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Teen Brains ‘Aged’ During Covid Lockdowns, New Research Suggests
“The pandemic was dramatic and unexpected, of course, but dramatic and catastrophic in a way, not only for physical health, but mental health,” said lead researcher Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington. Covid lockdowns, such as school closures, canceled sports activities and stay-at-home orders, prematurely aged teen brains by as much as four years, researchers from the University of Washington found. ... Lead researcher Patricia Kuhl, co-director of I-LABS, said that after Covid lockdowns began in 2020, they couldn’t do brain scan follow-ups until 2021.
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How to Break Up With Your Career
The path out of love is rarely straightforward. This is true whether we’re ending a marriage or saying goodbye to an entirely different relationship—the one we have with our career. Relationship scientists have spent decades documenting the process of falling out of love: what the emotional roller coaster feels like, how psychological biases keep us from understanding our breakup behaviors, how we fail to prepare for our next relationship.
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What You Should Know About the ‘Silent Epidemic of Suicide’
More than 49,000 people in the United States died by suicide in 2022 — that’s one death every 11 minutes, and more than any other year dating to back at least 1941, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On top of that, 13.2 million people seriously considered suicide, 3.8 million planned it and 1.6 million attempted suicide. Though rates among 10- to 24-year-olds in the US have declined, these stats are a glaring reminder that “the silent epidemic of suicide” isn’t over, said Dr. Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association.
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Could ‘Season Creep’ Affect Human Behavior?
You might have noticed that the seasons don’t quite behave like they used to. In some places, fall and spring seem to fly by, while winter and summer are much longer and feel more intense. This shift is known as season creep, where the timing of the seasons starts to shift. ... SciFri guest host Rachel Feltman is joined by Dr. Michael Varnum, social psychology area head and associate professor at Arizona State University, to discuss these questions.
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When They’re Not Paying Attention, Children Can Learn as Much as Adults
Children’s short attention spans are often framed as a barrier to learning. New research suggests that their limited ability to focus, however, could actually aid in their ability to learn information adults ignore. Visit Page
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The Myth of “Fight or Flight”
Lisa Feldman Barrett is professor of psychology at Northeastern University and author of How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. In a recent Scientific American article, she asked whether the brain's much-touted "fight or flight" function is a myth. She decided, ultimately, that its primary job is to reduce uncertainty in an ever-changing world.
