Reviews & Analysis

In this Perspective, Kühn and Gallinat present the role for environmental neuroscience in examining mental health and discuss how urban and natural environments can have detrimental or beneficial effects on mental health.

This Perspective presents concepts and foundations of data analysis and interpretation of microbiome experiments with a focus on the microbiome–gut–brain axis domain.

In this Perspective, the authors present techniques from other disciplines that could help to enrich and inform the analysis of microbiome–gut–brain axis data.

Nicotine withdrawal and anxiety symptoms are overlapping barriers to smoking cessation. We examined the effects of a smoking cessation treatment — noninvasive neuromodulation — on nicotine withdrawal and anxiety symptoms, which revealed information on how neuromodulation can treat substance use disorders.

Short-lived online social network experiments show that making the in-game wealth of immediate neighbors invisible improves the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of poorer participants. This status invisibility reduced the strength of the positive association between in-game wealth and SWB in social networks. However, in real-world settings, status is often visible.

In this Perspective the authors detail the potentially parallel systemic economic risk of psychological distress and climate change, and argue for the adoption of a similar set of policy interventions, including bolstering cross-agency capability and capacity and increased investment in targeting root causes and solutions.

In this Perspective, Kucyi and co-authors explore some of the recent developments in neuroscience, including investigations of network dynamics and neural mechanisms that support off-task thoughts, and consider the implications for maladaptive forms of thought in mental health.

Numerous randomized placebo-controlled studies over the past two decades have shown that ketamine has a rapid antidepressant action. However, its acute transient effects on cognition and perception are likely to unmask study-arm assignment. Now, the use of surgical anesthesia to conceal treatment assignment finds high rates of rapid antidepressant response among participants, regardless of whether they are randomized to ketamine or placebo.

After the hindrance imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, neuroscience research pushed forward. NeuroFrance 2023 took place as an in-person meeting and highlighted current and future strategies for exploring the brain and its pathologies, including a strong pathway to mental health research.

Robust 24-hour light–dark cycles are crucial for healthy circadian rhythms. A study now shows that there is an independent association between increased light at night and decreased light during the day with a variety of mental health disorders.

Sex steroid hormones are powerful neuromodulators of learning and memory. A new study in humans links rhythmic oscillations in ovarian hormone levels to changes in medial temporal lobe morphology.

Some individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience a series of symptoms attributable to ‘dissociation’ — severance either with themselves or their surroundings. A new study on the neurobiology of dissociation in PTSD uses functional MRI analysis to identify unique patterns of brain–behavior associations.

A study drawing on the expansive UK Biobank dataset to explore the lifestyle, genetic and biological underpinnings of mental health highlights the influence of lifestyle on depression risk and suggests that detailed investigations into lifestyle factors, in conjunction with psychological aspects and advanced analysis methods, may reveal a deeper understanding of the complexities of mental health.

A large-scale prospective cohort study with 287,282 participants revealed that the integration of multiple healthy lifestyle factors (a favorable lifestyle) was associated with a lower risk of depression. Categorizing participants on the basis of their polygenic risk scores for depression demonstrated that the effect of this favorable lifestyle persisted even among participants with high genetic susceptibility.

The role of personality in brain health remains unclear. A systematic search demonstrated that lower levels of warmth, diligence, sociability and curiosity, and a higher level of nervousness, were predictive of increased risk of brain disorders. Brain structure, inflammation and lipid metabolism partially explain the associations between personality and brain disorders.

Using resting-state functional MRI, we revealed a dysfunction pattern in the white matter of people with four major psychiatric disorders. This pattern is distinct from structural changes and has specific molecular and genetic bases.

By integrating neuroimaging and multi-omics data, we established links between individual genetic variations and macro- to microscale brain circuit dysfunctions, specifically in corticocortical and corticostriatal circuits, that contribute to the diverse clinical manifestations of schizophrenia. These findings advance our understanding of the disease’s heterogeneity and offer potential treatment insights.

Loechner et al. present an expert consensus on how to e-mental health, from the development to research and evaluation of e-mental health interventions, a useful guide with practical recommendations for researchers and practitioners wanting to explore the field of e-mental health.

We searched for changes in the levels of plasma proteins that could potentially help to identify adolescents at risk of developing mental health issues. Our candidate biomarkers were associated with key enriched biological pathways, including immune responses, blood coagulation, neurogenesis and neuronal degeneration.

This Perspective presents the heightened risk of psychopathology and negative outcomes among the offspring of people with severe mental illness and calls for proactive support.