Mindfully Healing

New theory may explain the complex set of symptoms seen in autism. People with autism often display a complex and confusing range of symptoms, including hypersensitivity to sound, problems interacting with others and repetitive behaviours. Scientist have long wondered what all these — and other, seemingly unrelated symptoms — have in common. Now MIT researchers are testing a brand new theory: that autistic children have difficulties predicting what is going to happen next, and it’s this problem that is at the root of autism (Sinha et al., 2014). Without the

Despite the hardships of ageing, people generally feel happier as they get older. The secret to getting happier with age is learning acceptance, research suggests. Part of acceptance is learning to engage with negative emotions, which might seem an odd way of reducing them. However, older people experienced less anger and negative emotions, the study found. At the same time, they also showed increase levels of acceptance. Acceptance, is not about giving up, but about engaging with emotions, both positive and negative. As the study’s authors explain the… “…goal of

The activities that cause a 30% hit to learning and memory. Getting enough bright light could be one of the simplest ways to improve memory and learning. Too long spent indoors in dim lighting causes damaging changes to the brain’s structure and function, new research finds. Continual exposure to dim lighting hurts parts of the brain that are central to memory and learning. The study of rodents found they lost 30% capacity in their hippocampus — a structure important for memory — when they were kept in dim light for

Both happiness and general well-being were boosted in the study of 395 people. Taking a few moments to stop and look at something in the natural environment is enough to make people happier, research finds. LIterally, ‘stopping and smelling the roses’, or in this case noticing anything in the natural world really does work. Both happiness and well-being were boosted by noticing things like a bird, a house plant, a dandelion in the sidewalk, or just the sun shining through the window. In the research, people took a photo of

The simple belief about old age that halves your dementia risk. Having a positive attitude towards ageing can half the risk of developing dementia, new research finds. People with the strongest genetic risk factor for depression — the ε4 variant of the APOE gene — were 49.8% less likely to develop the disease compared to those with a negative view of ageing. For those without the genetic risk factor, those with positive beliefs about ageing had a 43.6% lower chance of developing dementia. Professor Becca Levy, the study’s first author,

Antidepressants side-effects: in the US one in ten are prescribed antidepressants each year, but are they told about ALL the side-effects? A new survey of antidepressants side-effects has found higher than expected levels of emotional numbness, sexual problems and even suicidal thoughts associated with the medication (Read et al., 2014). The study, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, found that as many as half the people they surveyed had psychological problems due to their medication. The authors again question whether antidepressants are being over-prescribed. The paper’s lead author, Professor John

What message are your shoes sending to the world about your personality? People make surprisingly accurate guesses about other people’s personalities from relatively little information. Shoes are often said to be a good indicator of a person’s personality — and psychological research agrees. A study of 208 people looking only at pictures of shoes has found people could pick out some personality traits of their owners. The shoes in the pictures were the ones the owner wore most often. So, here is your guide to reading someone’s personality just by

How detectives and intelligence officers can tell if someone is lying. Deceptive people generally want to say as little as they can, psychological research into lying finds. Instead of trying to tell an elaborate story, they actually clam up, on the basis that lies should be kept as simple as possible. Psychologists recommend that detectives and intelligence officers encourage their suspects to talk. This is just one of the findings of a review of 60 studies on deception carried out by Professor R. Edward Geiselman and colleagues. Professor Geiselman has

A particular part of the brain is one of the first to be affected by dementia. Losing your sense of smell is an early sign of dementia, new research finds. Almost all the people in the research who could not identify any of five common smells went on to develop dementia within five years. Those who could not name four out of five common smells, had twice the risk of developing dementia in the next five years. Professor Jayant M. Pinto, who led the research, said: “These results show that

Many colouring in books advertise themselves as ‘art therapy’, but do they make people feel better? Colouring in books do help to improve people’s mood, new research finds. However, ‘real’ art therapy has other advantages on top, the authors argue. Dr Girija Kaimal, who led the study, said: “The main takeaway is that coloring has some limited benefits like reducing stress and negative mental states. But it does not shift anything else of substance, develop relationships, nor result in any personal development.” Art therapists argue that therapy is about more