From the article: A new study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior reveals the relationship between jealousy, the gender of both the partner and their rival, and the type of infidelity (sexual vs. emotional). The study included a large group of individuals identifying as heterosexual, bisexual, or homosexual.

The research found that individuals were consistently most jealous of rivals that were of their own gender, except in the case of bisexual women. Bisexual women were most jealous when their female partners were involved with men. The research team states, “jealousy was influenced by sex and sexual orientation of the individuals, sex of the partners, and also by sex of the rivals: same-sex rivals were perceived as most threatening.”

Prior research on the origins of jealousy had found that jealousy was often highest when there was a “reproductive risk.” In other words, if the partner was at risk of becoming pregnant, the jealousy was more intense than what would be found in other scenarios.

Heterosexual men have been shown to be the only group more concerned about sexual affairs than emotional ones. It appears that in heterosexual relationships, from the male perspective, the reproductive risk their partner takes if they are sexually unfaithful triggers feelings of jealousy.

Study author Jaroslava Varella Valentova and colleagues sought to explore the complexities of diverse romantic pairs, the various potential rivals, and the different types of infidelity (sexual or emotional). As stated by the research team, the goals were to investigate “the possible effects of sex and sexual orientation of the individual, and sex of the partner and rival on reported sexual versus emotional jealousy.”

From the article: An online survey of Italian men found that body image self-consciousness contributes to sexual distress. In other words, being aware of how one’s body looks like during physical intimacy with one’s partner contributes to feelings of frustration, anxiety and worry regarding sexual activity. The study was published in the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy.

Sexual health contributes to one’s overall quality of life. Pleasant sexual activities are an important component of the overall well-being of a person. Due to this, sexual dysfunction or the lack of sexual satisfaction creates a potentially negative impact on the quality of life.

Studies of sexual health done on women have shown the importance of body image self-consciousness for sexual functioning. In extreme cases, negative body image self-consciousness can impair sexual functioning, but positive body image self-consciousness has been shown to contribute to better sexual functioning in both women and men.

Previous studies have found that body image dissatisfaction tends to be greater in women than in men. However, men are also affected by body dissatisfaction and the social imposed standards of masculinity and muscularity.

From the article: A recent study published in Psychology Research and Behavior Management attempts to determine the relationship between parental Dark Triad traits, emotional reactivity, and their children’s Dark Triad and emotional reactivity. The research team sought to discover if the Dark Triad and emotional reactivity of the parent’s generation can transmit these personality traits and behaviors to their offspring.

Their results indicate that Dark Triad traits and emotional reactivity are transmitted intergenerationally. In addition, the children had much higher levels of Dark Triad traits and reactive emotions. Finally, the more emotionally reactive the parents were, and the greater the Dark Triad in children, the more likely parental Dark Triad personality traits would have a negative effect on their children’s emotional reactivity.

The Dark Triad refers to three related personality traits: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. Machiavellianism as a personality trait includes an absence of a robust moral code and manipulation for personal gain. Behaviors that make up psychopathy include impulsivity as well as lacking remorse and empathy. Finally, seeking attention and selfishness are indicative of narcissism.

Like the Dark Triad, emotional reactivity comprises individual measurable elements. These include emotional sensitivity, emotional persistence, and emotional intensity. Those with high degrees of emotional sensitivity are likely to experience mood changes in response to minimal environmental changes. Those with high emotional persistence struggle to shake off bad emotions, and emotional intensity is the difference between feeling mildly inconvenienced and rage.

From the article: “Dissociating” has become an internet buzzword, but what does it mean and how common is it really? A study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research suggests that this mental disconnect may be very common among people with depressive symptoms.

Dissociation is a word used to describe a mental detachment or separation. It is a popular word on social media now, and it can be used to describe normal forgetfulness, daydreaming, or absent-mindedness. It also has a pathological definition, which can include amnesia, hearing voices, flashbacks, derealization, depersonalization, identity fragmentation and more.

These symptoms can be associated with experiencing trauma or significant stress. Depression, which many people suffer from and can be very difficult to treat, can encompass these pathological dissociative symptoms as well. This study sought to explore the relationships between dissociative symptoms, depression, trauma, and other potential mediating factors.

Hong Wang Fung and colleagues utilized 410 adult participants with self-reported clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms. Participants were recruited online and completed their survey on the web. Measures included questionnaires regarding sociodemographic information, depression symptoms, dissociative symptoms, trauma experiences, interpersonal stress, family support, and perceived benefits of psychiatric medication.

From the article: A brain region known as the amygdala could play a key role in predicting symptom improvement following ketamine therapy in patients with treatment-resistant anxious depression, according to new research published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

“Since the antidepressant effects of ketamine in patients with anxious depression remain unclear, it is necessary to investigate the potential biomarkers predicting the antidepressant efficacy of ketamine in patients with anxious depression,” said study author Bin Zhang of the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University.

“Previous studies have pointed out that functional connectivity differences in the amygdala are linked to depression improvement after ketamine treatment in depressed patients, but their role in anxious depression patients is uncertain. Therefore, we investigated the correlation between depression improvement after ketamine treatment and amygdala functional connectivity in anxious depression patients.”

For their study, the researchers examined neuroimaging data from 31 patients with anxious depression and 18 patients with non-anxious depression.

The researchers only included participants who had a diagnosis of major depression without comorbid psychotic symptoms, had a score greater than 17 on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, had previously failed to improve after at least two antidepressant treatments, had completed fMRI brain scans, and had undergone six ketamine infusions.

From the article: For all the progress our society has made, we’re still nothing without agriculture. But agriculture has also changed a lot: increasingly, an array of sensors equipped with relatively simple hardware and smart software are being used to make agriculture more efficient and sustainable — and given that agriculture is one of the main contributors to habitat destruction and climate change, this would definitely come in handy.

But unexpected help may come from the internet. The internet you’re using to read this now can be used for a number of different things, including connecting sensors and other objects.

The so-called Internet of Things (IoT) means that you no longer need to go out into a field to inspect it and take samples for analysis — you can leave the sensors in place and they communicate using wireless protocols. These technologies have advanced tremendously in recent years, becoming not only more precise and robust, but also cheaper — a key demand for agriculture.

It works like this: you plant a bunch of sensors to measure things like soil moisture, fertilizer content, and other parameters of interest. You connect the irrigation systems to the sensors and only irrigate when it’s necessary, and where it’s necessary. You can use the same approach for estimating soil nutrient levels and identifying pests, making the entire process as efficient as possible.

The results are, with today’s technology, striking: studies show that between 20% to 72% of water usage can be reduced with this approach, saving money and valuable environmental resources. There’s no doubt that the method has a lot of potential and can be used in most places in the world — although it’s noteworthy that some of the bread baskets of the world still lack access to reliable, high-speed internet.

From the article: A new study found promising results for a combined physical fitness and cognitive intervention designed to enhance neuroplasticity in older adults. Using a motion-capture video game, the intervention appeared to remediate age-related declines in attention. The findings were published in the journal npj Aging.

With age, cognitive abilities naturally decline. But there is some evidence that this decline can be slowed with training. For example, cognitive interventions that leverage neuroplasticity have shown potential in improving the cognitive abilities of older adults. Additionally, physical fitness interventions have been found to improve older adults’ cognitive abilities as well as their physical health. This pattern of findings suggests that an intervention that combines both cognition and fitness may offer the most cognitive benefits.

“My background is actually in Kinesiology, and I’ve always been excited to do a cognitive training study that involved exercise in a targeted fashion,” said study author Joaquin A. Anguera, the director of Neuroscape‘s Clinical Division and an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco. “Some people want to do cognitive training while moving rather than sitting down, and that really spoke to me as a possibility for real benefits given anecdotal stories about games like ‘Dance Dance Revolution.'”

The researchers designed a randomized, placebo-controlled study to test whether the BBT intervention could improve older adults’ attention and physical fitness. First, they recruited a sample of 49 healthy older adults with an average age of 68 and randomly assigned them to one of two groups. One group (24 people) participated in the Body-Brain Trainer, an 8-week on-site intervention assisted by a trainer. The other group (25 people) was an active, expectancy-matched control group that participated in the Mind-Body Trainer, a 6-week at-home training assisted by three iOS apps.