognised level of cellular plasticity within the nervous system. In contrast to neural crest-derived stem cells, which have a limited self-renewal capacity, peripheral neural stem cells closely resemble brain-derived neural stem cells and show the ability to sustain neurogenesis over an extended period of time.

Hans Schöler emphasised the crucial role of interdisciplinary cooperation in making this discovery possible: “We involved many laboratories with different areas of expertise to ensure that this study is watertight. The combination of genetic lineage analysis, single-cell analysis and functional tests in vivo provides compelling evidence that these peripheral neural stem cells are a genuine and previously unrecognised component of the mammalian nervous system.”

Potential Impact on Medicine

The ability to harness peripheral neural stem cells could have far-reaching implications for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and nerve cell repair strategies. If such cells exist in humans, they could provide an easily accessible source of neural stem cells that could be used in the future to treat diseases such as Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury and other neurodegenerative disorders. Future studies will aim to establish the existence of peripheral neural stem cells in humans and explore their full therapeutic potential. The results thus pave the way for further research into the role of these cells in human biology and their potential application in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and in regenerative therapies.

Reference: Han D, Xu W, Jeong HW, et al. Multipotent neural stem cells originating from neuroepithelium exist outside the mouse central nervous system. Nat Cell Biol. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41556-025-01641-w

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source. Our press release publishing policy can be accessed here.b Newly Identified Neural Stem Cells Could Transform Parkinson's Treatment | Technology Networks

Read More........→April 16, 2025

Mentally stimulating down time activities linked to better brain health: study

Canberra, (IANS) Engaging in mentally stimulating activities during down time, such as reading, can be beneficial for brain health, according to an Australian research.

In a new study, researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) found that some sedentary, or sitting, activities are better for cognitive function than others.

The researchers assessed the 24-hour activity patterns of 397 adults aged 60 and above, and found that socially or mentally stimulating activities such as reading, playing musical instruments, crafting or talking to others are beneficial for memory and thinking abilities.

Watching television or playing video games was found to be detrimental.

The researchers said the findings could help reduce the risks of cognitive impairment, including from dementia.

"We already know that physical activity is a strong protector against dementia risk, and this should certainly be prioritised if you are trying to improve your brain health. But until now, we hadn't directly explored whether we can benefit our brain health by swapping one sedentary behavior for another," Xinhua news agency quoted Maddison Mellow, a co-author of the study from UniSA, as saying in the report.

She recommended breaking up time spent watching TV or gaming with five-minute bursts of physical activity or more cognitively-engaged seated activity.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 55 million people globally have dementia, with nearly 10 million new cases diagnosed annually.

In Australia, about 411,100 people (or one in every 1000 people) are living with dementia. Nearly two-thirds are women. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that more than 55 million people have dementia with nearly 10 million new cases each year.And, while the 'move more, sit less' message certainly holds true for cardiometabolic and brain health, the research - conducted by a team of UniSA researchers including Mellow, Prof Dot Dumuid, Dr Alexandra Wade, Prof Tim Olds, Dr Ty Stanford, Prof Hannah Keage, and Associate Prof Ashleigh Smith; with researchers from the University of Leicester, and the University of Newcastle - shows that a more nuanced approach is needed when it comes to thinking about the link between sedentary behaviours and cognitive function. Mentally stimulating down time activities linked to better brain health: study | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→December 26, 2024

Neuralink’s Blindsight implant to restore vision to people who lost both eyes: Musk

New Delhi, (IANS): In yet another groundbreaking invention, brain-computer interface company Neuralink has developed a Blindsight implant that can restore vision to people who lost both eyes, said founder Elon Musk on Wednesday.

The experimental implant received the US Food and Drug Administration's "breakthrough device" designation on Tuesday.

“Much appreciated, US FDA!” Musk said in a post on X, adding that the device “will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see”.

Musk noted that the device can also help people blind since birth to see for the first time, if “the visual cortex is intact”.

He explained that “the vision will at first be a low resolution”, like in video game graphics. But advancements to the technology can make it “better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths”, Musk pointed out.

Miracles for many unfolding,” said X CEO Linda Yaccarino, in a post on the social media platform.

The pioneering device has not yet begun human trials and neither the company nor the US FDA has indicated a timeline.

Separately, Neuralink is testing an implant designed to give quadriplegia patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone. The advanced technology may help people with spinal cord injuries.

The device comes with a chip that processes and transmits neural signals which could then be transmitted to devices like a computer or a phone.

Elon Musk founded Neuralink in 2016 along with a team of seven scientists and engineers who were experts in areas such as neuroscience, biochemistry, and robotics.The company had earlier developed a novel chip that can help restore full body control in people suffering from paralysis. So far two people received the successful brain-chip implant, with the approval from US FDA. Neuralink’s Blindsight implant to restore vision to people who lost both eyes: Musk | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→September 18, 2024

Five scientists honoured for advancing mental health disorder prevention, diagnosis and treatment

New Delhi, (IANS) The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) has announced the recipients of the 2024 Klerman and Freedman Prizes, recognising outstanding clinical and basic research in mental illness. These prestigious awards honour the work of scientists supported by the Foundation's Young Investigator Grants Program.

The 2024 Klerman and Freedman prize winners are being recognised for their significant findings related to suicide prevention, PTSD, substance-use disorders, autism, brain biology, and therapeutic drug development,” said Dr Jeffrey Borenstein, President and CEO of the BBRF. He highlighted that their work advances diagnostic tools, identifies effective treatments, and aids in the prevention of mental illness.

The prize winners were selected by the BBRF Scientific Council, comprising 192 leading mental health researchers. Since 1987, the Foundation has awarded over $450 million to more than 5,400 scientists globally. The awards are named after Gerald Klerman, MD, and Daniel Freedman, MD -- legendary figures in neuropsychiatry.

Juliet Beni Edgcomb, MD, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, has been selected for the 2024 Klerman Prize for Exceptional Clinical Research.

Dr Edgcomb is developing methodologies to identify children and adolescents with suicide-related symptoms from electronic health record (EHR) data. Her research aims to establish predictive variables to better recognise suicide-related phenotypes, potentially improving early intervention strategies.

Christina K. Kim, PhD, University of California, is the recipient of the 2024 Freedman Prize for Exceptional Basic Research.

Dr Kim's work focuses on new methods to record and alter neuronal activity, specifically targeting neurons and molecular biomarkers affected by therapeutic drugs for depression and anxiety. This research could lead to the development of more specific and effective treatments with fewer side effects.

Elizabeth V. Goldfarb, PhD, Yale University, has been chosen for the 2024 Klerman Prize Honorable Mention.

Dr Goldfarb’s lab explores how stress influences memory and subsequent behaviours. Her research integrates cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging to identify memory markers that could inform therapeutic interventions.

Erin Gibson, PhD, Stanford University, has been selected for the 2024 Freedman Prize Honorable Mention.

Dr Gibson studies the circadian system's role in neuroendocrine and immune regulation, focusing on the impact of glial cells on neural circuits and their connection to disorders such as autism and Alzheimer’s disease.

Hugo A. Tejeda, PhD, National Institute of Mental Health, is the recipient of the 2024 Freedman Prize Honorable Mention.Dr Tejeda investigates neuromodulation in limbic neural circuits, examining the role of neuropeptides and dopamine in threat appraisal and motivation, with implications for understanding psychiatric disorders. Five scientists honoured for advancing mental health disorder prevention, diagnosis and treatment | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→August 22, 2024

Scientists discover gut protein that helps protect brain cells from Parkinson’s

New Delhi, (IANS) Scientists have identified a gut protein that can prevent the development of Parkinson's disease (PD) by protecting against brain damage. This disease affects nearly 10 million people globally.

Parkinson's is characterised by rigidity of muscle and tremors due to loss of dopamine in the brain, and one of the reasons for that is toxin exposure.

In the study published in the journal npj Parkinson's Disease, the team found that gut receptor protein GUCY2C could prevent PD by protecting the brain from damage.

Dr Scott A. Waldman and his team at Thomas Jefferson University have been studying GUCY2C, known for its role in gut water and salt secretion, and found that it also present in the brain.

They observed that removing GUCY2C from gut cells in mice increased the expression of PD-related genes, prompting them to investigate its role in the brain.

Collaborating with Dr. Richard Smeyne, they discovered that mice without GUCY2C had more brain-cell damage and were more toxin-susceptible than normal mice. When normal mice were exposed to toxins, GUCY2C levels naturally increased, indicating a protective role in neurons.

In human samples, PD patients showed elevated GUCY2C levels compared to non-PD patients, puzzling researchers. Current PD therapies manage symptoms by mimicking dopamine.However, targeting GUCY2C could potentially prevent disease progression by protecting neurons. Although in early preclinical stages, Dr. Waldman hopes that this research could eventually benefit PD patients. Scientists discover gut protein that helps protect brain cells from Parkinson’s | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→August 13, 2024

Healthy lifestyle, awareness key to combat rising brain stroke, diseases: Experts

New Delhi, (IANS) A healthy lifestyle, with proper diet and exercise along with increased awareness, is crucial to tackle the rising cases of brain strokes and other related diseases in the country, said experts on World Brain Day on Monday.

World Brain Day is observed every year on July 22 to amplify awareness and shed light on crucial aspects of brain health. The theme this year is ‘Brain Health and Prevention’.

Neurological disorders include stroke, headache disorders, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and other dementias, brain and central nervous system cancer, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, motor neuron diseases, and other neurological disorders.

"There’s a concerning rise in brain strokes among the young population in India, with a 25 per cent increase in cases over the past five years. This surge is predominantly seen in people aged 25-40. The factors that contribute to the rise are majorly sedentary lifestyles, poor dietary habits, smoking, and high-stress levels associated with urban living,” Dr Vikram Huded, HOD and Director & Clinical Lead, Interventional Neurology, Narayana Health told IANS.

The doctor also pointed at the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes in increasing the risks. In addition, genetic predispositions, even sleep disorders, or undiagnosed heart conditions, high stress levels, and environmental factors like pollution also significantly contribute to this alarming rise.

“It's imperative for youngsters to adopt healthier lifestyles, engage in regular physical activity, and manage stress effectively to avoid these risks. Early intervention and lifestyle modifications are crucial in combating this alarming trend and safeguarding the health of our younger population," Dr Huded said.

As per the estimates of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), neurological disorders contribute 10 per cent of the total disease burden in India. The growing burden in the country is mainly attributable to the ageing population.

“With advancing age, especially after 50 years, neurodegenerative changes occur in brain areas due to less dopamine secretion in the brain,” Dr AK Sahani, Director and Chief of Neurology, at Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, New Delhi told IANS.

He noted that “chronic anxiety may lead to persistent neuroinflammation, linked to Parkinson’s pathogenesis.

Dr Arindam Ghosh, Consultant- Neurologist, Narayana Hospital, Kolkata called for increasing “measures such as avoiding head trauma, eating a balanced diet rich in nutrients and antioxidants, avoidance of smoking, measures to relieve stress like meditation, exercises or walking and taking adequate care of comorbidities including diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and dyslipidemia”.

These simple measures may go a long way in preventing or delaying the progress of several debilitating neurological illnesses, the doctor told IANS.

In India, approximately 185,000 strokes occur annually, translating to one stroke every 40 seconds and one stroke-related death every 4 minutes.

Despite these alarming figures, many Indian hospitals lack the necessary infrastructure for effective stroke treatment or there is a lack of stroke-ready hospitals in the country. Neurologists emphasise the importance of people adopting healthier lifestyles to prevent strokes and other brain disorders.

“There is a need to strengthen neurology services and experts call for effective curative actions. Neurological treatments are highly individualised, depending on the patient's condition. Common therapeutic approaches include rehabilitation, assistive devices, and self-care strategies,” Dr Rajul Aggarwal, Director Neurology, Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, Delhi, told IANS."Recent technological breakthroughs, such as advanced imaging techniques, brain-machine interfaces, and deep brain stimulation, are transforming diagnostics and treatments, offering new hope for those affected by complex neurological disorders," he added. Healthy lifestyle, awareness key to combat rising brain stroke, diseases: Experts | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→August 06, 2024

Lack of proper sleep could lead to brain-related problems, warn doctors

Hyderabad, (IANS) People must never ignore sleep to meet deadlines, and it's never appropriate to waste time on the Internet over a proper good night's sleep, advise healthcare professionals on World Brain Day.

Recommending a seven-hour sleep to help the brain function better, they warned that lack of proper sleep could lead to brain-related problems.

Commenting on the importance of sleep and the adverse effect on the brain due to lack of it, Dr. S Ramesh, Consulting Neurosurgery, Kamineni Hospitals said, "Sleep is one of the most important components in the daily routine of an individual. Sleep is important for a number of brain-related functions, like the communication between neurons/nerve cells.

“People must be made aware that without proper sleep, the required pathways in the brain to create new memories and new response systems, will get adversely affected."

"It is a known fact that the brain controls the human body and functions and emotions. It is important to know that sleep affects every aspect and every organ in the human body, especially the brain.

“While a good sleep will have a positive impact, irregular sleeping habits could affect almost every type of tissue and system like the brain, the heart, and even the lungs. Many people complain about mood swings, and this has a direct connection with the quality of sleep and its impact on the brain," observed Dr. Ch Vijay, Consultant Neurologist, KIMS ICON Hospital, Vizag.

On the occasion of World Brain Day, the focus is on promotion of brain health.

Dr. A Rampapa Rao, Chairman, Ucchvas Transitional Care, stated “I understand the biggest risk for a healthy brain is ‘Hypertension’ apart from other etiological factors and in itself is a manifestation of altered lifestyle mainly being deprivation of optimum number of daily sleep hours in young and middle years of life.

“I appeal to everyone to take measures and focus on getting at least seven hours of qualitative sleep on a daily basis irrespective of the occupation they are engaged in.

“We strongly believe that a healthy sleeping habit is the single most significant factor in maintaining healthy brain and its optimum functioning.”

Though the World Federation of Neurology was founded on July 22, 1957, it was only in 2013 that the Public Awareness & Advocacy Committee of the Federation proposed its founding day be designated as the World Brain Day.

This year, the theme for the day is ‘Brain Health & Prevention’, which encompasses the mission to proactively assess and address neurological diseases.

The day also emphasises the importance of early detection and effective management of brain related ailmentsLa ck of proper sleep could lead to brain-related problems, warn doctors | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→August 03, 2024

Study shows how obesity affects brain and leads to low sperm count

New Delhi, (IANS) Obesity causes chronic changes in the brain, leading to lower sperm count, according to a study in mice.

The study led by University of California-Riverside researchers used mice fed a high-fat diet to imitate human obesity.

Their findings showed that the mice's brains had fewer connections between neurons and fewer receptors, which ordinarily alert the brain that enough energy is available and to stop eating.

"This could explain why we don't cut back on our calorie intake," said Djurdjica Coss, a biomedical sciences professor at the School of Medicine and lead author of the study published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Coss added that reproductive function is regulated by the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis, which is disrupted by obesity, primarily affecting the brain rather than the testes or pituitary.

In obesity, lower hormone levels from the pituitary result in reduced testosterone and sperm production.

The research found fewer synaptic connections in neurons regulating reproduction in high-fat diet-fed mice, which parallels human mechanisms.Obesity impacts millions worldwide and is linked to health issues like cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes. Study shows how obesity affects brain and leads to low sperm count | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→July 31, 2024

Dads show gender biases, in both brain responses and behaviors, toward toddlers

“Our study provides one of the richest datasets for fathers now available,” says Emory neuroscientist Jennifer Mascaro. (Stock image)

By Carol Clark: A toddler’s gender influences the brain responses as well as the behavior of fathers — from how attentive they are to their child, to the types of language that they use and the play that they engage in, a new study by Emory University finds.

The journal Behavioral Neuroscience published the study, the first to combine brain scans of fathers with behavioral data collected as fathers interacted with their children in a real-world setting.

One of the more striking behavioral differences was the level of attention given a child.

“When a child cried out or asked for Dad, fathers of daughters responded to that more than did fathers of sons,” says Jennifer Mascaro, who led the research as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Emory anthropologist James Rilling, senior author of the study. “We should be aware of how unconscious notions of gender can play into the way we treat even very young children.”

Mascaro is now an assistant professor in Family and Preventive Medicine at the Emory School of Medicine.

In addition to being more attentive, fathers of daughters sang more often to their child and were more likely to use words associated with sad emotions, such as “cry,” “tears” and “lonely.” Fathers of daughters also used more words associated with the body, such as “belly,” “cheek,” “face,” “fat” and “feet.”

Fathers of sons engaged in more rough-and-tumble play with their child and used more language related to power and achievement — words such as “best,” “win,” “super” and “top.” In contrast, fathers of daughters used more analytical language — words such as “all,” “below” and “much” — which has been linked to future academic success.

“It’s important to note,” Rilling says, “that gender-biased paternal behavior need not imply ill intentions on the part of fathers. These biases may be unconscious, or may actually reflect deliberate and altruistically motivated efforts to shape children’s behavior in line with social expectations of adult gender roles that fathers feel may benefit their children.”

The study showed that fathers of sons engaged in more rough-and-tumble play with their child, a finding consistent with previous research by others. (Stock image)

Most parental studies draw from data gathered in a lab, where parents answer questions about their behavior and where they may be observed briefly as they interact with their children. This study collected behavioral data in a real-world setting through an electronic activated recorder (EAR), which was developed in the lab of co-author Matthias Mehl at the University of Arizona.

The participants included 52 fathers of toddlers (30 girls and 22 boys) in the Atlanta area who agreed to clip a small personal digital assistant equipped with the EAR software onto their belts and wear it for one weekday and one weekend day. The fathers were also told to leave the device charging in their child’s room at night so any nighttime interactions with their children could be recorded. The device randomly turned on for 50 seconds every nine minutes to record any ambient sound during the 48-hour period.

“People act shockingly normal when they are wearing the device,” Mascaro says. “They kind of forget they are wearing it or they say to themselves, what are the odds it’s on right now. The EAR technology is a naturalistic observation method that helped us verify things about parental behavior that we suspected based on previous research. It also uncovered subtle biases that we didn’t necessarily hypothesize in advance.”

In addition, fathers underwent functional MRI brain scans while viewing photos of an unknown adult, an unknown child and their own child with happy, sad or neutral facial expressions. Fathers of daughters had stronger responses to their daughters’ happy expressions in areas of the brain important for processing emotions, reward and value. In contrast, the brains of fathers of sons responded more robustly to their child’s neutral facial expressions.

“Most parents really are trying to do the best they can for their children,” Mascaro says. “A take-home point is that it’s good to pay attention to how your interactions with your sons and daughters may be biased." (Stock image)

The study focused on fathers because there is less research about their roles in rearing young children than mothers. “Our study provides one of the richest datasets for fathers now available, because it combines real-world assessments of behavior with brain responses,” Mascaro says. “It appears that men’s brain responses to their children may be related to their behaving differently with sons compared to daughters.”

The findings are consistent with other studies indicating that parents — both fathers and mothers — use more emotion language with girls and engage in more rough-and-tumble play with boys. It is unclear whether these differences are due to biological and evolutionary underpinnings, cultural understandings of the way one should act, or some combination of the two.

“We also don’t know the long-term child outcomes,” Mascaro says. “But future research can test the hypothesis that these differences have demonstrable impacts on things like empathy, emotional regulation and social competence.”

The use of more emotion language with girls by fathers, for example, may help girls develop more empathy than boys. “The fact that fathers may actually be less attentive to the emotional needs of boys, perhaps despite their best intentions, is important to recognize,” Mascaro says. “Validating emotions is good for everyone — not just daughters.”

Restricted emotions in adult men is linked to depression, decreased social intimacy, marital dissatisfaction and a lower likelihood of seeking mental health treatment.

Research also shows that many adolescent girls have negative body images. “We found that fathers are using more language about the body with girls than with boys, and the differences appear with children who are just one-to-three years old,” Mascaro says.

And while they use more words about the body with girls, fathers engage in more physical rough-and-tumble play with boys, an activity that research has shown is important to help young children develop social acuity and emotional regulation.

“Most parents really are trying to do the best they can for their children,” Mascaro says. “A take-home point is that it’s good to pay attention to how your interactions with your sons and daughters may be biased. We need to do more research to try to understand if these subtle differences may have important effects in the long term.”

The American Psychological Association contributed to this story.eScienceCommons: Dads show gender biases, in both brain responses a...:

Read More........→July 16, 2024