TL;DR: A 2026 randomized clinical trial in the Journal of Sport and Health Science assigned 130 midlife adults to 150 minutes/week aerobic exercise or no-exercise control for 1 year and found sustained lower long-term cortisol in the exercise group. Key Findings Year-long randomized trial in 130 midlife adults: Participants aged 26 to 58 were randomly …
TL;DR: A 2026 randomized study in Psychological Medicine found that right orbitofrontal cortex repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a noninvasive brain-stimulation method, improved visuospatial memory on the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT) in people with first-episode schizophrenia. Key Findings The analysis included 90 patients: Researchers studied 48 people assigned to active rTMS and 42 assigned …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in The Journal of Sex Research found that teenage daughters’ own humor during sexuality conversations was linked to more open mother-daughter communication and higher sexual well-being, while mothers’ humor was linked to less openness from daughters. Key Findings 98 mother-daughter pairs: Researchers analyzed confidential survey data from Israeli mothers and teenage …
TL;DR: A 2026 iScience study found that both humans and rats could report their own timing errors in a 2-second task, but rats made more accurate error-based choices than humans. Key Findings Matched timing task: Researchers compared 34 adults with 16 male Sprague-Dawley rats in a similar 2-second time-production task. Both species monitored errors: Humans …
TL;DR: A 2026 Nature study found that training language models to sound warmer made them less accurate across factual, medical, and misinformation tasks, with error rates rising by about 5 to 9 percentage points by task and sycophancy increasing when users expressed incorrect beliefs. Key Findings Five models tested: the study fine-tuned Llama-8b, Mistral-Small, Qwen-32b, …
TL;DR: A 2026 functional MRI (fMRI) study in Translational Psychiatry found that counterconditioning, a form of exposure learning that replaces a threat cue with a positive outcome, strengthened safety-memory signals in adults with PTSD more than standard extinction did. Key Findings Safety learning was tested: Researchers studied 54 adults, including 32 with post-traumatic stress disorder …
TL;DR: A 2025 study in Thinking & Reasoning found that twelfth graders outperformed seventh graders on fast probability reasoning, but adult-like logical intuition was still not fully developed by the end of high school. Key Findings More than 300 French students were tested: The study compared seventh graders around age 12 with twelfth graders around …
TL;DR: A 2026 protocol in PLOS One describes a 90-person pilot randomized controlled trial that will test whether virtual reality mindfulness can reduce depression, anxiety, stress, and caregiver burden in family caregivers of people with dementia. Key Findings 90-caregiver pilot: The planned sample includes 90 caregivers of community-dwelling people with dementia in Hong Kong. Three …
TL;DR: A 2026 population-based study in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry found that early-life adversity scores were linked to higher group-level mental health risk but performed poorly for identifying which Canadian adults had anxiety, mood disorders, substance use disorders, or suicidality. Key Findings 7,608 Canadian adults: Researchers analyzed nationally representative 2022 survey data collected during …
TL;DR: A 2026 cross-sectional study in Psychiatry Research surveyed 558 Palestinian refugees displaced to Egypt after the 2023 Gaza war and used Bayesian network analysis to map their psychological symptoms; suicidal ideation emerged as the central hub for both men and women, with secondary core symptoms differing by gender (loss of energy in men, psychomotor …
