In 1975, researchers at Stanford invited a group of undergraduates to take part in a study about suicide. They were presented with pairs of suicide notes. In each pair, one note had been composed by a random individual, the other by a person who had subsequently taken his own life. The students were then asked to distinguish between the genuine notes and the fake ones. Some students discovered that they had a genius for the task. Out of twenty-five pairs of notes, they correctly identified the real one twenty-four times. Others discovered that they were hopeless. They identified the real note in only ten instances.

Any number of world religions may claim to have the monopoly on enlightenment, but a study published Thursday in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality challenges the idea that being religious is the most consistent way to feel satisfied with life. The researchers behind the study argue that a better predictor of life satisfaction is a sense of oneness with the world — a mindset that people of all creeds can adopt.

A new study in Translational Psychiatry sought to elucidate whether reduced telomere length (TL) is associated with childhood trauma in those with schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD). Telomeres are the genetic material at the end of chromosomes that shorten in most human tissues with the wear and tear of aging. When they are excessively minimized, they don’t work as well and adversely impact a tissue’s ability to repair itself. Evidence shows a link between chronic stress and childhood trauma and accelerated TL shortening in otherwise healthy people (HC).

New studies reveal that most psychiatric illnesses are related to one another. Tracing these connections, like the mapping of a river system, promises to help define the main cause of these disorders and the drugs that could alleviate their symptoms. The Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register is an enormous treasure trove of clinical data documenting every hospitalization for mental illness in Denmark over the course of 16 years.

The United Nations predicts that, by 2050, 68 percent of the world will live in cities where thick, polluted air is the norm. But pollution is already wreaking havoc now: Research published in JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday shows that these invisible toxins could be partially responsible for higher rates of people experiencing hallucinations and delusions — especially among teens who spend their childhoods caught in their noxious tide.

Mental illness affects millions of Americans. Many people with bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia suffer hallucinations, the perception of something that is not present. From phantom smells to hearing voices and seeing things that are not there, hallucinations can take many forms and stem from many causes. It’s not just mental illness, either. Strokes, migraines and inner ear diseases can also lead to hallucinations. And obviously, psychedelic drugs do as well.

If laughter really is the best medicine, wouldn’t it be great if we could learn more about what goes on in the brain when we laugh? Neuroscientists recently made some major progress on this front by pinpointing a part of the brain that, when stimulated, never fails to induce smiles and laughter.

Viktor Frankl is the founder of logotherapy, a form of psychotherapy that he developed after surviving Nazi concentration camps in the 1940s. After his experience in the camps, he developed a theory that it is through a search for meaning and purpose in life that individuals can endure hardship and suffering.

Suppose you are helping your friend search for their missing phone and while they are looking around another room, you find it behind some cushions. When they return, you seize the opportunity to play a prank on them and pretend the phone is still missing. You are able to envision this prank because you know that their understanding of the world is separate from what you know to be true. This is an example of theory of mind: the ability to understand other people's beliefs, preferences, and intentions as distinct from one's own.

Some fake news was going around in social media that mentioned how — “According to the American Psychological Association (APA), a strong and passionate belief in a deity or higher power, to the point where it impairs one’s ability to make conscientious decisions about common sense matters, will now be classified as a mental illness.” Though I later found these articles to be unfounded and wishful thinking, it did bring several dark memories from my past to the therapist’s couch.

The psychedelic drug psilocybin could help alleviate depression by causing people to have a less pessimistic outlook on life, according to preliminary research published in Frontiers in Psychology. Previous research has found that depression is associated with unrealistic negative predictions of future life events. Scientists from the Psychedelic Research Group at Imperial College London were interested in whether psilocybin — the main psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms — could reduce these pessimism biases.

New research explores invisible, force-carrying beams projecting from the eyes. Princeton University researchers recently published a whimsical study that explores why people subconsciously treat the focus of someone’s gaze as a force-carrying beam projected by the eyes. It’s not a coincidence that this sounds like the stuff of sci-fi or Marvel Comics.

A hormone released during exercise may protect the brain against Alzheimer’s disease. It may also explain the known positive effects of exercise on mental performance. Irisin is a hormone generated by muscle tissue that is carried around the body in the bloodstream. Fernana de Felice at the Federal University of Rio de Janerio and colleagues found that people with Alzheimer’s had lower levels of the hormone compared with healthy individuals.

For over 26 million US adults, food allergies are serious business — the merest whiff of a peanut or a bit of shellfish hidden in a stew could cause serious harm, as in the case of 11-year-old Cameron Jean-Pierre, who died this week from being in the same house as cooking seafood. But for a surprisingly large number of people, years of careful efforts to steer clear of certain foods might be unwarranted, per the results of a study released Friday in JAMA Network Open.

Logicians don't rule the world or get the most done. Could it be that a consistent world view is neither desirable nor achievable? If we abandon the straightjacket of rationality might this lead to a more powerful and exciting future, or is it a heresy that leads to madness? 

We think we want to be happy. Yet many of us are actually working toward some other end, according to cognitive psychologist Daniel Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics. Kahneman contends that happiness and satisfaction are distinct. Happiness is a momentary experience that arises spontaneously and is fleeting. Meanwhile, satisfaction is a long-term feeling, built over time and based on achieving goals and building the kind of life you admire.

Freud’s notion of a dark, libidinous unconscious is obsolete. A new theory holds that the brain produces a continuous stream of unconscious predictions.

Tackling a tricky crossword or a challenging Sudoku puzzle will not fend off age-related mental decline, new research has shown. Scientists have, in recent years, argued that brain-training exercises, such as completing puzzles or learning another language, can reduce the risk of developing dementia. But that may not be the case after all, according to a team of Scottish researchers whose research was published in the BMJ.

We think creativity is a uniquely mysterious force. But with Google's Magenta producing musical symphonies, some fear AI threatens to make the imagination redundant. Is human creativity no more than mechanics? Will AI transform and enrich the human experience? Can robots be creative? Or is there something strange about creative thought that separates humans and machines?

What is boredom? What does it mean to have nothing to do? For many of us, the feeling of boredom is associated with being young, newspapers and magazines carry stories about the importance of boredom to stimulate creativity – the rise of the smart phone is, apparently, a threat to us all (although I am sure they said that about television as well…). But what happens when boredom turns into stagnation? When life stretches out behind, and ahead, with few opportunities to progress, gain experiences or make choices? What happens when you have served decades in prison?