Search Results (138)

Development of new therapeutic approaches and strategies for common neuropsychiatric disorders, including Major Depressive Disorder, anxiety disorders, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, represent a significant global health challenge. Recent research indicates that emotional dysregulation and persistent inflammation are closely linked and serve as key pathophysiological features of these conditions. Emotional dysregulation is mechanistically coupled to locus coeruleus and norepinephrine (LC-NE) or noradrenergic system activity. Stemming from chronic stress, persistently elevated activity of the LC-NE system leads to hypervigilance, anxious states, and depressed mood. Concurrently, these symptoms are marked by systemic inflammation as indicated by elevated pro-inflammatory cytokines, and central neuroinflammation indicated by microglial activation in brain regions and networks involved in mood regulation and emotional control. In turn, chronic inflammation increases sympathetic tone and LC-NE activity resulting in a vortex of psychoneuroimmunological dysfunction that worsens mental health. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) in a non-invasive neuromodulation method uniquely positioned to address both noradrenergic dysfunction and chronic inflammation in neuropsychiatric applications. Evidence spanning the past decade demonstrates taVNS works via two complementary mechanisms. An ascending pathway engages vagal afferents projecting to the LC-NE system in the brain stem, which has been shown to modulate cortical arousal, cognitive function, mood, and stress responses. Through descending circuits, taVNS also modulates the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway to suppress the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines like TNF-α and IL-6 mitigating poor health outcomes caused by inflammation. By enhancing both central brain function and peripheral immune responses, taVNS has shown significant potential for recalibrating perturbed affective-cognitive processing. The present article describes and discusses recent evidence suggesting that taVNS offers a promising network-based paradigm for restoring psychoneuroimmunological homeostasis in common neuropsychiatric conditions. Full article

Background: Emotional prosody refers to the variations in pitch, pause, melody, rhythm, and stress of pronunciation conveying emotional meaning during speech. Although several studies demonstrated that the cerebellum is involved in the network subserving recognition of emotional facial expressions, there is only preliminary evidence suggesting its possible contribution to recognising emotional prosody by modulating the activity of cerebello-prefrontal circuits. The present study aims to further explore the role of the left and right cerebellum in the recognition of emotional prosody in a sample of healthy individuals who were required to identify emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, and neutral) from vocal stimuli selected from a validated database (EMOVO corpus). Methods: Anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) was used in offline mode to modulate cerebellar activity before the emotional prosody recognition task, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to monitor stimulation-related changes in oxy- and deoxy- haemoglobin (O2HB and HHB) in prefrontal areas (PFC). Results: Right cerebellar stimulation reduced reaction times in the recognition of all emotions (except neutral and disgust) as compared to both the sham and left cerebellar stimulation, while accuracy was not affected by the stimulation. Haemodynamic data revealed that right cerebellar stimulation reduced O2HB and increased HHB in the PFC bilaterally relative to the other stimulation conditions. Conclusions: These findings are consistent with the involvement of the right cerebellum in modulating emotional processing and in regulating cerebello-prefrontal circuits. Full article

Background: Nursing students face emotional and psychological challenges stemming from early clinical exposure, intense academic pressure, and persistent social stigmas. These stressors can contribute to mental health deterioration and increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior. Objective: To evaluate the psychosocial context and identify risk and protective factors contributing to suicidal behavior in undergraduate nursing students. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 433 undergraduate nursing students and utilized validated psychological instruments to assess suicidal behavior, emotional distress, impulsivity, anhedonia, mental health, and perceived social support. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, bivariate tests, exploratory factor analysis, and multivariate modeling to identify key predictors of suicidal behavior. Network visualization was used to integrate significant point-biserial correlations with factor loadings. Results: Among 433 nursing students (77.8% women, 93.8% cisgender, mean age 19), 15.2% showed clinically significant suicidal risk. Suicidal behavior was more frequent among women and students living away from home (p < 0.05). Higher levels of impulsivity, ADHD symptoms, and especially moderate-to-severe hopelessness (p < 0.001) were strongly associated. Hazardous alcohol use was also a significant risk factor (p < 0.01), while strong material and emotional support showed a protective effect (p < 0.05). Two psychological dimensions, emotional distress/impulsivity and hopelessness/low support, explained most of the variance. Conclusions: 1 in 7 nursing students show clinically relevant suicidal risk, particularly those with heightened hopelessness, emotional dysregulation or hazardous alcohol use. Protective social support plays a key mitigating role. These results underline the urgent need for tailored mental health interventions that specifically address emotional regulation and hopelessness, while reinforcing social support systems within nursing education contexts. Full article

Astrocytes play a pivotal role in shaping synaptic function and in learning, memory, and emotion. Recent studies show that perisynaptic astrocytic processes form structured interactions with pre- and postsynaptic elements, which extends synaptic diversity beyond neuron–neuron connections. Accumulating evidence indicates that astrocytic Ca²⁺ signaling, gliotransmission, and local translation modulate synaptic efficacy and contribute to the formation and stabilization of memory traces. It is therefore essential to define how astrocytic microdomains, multisynaptic leaflet domains, and network-level ensembles cooperate to regulate circuit computation across space and time. Advances in super-resolution and volumetric in vivo imaging and spatial transcriptomics now enable detailed, cell-type- and compartment-specific analysis of astrocyte–synapse interactions in vivo. In this review, we highlight these approaches and synthesize classical and emerging mechanisms by which astrocytes read neuronal activity, write to synapses, and coordinate network states. We also discuss theoretical frameworks such as neuron–astrocyte associative memory models that formalize astrocytic calcium states as distributed substrates for storage and control. This integrated view provides new insight into the multicellular logic of memory and suggests paths toward understanding and treating neurological and psychiatric disorders. Full article

The aim of this study was to explore the longitudinal relationship between death anxiety (DA) and fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in women newly diagnosed with breast cancer at baseline and 3 months post-discharge. A total of 426 women with breast cancer completed the Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale and the Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory at hospital discharge and 3 months later. Cross-lagged panel analysis (CLPA) was used to describe the relationship of the two variables (DA and FCR) over time and identify the optimal intervention symptom nodes for breast cancer patients in different stages. The findings suggest that the specific symptoms of DA, known as “cognition”, predict the subsequent symptom development for a variety of mental health problems in the network structure. The “Psychological distress” symptom in FCR is the most susceptible to other symptoms. In addition, death-related cognition may be a bridge symptom that connects the co-occurrence of DA and FCR. Death-related “time awareness” is the optimal symptom node for intervention in early-stage breast cancer patients, while it is “cognition” in advanced patients. The death-related cognition and emotional regulation of death may be the best target for interventions among breast cancer patients, considering their DA coincides with FCR. The best intervention for patients with early-stage breast cancer may be the time awareness of death, while it may be more effective for patients with advanced cancer to be educated about disease and death, as well as to enhance correct perception. Full article

Music is a near-universal anthropological and sensory phenomenon that engages distributed brain networks and peripheral physiological systems to shape emotion, cognition, sociality, and bodily regulation. Evidence from electrophysiology, neuroimaging, endocrinology, randomized controlled trials, and longitudinal training studies indicates that both receptive and active musical experiences produce experience-dependent neural and systemic adaptations. These include entrainment of neural oscillations, modulation of predictive and reward signaling, autonomic and neuroendocrine changes, and long-term structural connectivity alterations that support affect regulation, cognition, social functioning, motor control, sleep, and resilience to neuropsychiatric illness. This narrative review integrates mechanistic domains with clinical outcomes across major conditions, such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, dementia, and selected neurodevelopmental disorders, by mapping acoustic and procedural parameters onto plausible biological pathways. We summarize how tempo, beat regularity, timbre and spectral content, predictability, active versus passive engagement, social context, dose, and timing influence neural entrainment, synaptic and network plasticity, reward and prediction-error dynamics, autonomic balance, and immune/endocrine mediators. For each condition, we synthesize randomized and observational findings and explicitly link observed improvements to mechanistic pathways. We identify methodological limitations, including heterogeneous interventions, small and biased samples, sparse longitudinal imaging and standardized physiological endpoints, and inconsistent acoustic reporting, and translate these into recommendations for translational trials: harmonized acoustic reporting, pre-specified mechanistic endpoints (neuroimaging, autonomic, neuroendocrine, immune markers), adequately powered randomized designs with active controls, and long-term follow-up. Contextual moderators including music education, socioeconomic and cultural factors, sport, sleep, and ritual practices are emphasized as critical determinants of implementation and effectiveness. Full article

Placebo, nocebo, and lessebo effects are very frequent in patients with both neurological and psychiatric disorders. Interestingly, the neural mechanisms underlying placebo effects have been found to be the same as or similar to mechanisms targeted by active pharmaceutical interventions for many of these disorders. In the case of functional neurological disorders (FNDs), there are shared neural substrates between the central nervous system “placebo network” and the dysfunctional networks implicated in the pathophysiology. These networks are primarily involved in emotion regulation, stress responses, and the sense of self-agency. Therefore, placebo effects have also been discussed as therapeutic interventions in FNDs. Such an approach, however, has a variety of ethical implications evolving around informed consent, autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. In this paper, we discuss the use of placebo, nocebo, and lessebo in FNDs as well as related ethical issues. Overall, the use of placebo in FNDs is currently still considered controversial both for diagnostic as well as therapeutic purposes. Although it is a safe and almost unique intervention, its use violates the core principles of medical ethics and doctor–patient interactions involving autonomy or openness in the therapeutic relationship. Full article

Incidence of NSSI rises during adolescence and peaks in young adulthood. Secondary school and university students, representing these age groups, have been the focus of research on how emotion regulation strategies impact NSSI. However, a comprehensive study of the interrelations among different symptoms is needed. Research based on network analysis, a questionnaire survey on emotion regulation strategies and NSSI was conducted with 378 secondary school students and 593 first-year university students, all of whom reported a history of engagement in NSSI. The results indicated that Cognitive reappraisal symptoms showed a positive or no correlation with NSSI, while expressive suppression symptoms demonstrated a negative or no correlation. Secondary school and university students using cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression also tended to use the other type of emotion regulation strategy simultaneously. In secondary school NSSI groups, core symptoms were linked to cognitive reappraisal, while in university groups, they were linked to expressive suppression. Intervention targets for NSSI in secondary school students included “I keep my emotions to myself”, and for university students, “I control my emotions by not expressing them.” Research reveals a complex mechanism underlying the link between NSSI and emotion regulation strategies in university and secondary school students, offering valuable insights for promoting the psychological health of adolescents and youths. Full article

Human behavior is shaped by a pervasive motive to align with others, manifesting across a wide range of tendencies—from motor synchrony and emotional contagion to convergence in beliefs and choices. Existing accounts explain how alignment arises through predictive coding and observation–execution mechanisms, but they do not address how it is regulated in a manner that considers when alignment is adaptive and with whom it should occur. We propose a goal-directed model of social alignment that integrates computational and neural levels of analysis, to enhance our understanding of alignment as a context-sensitive decision process rather than a reflexive social tendency. Computationally, alignment is formalized as a prediction-error minimization process over the gap between self and other, augmented by a meta-learning layer in which the learning rate is adaptively tuned according to the inferred value of aligning versus maintaining independence. Assessments of the traits and mental states of self and other serve as key inputs to this regulatory function. Neurally, higher-order representations of these inputs are carried by the mentalizing network (dmPFC, TPJ), which exerts top-down control through the executive control network (dlPFC, rIFG) to enhance or inhibit alignment tendencies generated by observation–execution (mirror) circuitry. By reframing alignment as a form of social decision-making under uncertainty, the model specifies both the computations and neural circuits that integrate contextual cues to arbitrate when and with whom to align. It yields testable predictions across developmental, comparative, cognitive, and neurophysiological domains, and provides a unified framework for understanding the adaptive functions of social alignment, such as strategic social learning, as well as its maladaptive outcomes, including groupthink and false information cascades. Full article

With the widespread use of the internet, cyberbullying has become a significant issue affecting adolescents’ mental health and quality of life. This study utilized propensity score matching (PSM) and network analysis to compare the mental health and quality of life symptom networks of Chinese high school students who had experienced cyberbullying and those who had not. A total of 9066 students were assessed using the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) and the Chinese Quality of Life Scale for Primary and Secondary School Students (QLSCA). Network comparison tests revealed significant structural differences (M = 0.2136, p < 0.05), with the cyberbullying group showing higher global network strength (11.985 vs. 10.700, p < 0.05), indicating a more densely connected symptom network. In both groups, “self-satisfaction” was the most central node, but the cyberbullying group exhibited higher centrality for “negative emotion” and “self-concept” compared to anxiety and depression in the non-cyberbullying group. Key bridging symptoms differed: “academic attitude” in the non-cyberbullying group and “opportunity for activity” in those who had experienced cyberbullying. Moreover, the connection strength between “interpersonal sensitivity” and “negative emotion” was stronger in the cyberbullying group. These findings suggest that targeted interventions should focus on emotional regulation and social activity to disrupt the symptom network cycle. Full article

Mental health (MH) in university students is often studied through isolated variables. However, a dynamic systems perspective suggests that psychological well-being results from interactions among multiple dimensions such as personality, mood, resilience, self-esteem, and psychological distress. A total of 928 university students (M = 21.01 ± 1.95) completed validated questionnaires: Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) for personality, Profile of Mood States (POMS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 25), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) using the EGAnet package in RStudio (v. 2025.09.01) was employed to identify latent dimensions and their interconnections. EGA revealed five stable and interconnected dimensions with good fit indices (TEFI = −9.00; ≥0.70): (a) Personality as socio-emotional regulation, (b) Mood as a generalized affective continuum, (c) Resilience as a unified coping process, (d) Self-esteem based on competence and self-worth, and (e) Psychological distress integrating depression, anxiety, and stress. MH appears as a complex and dynamic network of interrelated psychological components. This network-based approach provides a more integrative understanding of well-being in students and supports the development of interventions that target multiple dimensions simultaneously, enhancing effectiveness in academic settings. Full article

Background: Corporal punishment (CP) remains a common disciplinary practice in many countries, despite evidence of its negative consequences for children’s development. Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of a culturally adapted intervention aimed at reducing parents’ use of CP. Method: Using a 12-month quasi-experimental longitudinal design, the study included an intervention group (n = 21) and a control group (n = 17). We administered standardized instruments at pretest and posttest to assess changes in parenting behavior, emotional regulation, and perceptions of child behavior. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to model nonlinear relationships and classify group membership. Results: The intervention group showed significant improvements in parenting practices and emotion regulation. The ANN model classified participants with 74.6% accuracy. Key predictive variables included emotional suppression, physical punishment, and parental support and acceptance. Conclusions: These findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of the SERES program in reducing harmful parenting behaviors and promoting positive practices. Additionally, the use of AI models proved to be valuable for understanding complex behavioral changes, offering a promising approach for optimizing future interventions aimed at strengthening parenting and preventing family violence. Full article

Background/Objectives: Eating disorders (EDs) frequently emerge during critical stages of childhood and adolescence, when identity development and emotional regulation are still maturing. Disturbances in self-concept clarity and identity integration may transform the body into a symbolic battlefield for autonomy, belonging, and self-worth. This review synthesizes developmental, psychosocial, neurocognitive, and therapeutic perspectives on the role of identity disturbance in EDs. Methods: A narrative review was conducted (2010–2025) using combinations of terms related to identity, self-concept clarity, self-discrepancy, objectification, interoception, and eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder). Results: Findings indicate that identity vulnerability (expressed as low self-concept clarity, heightened self-discrepancies, and self-objectification) mediates the association between early adversity, sociocultural pressures, and ED symptoms. Neurocognitive studies reveal altered self-referential processing, default mode network connectivity, and interoceptive signaling. Clinically, comorbid borderline personality features further exacerbate identity disturbance and complicate recovery. Evidence-based treatments such as enhanced cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-E) effectively target core maintaining mechanisms, while adjunctive interventions (mentalization-based therapy, schema therapy, narrative approaches, and compassion- or acceptance-based methods) show promise in addressing identity-related processes and improving outcomes. Conclusions: Identity disturbance provides a unifying framework for understanding why ED symptoms become entrenched despite adverse consequences. Integrating identity-focused approaches with nutritional and medical care may enhance recovery and reduce chronicity in youth. Future research should adopt longitudinal and mechanistic designs to clarify pathways linking identity change to clinical improvement and test identity-specific augmentations to standard ED treatments. Full article

Adolescents and young adults are using synthetic cannabinoids at increasing rates, and the use of synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) carries significant medical and psychiatric risks. Although studies have been conducted to preliminarily explore the pharmacological effects of the fourth-generation synthetic cannabinoid 5F-EDMB-PICA (ethyl 2-(1-(5-fluoropentyl)-1 H-indole-3-carboxamido)-3,3-dimethylbutyrate), there is still a lack of research addressing its deleterious effects in mice of different age groups. We investigated the effects of 5F-EDMB-PICA on multiple aspects of emotional functioning, locomotor performance, and cognitive functioning in adolescent and young adult mice by determining the affinity of 5F-EDMB-PICA for cannabinoid receptors in conjunction with behavioral experiments and transcriptomic analyses. Acute 5F-EDMB-PICA administration disrupted anxiety regulation, motor control, and spatial memory in mice of different age groups; accompanying hippocampal transcriptomic screens further pinpointed candidate genes that may mediate these deficits. This study establishes the molecular network of synthetic cannabinoid neurological harms, provides key gene expression profiles for subsequent in-depth analysis of the harm mechanisms, and also provides more data support for future control of cannabinoids. Full article

As the brain continues to mature during adolescence, heightened impulsivity in emotional situations may increase the likelihood of initiating substance use. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess large-scale network activation during an emotional inhibitory control task (Go-NoGo). Participants were healthy, substance-naïve adolescents aged 13–14 years (n = 56, 31 females) who were then followed for 3 years with quarterly substance use evaluations. During follow-up, 24 participants initiated substance use, while 32 remained substance-naïve. Network activation strength was extracted for the Negative NoGo > Neutral NoGo contrast in the left and right lateral frontoparietal networks (lL-FPN, rL-FPN) and the dorsal attention network (DAN) for each participant. The impact of network activation strength on substance use initiation was analyzed via survival analysis (Cox regression). Reduced activation strength of the lL-FPN was associated with significantly higher hazard of initiation of substance use (p = 0.008). No significant effects were observed for rL-FPN or DAN. Diminished engagement of the lL-FPN during inhibitory control in negative versus neutral emotional contexts was associated with earlier substance use initiation. This pattern of network activation may represent a neurobiological marker of self-regulation vulnerability, highlighting a potential target for early identification and prevention strategies during adolescence. Full article