news 2022

Meditation as a tool to prevent dementia and improve the mental health and well-being of elderly people is one of the avenues explored by the European Medit-Ageing research program, coordinated by Inserm. As part of this program, researchers from Inserm and Université de Caen Normandie, in collaboration with French and European teams, observed the impact of 18 months of meditation training on certain brain structures involved in regulating attention and emotions in healthy people over 65.

Human interactions are enabled by a set of neurocognitive mechanisms defined by the notion of social cognition. In order to detect patients with social cognition disorders, specialists use internationally validated evaluation tests. However, most of these tests have been developed in industrialized Western countries, which raises questions about the relevance of generalizing them to the whole of humanity.

Human interactions are enabled by a set of neurocognitive mechanisms defined by the concept of "social cognition”. In order to identify social cognition disorders, specialists use internationally validated evaluation tests. However, these are most often developed in western, industrialized countries, which could question the relevance of applying them to all humanity.

This study by scientists at the Institut des sciences du mouvement Etienne-Jules Marey (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université) reveals students' psychological distress during COVID-19-related lockdown and distance learning, as well as the effectiveness of an online mindfulness meditation practice in countering it.

When we implement complex cognitive processes, for example when making decisions, we are subject to cognitive bias. But what about simpler processes, such as those involved in the most basic learning? In a new study analyzing data from all previous research in the field, researchers from Inserm and ENS-PSL show that not only are positivity and confirmation biases present even in the simplest human and animal cognitive processes, but also that incorporating them into learning algorithms would enhance their performance.

In collaboration with a Canadian team, scientists from Inserm and Université de Tours, at Unit 1253 Imaging & Brain1, have shown in post-mortem brain samples that victims of child abuse present specific brain characteristics. The teams have revealed for the first time in humans an increase in the number and maturation of perineuronal nets, dense protein structures surrounding the neurons.