Mindfully Healing

The reason high intelligence and anxiety are correlated. Intelligence and anxiety may have evolved together as mutually beneficial traits, research finds. This may help to explain why people with high intelligence also tend to have higher levels of anxiety. The benefit may be that intelligence allows people to better imagine what might go wrong. Worriers tend to keep out of danger so that their genes are the ones carried forward into the next generation. Non-worries, meanwhile, starved to death because they didn’t prepare for winter or failed to anticipate an

Why people with the most severe personality disorder find it difficult to have romantic relationships and friendships. People with borderline personality disorder have deficits in brain regions related to empathy, new research finds. The finding helps explain why people with borderline personality disorder have unstable moods. They also often have trouble maintaining relationships with others. Dr Brian Haas, the study’s lead authors, said: “Our results showed that people with BPD traits had reduced activity in brain regions that support empathy. This reduced activation may suggest that people with more BPD

Superagers reveal how we can all age gracefully. Warm and trusting social relationships could be the key to having an extraordinary memory when you are 80. The conclusion comes from new research on so-called ‘superagers’ — people who have the cognitive abilities of those up to 30 years younger. The decline in superager’s memory and other cognitive skills is much slower than their peers. They also report having more high-quality and satisfying relationships with other people. Dr Emily Rogalski, a study author, said: “You don’t have the be the life

Posting this type of image online linked to depression. People who are depressed can be identified from their social media photos 70% of the time, new research finds. Depressed people have a tendency to post (literally) darker pictures. They are also more likely to use a filter to convert their images to black-and-white. Dr Christopher Danforth, who co-authored the study, explained the signs to look for: “Our analysis of user accounts from a popular social media app revealed that photos posted by people diagnosed with depression tended to be darker

“If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?” Being smart has almost no relationship to wealth, research reveals. Smart people are no more wealthy than those who are considerably less smart, on average, a study has found. Perversely, very clever people are actually at a slightly higher risk of financial problems. Dr Jay Zagorsky, the study’s author, said: “People don’t become rich just because they are smart. Your IQ has really no relationship to your wealth. And being very smart does not protect you from getting into financial difficulty.” The

“I sort of feel that my breathing is going with the song, my heart is beating slower and I’m feeling just more aware of the song…” Getting goosebumps or a lump in your throat while listening to music is relatively rare, research finds. It could be an indication that your brain is unique, according to recent research that examined how the feeling of chills is triggered. People who feel chills from music have an enhanced ability to feel emotions. This could be down to a structural difference in the brain.

It could be a sign of bravery and health. Women find small facial scars attractive when looking for a short-term relationship, research finds. Previously it was thought scars made men look less attractive in this context. However, it seems women may link scars to bravery and health. For long-term relationships, male scarring made no difference to women’s perceptions of attractiveness. When men looked at pictures of women with small scars and without, it made no difference, whatever type of relationship they were considering. Dr Rob Burriss, the study’s first author,

The effect was tested on many ethnicities: French Caucasian women, Chinese Asian women, Latin American women and South African women. When women’s facial features stand out more, they look younger, new research finds. What the researchers call ‘facial contrast’, was linked to an appearance of youth, regardless of ethnic group. Naturally, people’s facial features merge into each other with age. Ms Aurélie Porcheron, the study’s first author, said: “Facial contrast refers to how much the eyes, lips and eyebrows stand out in the face in terms of how light or

Do any of these myths about the brain catch you out? Surveys of teachers have revealed that many believe seven common myths about the brain, likely because the simple explanations are often attractive, even if totally wrong. The results come from surveys of teachers in the UK, Turkey, Holland, Greece and China, reported in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience (Howard-Jones, 2014). See if any catch you out… 1. Myth: Right-brained/left-brained Around 70% of teachers believed that a person is either ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained’. This popular neuromyth has been debunked by

Working on commitment may NOT be the key for couples having problems with their relationship. Genes are the main reason why divorce runs in families, new research finds. Psychologists used to think that the potential for divorce was transmitted from one generation to the next by psychological means. But the new research finds that it is really genetics that are at the root — although psychological factors are important. For example, neurotic people tend to see their partners in a more negative light. The personality trait of neuroticism is passed