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Researchers at Leipzig University have partnered with Syrian refugees and an agency for e-mental health services to develop and scientifically test an app to help users deal with post-traumatic stress and related mental strain. The app - Sanadak - has now been published in Arabic and German and can be downloaded free of charge.

Changes in the brain caused by early childhood experiences are not entirely irreversible. This is the conclusion reached in a recent study by researchers at Universität Hamburg, led by the psychologist and neuroscientist Brigitte Röder. Earlier neuroscientific studies have revealed that unfavorable experiences in the first few months and years of life, for example blindness or poverty, can adversely affect the structural development of the human brain.

Differences among people are less pronounced online than offline / users particularly tend to idealize their psychological characteristics / publication in 'Current Psychology' Researchers in social and media psychology at the University of Cologne have explored digital environments in which people tend to portray themselves in an idealized way.

Active suppression weakens unwanted memories A natural disaster, a dented car, an injured person - memories of traumatic experiences can be controlled by deliberately suppressing the images that arise. Until now, however, it was unclear what happens to the memory in the process and how the process is reflected in the brain.

The CovSocial Project Analyzes the Mental Health and Social Cohesion of the Citizens of Berlin during the COVID-19 Pandemic In the CovSocial project, scholars and scientists led by Tania Singer from the Social Neuroscience Research Group of the Max Planck Society are investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the mental health and social cohesion of Berlin citizens during the pandemic years 2020 to 2022.

Heidelberg study shows that the speed of cognitive information processing remains largely stable over decades Mental speed - the speed at which we can deal with issues requiring rapid decision-making - does not change substantially over decades. Psychologists at Heidelberg University have come to this conclusion.

Human intelligence is closely associated with functional brain networks: The better these networks are developed, the easier it is for the brain to adapt to different tasks, this is shown by a new study of the University of Würzburg. You are just enjoying a nap on the sofa when your son suddenly turns up and asks you to help him with his math homework.

Nearly every country in the world has been affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. In response, governments around the world have initiated far-reaching measures that have required-and continue to require-profound collective changes in citizen behavior. Especially in the first year of the pandemic, when vaccines were not yet available, it was parti­cularly important that people followed instructions, such as limiting physical contact, refraining from travel, and wearing masks.

Scientists from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster have developed a method to measure the full extent of eye movements during blinks for the first time. The new method uses Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), to take many fast measurements of an entire cross-section of the eye, unlike most common eye tracking that measures only the front of the eyeball.

Empirical studies have proven that the quality of life of older people has improved over the last several decades. Yet this has no effect on their subjective experience of ageing. Older people do not view their own ageing experience any more positively than their same-aged peers about twenty years ago.

Great apes do not pass on their behavior to the next generation. Unlike humans, they do not copy the specific knowledge of those around them, instead learning it anew in each generation. This is shown in a study by Dr. Alba Motes-Rodrigo and Dr. Claudio Tennie of the "Tools and Culture in Early Hominins" research group at the University of Tübingen.

A study in biological psychology has shown that habitual gamblers use strategies during reinforcement learning that differ from those of the control group. This difference could be caused by changes in the dopamine system that influence strategic planning. In their pursuit of maximum reward, people suffering from gambling disorder rely less on exploring new but potentially better strategies, and more on proven courses of action that have already led to success in the past.

New HU study on the influence of "fake news" on the brain Neurocognitive studies by researchers at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) show that headlines with emotional content influence our judgments about other people even when we consider the media source to be untrustworthy. Rumours, half-truths and misinformation can be consumed and shared non-stop online and have an enormous reach.

The research being carried out by Dr. Nina Engelhardt fills a gap in our understanding of tolerance as well as in (cognitive) literature, and her project has led to her being included in the Baden-Württemberg Foundation's Elite Program for postdocs. In public discourse, the word "tolerance" is often defined as respect, acceptance and recognition of other cultures.

During the corona crisis, neurotic people experience more negative emotions in their everyday lives, are more unstable emotionally and worry more about their health. These are the results of a study carried out by psychologists from the Universities of Münster and Bielefeld. The study has been published in the "Journal of Research in Personality'.

Psychological study shows connection between emotional arousal and assignment of sound sequences as well as associative meanings No 123/2020 from Jul 14, 2020 On the basis of psycholinguistic experiments, an international group of researchers including a cognitive neuroscientist at Freie Universität Berlin, has been able to demonstrate that emotions play a central role in the associations between the sounds of words and their meanings.

Due to border closures in the wake of the corona crisis, the arrival of refugees in Europe has temporarily dipped. However, worldwide numbers of refugees have surged, again, within a year, driven by violence, war, persecution, economic hardship, or climate change. In the foreseeable future, many refugees will not be able to return to their homes.

Following the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Europe and North America in March 2020, many people around the world began hoarding goods such as toilet paper. Some companies reported an increase in toilet paper sales of up to 700 percent, despite calls from governments to refrain from "panic buying". Which groups of people primarily hoarded all the toilet paper? Psychologists from the universities of St. Gallen and Münster and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig investigated this question.

Participants wanted: Bioinformaticians attempt to trace new COVID-19 hotspots - further studies concerned with psychological impacts How do people deal with their feelings in everyday life during the pandemic caused by the coronavirus and at what locations might a new hotspot of COVID-19 infections be developing? These questions are the focus of two studies for which Heidelberg University scientists are looking for participants from all age groups.

University of Jena psychologists study longevity of couples' relationships It has probably never been easier to find a partner who is compatible with you - at least in theory. Internet dating platforms feed algorithms with information about those seeking a relationship in order to find the best match for them.