Adolescents who experience sustained childhood maltreatment show high, inflexible cortisol levels that persist throughout the day in different social contexts, a new study shows. This flattened cortisol rhythm may be a pathway for poorer physical and mental health in youth that experience abuse.
Emotions
Kids who feel their parents are less reliable take fewer risks vital to learning and growth
Trying something new is a risk every child undertakes as they explore and learn about the world. While risk can be costly, it can also pay off in rewards or knowledge.
Seth Pollak: A career dedicated to understanding child emotion
The fun decals on the colorful walls and the cheerful environment gives it away, the third floor of the Waisman Center is dedicated to children. This space is where Seth Pollak, PhD, has spent most of his career studying child emotion, and how early life experiences shape the brain during development.
In new book, leading neuroscientist describes your brain on emotion
Building on more than 30 years of cutting-edge brain research, a new book by Richard J. Davidson offers an inside look into how emotions are coded in our brains and our power to control them.
How does the compassionate brain, measured in the lab, predict what occurs in real life?
Researchers are launching a new series of studies to understand how laboratory measures of virtuous qualities such as compassion relate to their behavior in the real world.
The science of healthy minds brings Dalai Lama to UW-Madison
The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Waisman Center will welcome His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to its public grand-opening celebration Saturday-Sunday, May 15-16. UW-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson established the …
Expectant Brains Help Predict Anxiety Treatment Success
A network of emotion-regulating brain regions implicated in the pathological worry that can grip patients with anxiety disorders may also be useful for predicting the benefits of treatment.
$6 Million Grant Creates Meditation Study Center
Research at UW-Madison has already shown that meditation can change the brain. Now a new grant will allow a more in-depth investigation of how these changes can affect sleep, pain tolerance, emotion regulation and other measures of well-being.
Can love change your mind? New project explores neuroscience of ‘positive qualities’
By Brian Mattmiller, University Communications What is happening in the minds of people who have developed a greater capacity for forgiveness and compassion? Can a quality like love — whether it’s shown toward a family member …
Scientists study links between brain, meditation
Meditation matters. Brain scientists are using the age-old practice to understand stress and pain reduction, attention spans, even compassion.