TL;DR: A 2026 mouse study in Communications Biology found that activating parvalbumin (PV) interneurons, inhibitory nerve cells in the orbitofrontal cortex, reduced default mode network connectivity and decreased normal social approach and sniffing behavior. Key Findings PV interneurons were targeted: Researchers used PV-Cre mice and a chemogenetic DREADD receptor to activate inhibitory PV interneurons in …
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 MIDUS mediation study in Brain, Behavior, & Immunity – Health found that social asymmetry was associated with greater chronic disease burden, while chronic disease burden mediated links between social asymmetry and episodic memory and executive function, while allostatic load did not. Key Findings Study type: a structural equation modeling study of social …
TL;DR: A 2026 Sex Roles study using NLSY97 data found that the gender friendship gap in best-friend closeness was driven mainly by white men, while Black men, Latino men, and women across groups reported more similar closeness after controls. Key Findings NLSY97 cohort: The study analyzed 1,765 young adults from the National Longitudinal Survey of …
TL;DR: A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in Scientific Reports pooled 10 social media abstinence experiments (N = 4,674 adults; abstinence 1–28 days) and found no significant effect on positive affect, negative affect, or life satisfaction. Key Findings Positive affect was unchanged: pooled Hedges’ g = 0.03 (95% CI [−0.11, 0.16], p = 0.69) across 9 studies and 14 …
TL;DR: A 2026 study in Scientific Reports used the German TwinLife panel (228 monozygotic and 212 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs) to show that intelligence quotient (IQ) at age 23 predicted four socioeconomic status (SES) outcomes at age 27, with genetic factors explaining 69-98% of the IQ-SES association. Key Findings IQ at age 23 predicted SES …
TL;DR: A 2026 longitudinal study in Personality and Individual Differences followed 346 Turkish young adults across two survey waves three months apart and found that childhood psychological abuse predicted lower adult relationship satisfaction, with a reduced sense of belonging acting as the statistical mediator linking the early adversity to the later romantic outcome. Key Findings …
TL;DR: A 12-month four-wave longitudinal study in Psychological Science (N=2,149 adults across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia) found that feeling more emotionally isolated predicted higher chatbot use four months later — and that higher chatbot use, in turn, predicted further increases in emotional isolation at the next wave. Key Findings Bidirectional link with emotional …
Childhood Loneliness Multiplied Psychosis Risk in EU-GEI TL;DR: Loneliness that started before age 12 and persisted into adolescence tracked with sharply higher schizophrenia-spectrum risk, especially when it stacked on top of genetic liability. Key Findings Persistent loneliness carried the risk signal: The EU-GEI analysis included 1,261 people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, 1,282 unaffected siblings, and 1,525 …
Loneliness Lowered Memory Without Speeding Decline TL;DR: In 10,217 older Europeans, loneliness was linked to lower immediate and delayed recall at baseline, but it did not make memory decline faster over 6 years. Key Findings 10,217 SHARE participants: The analysis included adults aged 65 to 94 from 12 European countries who participated in waves 5, …
