Wintertime blues? Health expert offers tips to combat seasonal affective disorder

Millions are affected by seasonal affective disorder (SAD) every year. The annual pattern of winter depression and melancholy suggests a strong link between your mood and the amount of light you get during the day, says Lina Begdache, assistant professor…

Shorter days affect the mood of millions of Americans – a nutritional neuroscientist offers tips on how to avoid the winter blues

The annual pattern of winter depression and melancholy – better known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD – suggests a strong link between your mood and the amount of light you get during the day. Binghamton Univesity mood expert offers strategies to beat the winter blues.

Women’s mental well-being more sensitive to exercise than men’s during different stages of pandemic

Women’s mental health was more likely to be affected by physical exercise frequency during the COVID-19 pandemic than men’s, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Cat’s Meow: Robotic Pet Boosts Mood, Behavior and Cognition in Adults with Dementia

Researchers tested the effectiveness of affordable, interactive robotic pet cats to improve mood, behavior and cognition in older adults with mild to moderate dementia.

Human Voice Recognition AI Now a reality — “Thai Speech Emotion Recognition Data Sets and Models” Now Free to Download

Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Arts have jointly developed the “Thai Speech Emotion Recognition Data Sets and Models”, now available for free downloads, to help enhance sales operations and service systems to better respond to customers’ needs.

Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss How Exercise Behaviors Changed During COVID-19 Pandemic

New Brunswick, N.J. (April 14, 2021) – Rutgers expert Brandon L. Alderman, who focuses on the science of exercise and its impact on mental health and cognitive function, is available for interviews on how exercise behaviors have changed during the…

Depressed Moms Who Breastfeed Boost Babies’ Mood, Neuroprotection and Mutual Touch

Feeding method and affectionate touch patterns in depressed and non-depressed mothers and babies as well as infant’s EEG activity showed that mother-infant affectionate touch differed as a function of mood and feeding method (breastfeeding and bottle-feeding). Infants in the depressed and bottle-fed group reduced touch toward their mothers while breastfeeding had a positive effect on both mother and baby. Infants of depressed and breastfeeding mothers showed neither behavioral nor brain development dysregulation previously found in infants of depressed mothers.

Dopamine Surge Reveals How Even for Mice, ‘There’s No Place Like Home’

“There’s no place like home,” has its roots deep in the brain. Using fiber photometry, scientists are the first to show that home evokes a surge of dopamine in mice that mimics the response to a dose of cocaine. The study demonstrates how dopamine rises rapidly in mice moved from a simple recording chamber to their home cage, but less so when they return to a cage not quite like the one they knew.

Rutgers Expert Available to Discuss Stress Reduction Benefits of Exercise and Being Outdoors Following Election

New Brunswick, N.J. (Nov. 6, 2020) – Rutgers University–New Brunswick Professor Brandon L. Alderman is available for interviews on how being outdoors and exercise can reduce stress following the 2020 election and during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Time spent outdoors and…

Increased attention to sad faces predicts depression risk in teenagers

Teenagers who tend to pay more attention to sad faces are more likely to develop depression, but specifically within the context of stress, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Time of day differences in neural reward responsiveness in children

The Reward Positivity (∆RewP) event-related potential (ERP), generally quantified as the difference between neural responsiveness to monetary gains (RewP-Gain) and losses (RewP-Loss) is commonly used as an index of neural reward responsiveness. Despite the popularity of this ERP component in…

‘Brain Surfing’: Ultrasound waves focused on prefrontal cortex elevate mood and change brain connectivity in human volunteers

A team of researchers at the University of Arizona has found that low-intensity ultrasound waves directed at a particular region of the brain’s prefrontal cortex in healthy subjects can elevate mood, and decrease connectivity in a brain network that has been shown to be hyperactive in psychiatric disorders. The method uses transcranial focused ultrasound (‘tFUS’), a painless, non-invasive technique to modulate brain function comparable to transcranial magnetic stimulation (‘TMS’), and transcranial direct current stimulation (‘tDCS’). This study shows, for the first time, a correlation between tFUS-induced mood enhancement, and reorganization of brain circuits.