DATE: April 24, 2025 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Most bereaved people dream of or sense the deceased, study finds — and the two may be linked

URL: https://www.psypost.org/most-bereaved-people-dream-of-or-sense-the-deceased-study-finds-and-the-two-may-be-linked/

A new study published in the journal Dreaming finds that the majority of bereaved individuals—whether grieving the death of a romantic partner or a pet—report vivid dreams or waking experiences involving the deceased. The research suggests these occurrences are more common than often assumed and may play a meaningful role in the grief process. Those who dream of the deceased are also more likely to report experiencing their presence while awake.

For years, researchers have examined the role of dreams in bereavement, as well as so-called “continuing bonds”—the ways in which people maintain a connection with lost loved ones. Many dying individuals also report comforting visions or dreams of deceased family members. Yet, few studies have explored the overlap between these sleep and waking experiences among the bereaved. The new study seeks to bridge that gap by exploring both types of experiences and examining how they may be related.

The authors conducted a post hoc analysis of previously unexamined data from two earlier studies. The first study involved 268 adults in the United States who had lost a romantic partner or spouse within the past two years. The second study included 199 participants who had lost a dog or cat in the prior six months. In addition to asking about dreams of the deceased, researchers had also included questions about waking experiences—such as seeing, hearing, or feeling the presence or touch of the deceased. These items had not been analyzed in earlier reports.

Participants in both studies were recruited through Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing platform frequently used in psychological research. Previous studies have found that data gathered from Mechanical Turk samples is comparable in quality to other non-randomized survey methods. In both samples, participants completed multiple standardized questionnaires, including the Continuing Bonds Scale, which measures the extent to which a person feels a continued presence of the deceased in their life, and a dream questionnaire that asked about recent experiences involving the deceased.

To assess waking experiences, participants were asked whether in the past month they had seen the deceased standing before them, heard the deceased’s voice, or felt their physical touch. Participants rated the frequency of each experience on a five-point scale. For analysis, any response indicating the event occurred at least once was coded as a positive occurrence.

The results showed that 73.5% of participants who had lost a romantic partner and 59.3% who had lost a pet reported dreaming of the deceased in the past month. Waking experiences were also common. Among those grieving a partner, 50.7% said they had at least one waking experience of the deceased in the same timeframe—whether seeing, hearing, or feeling them. In the pet loss group, 32.2% reported such experiences. When both dreaming and waking experiences were combined, the proportions rose to 82.5% in the partner loss group and 68.3% in the pet loss group.

Importantly, the researchers found a statistically significant relationship between dreaming of the deceased and experiencing their presence while awake. Among those who had dreamed of a deceased partner, 56.1% also reported a waking experience, compared to 36.2% of those who had not dreamed. In the pet loss group, 39% of those who dreamed of the deceased also had waking experiences, compared to just 22.5% of those who had not dreamed. This suggests that the two types of experiences may be related, possibly reflecting a more general openness to experiencing ongoing connections with the deceased.

These findings build on a growing body of research that has explored dreams of the deceased and so-called “externalized continuing bonds.” Past studies have found that such dreams are often comforting, and in most cases the deceased appear healthy and happy. For many people, these dreams serve a therapeutic role—providing a chance to say goodbye, feel a sense of closure, or reconnect with positive memories.

The idea that waking experiences of the deceased are pathological or signs of unresolved grief has also been challenged by recent work. While some studies have linked these experiences to avoidant attachment or trauma symptoms, others suggest they may support emotional regulation and healing, especially when the experiences are felt as comforting rather than distressing.

Still, this line of research is in its early stages, and there are important limitations. The study relied on retrospective self-reports, which can be influenced by memory biases or interpretation differences. Participants may have varying understandings of what it means to “see” or “hear” the deceased, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the nature of these experiences. Additionally, the sample was not representative of the general population, which may limit the generalizability of the findings.

The researchers emphasize that more investigation is needed to understand the causes and consequences of these phenomena. It remains unclear why some people have positive experiences while others do not, or whether these experiences help or hinder the process of adjusting to loss over time. Future studies may benefit from using longitudinal designs and more objective measures, such as dream diaries, to better understand when and why these experiences occur.

Despite the limitations, the findings have potential clinical value. Bereaved individuals often worry that dreaming of or sensing a deceased loved one means something is wrong. Clinicians and support providers may be able to reassure people that such experiences are common and not necessarily signs of mental health issues. Raising awareness about the frequency and emotional tone of these experiences could help reduce unnecessary distress and encourage open conversations about grief.

The study, “The Bereavement Experience: Dreams and Waking Experiences of the Deceased,” was authored by Joshua Black, Kathryn Belicki, and Jessica Ralph.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/most-bereaved-people-dream-of-or-sense-the-deceased-study-finds-and-the-two-may-be-linked/

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DATE: April 24, 2025 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: Common medications linked to subtle shifts in cognitive performance, study finds

URL: https://www.psypost.org/common-medications-linked-to-subtle-shifts-in-cognitive-performance-study-finds/

A large-scale study published in Brain and Behavior has found that some widely used medications may have subtle but meaningful associations with cognitive performance—both positive and negative—when considered across entire populations. By analyzing data from more than half a million individuals in the United Kingdom and validating the findings in two additional cohorts, researchers developed a “cognitive footprint” framework to estimate how different medications might influence mental performance on a broad scale.

The study was designed in response to growing awareness that many medications can affect thinking and memory, even if cognitive function is not the drug’s intended target. Although these effects are often small, the widespread use of certain medications means that even slight impairments or improvements could add up to significant effects at the societal level. This has implications not only for public health but also for how drug trials and prescriptions are evaluated.

“We have been exploring the concept of a cognitive footprint of individual-level and societal-level events and interventions. This is similar to the concept of a carbon footprint, which can be positive or negative and has a cumulative effect over time,” said study author Martin Rossor, a professor at the UCL Institute of Neurology.

“Drug side effects are very common—particularly cognitive ones—but often not sufficiently recognized, especially for medications that do not specifically target the central nervous system. Even small effects may have significant societal impact if a medication is taken for a long time or by many people. So this was an opportunity to look at the positive and negative cognitive footprints of medications.”

To explore this, the researchers drew on three long-running population studies: the UK Biobank, which includes over 500,000 participants aged 37 to 73; the EPIC Norfolk study, with over 8,000 participants who completed cognitive testing; and the Caerphilly Prospective Study, a smaller cohort of nearly 3,000 older men. Each of these studies collected detailed data on participants’ medication use, health history, and cognitive performance. However, the cognitive tests used differed across studies, requiring sophisticated statistical methods to align the results.

In the UK Biobank, researchers used a statistical approach called principal component analysis to create a summary measure of overall cognitive ability from various individual tests, including reaction time, fluid intelligence, and memory tasks. They then applied Bayesian regression models to estimate the relationship between regular use of different medications and cognitive performance, accounting for a wide range of other factors such as age, income, physical health, mood, and education.

They found that many medications had measurable associations with cognition, although the size of these effects was generally small. Among those most negatively associated were medications targeting the central nervous system, including some antiepileptics and antidepressants. For example, valproic acid, a commonly prescribed drug for seizure disorders, had one of the largest negative associations with cognitive speed. Amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant, was also linked to reduced performance across several cognitive measures.

“Cognitive side effects of medications are frequent and often overlooked,” Rossor told PsyPost. “Interventional trials and post-market surveillance should include structured assessments of cognition routinely, whether or not the intervention is plausibly neurotropic.”

On the other hand, some medications showed positive associations. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, were linked to better scores on various cognitive tasks. Glucosamine, a supplement often used for joint pain, consistently showed small positive associations across all outcomes. Omega-3 fatty acids, known for their potential brain benefits, were also positively associated with several cognitive measures, particularly in the EPIC Norfolk and Caerphilly cohorts.

Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, emerged as a drug of particular interest. It was one of the most frequently used medications and consistently showed small but negative associations with cognitive performance across the three cohorts. Because of its widespread use, this resulted in a relatively large “negative cognitive footprint” when scaled up to the population level. This means that, even though the individual impact may be minor, the overall effect across millions of users could be meaningful.

“While we anticipated negative effects, we were surprised that glucosamine and ibuprofen had a significant positive cognitive footprint,” Rossor said. “It’s also noteworthy that paracetamol and ibuprofen, which are often taken for similar purposes, had among the worst and best cognitive footprints observed in the study, respectively, across several cognitive domains.”

To estimate the broader implications, the researchers extrapolated their findings to the general UK population aged 40 to 70. They used standardized effect sizes (Z-scores) to compare the cognitive impact of medications with other known factors, such as air pollution and aging. For instance, the positive footprint of ibuprofen on overall cognitive ability was roughly equivalent to reducing the average age of the population by two months or lowering nitrogen dioxide pollution by one microgram per cubic meter.

The cognitive effects were most consistent for measures of processing speed and attention, suggesting that these functions may be especially sensitive to drug-related changes. However, not all cognitive domains were equally affected, and the impact of some medications varied across different studies. For example, glucosamine showed a positive effect in the UK Biobank and EPIC Norfolk cohorts but not in the older Caerphilly sample, where it was used less frequently.

The study’s authors caution that their findings are observational and do not prove that medications directly cause changes in cognitive performance. Despite using advanced statistical models to control for a wide range of potential confounding factors, such as pain or general health, it is still possible that unmeasured variables or reverse causation played a role. People who take certain medications may differ in important ways from those who do not, and some participants may have had early signs of cognitive decline before starting medication.

“The major caveat is that association does not prove causation,” Rossor noted. “The cross-sectional nature of the study—since there was not enough data for exploring longitudinal effects—means that the relationship between medication and cognition may be difficult to interpret.”

“While we tried to isolate the effects of medication by modeling as many other factors as possible—for example, the effects of pain on cognition in individuals taking paracetamol—these influences can never be entirely ruled out. We can only provide an upper bound of the potential effect at the population level of a medication’s cognitive footprint.”

The study introduces a useful new tool—the cognitive footprint—for evaluating the broader effects of medications on mental performance. By incorporating both effect size and population prevalence, this approach highlights the importance of considering cognition in drug development, prescribing practices, and public health policy. It also underscores the need for more comprehensive research on the unintended cognitive effects of medications, including over-the-counter drugs and supplements that are widely used but rarely studied in this context.

Future research may benefit from applying the cognitive footprint concept to other areas, such as the impact of environmental exposures or lifestyle interventions on mental functioning. “We would like to explore the cognitive footprint of a variety of interventions and effects—such as, at an individual level, the footprint of shift work, and at a population level, the effect of heat waves,” Rossor explained.

The study, “The Cognitive Footprint of Medication Use,” was authored by Marta Suárez Pinilla, Charlotte R. Stoner, Martin Knapp, Parashkev Nachev, and Martin Rossor.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/common-medications-linked-to-subtle-shifts-in-cognitive-performance-study-finds/

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DATE: April 24, 2025 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

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TITLE: This surprisingly simple trick can aid speech comprehension in noisy settings

URL: https://www.psypost.org/psychology-surprisingly-simple-trick-can-aid-speech-comprehension-in-noisy-settings/

Moving to a steady beat before listening can enhance how well people understand speech in noisy settings, according to new research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study found that rhythmic finger tapping or speaking a word aloud—especially at a rate that mirrors natural speech rhythms—significantly improved participants’ ability to identify words embedded in background noise. These findings point to a surprisingly active role of the motor system in helping the brain process spoken language.

Understanding speech in noisy environments is a demanding task. Past research has shown that we rely not only on the sounds themselves but also on their timing—when things are said, not just what is said. The motor system, known for controlling movement, also plays a role in how we perceive time and rhythm. This study was designed to investigate whether moving in rhythm before hearing speech could prime the brain for better listening. Specifically, the researchers wanted to know whether rhythmic movement improves speech comprehension, whether the type or timing of movement matters, and whether speaking aloud can have similar benefits.

“This research stems from the idea that we are first and foremost beings of action, and that perception only comes later, as feedback to guide our actions. Perception is therefore ‘active,’ fundamentally dependent on and coupled with movement,” said study author Benjamin Morillon, research director at Inserm at Aix-Marseille University.

The researchers conducted a series of three related experiments. In the first, 35 French-speaking participants listened to sentences masked with background noise. Before each sentence, participants either remained still or tapped their finger in rhythm with a beat presented at one of three speeds: phrasal (about 1.1 beats per second), lexical (about 1.8 beats per second), or syllabic (about 5 beats per second). After hearing each sentence, participants had to choose the correct word from a list of four options.

The researchers measured both how accurate and how quick the participants were. They found that tapping at the lexical rate (around 1.8 Hz) led to significantly better word recognition compared to tapping at the slower phrasal rate. This improvement was not observed for the syllabic rate or in the passive condition. The findings suggest that moving at a rhythm aligned with the natural pace of word delivery helps the brain prepare to understand speech.

In the second experiment, the researchers explored whether the benefits of rhythm came from movement alone, sound alone, or a combination of both. Forty-one participants completed a similar task online. This time, before each sentence, participants experienced one of four conditions: remaining passive, listening to a rhythmic beat, tapping freely at their own rhythm, or tapping in time with a beat.

The analysis showed that both listening to a beat and tapping rhythmically helped participants perform better than doing nothing. However, tapping—whether on its own or in sync with a beat—was especially effective. Participants who tapped rhythmically showed improved accuracy and responded more quickly than those who only listened to a beat. These results support the idea that engaging the motor system through movement, even when not directly related to speech, enhances listening performance in noisy settings.

In the third experiment, the researchers asked whether a more natural form of motor activity—speaking—could also improve listening. Thirty-eight participants were shown a verb before each sentence and were asked to either say it out loud or read it silently. The verb was either semantically related or unrelated to a target noun in the upcoming sentence. For example, participants might say “kick” before hearing a sentence that included the word “heels.”

The researchers found that saying the verb aloud improved listening performance, regardless of whether the word was semantically related to the target. This suggests that the benefit came from the act of speaking itself, rather than from any specific meaning. Simply engaging the motor system through speech appeared to prime the brain to process incoming spoken information more efficiently.

Morillon found the findings from the final experiment particularly surprising, as they indicate “that speaking helps to prepare for listening, and therefore to hear better.”

Together, the three experiments provide evidence that the motor system is not just for movement—it helps the brain anticipate when important information will occur in speech. This motor-based timing may provide a kind of internal clock that prepares the auditory system for incoming sounds. The benefits were especially strong when the rhythm matched the natural pace of word delivery—around 1.5 to 2 times per second.

“The main takeaway is that moving can help you hear better in noisy environments,” Morillon told PsyPost. “Just as we tap our feet when we play or listen to music, to keep up with the tempo, moving could help us follow the rhythm of speech.”

The findings also suggest that rhythmic movement doesn’t have to be tied to the speech itself to be helpful. Generic rhythms, whether from tapping or speaking, appear to help the brain tune in to speech, even when the timing is not specifically aligned with the structure of a sentence. This supports the broader idea that our brains recycle motor circuits, originally developed for physical movement, to help process time-based sensory information like music and speech.

But there are some limitations. Because all sentences were presented in noise, it’s not yet clear whether the improvements reflect a general boost to speech understanding or simply a better ability to focus on speech in challenging conditions. The study also did not examine whether participants’ musical training or rhythmic ability influenced the results, although such factors could play a role.

“The effects are significant but small,” Morillon noted. “It remains to be seen whether it’s possible to achieve greater performance gains. What’s more, in the experiments, we don’t tap or talk during listening, but beforehand, to prepare. This is different from music, where you tap while listening, which has a stronger impact.”

Future research could explore whether people with strong rhythmic skills benefit more from motor priming and whether these effects hold across different languages and age groups. Neuroimaging studies could also help uncover the brain networks involved in linking motor activity to auditory processing.

Morillon hopes to “understand if and how we process the temporal information of the speech signal, if we anticipate ‘when’ a piece of information is going to be delivered, in addition to anticipating ‘what’ is going to be said, and how these anticipation mechanisms interact.”

“How do we perceive time?” he added. “We recycle the motor system, which is a very precise clock for coordinating movements—such as antagonistic muscles—for estimating durations. Perceiving time (on the order of seconds) would then be a simulation of movements, an imagined dance.”

The study, “Moving rhythmically can facilitate naturalistic speech perception in a noisy environment,” was authored by Noémie te Rietmolen, Kristof Strijkers, and Benjamin Morillon.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/psychology-surprisingly-simple-trick-can-aid-speech-comprehension-in-noisy-settings/

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