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Example of illusorily expanding central region or ‘hole;’ viewing the image full screen is best for eliciting the effect. Image credit: Laeng et al., doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.877249.

New Visual Illusion Trick Your Brain into Thinking Static Black Hole is Expanding

Jun 3, 2022 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows that the ‘expanding hole’ optical illusion, which is new to science, is...

Young males with a poor diet saw a significant improvement in their symptoms of depression when they switched to a healthy Mediterranean diet. Image credit: Barbara Jackson.

Study: Mediterranean Diet Improves Depressive Symptoms in Young Men with Clinical Depression

May 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

New research highlights the important role of nutrition for the treatment of depression and should inform advice given by clinicians to young men. Young...

Boolani et al. suggest that energy and fatigue are unique traits that could be defined by distinct bacterial communities not driven by diet. Image credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health.

Distinct Gut Bacterial Communities are Associated with Personality Traits: Study

Mar 31, 2022 by News Staff

New research provides evidence that the four traits (i.e., mental energy and fatigue, physical energy and fatigue) may have unique yet overlapping gut...

Eight illusory face images from the total set of 256 images which illustrate images from different gender, age, and emotion categories. Image credit: Wardle et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2117413119.

Pareidolia Faces More Likely to be Perceived as Male than Female, New Study Reveals

Jan 31, 2022 by News Staff

Despite our fluency in reading human faces, sometimes we mistakenly perceive illusory faces in objects, a phenomenon known as face pareidolia. In a new...

Shin et al. provide evidence that dark chocolate consumption in everyday life influences physiological and psychological states. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Daily Consumption of 85% Dark Chocolate May Improve Your Mood

Dec 22, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

New research by scientists from Seoul National University, Korea Food Research Institute and Chungnam National University suggests that dark chocolate...

Ivana Buric et al analyze how the behavior of our genes is affected by different MBIs including mindfulness and yoga. Image credit: Nato Pereira.

Meditation Enhances Immune System without Activating Inflammatory Signals, Study Says

Dec 16, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Meditation is an effective behavioral intervention for treating various conditions associated with a weakened immune system, according to new research...

Puhlmann et al. investigated the effect of regular contemplative mental training on endocrine and psychological indices of long-term stress.

Daily Mental Training Reduces Chronic Stress, New Study Shows

Oct 11, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

New research by scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom shows that daily mental training for 3 to 6 months can buffer the long-term systemic stress...

Kea parrots (Nestor notabilisa) don’t differentiate between the real and virtual worlds. Image credit: Amalia Bastos.

Kea Parrots Treat Physical and Virtual Worlds as Continuous and Equivalent, Study Shows

Sep 29, 2021 by News Staff

Using touchscreen laptops, a team of researchers from the University of Auckland has tested whether kea (Nestor notabilisa) — a large species of...

Mindfulness-based programs primarily target improved mental health and wellbeing.

Mindfulness May Provide Small But Significant Benefits to Cognition

Aug 20, 2021 by News Staff

While mindfulness is typically geared towards improving mental health and wellbeing, it may also provide additional benefits to brain health, according...

Tweets can provide rich information about people’s social, cognitive, and biological processes as well as personal concerns. Image credit: Pexels.

Study: Night Owls Send More Negative Tweets than Early Birds

May 27, 2021 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science is the first to focus on several relevant but overlooked comparisons in temporal patterns...

Kjærvik & Bushman found the best evidence to date that narcissism is an important risk factor for both aggression and violence.

Narcissism is Important Risk Factor for Aggression, New Review Suggests

May 25, 2021 by News Staff

A review of 437 previous studies, published recently in the journal Psychological Bulletin, found that individuals with high levels of narcissism are prone...

Theoretical structure of ghrelin. Image credit: Manuel Almagro Rivas / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Appetite-Regulating Hormone Affects Monetary Decision Making, New Study Suggests

Mar 23, 2021 by News Staff

Ghrelin, a stomach-derived hormone known to regulate appetite and other food-related functions, may play a broad role in reward-related behavior and decision-making,...

Konkoly et al. implemented procedures for two-way communication during polysomnographically verified REM sleep in 36 individuals. Image credit: Konkoly et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026.

Scientists Demonstrate Two-Way Communication with Dreaming Persons during Lucid Dream

Feb 24, 2021 by News Staff

New research from Northwestern University shows that individuals who are asleep and in the midst of a lucid dream — aware of the fact that they are...

Rewards are often uncertain and infrequent, but learning may nevertheless have the potential to boost happiness. Image credit: Pexels.

Learning Boosts Happiness, New Study Suggests

Jan 6, 2021 by News Staff

New research from University College London suggests that how we learn about the world around us can be more important for how we feel than rewards we...

Chen et al. suggest that travel and tourism can be an important life domain affecting how people evaluate their overall quality of life. Image credit: Joshua Woroniecki.

Frequent Travelers are More Satisfied with Their Life than Non-Travelers, Study Says

Jan 4, 2021 by News Staff

Frequent travelers are about 7% happier than people who don’t travel at all, according to a study carried out in Taiwan. Chen et al. suggest that travel...

Guarana et al. investigated the effects of blue-light filtration on broad attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, i.e. work engagement, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behavior. Image credit: Alexandr Borecký.

Study: Blue-Light Filtering Glasses Improve Sleep Quantity and Quality, Workday Productivity

Oct 15, 2020 by News Staff

Wearing blue-light filtering glasses before sleeping creates a form of physiologic darkness, thus improving both sleep quantity and quality, and is related...

NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter photographed the Cydonia region in the northern latitudes of Mars on July 25, 1976 while searching for a landing site for the Viking 2 lander. The speckled appearance of the image is due to missing data, called bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic data from Mars to Earth. Bit errors comprise part of one of the ‘eyes’ and ‘nostrils’ on the eroded rock that resembles a human face near the center of the image. Shadows in the rock formation give the illusion of a nose and mouth. Planetary geologists attribute the origin of the formation to purely natural processes. The feature is 1.5 km across, with the Sun angle at approximately 20 degrees. The picture was taken from a range of 1,873 km. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

Study: Face Pareidolia Reflects Activation of Same Visual Mechanisms that Process Real Human Faces

Aug 17, 2020 by News Staff

Face pareidolia is the phenomenon of seeing face-like structures in everyday objects. It is a very human condition that relates to how our brains are wired....

Aspy investigated and compared the effectiveness of five different combinations of lucid dream induction techniques. Image credit: Stefan Keller.

New Study Tests Lucid Dream Induction Techniques

Jul 20, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A study done by Dr. Denholm Aspy from the School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide provides the strongest evidence to date that Mnemonic Induction...

Humans can smell in stereo. Image credit: Petra Pezibear.

Humans Navigate with Stereo Sense of Smell

Jun 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Humans have a stereo sense of smell that subconsciously guides navigation, according to new research from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy...