Blog Posts

How a substance that increases anxiety may also protect the brain from stress By Jess Wight | 11 September 2026 “Caffeine is the most widely used mood-altering drug in the world… people often see coffee, tea, and soft drinks simply as beverages rather than vehicles for a psychoactive drug” Roland Griffiths, PhD, professor in psychiatry and neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, describing how caffeine is culturally disguised “Caffeine makes you anx

Shifting the focus from neurotransmitters to neurogenesis By Jess Wight | 04 September 2026 “Without the ability to create new neurons, people with depression may not have the resilience to effectively adapt to the environment.” Maura Dupont, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Quantitative Brain Biology Institute, discussing how neurogenesis may be involved in depression For decades, scientists have worked to understand what changes in the brain when someone develops

How paying attention to an itch may change the immune response beneath it By Jess Wight | August 27, 2026 “I’ve studied humans for more than 20 years, and this was the most striking effect I’ve ever seen.” Dr. Liron Rozenkrantz, assistant professor at the university’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, and supervisor of the Nature study published this week, discussing the exciting new research When you feel an itch, most often your first instinct is to ignore it; you know you ought