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Can dogs understand the meaning of words? Scientists are trying to figure it out

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Can dogs understand the meaning of words? Scientists are trying to figure it out

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[EXAMPLE POST]. Spencer Evans. This NPR article covers a study conducted with dogs. The reseachers found that dogs seem to understand words like "play" and "outside" — even without context clues and regardless of who is speaking those words (their owner or someone else). Here's the original study: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0307189 The article also mentions this dog named Bunny on TikTok who seems to communicate with her owner using a soundboard: https://www.tiktok.com/@whataboutbunny

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Can dogs understand the meaning of words? Scientists are trying to figure it out : Short Wave

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Last year, a dog named Bunny went viral on TikTok for pressing buttons with words on them to “communicate” with her owner. But can dogs even understand those words on a soundboard in the first place? A new study in the journal PLOS One seeks answers. Host Regina G. Barber and producer Rachel Carlson break down that story and more of the week’s news with the help of All Things Considered’s Ari Shapiro. Have other viral headlines that you want us to put to the test for its scientific truth? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we might cover it on a future episode!

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Switching from Aspirin to Clopidogrel Reduces the Risk of Serious Cardiovascular Disease 

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Switching from Aspirin to Clopidogrel Reduces the Risk of Serious Cardiovascular Disease 

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Nathan Barry. This Epoch Times article, titled “Researchers Say Heart Drug Is Better Than Aspirin at Preventing Heart Attacks”, talks about how Clopidogrel, a heart medication, is better at preventing serious Heart complications like heart attack and stroke compared to Aspirin. Despite being widely prescribed to individuals at risk of these conditions, researchers found in a different meta-analyses that the methodology of treating with Aspirin alone was based on older and smaller studies. Researchers concluded that “clopidogrel monotherapy is the only antiplatelet treatment that has consistently demonstrated greater efficacy than aspirin without compromising safety”, suggesting that more at-risk cardiovascular patients should switch to the underused drug (Valgimigli et al., 2025).

Original Meta-Analyses Links: https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1844#:~:text=Clopidogrel%20better%20than%20aspirin%20for,coronary%20artery%20disease%2C%20study%20finds

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01562-4/fulltext

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Researchers Say Heart Drug Is Better Than Aspirin at Preventing Heart Attacks | The Epoch Times.pdf

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Acute isolation is associated with increased reward seeking and reward learning in human adolescents

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Acute isolation is associated with increased reward seeking and reward learning in human adolescents

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Brief isolation makes teens lonelier and more reward-seeking, while virtual contact softens but doesn’t erase the effect.

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Acute isolation is associated with increased reward seeking and reward learning in human adolescents - Communications Psychology

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This study shows that, following social isolation, adolescents show increased sensitivity to rewards during effort-based decision making and reward learning. Access to virtual social interactions during isolation partially remediates these effects.

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Study links diet soda to faster brain aging

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Study links diet soda to faster brain aging

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The New York Post article discusses a research published in the field of neurology that followed more than 12,000 adults for eight years. Researchers discovered that persons who consumed diet drinks or artificial sweeteners on a regular basis aged their brains faster—by roughly 1.6 years more than those who did not. The New York Post article contains several allegations. It includes a frequency claim (how many people were studied and which groups were most affected), an association claim (linking sweetener intake to faster brain aging), and an implied causal claim in the headline, implying that diet soda directly causes brain aging. I will go ahead and attach the link of the original study to further explain that this study cannot prove that. https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000214023

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A daily diet soda can make the brain age more quickly, study finds

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Your favorite diet soda could have a detrimental effect on your cognitive health, a new study suggests.

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Joe Rogan Misreads Earth’s Climate History

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Joe Rogan Misreads Earth’s Climate History

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Headline: Joe Rogan claims study shows Earth cooling – but report's authors say he's wrong

Name: Jayne Salama

Link to article: Guardian link

Claim type: Association. I know it’s an association claim because the study shows a connection between human greenhouse gas emissions and the recent rise in global temperatures.

Summary: A study published in Science looked at 485 million years of Earth’s climate and found that today’s warming is happening much faster than anything in the past. The article explains that Joe Rogan misread the data as showing the Earth is cooling, but the researchers stress that current warming is unusual and caused by people.

Original report: Mentioned in the article as a peer-reviewed Science study.

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For months now, the popular comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan has been telling his vast audience of a study that shows Earth is cooling - even though this research states the complete opposite.

Rogan's false claim about the climate crisis, which he has repeatedly aired on the Joe Rogan Experience, one of the world's most popular podcasts, has exasperated the scientists who authored the research.

It has also highlighted the tide of climate misinformation that regularly emanates from some of the biggest podcasts in the US - outlets where many Americans, particularly younger people, now get their news.

" Joe is speaking to his audience and they want it to be entertaining, I get it, but it concerns me because he isn't giving the right message," said Jessica Tierney, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Arizona and co-author of the research frequently mentioned by Rogan.

" I've watched his clips and gone: 'Oh jeez.' I can only laugh sometimes. But it is a bummer that these podcasts with large audiences are spewing this old-school denier nonsense. It's not helpful. In the US, people are in silos now and climate scientists can't easily reach people who aren't sure how climate change works. It's not a healthy situation."

Last year, Tierney was part of a group that published an ambitious paper in the Science journal that reconstructed a timeline of Earth's temperature over the past 485m years. The research, which took two years to compile, was drawn from 150,000 data points, including fossil records and climate models.

The study shows monumental shifts in the world's climate over the eons, including periods that are far hotter than now, such as when an asteroid crashed to Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs around 66m years ago, and another era, about 250m years ago, when a mass extinction event killed off more than 90% of all species on the planet.

The current period of rapid global heating, caused by the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation in just the last century, is shown on this vast timeline as a comparatively small upward tick at the end of the graph, following a span of relative planetary cooling that followed the demise of dinosaurs.

Rogan has seized upon this temperature graph, as shown in a Washington Post article, to claim big swings in previous temperatures demonstrate concerns over current climate change are overblown.

" There's a lot of horseshit that's involved in climate change, I've studied that," Rogan told actor Mel Gibson on the Joe Rogan Experience in January. "The temperature on Earth is plummeting. Look at the drop at the end, that's where we are. That's the reality."

To agreement from Gibson - whose house burned down by fires in Los Angeles on the day the podcast was recorded, a disaster scientists say was worsened by global heating - Rogan added that the world's temperature has always fluctuated. "This idea that the whole thing is based on carbon emissions from humans is total bullshit, it's not true," he said.

Since this conversation, Rogan has raised the topic of the temperature graph on five further episodes, including to his guest Bernie Sanders in June. "Essentially they found that we're in a cooling period," Rogan said to the US senator of the researchers' work. "This was, like, a very inconvenient discovery. But they had to report the data and kudos to them for doing that."

Rogan's repeated references to the Washington Post piece elides most of the actual article, which mentions the swift rate Earth is currently heating up and how this is being driven by human-caused emissions. Scientists are unequivocal that the climate crisis is being caused entirely by the emission of greenhouse gases, at a rate not seen during human history.

"It's almost impressive how incorrect he's able to be about an article he's looking directly at," said Rollie Willams, a climate science and policy expert who presents Climate Town, a YouTube show that tracked Rogan's mention of the graph.

"It's also an incredible example of how climate misinformation sneaks into extremely popular media and then gets absorbed into the brains of millions of Americans."

The world has heated up by about 1.2C (2.1F) since the industrial revolution but a crucial aspect of this change is its pace, Tierney pointed out. While the mass extinction event in the Permian period 250m years ago, ominously called "the great dying", saw Earth's temperature jump by aboutd 10C, this unfolded over a span of around 50,000 years.

The current surge in temperature has occurred in little more than a century, after humans enjoyed thousands of years of predictable climatic patterns to grow crops and settle near previously stable coastlines. The graph's latest small upward line, in the context of hundreds of millions of years, represents a remarkable leap in global heat.

" The temperature reconstruction is over millions of years. It's not on a human timescale," said Tierney of her work. "It's all about the speed and we've never seen carbon dioxide and temperature rise as fast as now - even in big extinction events it was slower than this. We evolved in a cooler climate and now we are rapidly warming it up and putting life on this planet in danger. It's scary."

Rogan is not the only high-profile podcaster or online streamer to distort climate science, with eight of the 10 most popular online shows in the US involved in spreading false or misleading climate information, according to Yale Climate Connections. These top-rated shows are dominated by rightwing figures such as Jordan Peterson, Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro and often skew towards a young, male demographic.

The audiences can be vast, too. Rogan, who has a deal with Spotify and is the most popular of all, has more than 20m subscribers on his YouTube channel.

This is about 10 times more people than the primetime viewership of Fox News, a channel that has often faced criticism over its climate coverage, providing Rogan huge clout in dictating the only information many people hear about the climate crisis.

" Ordinary folks don't learn about climate change by reading science journals," said Edward Maibach, an expert in climate communication at George Mason University. "They learn about it primarily by listening to what other people have to say about it, which includes social media influencers and podcasters. When those influencers don't know what they're talking about, everyone suffers."

More than a third of US adults aged under 30, and one in five adults overall, say they regularly get their news from social media influencers, polling last year found. Figures such as Rogan are particularly influential because of the parasocial relationship his audience forms, where many feel they know and trust him, Maibach said.

" One would hope that people like Joe Rogan are self-aware enough to know what they know and what they don't know, and to realize that helping to propagate misinformation and disinformation about our climate is extremely dangerous," he said.

The producer of the Joe Rogan Experience did not respond to a request for comment about Rogan's mistaken fixation with the temperature graph. Tierney, the study's co-author, said she would be willing to appear on the show to provide a more accurate explanation to its audience.

" It's dumb the way he's interpreting this graph and if he wants to talk about it he should invite me onto the show instead of talking about it to Mel Gibson or Bernie Sanders," said Tierney.

" I think it's safe to say Mel Gibson doesn't know a whole lot about paleoclimate."

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Joe Rogan claims study shows Earth cooling - but report's authors say he's wrong

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Scientists say 'old-school denier nonsense' isn't helpful as podcaster repeatedly airs false claim on his show

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Newfound immune cell in mice may contribute to chronic inflammation associated with aging in humans

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Newfound immune cell in mice may contribute to chronic inflammation associated with aging in humans

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This article explains how researchers examined a type of immune cell in fat only in older mice. This cell is thought to be a contributor to chronic inflammation in mice as well as humans. Other immune cells help to counterbalance this by keeping the inflammation at bay.

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Newfound immune cell in mice hints at why inflammation spikes with old age

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Pathogen-consuming cells found in fat tissue also play a part in lipid balance.

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Article link: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/12/12/teens-social-media-and-technology-2024/

Summary (claim/findings): The Pew research center reports that nearly 2/3 U.S. teens, so around 63%, say they use TikTok with many describing it as a space for entertainment, creativity, and connecting with others. The article also goes over the data of other social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, etc., but decided to focus specifically on TikTok because if it’s recency. This is a frequency claim because it reports how often a behavior occurs within a population rather than comparing variables or suggesting causation.

Claim type: Frequency Claim

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Nearly half of U.S. teens (46%) say they’re on the internet almost constantly. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat remain widely used by teens.

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Cats track their owners’ movements, research finds

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Cats track their owners’ movements, research finds

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Studies show that cats form a mental map of their owner's location based on voice cues and can become visibly surprised when owners seemingly "teleport" by suddenly appearing without sound-based clues. This supports the idea that cats retain a mental representation of their humans even when they can’t see them, indicating more advanced spatial awareness than often assumed!

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If you've ever pondered whether your pet cat gives a whiskers about your whereabouts, research may have an answer: cats appear to track their owners as they move about the house and are surprised if they turn up somewhere they're not expecting them.

The finding supports the idea that cats retain a mental representation of their owners, even when they can't see them; a crucial bridge to higher cognitive processes such as forward planning and imagination.

Cats are notoriously inscrutable creatures. Although previous research has suggested that cats will search in the correct place if food is seen to disappear, and expect to see their owner's face if they hear their voice, it was unclear how this ability translated into real life. "It is [also] said that cats are not as interested in their owners as dogs are, but we had doubts about this point," said Dr Saho Takagi at the University of Kyoto, Japan.

To investigate, Takagi and colleagues recorded what happened when 50 domestic cats were individually shut inside a room, and repeatedly heard their owner calling their name from outside, followed by either a stranger's voice, or that of their owner, coming through a speaker on the opposite side of the room they were inhabiting.

Eight "blinded" human observers watched these recordings and ranked the cats' level of surprise based on their ear and head movements. Only when their owners' voices suddenly appeared inside the room - implying that they had somehow teleported there - did the cats appear confused.

"This study shows that cats can mentally map their location based on their owner's voice," said Takagi, whose research was published in the journal PLOS One. "[It suggests] that cats have the ability to picture the invisible in their minds. Cats [may] have a more profound mind than is thought."

However, it's not entirely surprising that cats possess this ability: "That awareness of movement - tracking things they cannot see - is critical to a cat's survival," said Roger Tabor, a biologist, author and presenter of the BBC TV series Cats.

"A lot of what a cat has to interpret in its territory is an awareness of where other cats are. It is also important for hunting: how could a cat catch a field vole moving around beneath the grass if it couldn't use clues, such as the occasional rustle, to see in its mind's eye, where they are? A cat's owner is extremely significant in its life as a source of food and security, so where we are is very important."

Anita Kelsey, a UK feline behaviourist and author of Let's Talk About Cats, said: "Cats have a close relationship with us and most feel settled and safe within our company so our human voice would be part of that bond or relationship. When I am dealing with cats that suffer separation anxiety, I usually do not advocate playing the owner's voice in the home as this can cause anxiety with the cat hearing the voice, but not knowing where their human is."

Curiously, the cats did not show the same surprise response when the owners' voices were replaced with cat meows or electronic sounds. Possibly, this is because adult cats do not tend to use voice as their primary means of communication with one other, many may rely on other cues such as scent instead.

"The 'meow' that we used in this study is a voice signal that is only emitted to humans, except for kittens," said Takagi. "Cats may not be able to identify individuals from the 'meow' of other individuals."

This article was amended on 15 November 2021 to correct the name of the journal that published the research paper.

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Cats track their owners' movements, research finds

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Findings of Japanese study back idea that cats retain a mental representation of their owners

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'One and done' dose of LSD keeps anxiety at bay

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'One and done' dose of LSD keeps anxiety at bay

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This study talks about a link between the use of LSD and a decrease in anxiety and depression levels. It was found that only high doses of the drug had an impact. The lower doses had the same effect as the placebo. There are other variables like the patient's mindset and the sensory environment that they were in when they took the drug that could have affected their results.

Link to original article:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2838505?guestAccessKey=f420494d-a51d-442c-9d7c-4d14dbbe1aae&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=090425

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‘One and done’ dose of LSD keeps anxiety at bay

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People with generalized anxiety disorder improved significantly after they got a single dose of LSD powerful enough to induce a psychedelic trip.

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Higher BMI and high-intensity sports participation are linked to more knee damage in younger adults

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Higher BMI and high-intensity sports participation are linked to more knee damage in younger adults

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Headline: Knee damage increasingly found in young adults, with expert revealing two key reasons

Name: Isabel Zaro

Link to article: https://nypost.com/2025/09/07/health/knee-pain-is-becoming-more-common-in-younger-adults-for-two-specific-reasons/

Claim type: I know that this article is association claim because the article reports that higher BMI and sports participation are linked with more knee damage, but it doesn't say they directly cause the damage.

Summary: The article highlights research from Finland's University of Oulu showing that structural knee damage is common even by age 30 often without symptoms. More than half of the study participants showed cartilage defects or bone spurs and a higher BMI was strongly associated with these changes. Experts also noted that the past high-intensity sports participation in youth contributes to the problem, which may increase future risk for osteoarthritis.

Original study link:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6837253/

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The Disease Burden Associated With Overweight and Obesity

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The Disease Burden Associated With Overweight and Obesity

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This article discusses the association between disease prevalence and weight status in the United States. The researchers observed a consistent pattern with increasing prevalence ratio and increasing severity of obesity. One conclusion they came to is that because over half of the U.S. is obese, more preventative efforts need to take place to lower weight-related comorbidities.

Headline: "The Disease Burden Associated With Overweight and Obesity"

Link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/192030

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Study links air pollution to increased dementia risk

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Study links air pollution to increased dementia risk

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This Nature article reports that based on data from 56 million people, exposure to fine air pollution is linked to a higher risk of dementia, specifically Lewy body dementia. Follow up experiments on mice showed behavior changes in the mice that had to do with their use of spatial memory, recognition of new objects, and a buildup of αSyn in the mice's brains. Overall, the researchers found that PM led to areas of the brain related to memory being shrunk and cognition being impaired in mice. The researchers concluded that while pollution doesn't directly cause dementia, it can accelerate the progression of the disease in genetically predisposed individuals. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02844-9

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Air pollution directly linked to increased dementia risk

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Long-term exposure accelerates the development of Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease with dementia in people who are predisposed to the conditions.

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Problematic Online Gaming Mediates the Association Between Hyperactivity and Mental Health Issues

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Problematic Online Gaming Mediates the Association Between Hyperactivity and Mental Health Issues

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Rebekah Goldstein. This Nature article covers a study conducted with children in the Tokyo Teen Cohort. The study revealed that higher hyperactivity scores were associated with a greater degree of problematic online gaming, and a large degree of problematic online gaming regularly raised the risks of mental health issues. Consequently, there's an association between hyperactivity and an increased risk of mental health issues.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-025-00296-5

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Problematic online gaming mediates the association between attention-deficit/hyperactivity and subsequent mental health issues in adolescents - Communications Psychology

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This study highlights the interplay of psychopathology, diminished inhibitory control, and addictive behaviors associated with negative consequences.

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Does drinking coffee decrease depression risk in women?

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Does drinking coffee decrease depression risk in women?

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Summary: Michel Lucas and several researchers discovered that the risk of depression was 20% or lower within women that drank 4 or more cups of coffee in comparison to women that don't drink caffeine at all. They came to this conclusion by styduying 50,739 women involved in the Nurse Health study. Those who averaged an age of 63 were free of depression when the study first started in 1996. This made researchers believe that more research is needed before they can recommend women to actually drink more coffee.

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Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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Drinking coffee may decrease depression risk in women | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

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A new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers found that, among women, drinking coffee may reduce the risk of depression. The

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Protein Bars - Popular but not digestible.

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Protein Bars - Popular but not digestible.

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Published in Scientific Reports, a new study of over 1600 protein bars found that while most meet the "high protein" labeling standard, much of that protein is not actually digestible. Depending on the ingredients, only a small amount of the protein is absorbed, with bars containing collagen or lots of added fibers and fats performing worst. Animal-based proteins like milk scored better than plant-based or mixed options but still fell short compared to whole food sources. Experts recommend using bars mainly for convenience, not as a primary protein source.

Original Study:

Evaluation of protein quantity and protein nutritional quality of protein bars with different protein sources - PubMed

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Protein Bars Are Popular But Not Digestible, Study Claims

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What happiness strategies actually work.

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What happiness strategies actually work.

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This article looks into studies that have been done on happiness strategies and finds that only a few strategies actually boost happiness. The ones they found that work are expressing gratitude, being more social, mimicking genuine smiles, and spending money on others. There are others strategies that are mentioned that lack strong evidence like meditation, exercise, and time in nature.

Claim Type : Association Claim

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Here’s the Happiness Research that Stands Up to Scrutiny

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From meditation to smiling, researchers take a second look at studies claiming to reveal what makes us happy

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One in three Australians throw unwanted clothes away, study finds

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One in three Australians throw unwanted clothes away, study finds

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A RMIT-conducted survey of 3080 Australians found that 84% of them had unused clothing in their closets and around one third of them have thrown out clothes. Researchers encourage educating people on different ways to dispose of their unwanted clothing: donating, textile recycling, etc. If people properly disposed of their clothes, it would help save about 200,000 tons of waste from landfills each year.

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Human stem cells age more rapidly in space, study finds

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Human stem cells age more rapidly in space, study finds

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This article summarizes a study on stem cell development in space compared to being kept on Earth at the Kennedy Space Center. The study found that stem cells that were sent to the International Space Station showed greater DNA damage risk and decreased regenerative abilities. Although the stem cell changes were reversed upon returning to Earth, future studies can look into how to protect astronauts from molecular aging during their time in space. This is an associative claim because the article discusses scientists are still working to understand the effects space has on stem cells which means they are not making a direct casual conclusion just yet.

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Human stem cells age more rapidly in space, study finds

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Researchers from the University of California San Diego monitored the real-time changes of stem cells sent to the ISS for a month.

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A study on whether how press releases word their information affects how the news reports it. 

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A study on whether how press releases word their information affects how the news reports it. 

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They found in this study that when press releases are worded in a certain way, then the news coverage will report it in the way that it was during the press release. This means whether is exaggerated or tip toed around with many ifs ands & buts, then the news will report it how it was released to them.

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Claims of causality in health news: a randomised trial - BMC Medicine

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Background Misleading news claims can be detrimental to public health. We aimed to improve the alignment between causal claims and evidence, without losing news interest (counter to assumptions that news is not interested in communicating caution). Methods We tested two interventions in press releases, which are the main sources for science and health news: (a) aligning the headlines and main causal claims with the underlying evidence (strong for experimental, cautious for correlational) and (b) inserting explicit statements/caveats about inferring causality. The ‘participants’ were press releases on health-related topics (N = 312; control = 89, claim alignment = 64, causality statement = 79, both = 80) from nine press offices (journals, universities, funders). Outcomes were news content (headlines, causal claims, caveats) in English-language international and national media (newspapers, websites, broadcast; N = 2257), news uptake (% press releases gaining news coverage) and feasibility (% press releases implementing cautious statements). Results News headlines showed better alignment to evidence when press releases were aligned (intention-to-treat analysis (ITT) 56% vs 52%, OR = 1.2 to 1.9; as-treated analysis (AT) 60% vs 32%, OR = 1.3 to 4.4). News claims also followed press releases, significant only for AT (ITT 62% vs 60%, OR = 0.7 to 1.6; AT, 67% vs 39%, OR = 1.4 to 5.7). The same was true for causality statements/caveats (ITT 15% vs 10%, OR = 0.9 to 2.6; AT 20% vs 0%, OR 16 to 156). There was no evidence of lost news uptake for press releases with aligned headlines and claims (ITT 55% vs 55%, OR = 0.7 to 1.3, AT 58% vs 60%, OR = 0.7 to 1.7), or causality statements/caveats (ITT 53% vs 56%, OR = 0.8 to 1.0, AT 66% vs 52%, OR = 1.3 to 2.7). Feasibility was demonstrated by a spontaneous increase in cautious headlines, claims and caveats in press releases compared to the pre-trial period (OR = 1.01 to 2.6, 1.3 to 3.4, 1.1 to 26, respectively). Conclusions News claims—even headlines—can become better aligned with evidence. Cautious claims and explicit caveats about correlational findings may penetrate into news without harming news interest. Findings from AT analysis are correlational and may not imply cause, although here the linking mechanism between press releases and news is known. ITT analysis was insensitive due to spontaneous adoption of interventions across conditions. Trial registration ISRCTN10492618 (20 August 2015)

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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A study showing that hotter temperatures in the U.S. are linked to higher sugar consumption. People tend to eat more sugary drinks and desserts as it gets warmer.

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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A new study finds that climate change is increasing sugar consumption in the United States. As temperatures rise, Americans, especially those who are poorer and less educated, are drinking more sugary beverages.

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This study from the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health was designed as an 8-week experimental intervention, in which participants were assigned to either a Pilates group, Yoga group, or control group with no exercise. All participants completed two surveys before and after the program, and researchers analyzed the differences using ANOVA, ANCOVA, and the Sheffe test. The results indicate that the pilates and yoga groups indicated a higher engagement in health-promoting behaviors than the control group after the program. Given the experimental design and comparison to a control group, this journal is making a causal claim.

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by 1 2,* and

Department of Exercise Rehabilitation & Welfare, Gachon University, Incheon 21936, Korea

Department of Business, Hongik University, Seoul 04066, Korea

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

1. Introduction

Exercise is well documented as having various health benefits. Abundant evidence suggests that regular physical activity is associated with lower obesity rate and cardiovascular disease incidence, better sleep patterns and sexual function, and slower aging-related deterioration of the immune system [ 1, 2]. Individuals who exercise routinely also tend to report better mood states than those who do not [ 1]. Indeed, exercise is generally accepted as an integral component of health-promoting behavior, defined as a broad set of lifestyle elements-including consuming nutritious foods, maintaining adequate sleep, minimizing stress, and staying away from health-detrimental habits such as smoking-positively related to better health. Most physicians subscribe to the idea that exercise helps mitigate the risk of disease, prevent premature death, and improve the overall quality of life. From a public health standpoint, exercise is one of the most cost-effective means by which public health goals can be attained [ 3]. The notion that exercise is essential for leading a healthy life, both physically and psychologically, is now indisputable.

Among many kinds of physical activity programs, it is noteworthy that Pilates and yoga have gained increasing popularity amongst the general public over the past two decades. Pilates and yoga are particularly appealing due to their direct benefits on physical wellbeing-including weight control and improved posture, flexibility, and cardiovascular function-that come with low risks of sports-related injuries [ 3]. According to an annual survey conducted by IDEA(International Dance Exercise Association) Fitness Programs and Equipment Survey in 2007, Pilates ranked sixth on the most frequently offered exercise programs, a vast improvement since 1999 [ 4]. In the same year, yoga also ranked 13th, although its position has undergone gradual declines from its peak in 2002. In annual Fitness Trends Surveys carried out by a United States (US)-based association of Sports Medicine, Pilates and yoga have been frequently listed as Worldwide Fitness Trends since 2008 [ 5].

Evidence of the direct health benefits of Pilates and yoga is growing. For example, some studies showed that regular engagement in Pilates is associated with a boost in functional autonomy, balance, flexibility, and muscle strength [ 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. Other studies show that regular yoga participation helped individuals alleviate muscle-related pains, especially among adults with sedentary lifestyles or suffering from chronic illnesses [ 9, 10].

Less known, however, is whether Pilates and yoga may also have secondary, indirect benefits. Adopting a broad set of lifestyle elements that are generally regarded as beneficial to one's physical and psychological health and holding a positive belief about one's health might be necessary for leading a healthy life. Some prior research hints at the possibility that one form of health-promoting behavior triggers people to adopt broadly health-promoting lifestyle elements (e.g., healthy eating, enriching interpersonal relationships, informed health-related decisions, work-life balance, and emphasis on spiritual growth), thereby setting in motion a positive reinforcement loop. For example, Küçük and Livanelioglu (2015) found that individuals starting a clinical Pilates program tend to hold a positive notion about the goodness of exercises and experience an improvement in their sociopsychological aspects of life [ 11]. Mustian's research team (2013) found that yoga has a positive impact on the sleep quality among cancer survivors [ 13]. Galasso and colleagues (2020) found that aerobic and anaerobic exercise training was effective in reducing the tendency of binge eating [ 14].

Nonetheless, these studies come short of providing more comprehensive and clear evidence that Pilates leads to a positive change in the participant's overall health-promoting behavior and self-perceived health status. Furthermore, Küçük and Livanelioglu (2015)'s study primarily targeted people taking a clinical Pilates program, excluding those who might regularly engage in Pilates for nonclinical purposes [ 11]. Moreover, Pilates was not covered in studies by Mustian et al. (2013) and Galasso et al. (2020). Given this, the current study seeks to fill this deficiency in prior work by directly investigating whether regularly engaging in an exercise program such as Pilates and yoga might positively affect participants' adoption of health-promoting behaviors. Additionally, we examine the extent to which these outcomes shown in program participants are accompanied by an increase in self-perceived physical and mental wellbeing.

In the subsequent sections, we first provide a brief overview of the origins and principles of Pilates and yoga. Next, extending the literature on Pilates and yoga's health benefits, we develop our hypotheses about the relationship between participation in Pilates and yoga on people's health-promoting behavior and subjective perception of wellbeing. In the following sections, we provide a detailed description of our research methods and report our findings. In the final section, we discuss our work's contributions and limitations, with some remarks on our study's practical implications.

2. Research Background and Hypotheses

2.1. The Origins and Principles of Pilates and Yoga

Initially called "Contrology", Pilates is a physical fitness system and exercise method developed by Joseph H. Pilates from Germany during World War I [ 15]. Pilates was initially put together to provide rehabilitation to prison-camp inmates during the war. When Joseph Pilates immigrated to the US at the close of World War I, he launched a long-term collaboration with dancers and celebrities interested in fitness, which led to many refinements in his earlier exercise methods. During this collaboration, his exercise methods were referred to as Pilates, named after the inventor, Joseph H. Pilates. With the development of a set of assistive equipment, including the Cadillac, Universal Reformer, Chair, Barrel, and Pilates, Pilates is now widely accepted as a useful exercise method for core strength and rehabilitation. The first-generation Pilates trainers, including Lolita San Miguel and Mary Bowen, have actively promoted this novel physical activity method to the general public. Pilates' original principles lie in centering, concentration, control, precision, flow, and breathing [ 16]. Many Pilates instructors expand from these original principles when developing new applications for training. For example, Pilates Method Alliance (PMA) is a combination of "balanced muscle development", "whole-body movement", and "rhythm as flow", each of which derives from the original set of Pilates outcomes [ 15]. The Balanced Body Pilates curriculum is primarily a mixture of relaxation and PMA's main principles [ 17]. With these developments designed to emphasize core training, the Pilates method has ultimately achieved its aim to promote flexibility, endurance, circulation, strength, and body balance. Moreover, Pilates maintains good posture by strengthening lumbopelvic stability, developing muscle tone, protecting the back, and optimizing the spine's alignment through balance.

Rooted in ancient India, yoga has a Sanskrit etymological origin with the meaning of "union". More precisely, yoga refers to the union of mind with the universe's divine. According to Selvalakshmi (2015), yoga purports to liberate a human being from body-mind duality conflicts in every living thing [ 18]. While yoga gained its early popularity in the Western world, it has gradually established its status as a joint exercise and meditation practice worldwide. Yoga emphasizes harmony among physical, mental, and spiritual elements. Various yoga methods have evolved from their original roots inspired by multiple elements from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Among numerous derivative forms of yoga, Hatha yoga is one of the most popular types to date practiced outside India, with its characteristics most akin to physical exercise. Hatha yoga incorporates activities that combine body, mind, and breath. Iyengar yoga, put together by B. K. S. Iyengar, belongs to Hatha yoga that we focus on in this study [ 19]. The exercise methods in Iyengar yoga rely on "asana" (poses), in tandem with focused breathing (pranayama) and meditation, to improve flexibility, mobility, stability, and strength and to facilitate relaxation. Iyengar yoga consists of over 200 classical yoga asanas with 14 different pranayama types, ranging from basic to advanced. Students progress gradually from learning simple techniques to building up to more complicated ones.

2.2. The Impacts of Pilates and Yoga on Health-Promoting Behavior and Subjective Health Status

Pilates aims to achieve full control of one's behavior through mind-body coordination and fitness, as its original name "Contrology" implies. Similarly, yoga was developed and evolved to achieve the integration of mind, body, and spirit. The PMA guide highlights that Pilates is designed to release stress, aid fatigue recovery, facilitate spiritual rejuvenation, and heighten self-awareness and self-confidence [ 17]. Yoga practitioners also aim to achieve similar goals [ 19]. People who practice Pilates or yoga do so not just to increase the amount of their physical activity but also to restore a balance in their hectic everyday lives. So far, extant research supports some of these claims and intuitions [ 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12].

Indeed, a growing body of evidence suggests that regularly practicing Pilates or yoga brings many benefits for the people and their physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. Pilates and yoga's health-related benefits range from more tangible ones to more subtle ones. For example, Roh (2016) reported the positive impact of Pilates on positive physical self-description and subjective happiness among Pilates participants [ 20]. Bullo and colleagues (2015) also reported that Pilates is associated with improved mood states and quality of life among older adults [ 21]. Mokhtari, Nezakatalhossaini, and Esfarjani (2013) reported similar findings in investigating the health benefits among older adults [ 22]. Even among healthy individuals, evidence suggests that Pilates is, in general, instrumental in developing dynamic balance, flexibility, and muscle tone [ 23].

Many published studies also reported similar health benefits of yoga [ 24, 25, 26, 27, 28]. Selvalakshmi (2015) argued that yoga is an effective therapy in reducing physiological discomforts among postnatal care women [ 18]. Koo and Shim (2015) found that Zen yoga effectively alleviates sympathetic nerve activation and relieves psychological frustration [ 24]. Lim and Cheong's study (2012) demonstrated that yoga classes, initiated as part of a community welfare program, proved helpful in reducing anxiety and depression among the lower-income bracket females [ 25]. In a similar vein, Kim and Kim (2012) reported that yoga and meditation programs effectively alleviated depression among middle-aged women and positively influenced their social role performance and self-confidence [ 26].

Despite the increasing popularity of Pilates and yoga among adults who desire to escape from busy and sedentary lifestyles, Pilates and yoga's precise effects on a healthy balance restoration in life are less well known [ 27, 28]. One way to address this question is to directly investigate the effects of Pilates and yoga on the participant's adoption of health-promoting behaviors and subjective wellbeing. If we can establish this relationship, a readily available, low-risk exercise option like Pilates or yoga can be considered a cost-effective way to set such a positively reinforcing cycle toward a healthy life with some confidence. Thus, in an attempt to address this question, the current study examines whether Pilates and yoga participation triggers health-promoting behavior and helps increase their subject health status among the participants.

Health-promoting behaviors refer to the activities geared toward promoting fitness and reducing physical and mental damages. Subjective health status refers to a self-assessment or beliefs about one's health quality. A core assumption underlying these concepts of health-promoting action and subjective health status is that people have a sufficient degree of control over their health-related behavior and that beliefs about their health have some influence on their health-related behavior. Accordingly, we test the following two main hypotheses in this study:

Hypothesis 1:

Pilates and yoga groups will show a higher increase in health-promoting behaviors after completing their Pilates and yoga program than the control group.

Hypothesis 2:

Pilates and yoga groups will show a higher increase in subjective health status after completing their Pilates and yoga program than the control group.

3. Research Method

To test our hypotheses, we designed an experiment where our treatment was Pilates and yoga program intervention, and the two dependent variables of our interest were (1) post-treatment changes in the participants' self-reporting of engagement in health-promoting behaviors (Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) II) and (2) post-treatment changes in the participants' self-reporting of subjective health status (Health Self-Rating Scale (HSRS)). Our analytical strategy compares pretreatment and post-treatment changes across the three groups, including the Pilates group, the yoga group, and the control group (no exercise group).

In October 2017, the first author obtained approval for this experiment in which human subjects were involved from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Korean National Sports University, with which the first author was then affiliated.

3.1. HPLP II and HSRS

The Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP) is a widely used assessment tool first developed by Walker, Sechrist, and Pender (1987, 1995) [ 29, 30]. In their early work, these researchers focused primarily on developing psychometric scales [ 29]. Later, the original HPLP was updated to reflect a comprehensive nature of a person's behaviors that has ramifications for their physical and mental fitness and evolved as the HPLP II [ 31].

HPLP II uses the four-point Likert scale with higher scores indicating greater participation in health-promoting activities and consists of 52 items that can be divided into six component clusters-(1) health responsibility, (2) physical activity, (3) nutrition, (4) spiritual growth (or self-actualization), (5) interpersonal relations (or interpersonal support), and (6) stress management [ 29, 30]. Health responsibility captures how a person pays attention to and takes good care of their health on the basis of health professionals' guides. Physical activity is a measure of whether a person does workouts of varying intensity and engages in physical activity of varying kinds and levels. Nutrition captures the extent to which a person consumes appropriate quality and quality foods. Spiritual growth measures the degree to which a person nurtures inner and leads a meaningful life. Interpersonal relations reflect how a person cares about maintaining a meaningful relationship with others and can connect socially and emotionally. Stress management measures the extent to which a person can release their stress and keep stressors in control [ 30]. The HPLP II has been deployed extensively by researchers interested in the relationships among these subscales and the impacts of a specific physical activity [ 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36].

The Health Self-Rating Scale (HSRS) is a comprehensive self-assessment of health quality. HSRS was first developed by Lawton et al. (1982) and has been widely adopted across numerous studies on subjective health status. The HSRS survey asks participants to rate their present health status compared to how it was 1 year prior and how it compares to their friends or colleagues [ 37, 38].

This study adopted a local adaptation of the original HPLP II and the original HSRS. We relied on Korean translations of HPLP II and HSRS performed by Seo and Hah (2004) and Shin and Kim (2009), respectively [ 36, 37, 38].

3.2. Intervention Program

Two Pilates and two yoga experts were recruited as instructors for participants to formulate our intervention strategy. Throughout this study, the first author consulted these experts and relevant outside authorities when developing a 4 week pilot program of Pilates and yoga and an 8 week main program to be used as a treatment (intervention) in the experiment. The instructors hired for this study were all fully certified with international licenses. Pilates instructors were certified Balanced Body instructors from the US with more than three years of Pilates class teaching experience. Yoga instructors were also similarly qualified.

The intervention implemented in this study consisted of two independent exercise programs, Pilates and yoga. We incorporated activities from the Balanced Body instructor manuals [ 17]. The Pilates program contained exercises focusing on core strengthening, lumbopelvic stability, and flexibility. All yoga activities were also derived from well-established sources [ 19]. Our yoga exercises were based on the master of Hatha yoga, yoga Dipika. Similarly, the yoga program contained stretching, flexibility, and strengthening exercises.

Table A1 and Table A2 ( Appendix A) detail each exercise's purpose in our Pilates and yoga program, with precautions given in the instructor manuals. These exercises had the primary purpose of developing or increasing certain parts of the bodily function. Pilates and yoga group participants took part in their respective class with our trained instructors over the entire 8 week program at the designated location. Pilates typically uses several essential pieces of equipment, such as a Reformer, Chair Barrels, and Trapeze Table, which constitutes the original Pilates apparatus. However, in this study, we decided to focus only on mat-based Pilates to ensure that exercise sessions in Pilates and yoga were similarly formed to minimize the possibility that equipment usage in Pilates might interfere with our experiment as an additional unaccounted variable.

Sessions of 1 hour duration were held three times a week for eight weeks at each designated location. Exercise parameters (FITT: Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type) were as follows (see Table A3 and Table A4 in the Appendix A for details):

Exercise frequency: three times per week;

Exercise intensity: beginning/intermediate (three sets of six repetitions);

Exercise time: 50 min per session (1 hour session including warm-up and cool-down) for 9=8 weeks;

Exercise type: Pilates (mat), yoga.

The Pilates and yoga programs were similar in duration (three 1 h sessions per week for 8 weeks) and technique (both employed mat exercises only). Moreover, the instructors were informed to be careful not to coach participants on the other health-promoting behaviors being assessed. The most distinctive difference between the Pilates and yoga programs was how the exercise programs were conducted. For example, Pilates generally focuses on effective movement and is more likely to utilize dynamic, resistance, and stability-related poses. Yoga focuses typically on strength and flexibility by achieving relaxation and uses more stretching and holding static postures. Pilates instruction also tends to use more verbal explanations, while yoga relies more on demonstration.

Pilot Test

In November 2017, a 4 week pilot test was started with nine people who participated in a 4 week exercise program. Our 4 week pilot study aimed to ensure the appropriate design for our main experiment to be followed. Our focus was to configure the exercise program's adequate task complexity levels in advance of the full-scale experiment to last over 8 weeks.

The pilot test subjects were informed that they were participating in a study on a community health program and that their personal information would be kept confidential. Participants were randomly assigned to each of the three groups: a 4 week Pilates program, a 4 week yoga program, or a control group with no specified exercise program.

During the pilot study, we noticed that some of the exercises we initially included in the program were quite challenging and problematic for some people. For example, the rollover movement in Pilates turned out to be rather hard for those with no prior exposure to Pilates and yoga. It was crucial to ensure that the exercises included in each program were safe and secure, as well as suitable for beginning and intermediate-level students with no Pilates or yoga experience. Given that people usually have a weak core and unstable lumbopelvic stability, the rollover, inversion movements, and extreme stretching were removed to minimize any injury or accident during the sessions.

3.3. Participants

Our inclusion criteria were age 30-49 years, with no severe disease and an interest in yoga and Pilates. Our exclusion criteria were having prior experience with yoga and Pilates and currently participating regularly in exercises such as swimming and regular fitness workouts.

The Yoga Community and Korea Pilates Federation assisted recruitment of participants and instructors. In November 2017, the first author contacted and visited the national Pilates Federation and several local yoga communities across South Korea. In meetings with directors of these organizations, the first author explained the purpose of this study. The directors and organizations who agreed to participate in this study assisted in recruiting volunteer participants. Potential participants were identified through these contacts and inquired about their interest and willingness to participate in this study. A sufficient number of people (approximately 100) expressed their desire to participate in our research.

Two exercise groups of 30 individuals were randomly selected with a balanced gender ratio for each group. The Pilates and yoga group participated in an 8 week predesigned exercise program.

We also needed a control group who would not receive treatment (i.e., no exercise) but would take the two surveys following their instructor's directions. The control group did not participate in any of the specified exercise programs to serve as a baseline comparison for the experiment. Individuals in the control group comprised those who expressed interest in taking a Pilates or yoga class but could not make it for scheduling conflicts. However, they agreed to complete the two surveys at the same 8 week interval as the Pilates and yoga groups. Throughout the 8 week study, we ensured that they did not engage in any other exercise programs during the study period.

3.3.1. Prescreening

A total of 90 volunteers participated in this project. All participants took their first Pilates or yoga class or did not have prior experience with Pilates or yoga. We provided them with a privacy statement stipulating that their personal information would remain strictly confidential.

Before starting the exercise program designed, we screened the pretreatment survey responses of our volunteer participants regarding their characteristics and exercise status to ensure that they were similar in those aspects. Through the survey and onsite measurement equipment, we obtained basic demographic information (gender, age, education level, occupation) and anthropometric data (height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, body mass index (BMI)). We measured the participants' BMI using In-Body equipment at the studio (e.g., InBody Dial W version 2.3.05, Korea).

Of high importance was to ask the participants whether they were involved in any other exercise programs. This question was necessary to mitigate against any systematic bias that their prior or recent exposure to exercise programs of any kind can introduce. Later, we checked whether there was any systematic difference between people currently practicing other exercises and those not engaging in any other exercise program. These pilot test participants did not take part in the main experiment.

In the survey conducted at the pretest, a subject was to answer the three statements about their exercise status: (1) I do exercise for health; (2) I do regular exercise; (3) I know a proper exercise program. To ensure the homogeneity of different exercise status among the three groups, we ran a chi-square test to see whether there were differences between the three groups in exercise status.

We ran the homogeneity test to see if participants were equivalent. In particular, it was critical to check their exercise status because a participant's exercise status can serve as a potential source of interference in our experiment due to its expected influence on HPLP II and HSRS. People who exercise for health and know of a proper exercise method turned out to be concentrated in the control group at a statistically meaningful level (X ² = 10.075, p < 0.01, X ² = 8.285, p < 0.05). This means that people who exercise for health and know of a proper exercise method were not randomly assigned to each group. Accordingly, the first author undertook an interview with those who answered positively to these questions to find out more about their exercise history. Then, six volunteers assigned to the control group with notable exercise history were replaced with other volunteers without such exercise history before our main experiment.

3.3.2. Pretest Measurements

Table 1 reports the descriptive statistics related to the demographic and anthropometric characteristics of each of the three groups at the pretreatment stage. In this study, 56 (62%) and four (38%) participants were in their 30s and 40s, respectively. BMI was measured using the on-site InBody or self-reported using an auto-calculator application. BMI is an index that determines whether a person is in the weight range adequate for their height. The normal BMI ranges from 18.5 to 24.9. Most subjects were within the acceptable BMI range.

The participants were equally represented by males and females. The number of males and females was equal for each group. The mean age of males was 37.75 (±5.075), and that of females was 37.95 (±3.362). A total of 60 (67%) participants graduated from a 4 year university, 18 (20%) from a 2 year college, 10 (11%) from high school, and two (2%) from middle school. There were 65 (72%) married participants and 25 (28%) single participants. A total of 19 (21%) people were housewives, 25 (28%) were employed full-time, 14 (16%) worked as freelancers, 19 (21%) were professionals, and 13 (14%) belonged to none of the above.

3.4. Main Experiment

The finalized Pilates program was reviewed and confirmed by a Balanced Body master instructor certified by Balanced Body in the US to train instructors and general people. Similarly, a veteran yoga instructor reviewed the finalized yoga program (a director from the local yoga association) with over 10 years of experience. Figure 1 depicts the entire research procedure of this study, the details of which are further described in the subsequent sections.

Evaluation of HPLP II and HSRS

All participating individuals were asked to fill in two survey questionnaires, namely, the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP II) and the Health Self-Rating Scale (HSRS) (see Appendix B), upon starting and 1 week after completing their respective exercise program. The same was done for those assigned to the control group (no exercise group).

The reliability of HPLP II in this study, measured with Cronbach's α, was 0.967. This is well beyond the value of 0.70 suggested for advanced research. Cronbach's α for each of the six sub-constructs of HPLP II-interpersonal relations, nutrition, health responsibility, physical activity, stress management, and spiritual growth-ranged from 0.827 to 0.914 (see Table 2).

Subjective health status refers to a self-assessment or beliefs about one's health quality. HSRS consists of three questions using a five-choice Likert scale, with a higher score indicating a more positive rating. The questions in HSRS involve (1) self-assessment according to current physical, physiological, and psychosocial health quality, (2) self-assessment through a historical comparison of health quality relative to 1 year before, and (3) self-assessment through a social comparison of health quality relative to friends and colleagues [ 37, 38].

The reliability of HSRS in this study, measured with Cronbach's α, was 0.836. This is well beyond the value of 0.70 suggested for advanced research. Cronbach's α for each of the three subconstructs ranged from 0.714 to 0.897 (see Table 3).

4. Statistical Analysis and Results

4.1. Statistical Analysis

To test our hypotheses, we analyzed survey responses collected from our participants across the Pilates group, the yoga group, and the control group (no exercise group) using SPSS PASW Statistics 18.00 [ 39]. Our two dependent variables were (1) post-treatment changes in the participants' self-reporting of HPLP II and (2) post-treatment changes in the participants' self-reporting of HSRS. Our hypotheses were deemed as supported if we found statistically meaningful positive changes in post-treatment scores of HPLP II and HSRS among the participants belonging to the Pilates group and the yoga group compared to those in the control group. The Pilates group exhibited the most significant improvements, followed by the yoga group and the control group.

To see whether these improvements were statistically meaningful, we ran a paired t-test in the analysis of the pre- and post-treatment differences with ANOVA [ 40]. To further check that within- and between-group differences across the three groups are statistically meaningful, we also ran Sheffé test. The Sheffé test, which corrects alpha for multiple mean comparisons, is frequently used to compare mean differences involving more than one pair of means simultaneously [ 41]. We also employed ANCOVA to further account for the influence of the pretreatment result in our analysis of pre- and post-treatment differences.

4.2. Results

4.2.1. Comparison of Pre- and Post-Treatment HPLP II across the Three Groups

The pre- and post-test values were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and a post hoc test, Sheffé test to determine if significant differences in HPLP II values existed among the three groups. Table 4 reports the means and standard deviations of HPLP II for each group at pretreatment and post-treatment. Across the six dimensions and overall HPLP II score, it appears that the Pilates group exhibited the most significant improvements, followed by the yoga group and the control group. Participants who participated in the 8 week yoga program had significantly greater improvements in the nutrition, physical activity, and stress management subscales than seen in the control group, but were not significantly different from the control in the interpersonal relations, health responsibility, or spiritual growth subscales.

Volunteers who completed the 8 week Pilates program had significantly greater improvements in all six subscales comparted to yoga and control groups. There were statistically significant differences in post-treatment HPLP II among the three groups, as shown in Table 4. Between-group differences in interpersonal relations were statistically significant (F = 12.221, p < 0.001). Between-group differences in nutrition were also statistically significant (F = 40.110, p < 0.001). Between-group differences in health responsibility were statistically significant as well (F = 19.383, p < 0.001). Between-group differences in health responsibility were statistically significant (F = 35.558, p < 0.001). Between-group differences in stress management were statistically significant (F = 30.187, p < 0.001). Between-group differences in spiritual growth were statistically significant (F = 19.693, p < 0.001). Overall, between-group differences in HPLP II at post-treatment were all statistically significant (F = 39.446, p < 0.05).

In our pretest analyses of HPLP II, when we checked homogeneity in pretreatment HPLP II across the three groups using one-way ANOVA and Sheffé test, we found statistically significant differences in interpersonal relations and spiritual growth, two sub-constructs of HPLP II. Accordingly, we needed to check further whether these pre-existing differences in Interpersonal relations and spiritual growth values might drive the differences found at post-treatment, using ANCOVA. ANCOVA results are shown in Table 5 and Table 6, which reports significant differences among the three groups for interpersonal relations and spiritual growth, even after accounting for their pretreatment values. The ANCOVA result confirms that these initial differences did not change the relationships.

4.2.2. Comparison of Pre- and Post-Treatment HSRS across the Three Groups

Table 7 reports the means and standard deviations of HSRS for each group at pretreatment and post-treatment. It seems that the Pilates and yoga group also exhibited a considerable increase in HSRS at post-treatment compared to the control group. Specifically, there was no significant difference across the groups when examining ANOVA results at pretreatment. Notably, there were statistically significant differences in post-treatment HSRS among the three groups, as shown in Table 7. Between-group differences in health status at present were statistically significant (F = 11.140, p < 0.001). Between-group differences in health status compared to 1 year prior were also statistically significant (F = 17.522, p < 0.001). Between-group differences in health status compared to friends/colleagues (F = 4.915, p < 0.001) were statistically significant as well. Overall, between-group differences in HSRS at post-treatment were all statistically significant (F = 3.720, p < 0.05).

The pretest score means were evaluated for preexisting variability among the three groups using one-way ANOVA and Sheffé test. This analysis demonstrated that the three groups did not have significant differences in scores for the three subscales at pretest (p > 0.05).

4.3. Gender Differences

We further analyzed to see if gender-specific differences existed regarding HPLP II and HSRS scores. Table 8 reports the means and standard deviations of HPLP II for females vs. males at pre- and post-treatment. Gender differences in HPLP II at pretreatment were not statistically meaningful across all subconstructs except for physical activity. Male participants appeared to have reported greater engagement in physical activity, compared to female counterparts, at the pretreatment stage. However, this difference in physical activity did not seem to continue after the 8 week exercise program. Although it is worthwhile to note that males appeared to have reported slightly larger improvements in stress management than females at post-treatment, it is safe to conclude that gender differences in post-treatment changes were not very noticeable in our experimental study as far as the impact of Pilates and yoga on health-promoting behavior is concerned.

Table 9 reports the means and standard deviations of HSRS for females vs. males at pre- and post-treatment, respectively. Gender differences in HSRS at pretreatment were not statistically meaningful across all sub-constructs except for health status at present. Female participants appeared to have reported more positive self-perception about their current health, compared to male counterparts, at pretreatment. However, at post-treatment this difference seemingly disappeared. Again, we did not find much significant gender difference in our experimental study of the impact of Pilates and yoga on other health-promoting behaviors and subjective health status.

5. Discussion

The idea that exercise is essential for maintaining a healthy life is almost a truism these days. However, why do some people succeed in adopting a set of health-promoting lifestyle elements, while other people keep failing to stay away from lifestyle elements detrimental to their health? In other words, why do some of them come short of maintaining a healthy lifestyle long enough despite their initial intention to lead a healthy life? Given the importance of this question, understanding the mechanism via which people set in motion the virtual cycle of leading a healthy life is crucial among healthcare professionals and the general public alike. Indeed, it has become increasingly crucial in public healthcare research to have a more nuanced understanding of how different aspects of people's lives affect their overall wellbeing and the role of physical activity in this process.

In this study, we examined whether Pilates and yoga participation triggers health-promoting behaviors and positively influences the self-evaluation of health status among the participants. Specifically, we sought to address this question by establishing a causal relationship, not merely a correlation, by comparing the participants' self-reported changes in health-promoting behaviors-including eating healthy, avoiding a sedentary lifestyle, being responsible for own health, maintaining healthy social relationships, managing stress, and emphasizing spiritual growth-and health status -compared to the prior year and peers-before and after the predesigned 8 week exercise program.

In our analysis of the data collected from 90 female and male adult volunteers, we found that the Pilates group reported the most considerable improvements in the two measures of HPLP II and HSRS, each of which corresponds to self-assessed health-promoting behavior and health status. The increases at post-treatment for the Pilates group appeared even larger than those reported by the yoga group participants. This finding implies that Pilates offers a greater advantage over yoga as an exercise method. The result of this study revealed that engagement in Pilates or yoga for 8 weeks resulted in improved rates of reported engagement in health-promoting behaviors relative to a control group using the HPLP II assessment tool. While improvements in the physical activity subscale were direct and expected, improvements were also seen in the nutrition and stress management subscales for Pilates and yoga and interpersonal relations, health responsibility, and spiritual growth subscales for Pilates to the control.

Other than stress management, all other HPLP II subscales did not show significant differences in outcomes for males and females. Moreover, HSRS scores showed no significant differences in outcomes between male and female groups. This indicates that the benefits seen from doing Pilates and yoga are not gender-specific and, thus, promotion of these exercise programs should not be gender-restricted. Given that we found no considerable gender differences in the health-promoting impacts of Pilates and yoga, Pilates and yoga can be an effective public health program among both men and women when appropriately implemented.

Despite some similarities, Pilates and yoga do have some notable differences. Here, we briefly discuss some notable differences between Pilates and yoga. First, as depicted in the earlier section, Pilates and yoga have different historical origins, which appear to influence how they have been evolved and organized as a system of fitness program. Pilates is a relatively new invention that started in the early 20th century, while yoga began more than 5000 years ago. Pilates has been successfully evolved as a standardized fitness program and organized as a profession due to its relatively contemporary nature. The formation of the PMA (Pilates Method Association) in 2001, a nonprofit professional association, has accelerated the standardization process by clearly delineating the scope of practice. PMA has also transformed many trainers and instructors into an organized profession by administrating a centralized system of qualification and setting professional standards, as well as establishing a code of ethics in interactions with clients.

In contrast, yoga has variegated and decentralized into numerous branches, which seems to have slowed any standardized and centrally organized attempt. Second, while both Pilates and yoga emphasize harmonization among mind, body, and spirit, their exercise approaches are somewhat different. For example, the breathing techniques utilized differ between Pilates and yoga. Moreover, whereas Pilates tends to focus more on effective muscle energy movement using dynamic, resistance, and stability-related poses, yoga focuses more on how a person feels through relaxation, meditation, and static stretching. Accordingly, Pilates exercises could yield better results more quickly. However, our study has limitations in revealing the mechanisms behind the varied health-related benefits of Pilates and yoga. This topic merits a more detailed investigation in future research with a longer-term intervention.

Our findings are similar to some prior studies, albeit with differences in targeted subjects, which have found associations between engaging in Pilates and yoga exercise programs and perceived health. For instance, in a study by Küçük and Livanelioglu (2015), participating in Pilates led to improvements in healthy women's perception of exercise and other psychosocial variables [ 11]. In the study of Berent et al. (2014), yoga was demonstrated to be beneficial for promoting improvements in college students' quality of life and healthy lifestyle choices [ 27]. Neumark-Sztainer et al. (2010) examined the associations between participating in mind-body activities such as Pilates and yoga and the prevalence of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in young adults [ 28]. In their study, most individuals with body dissatisfaction and eating disorder behaviors had these issues reduced by participation in yoga and Pilates.

However, our findings depart from previous research highlighting Pilates and yoga's effects on body composition changes and weight loss. In this study, we found only modest decreases in BMI among the Pilates and yoga program participants. This is probably attributed to the fact that our participants' BMI values were within the average range even before participating in the exercise program. Additional research incorporating participants with obesity would help determine the comparative effectiveness of Pilates vs. yoga on body composition. Pilates focuses more on core control and posture development. In contrast, yoga focuses more on static stretching and flexibility. Therefore, it would also be interesting to see how their effects on body composition might differ among subjects with obesity. Follow-up research can also further examine the health-promoting benefits of Pilates and yoga programs on people with acute or chronic illnesses and any linkage to their rehabilitation.

Given that most people find it challenging to maintain a healthy lifestyle long enough, contrary to their desire to do otherwise, our study provides valuable insights into how to set in motion a virtuous loop of a healthy life. People who practice Pilates or yoga do so not just to increase the amount of their physical activity but also to restore a balance in their hectic everyday lives. This paper has also illuminated one avenue through which Pilates and yoga can help ordinary men and women restore a healthy balance in life. Overall, our findings have useful implications for health policymakers and authorities by offering more clear evidence of Pilates and yoga's indirect benefits. In this study, Pilates and yoga programs were designed by a master instructor who was certified with an international license and had over 10 years of experience. Those exercises, including goals and precautions, were safe for all people and did not include any inversion exercise or extreme stretching to avoid spine and pelvis issues. Therefore, the implemented programs of Pilates and yoga can be applied to the general public.

This study has a few limitations. The study participants were all ethnic Korean re-siding in South Korea; hence, the results may differ for other ethnicities or locations. This study's participants were limited to ages 30 to 49, constraining the generalizing of our findings beyond this group. Furthermore, subsequent studies are needed to test how different mixtures of exercise programs in Pilates and yoga might affect health-promoting behavior. Future studies are needed to shed further light on the mechanisms behind the differences between Pilates and yoga. For example, what might be intervening variables in yielding differences in the effects of Pilates and yoga? Given that these two exercises have a slightly different focus, researchers can further examine this question by measuring other factors related to subjects' self-efficiency and self-control and differences in seeking the balance between physical and mental aspects in life.

6. Conclusions

From a public health standpoint, it is essential to ensure that people practice a healthy lifestyle with a belief about its positive effect on their health. Such a lifestyle should include a wholistic approach, taking both physical and psychological aspects of wellbeing seriously [ 12, 28, 42, 43, 44]. In this article, we extend prior research suggesting that various elements of health-promoting behaviors can reinforce one another, highlighting and demonstrating the triggering role of exercise such as Pilates and yoga [ 12, 28, 42, 43, 44]. Overall, our results confirm that Pilates and yoga help recruit health-promoting behaviors in participants and engender positive beliefs about their subjective health status, thereby setting a positive reinforcement cycle in motion. By providing clear evidence that the promotion of Pilates or yoga can serve as an effective intervention strategy that helps individuals change behaviors adverse to their health, this study offers practical implications for health care professionals and public health officials alike. Our work sheds further light on the relationship between participation in low-risk and readily accessible exercise programs such as Pilates and yoga and the likelihood that people engage in comprehensive practices for promoting their health.

Author Contributions

E.-J.L. designed the study, conducted the experiment, and drafted the earlier version of the manuscript. E.-J.H. participated in data analysis, as well as revised and rewrote the manuscript for journal publication. She also edited the manuscript for publication. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Korea National Sport University and approved by the Institutional Review Board (20180122-030) in 2017.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Data Availability Statement

Data supporting reported results are available from the authors upon request.

Acknowledgments

We thank the many people in the Pilates and yoga community for their support and assistance in executing our experiment. This article is based on the first author's doctoral dissertation work.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Appendix A. Exercise Program Descriptions

Exercise Name

Purpose

Precautions

Exercise Name

Purpose

Precautions

Trikonasana (triangle pose)

Strengthen hip and gleutus

Careful with lower-back injury
Careful with leg problems

Stage

Type

Intensity

Time (min)

Frequency

Foot work

3 set

hugging knees, supine knee side to side, circles

Pelvic clock

Bridging

Single leg circle

3 set

Single leg stretch

Double leg stretch

Single straight leg stretch

Double straight leg stretch

Criss-cross

Spine stretch forward

Spine twist

Saw

Side leg lift

Swan

Side mermaid

Star

Plank

3 set

Stage

Type

Intensity

Time-Min

Frequency

3 set

Parivrtta-Janu-Shirshasana

3 set

Eka-Pada-Kapotasana

Upavistha-Konasana

Paschimottanasana

Marjaryasana

Marjaryasana

Ashva-Sanchalanasana

Dhanurasana

Bhujangasana

Chanturanga-Dandasana

Adho-Mukha-Svanasana

Ardha-Chandrasana

Trikonasana

Utkatasana

Setu-Bandha-Sarvangasana

Jathara-Parivartanasana

Halasana

Through the hole stretch pose

Appendix B. Survey Form

1. Please indicate your gender

3. What is your education level?

①None ②Elementary ③Middle

④High School ⑤College ⑥University

4. What is your marital status?

5. What is your occupation?

①Housewife ②Employee ③Freelancer

④Specialized ⑤None of others

6. Please describe your body size as follows:

II. Exercise Status (Pretest)

1. I exercise for my health usually.

3. I know about proper exercise methods.

III. Please indicate your sentiments regarding the following statements:

Statements Never Sometimes Often Routinely

IV. Please indicate your sentiments regarding the following questions:

1. What do you think of your health currently?

2. What do you think of your health compared to 1 year prior?

3. What do you think of your health compared to your friends or colleagues?

References

1. Lessen, D. The PMA Pilates Certification Exam Study Guide; Pilates Method Alliance: Miami, FL, USA, 2014. [Google Scholar]

2. Friedman, P.; Eisen, G. The Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning; Viking: New York, NY, USA, 2005. [Google Scholar]

3. Jones, N. Mat 1, 2 and Toys. A Detailed Guide for Teaching Pilates; Balanced Body: Sacramento, CA, USA, 2007. [Google Scholar]

4. Iyengar, B.K.; Menuhin, Y. Light on Yoga: Yoga Dipika; Harper Collins: Noida, India, 2014. [Google Scholar]

5. Walker, S.N.; Hill-Polerecky, D.M. Psychometric evaluation of the health promoting lifestyle profile II. University of Nebraska Medical Center: Omaha, NE, USA, Unpublished manuscript. 1996. [Google Scholar]

6. Pender, N.J. Health Promotion in Nursing Practice, 2nd ed.; Appleton & Lange: New York, NY, USA, 1987. [Google Scholar]

7. Bryman, A.; Cramer, D. Quantitative Data Analysis with IBM SPSS 17, 18 and 19; Routledge: New York, NY, USA, 2011. [Google Scholar]

8. Rutherford, A. Introducing ANOVA and ANCOVA: A GLM Approach; Sage: Thousand Oaks, CA, USA, 2001. [Google Scholar]

Characteristics

Control (n = 30)
Mean ± SD

Pilates (n = 30)
Mean ± SD

Yoga (n = 30)
Mean ± SD

Variables

Survey Item No.

Cronbach's Alpha

Variables

Cronbach's Alpha

Health status at present

0.897

Health status compared to one year prior

0.897

Health status compared to friends or colleagues

0.714

HSRS

0.836

Variables

Group

Pre-Test
Mean ± SD

Post-Test
Mean ± SD

df

F

p-Value

Sheffe Test

Classification

SS

df

MS

F

p-Value

Classification

SS

df

MS

F

p-Value

Items

Group

Pre-Test Mean ± SD

Post-Test Mean ± SD

df

F

p-Value

Sheffe Test

Variables

Male

Female

T

p-Value

Pretest
Mean ± SD

Post-Test
Mean ± SD

Pretest
Mean ± SD

Post-Test
Mean ± SD

Pretest

Post-Test

Pretest

Post-Test

Variables

Male

Female

T

p-Value

Pretest
Mean ± SD

Post-Test
Mean ± SD

Pretest
Mean ± SD

Post-Test
Mean ± SD

Pretest

Post-Test

Pretest

Post-Test

AMA Style

Lim E-J, Hyun E-J. The Impacts of Pilates and Yoga on Health-Promoting Behaviors and Subjective Health Status. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021; 18(7):3802. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073802

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lim, Eun-Ju, and Eun-Jung Hyun. 2021. "The Impacts of Pilates and Yoga on Health-Promoting Behaviors and Subjective Health Status" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 7: 3802. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073802

APA Style

Lim, E.-J., & Hyun, E.-J. (2021). The Impacts of Pilates and Yoga on Health-Promoting Behaviors and Subjective Health Status. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(7), 3802. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18073802

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Impacts of Pilates and Yoga on Health-Promoting Behaviors and Subjective Health Status

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This study investigates whether Pilates and yoga lead people to adopt generally health-promoting lifestyle elements and feel better about their physical and mental fitness.

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Caffeine Enhances Memory Performance in Young Adults during Their Non-optimal Time of Day

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Caffeine Enhances Memory Performance in Young Adults during Their Non-optimal Time of Day

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Researchers wanted to see if coffee or exercise could help students do better on morning exams. In the first test, caffeine provided students with a significant boost in explicit memory during the morning, but it didn’t improve implicit memory and had no effect later in the day. In the second test, exercise got people’s bodies moving, but it didn’t actually improve memory compared to just stretching. In the end, caffeine seems to be the real winner for helping memory when students are stuck taking tests early in the morning.

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Abstract

Many college students struggle to perform well on exams in the early morning. Although students drink caffeinated beverages to feel more awake, it is unclear whether these actually improve performance. After consuming coffee (caffeinated or decaffeinated), college-age adults completed implicit and explicit memory tasks in the early morning and late afternoon (Experiment 1). During the morning, participants ingesting caffeine demonstrated a striking improvement in explicit memory, but not implicit memory. Caffeine did not alter memory performance in the afternoon. In Experiment 2, participants engaged in cardiovascular exercise in order to examine whether increases in physiological arousal similarly improved memory. Despite clear increases in physiological arousal, exercise did not improve memory performance compared to a stretching control condition. These results suggest that caffeine has a specific benefit for memory during students' non-optimal time of day - early morning. These findings have real-world implications for students taking morning exams.

Keywords: explicit memory, implicit memory, caffeine, time of day, cardiovascular exercise

Introduction

As any college student will tell you, the worst time to take a class is first thing in the morning. Unfortunately many classes and entrance exams are only offered during the time when most students are at their physiological low point of the day, as measured by body temperature, skin conductance, and heart rate ( Horne and Ostberg, 1976; Bailey and Heitkemper, 2001). Importantly, this circadian slump comes with a cognitive cost. The majority of college students perform worse in the early morning compared to the afternoon on a variety of cognitive tasks that measure attention ( Knight and Mather, 2013), learning ( Anderson et al., 1991; Hidalgo et al., 2004), memory ( Petros et al., 1990; May et al., 1993), and metamemory ( Hourihan and Benjamin, 2013), skills that are critical for academic success. Many students rely on coffee - caffeine - to get them through those early morning exams. But does it actually help?

Caffeine is the most widely used stimulant, consumed daily by 80% of the world's population and 90% of the North American population ( Heckman et al., 2010). Caffeine is an efficient drug, crossing the blood-brain barrier quickly to block adenosine receptors that are distributed widely throughout cortical regions. Even at low doses, caffeine results in significant increases in firing rates in regions mediating sleep and mood, such as the dorsal and medial raphe nuclei and the locus coeruleus ( Nehlig and Boyet, 2000). This amplified cortical activity likely underlies the increase in subjective reports of alertness ( Smith, 2005; Michael et al., 2008) as well as increases in sustained attention and faster reaction times ( Adan and Serra-Grabulosa, 2010; for review see: Einöther and Giesbrecht, 2012). These effects are amplified when individuals are experiencing low states of arousal as measured by subjective ratings of alertness ( Brice and Smith, 2001) and sleepiness ( Adan et al., 2008).

Surprisingly few studies, however, have shown that caffeine actually improves memory performance ( Capek and Guenther, 2009; Borota et al., 2014; for review see: Nehlig, 2010), and even fewer studies have considered how caffeine interacts with time of day ( Ryan et al., 2002; Walters and Lesk, 2015). In a previous study, we considered whether caffeine could overcome the well-documented decrease in memory performance among older adults during the late afternoon, when most older adults experience their circadian low point (for review see: May et al., 1993; Intons-Peterson et al., 1998; Hasher et al., 2005). We found that a single cup of coffee, ingested 30 min prior to memory testing, completely reversed the memory decline experienced by older adults in the afternoon ( Ryan et al., 2002). We suggested that caffeine might influence memory performance by boosting general levels of arousal during non-optimal times of day.

Our previous study suggested two things. First, caffeine should have the same memory-boosting effect for young adults in the early morning, when most young adults are at their physiological low point. Second, we hypothesized that the effect was not due to caffeine specifically but should occur regardless of the method used to increase physiological arousal, such as engaging in physical exercise. In the present study, we tested these hypotheses by comparing the effects of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee on college students' memory performance at two times of day - early morning and late afternoon. To determine the specificity of the caffeine effect, we also compared two types of exercise in the early morning - vigorous aerobic exercise versus gentle stretching - on memory performance.

A secondary goal of the study was to consider the effect of caffeine on two different forms of memory, the deliberate recall of information (explicit memory) and the unintentional recall of previously learned information (implicit memory). Previous research suggests that while explicit memory scores are lower in young adults in the morning compared to the afternoon, priming scores actually increase during this period of low arousal, suggesting that explicit and implicit memory may be moderated differently by physiological arousal ( May et al., 2005; Rowe et al., 2006).

Taken together, based on previous work, we expected that a) caffeine would boost explicit memory performance in young adults during the early morning while impairing priming, b) caffeine would have no effect on either explicit memory or priming during the afternoon, and c) vigorous exercise, but not gentle stretching, would have the same impact on memory performance as caffeine during early morning hours.

General Methods

Participants

Undergraduates from the University of Arizona (ages 18-21) participated in the study. Participants were excluded with a history of substance abuse or neurological or psychiatric disorders that might interfere with normal cognitive function. Prior to the study, participants were asked to estimate the number of cups of coffee, tea, sodas, sports/energy drinks, and chocolate bars they consumed weekly. Only those who consumed at least a moderate amount of caffeine on a weekly basis were enrolled in the study. Participants were also asked four key questions from the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ; Horne and Ostberg, 1976) to exclude young adults who preferred mornings. Only 10% of students were excluded because they were morning-type individuals, consistent with prior studies using the MEQ ( Horne and Ostberg, 1976; Chelminski et al., 1997). Participant characteristics for all three experiments are presented in Table 1. All participants provided written informed consent that was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Arizona. In each experiment, participants were well matched on age, MEQ scores, and reported caffeine use (all ps > 0.05). Not surprisingly, number of hours slept the night prior to testing differed depending on the time of day. In Experiment 1, participants in the morning condition slept fewer hours compared to participants in the afternoon condition. This was demonstrated by a 2 × 2 ANOVA examining coffee type (caffeinated, decaffeinated) by testing time (morning, afternoon), indicating a main effect of time of testing, F(1,97) = 43.82, p < 0.01, but no effect of coffee type [ F(1,97) = 0.97, p = 0.33]. In Experiment 2, the number of hours slept the night before testing between the exercise and stretching conditions did not differ, or between participants in Experiment 2 and the morning participants in Experiment 1 ( F 's < 1).

Table 1.

Experiment 1

Experiment 2

Caffeine at non-optimal

Caffeine at optimal

Exercise at non-optimal

Participant Data

time of day (morning)

time of day (afternoon)

time of day (morning)

Condition

Caffeinated

Decaffeinated

Caffeinated

Decaffeinated

Exercise

Stretching

Materials

Seventy-two unique three-letter word-stems and completions (e.g., CAL____; CALCIUM) were chosen from a large normative word-stem completion dataset ( Ryan et al., 2001). Each stem could be completed with a minimum of five words. Each completion was 5-9 letters in length and was not the most frequent completion for the stem. The lists were divided into three lists of 24 words, so that average word length and completion base rates were similar across the lists. Two lists were used during the study and test phase. The third list served as fillers during the tasks. The lists were counterbalanced across tasks and experimental conditions.

Study Phase

Upon arrival, participants reported how awake they felt on a scale from 1 to 5 (1- not awake, 5- wide awake). After the experimental intervention (see specific experiments below), participants were shown 48 words (two of the three study lists) on a computer screen, one at a time. Two filler words were added at the beginning and end of the list to control for primacy and recency effects. Words were presented in random order for 3 s each. Participants were instructed to rate the pleasantness of the words on a scale from 1 to 5 (1- very unpleasant, 5- very pleasant) as the experimenter recorded their verbal responses. Participants were not informed that a memory test would follow later on.

During a 5-min interval, participants completed the full version of the MEQ and reported the time they went to bed the night before the experiment and when they woke up in the morning. They completed a second rating of how awake they felt and were asked whether they ate or drank anything before the experiment.

Test Phase

In the test phase, the implicit memory task always preceded the explicit task. During the implicit word-stem completion task, thirty-six stems were presented on the computer screen, one at a time (e.g., BAS______). Twenty-four of the stems could be completed with words previously presented during the study phase, randomly intermixed with 12 word-stems from the non-studied list. Participants were instructed to complete the stem with the first word that came to mind. The explicit word-stem cued recall task followed immediately, consisting of the remaining 24 word-stems corresponding to words from the study list. Participants were instructed to complete the word-stems with words they saw earlier during the pleasantness-rating task. Priming was calculated by subtracting normative baseline completion rates collected by Ryan et al. (2001) from the percentage of stems completed with the words from the study phase. Cued recall was measured as the percentage of study words correctly recalled. After completing both memory tasks, participants provided a final rating of how awake they felt.

Experiment 1 Morning Condition: The Impact of Caffeine at Non-Optimal Time of Day

Participants and Procedures

Eligible participants were instructed not to eat or drink anything the morning of the experiment. They arrived at the laboratory between 6 and 7 a.m. and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, caffeinated ( n = 30) or decaffeinated ( n = 30) coffee. Prepackaged instant coffee (Starbucks Via Italian Bold caffeinated and decaffeinated) was prepared using a standardized procedure to ensure that each 8-ounce cup contained the same amount of caffeine (approximately 180 mg in the caffeinated coffee, and 7-10 mg in the decaffeinated coffee; Starbucks Corporation).

Participants were given the cup of coffee to drink, and then read a book for 30 min. To control for expectancy effects, all participants were told that the coffee was caffeinated, and the experimenter was blind to the type of coffee administered. After 30 min, the implicit and explicit tasks were administered as described earlier. After completing the final wakefulness rating, participants were asked whether they felt that the coffee had affected them positively, negatively, or not at all.

Results

Two participants, one from each group, were excluded because of extremely low explicit memory performance (only one and two correct answers), suggesting that they either did not understand the task or did not follow instructions. Another participant was dropped due to missing MEQ questionnaire data. To create an even number of participants in each condition, we randomly removed one additional participant in the decaffeinated group. The analyses were conducted on a final sample of 60 participants (30 in each group).

Wakefulness Ratings

Participants who drank caffeinated coffee were significantly more awake by the end of the experiment, while participants who drank decaffeinated coffee did not experience the same increase in perceived wakefulness, as depicted in Figure 1A (Morning). This was demonstrated by a marginally significant interaction in a mixed-factor ANOVA between repeated wakefulness ratings (before coffee, intervening phase, and at the end of experiment) and between-group coffee type (caffeinated, decaffeinated), F(2,58) = 2.53, p = 0.08, = 0.04. Follow-up repeated measure ANOVAs indicated that wakefulness significantly varied across time in the caffeinated group [ F(2,58) = 4.77, p = 0.01, = 0.14], but not in the decaffeinated group ( F < 1, ns, = 0.01). Although baseline perceived wakefulness ratings did not differ between the groups t(58) = -1.52, ns, Cohen's d = -0.39, CI [-0.90,0.12], paired t-tests indicated that the caffeinated group was significantly more awake at the end of the experiment compared to the beginning, t(29) = -2.52, p < 0.05, Cohen's d = 0.46, CI [0.08,0.83]. Participants in the caffeinated group were also more likely than those in the decaffeinated group to report that the caffeine affected them positively (83% vs. 57%, respectively, X ²(2) = 11.3, p < 0.01). No participant reported that caffeine affected him or her negatively.

FIGURE 1.

Change in perceived wakefulness across different points in Experiment 1 (A) and Experiment 2 (B). Perceived wakefulness ratings are presented as z-scores to compare across experiments with 95% confidence bands. After the data were transformed to z-scores, each participant's baseline perceived wakefulness rating was subtracted from their rating at each time point to illustrate their change in wakefulness across the experiment.

Memory Performance

Participants in the caffeinated group performed significantly better than the decaffeinated group on word-stem cued recall, but the groups did not differ on priming. Results are depicted in Figure 2A (Morning). A mixed-factor ANOVA indicated a significant interaction between the repeated measure test type (explicit, implicit) and between-group coffee type (caffeinated, decaffeinated), F(1,58) = 4.53, p < 0.05, = 0.07. Follow-up t-tests illustrated that participants who ingested caffeinated coffee ( M = 0.44, SD = 0.13) performed better than those who drank decaffeinated coffee ( M = 0.34, SD = 0.13) on cued recall, t(58) = 2.90, p < 0.01, Cohen's d = 0.75, CI [0.22,1.27]. However, implicit memory performance did not differ between the caffeine group ( M = 0.23, SD = 0.09) and the decaffeinated group ( M = 0.22, SD = 0.10), t(58) < 1, ns, Cohen's d = 0.15, CI [-0.36,0.66].

FIGURE 2.

Mean performance for cued recall and priming for Experiment 1 (A) and Experiment 2 (B). Cued recall was measured as the percentage of study words correctly recalled. Priming scores were calculated by subtracting normative baseline completion rates ( Ryan et al., 2001) from the percentage of stems completed with the words from the study phase. Error bars show the 95% confidence intervals. ∗p < 0.05.

Since the majority of the caffeine group (83%) but only a little over half of the decaffeinated group (57%) reported that caffeine had a positive effect, it is possible that the difference in explicit memory performance was driven by the participants' perception of a benefit of caffeine, rather than the caffeine itself. We examined this possibility by comparing memory performance within the decaffeinated group between those who did and did not report a positive effect of coffee. Perception alone did not influence explicit performance; there was no difference between those who thought the caffeine affected them positively ( n = 17, M = 0.31, SD = 0.10) and those who did not ( n = 13, M = 0.39, SD = 0.15), t(28) = 1.58, ns, Cohen's d = 0.58, CI [-0.16,1.32].

Experiment 1 Afternoon Condition: The Impact of Caffeine at Optimal Time of Day

Consuming caffeine increased explicit memory performance for college-aged adults during early morning hours. Young adults who drank caffeinated coffee showed a 30% benefit in cued recall performance compared to the decaffeinated coffee drinkers, and this effect was independent of the perceived positive effect of the caffeine. The result is consistent with our previous study ( Ryan et al., 2002) showing that older adults benefit from caffeine during their non-optimal time of day, which, for older adults, is the afternoon rather than early morning hours. However, caffeine had no effect on word-stem completion priming. The latter finding suggests that priming may not be influenced by manipulations of arousal.

Next, we considered whether caffeine would result in the same increase in explicit memory performance during the afternoon as observed in the morning. We expected that caffeine would not enhance explicit memory performance in the afternoon, since young adults are already at their physiological peak, and that caffeine would similarly have no effect on priming.

Participants and Procedures

Forty-three undergraduates were randomly assigned to the caffeinated group or decaffeinated group. The procedures were identical to the morning session, except participants were tested between 2 and 4 p.m. Participants were instructed not to drink caffeinated beverages on the day of the experiment.

Results

Three participants were excluded because of extremely low explicit memory performance (zero, one, and two correct answers), suggesting that they either did not understand the task or did not follow instructions. The analysis was conducted on a final sample of 40 participants (20 in each group).

Wakefulness Ratings

The caffeinated and decaffeinated groups did not differ in perceived wakefulness, indicated by a non-significant interaction between wakefulness ratings (pre-coffee, 30 min after the coffee, intervening phase, and at the end of the experiment) and coffee type (caffeinated, decaffeinated), F < 1, ns, = 0.02, and no main effect of coffee type, F(1,38) = 2.09, ns, = 0.05. Wakefulness ratings are depicted in Figure 1A (Afternoon).

Interestingly, participants who ingested caffeinated coffee were no more likely to report that the caffeine affected them positively (55%) than participants in the decaffeinated group (60%), X ²(2) = 0.99, ns. Unlike the morning testing session, 25% of the caffeinated group reported that the coffee actually affected them negatively, while no one in the decaffeinated group reported a negative effect of coffee.

Memory Performance

In contrast to the morning testing session, caffeine did not influence either type of memory performance in young adults in the afternoon ( Figure 2A) (Afternoon). Cued recall performance did not differ between those who ingested caffeinated coffee ( M = 0.27, SD = 0.10) and decaffeinated coffee ( M = 0.30, SD = 0.10), indicated by the lack of a main effect of coffee type, F < 1, ns, = 0.0002. Implicit memory performance also did not differ between the caffeinated ( M = 0.14, SD = 0.12) and decaffeinated groups ( M = 0.12, SD = 0.12), and there was no interaction between coffee type and memory test type (implicit, explicit), F(1,38) = 1.23, ns, = 0.03, suggesting that neither priming nor explicit memory were influenced by caffeine.

Again, we considered whether the perceptions of individuals regarding the positive effect of caffeine could have influenced the results, particularly since 25% of participants in the caffeine group reported a negative effect of caffeine. We compared those individuals reporting a positive or non-positive (neutral or negative) effect of caffeine separately for the caffeinated and decaffeinated groups. The decaffeinated group did not differ in explicit memory performance based on the perception of a positive effect ( n = 12, M = 0.31, SD = 0.09) or non-positive effect ( n = 8, M = 0.27, SD = 0.12) of caffeine, t(18) < 1, ns, Cohen's d = 0.40, CI [-0.51,1.30]. The caffeinated group also did not differ in memory performance based their perceptions of the effects of coffee (positive: n = 11, M = 0.26, SD = 0.09; non-positive: n = 9, M = 0.28, SD = 0.12), t(18) < 1, ns, Cohen's d = 0.20, CI [-0.69,1.08].

Experiment 1: Directly Comparing Morning and Afternoon Testing Sessions

In order to better understand the impact of caffeine at different times of day, we compared participants in the morning and afternoon testing sessions on wakefulness measures and memory measures.

Wakefulness Ratings

Ingesting caffeine in the morning differentially affected how awake participants felt by the end of the experiment compared to ingesting caffeine in the afternoon. A 2 × 2 ANOVA indicated an interaction between time of testing session (morning, afternoon) and coffee type (caffeinated, decaffeinated) on change in perceived wakefulness from the beginning to the end of the experiment, F(1,96) = 3.04, p = 0.08, η p 2 = 0.03. Follow up t-tests suggested that while the morning ( M = 0.67, SD = 1.45) and afternoon ( M = 0.60, SD = 1.03) caffeinated groups did not differ in how awake they felt by the end of the experiment, t < 1, the decaffeinated group felt significantly more awake in the afternoon ( M = 0.88, SD = 1.42) compared to the morning ( M = 0.05, SD = 1.26), t(48) = -2.37, p < 0.05, Cohen's d = 0.66, CI [0.10,1.26].

Memory Performance

Data were first analyzed with a mixed-factor 2 × 2 × 2 ANOVA comparing test type (explicit, implicit), time of day (morning, afternoon), and coffee type (caffeinated, decaffeinated). Importantly, the 3-way interaction between test type, time of day, and coffee type was significant, F(1,96) = 4.86, p = 0.03. The omnibus test was followed up with separate ANOVAs on explicit and implicit tests.

Comparing the results of the explicit memory test across time of day, ingesting caffeine only improved explicit memory performance during the morning testing session. A 2 × 2 ANOVA indicated a significant interaction between time of testing session (morning, afternoon) and coffee type (caffeinated, decaffeinated) on explicit memory performance, F(1,96) = 6.71, p < 0.01, η p 2 = 0.07. Although a main effect of testing time suggested that participants performed better in the morning overall [ F(1,97) = 18.96, p < 0.01], this effect was driven by enhanced performance in the morning participants who ingested caffeinated coffee. Follow up t-tests showed that the decaffeinated groups did not differ in explicit memory between the morning and afternoon conditions, t(48) = 1.3, p = 0.20. These results further illustrate that the impact of caffeine on memory performance depended on the time of the testing session - explicit memory was only enhanced by caffeine during the morning testing session.

In contrast, caffeine did not differentially affect implicit memory across the morning and the afternoon testing sessions, indicated by a non-significant interaction between time of testing and coffee type, F < 1. Regardless of coffee type, participants had higher implicit memory performance (priming) in the morning compared to the afternoon. This was demonstrated by a main effect of time of day, F(1,97) = 19.17, p < 0.01, η p 2 = 0.17.

Experiment 2: Exercise at Non-Optimal Time of Day

As hypothesized, caffeine did not affect explicit memory during young adults' optimal time of day, the afternoon, consistent with the notion that caffeine is only effective when physiological arousal levels are low. Additionally, caffeine had no effect on priming scores. In Experiment 2, we consider whether the observed improvement in explicit memory performance was due specifically to the ingestion of caffeine, or from the non-specific effect that caffeine has on increasing physiological arousal.

To determine the specificity of the caffeine effect, participants in Experiment 2 engaged in cardiovascular exercise during the early morning, their non-optimal time of the day. Even short sessions of exercise reliably elevate physiological arousal ( Hung et al., 2013). Acute exercise increases the concentration of catecholamines in the brain including dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in the locus coeruleus ( Cooper, 1973; McMorris et al., 2011). Just as caffeine acts on the locus coerulus to increase wakefulness, exercise increases norepinephrine in the locus coeruleus, which in turn induces arousal ( Dietrich and Audiffren, 2011). If caffeine benefits explicit memory by increasing general physiological arousal, we would expect to see the same boost in memory performance after morning exercise. Since previous work suggested that implicit memory is optimal during low arousal times of the day ( May et al., 2005), we expect exercise to increase arousal resulting in decreased priming.

Participants and Procedures

Forty undergraduates participated in a session conducted between 6 and 8 a.m. Participants were randomly assigned to an exercise condition ( n = 20) or a gentle stretching condition ( n = 20). They were instructed not to eat or drink anything but water on the morning of the experiment. Participants were informed they could withdraw at any time if they were unable to complete the required exercise.

Upon arrival, participants provided a wakefulness rating on a scale from -5 (not awake) to 5 (wide awake). Then, they were equipped with an activity watch (New Balance Duo Sport Monitor, Durham, NC) that records heartbeats per minute. Participants practiced measuring their heart rate with the watch. A baseline heart rate measure was taken once the participant could operate the device.

Participants completed approximately 15 min of cardiovascular exercise (exercise group) or a gentle stretching routine (stretching group). For the exercise group, cardiovascular exercise was defined as 10 min of exercise with a 20 percent or greater increase in heart rate from baseline. Participants achieved this by performing interval laps of running up a set of stairs and briskly walking down another set of stairs at the other end of the hallway. An experimenter was stationed at the end of each lap to record heart rate. In the stretching group, participants completed 15 min of a simple stretching routine. Experimenters demonstrated all the stretches and recorded heart rates at 1-min intervals. After completing either the exercise or stretching protocol, participants gave a second rating of wakefulness and returned to the laboratory for memory testing.

Results

Heart Rate

Heart rate was calculated as the average across 15 min of activity and compared to baseline heart rate. Participants in the exercise group experienced a substantial increase in heart rate from baseline compared to the stretching group, demonstrated by a significant group (exercise, stretching) by heart rate (baseline, activity) interaction, F(1,38) = 137.5, p < 0.0001, = 0.78. While baseline heart rate did not differ between the exercise ( M = 80.55, SD = 14.09) and stretching groups ( M = 80.65, SD = 13.20), t(38) < 1, Cohen's d = 0.007, CI [-0.61,0.63], during activity the exercise group experienced significantly higher heart rates ( M = 139.28, SD = 16.54) relative to the stretching group ( M = 90.70, SD = 10.90), t(38) = 10.96, p < 0.00001, Cohen's d = 3.47, CI [2.46,4.45].

Wakefulness Ratings

Participants who completed the exercise protocol reported feeling significantly more awake immediately following the activity compared to the stretching condition, depicted in Figure 1B. The perceived wakefulness (pre activity, post activity, intervening phase, and at the end of experiment) by group (exercise, stretching) interaction was significant F(1,38) = 2.73, p < 0.05, = 0.07, demonstrating that the perceived wakefulness of the participant depended on whether they completed 15 min of stretching or exercise. Although baseline perceived wakefulness ratings did not differ between the groups t(38) = 1.09, ns, Cohen's d = 0.34, CI [-0.28,0.97], follow-up paired t-test indicated that the exercise group reported a significant increase in wakefulness immediately following exercise compared to their baseline wakefulness rating, t(19) = -4.25, p < 0.0001, Cohen's d = 0.95, CI [0.41,1.47].

Memory Performance

Exercise did not have an impact on either explicit or implicit memory during the early morning, despite participants feeling more awake after exercise ( Figure 2B). No interaction between group (exercise, stretching) and memory type (implicit, explicit) was observed, F < 1, ns, = 0.002. Explicit memory performance did not differ between those who completed the exercise ( M = 0.36, SD = 0.18) and stretching protocols ( M = 0.38, SD = 0.11), t < 1, ns, Cohen's d = 0.13, CI [-0.49,0.75]. Similar results were seen for implicit memory across the exercise ( M = 0.18, SD = 0.13) and stretching protocols ( M = 0.18, SD = 0.14), t < 1, ns, Cohen's d = 0.01, CI [-0.61,0.63].

General Discussion

Consuming caffeinated coffee results in significantly higher memory performance on an explicit cued-recall task in the early morning, but not in the late afternoon. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that caffeine benefits cognition during suboptimal conditions ( Ryan et al., 2002; Nehlig, 2010) - in this case, during the low point in young adults' circadian rhythm. Importantly, the benefits of caffeine for explicit memory performance do not appear to be related to an acute increase in physiological arousal (Experiment 2), to the perception of being more awake and energized after ingesting coffee (Experiment 1), or general expectancy effects since participants in Experiment 1 were all told they were consuming caffeinated coffee.

We were somewhat surprised by the finding that elevating arousal through exercise during the morning did not improve explicit memory performance, particularly since participants consistently reported feeling more awake and energized after exercise. Our finding is consistent, however, with research suggesting that the cognitive benefits of exercise build gradually, rather than acutely. For example, Bugg et al. (2006) found that older adults who engage in an active lifestyle do not experience a decline in working memory performance across time-of-day compared to sedentary older adults. These authors argue that habitual exercise leads to increased calcium levels, which are necessary for the metabolism of dopamine and norepinephrine. This increase in calcium occurs gradually and is maintained through consistent exercise. In contrast, caffeine results in a fast blockade of adenosine receptors, preventing the blockade of norepinephrine ( McGaugh, 2000), which may influence the consolidation of new memories. The difference in the timeline of the effects of caffeine and exercise may explain why a single cup of coffee benefits memory and acute exercise does not.

Given that participants were not morning-type individuals, it is not surprising that they tended to go to bed late even though they were scheduled for the early morning testing condition. Accordingly, the young adults tested during their non-optimal time of day (the morning) reported fewer hours of sleep than those who were tested during their optimal time of day in the afternoon. The difference in sleep time between the morning and afternoon testing conditions likely reflects the real-world situation for college students. This decrease in sleep adds to, or may even account for, the impact of circadian rhythms on cognitive functioning in young adults. Importantly, however, morning participants did not differ in the number of hours slept between the caffeinated and decaffeinated conditions, and these individuals did not differ from participants in the exercise and stretching conditions. The only difference between all morning testing groups that had an impact on memory performance was the administration of caffeine.

The mechanisms by which caffeine enhances explicit memory remain unclear. Recently, Borota et al. (2014) suggested that caffeine has a specific effect on memory consolidation. They found that caffeine ingested immediately after studying a series of object pictures resulted in better discrimination between old objects and visually similar lures, but not better recognition performance per se, suggesting a specific effect of caffeine on pattern separation. Consistent with our findings, the authors conclude that the benefit of caffeine is not merely due to general increases in arousal and attention. Memory enhancement may be mediated by increases in levels of norepinephrine that have been shown to benefit pattern separation ( Segal et al., 2012) or by enhancing long-term potentiation in the hippocampus due to the high concentration of adenosine receptors in the CA2 region ( Simons et al., 2012). This explanation, focusing on caffeine's potential enhancement of hippocampally mediated memory, is consistent with our finding that caffeine benefits explicit, but not implicit, memory. Multiple forms of implicit learning, including repetition priming, are thought to rely on cortical adaptations that are independent of the hippocampus (for review, see Reber, 2013).

This cannot be the whole story, however. The striking differential effect of caffeine in the early morning versus late afternoon suggests that caffeine's efficacy interacts with other factors. It could be that participants in afternoon caffeine experiment did not follow our instructions to refrain from consuming caffeinated beverages on the day of the experiment, and thus an additional 200 mg of caffeine made no difference to memory performance. Alternatively, other physiological factors that vary naturally with circadian rhythms may result in a system that is already "optimized", so that caffeine either has no benefit, or may even result in decreased performance when taken in sufficiently large doses ( Borota et al., 2014). A third possibility, discussed earlier, is that caffeine was effective because morning participants had fewer hours of sleep the night before testing, compared to afternoon participants. Adan et al. (2008) found that a low dose of caffeine decreased self-reported sleepiness in the morning, and sleepiness improved even more among evening-type participants, which would match the participants included in the present study. However, Adan et al. (2008) did not assess cognitive functioning, so whether sleepiness, independent of circadian rhythms, was sufficient to impact cognitive functioning is not known.

It is important to note, however, that unlike our previous work examining memory and time of day in older adults ( Ryan et al., 2002), we did not find the expected time of day effect, which should have resulted in better cued recall performance in the afternoon compared to the morning. Instead, explicit memory performance did not differ between the decaffeinated groups in the morning and afternoon. Notably, we chose not to use a within-subjects design as we did in our previous study with older adults because the implicit memory task could only be performed once without the participants' conscious awareness ( Delpouve et al., 2014). It is unclear whether testing the same individuals in the morning and the afternoon would have shown the expected time of day effect in explicit memory, although we note that other researchers have reported the effect using between-subjects designs (e.g., May et al., 1993). In line with previous work, we demonstrated that implicit memory was higher during participants' non-optimal time of day ( May et al., 2005; Rowe et al., 2006; Delpouve et al., 2014), although priming was not influenced by caffeine either during the morning or the afternoon.

In summary, our results suggest that caffeine results in explicit memory enhancement for young adults during their non-optimal time of day - early morning. Although it is well documented that very few young adults perform best in the morning ( Chelminski et al., 1997), many standardized tests and final exams are taken within the first few hours of the school day. Most college instructors simply assume that grades on these tests accurately reflect a student's ability, but this is likely not the case. Several studies in academic settings suggest that a student's time of day preference impacts overall academic performance. For example, Randler and Schaal (2010) found that grade point average was negatively correlated with MEQ scores - the more a student preferred evening hours, the worse grades they earned in school. The degree to which this effect is due specifically to differences in circadian rhythms or the lack of sleep that likely occurs among these students is unclear. Nevertheless, it appears that for these students, caffeine has a benefit for learning. It remains to be seen whether consuming caffeine would result in better learning, whether newly learned information is maintained over time, and whether this effect could translate into real increases in academic achievement.

Author Contributions

SS, TB, and LR developed the concept of the study and all authors were involved in study design. SS, EB, and TB collected and processed the data. All authors planned and performed data analyses. All authors wrote components of the manuscript and approved the final version.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The reviewer FP and the handling Editor declared their shared affiliation, and the handling Editor states that the process nevertheless met the standards of a fair and objective review.

Footnotes

Funding. This work was supported by the Undergraduate Research Grant from the Honors College at the University of Arizona.

References

1. Hasher L., Goldstein D., May C. P. (2005). It's about time: circadian rhythms, memory and aging", in Human Learning and Memory: Advances in Theory and Application: The 4th Tsukuba International Conference on Memory. eds Izawa C., Ohta N. (Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates Publishers; ) 199-217. [Google Scholar]

2. Intons-Peterson M. J., Rocchi P., West T., McLellan K., Hackney A. (1998). Aging, optimal testing times, and negative priming. J. Exp. Psychol. 24 362. [Google Scholar]

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Here's what you'll learn when you read this story:

Although our lives feel filled with both wonderful and painful memories, for the most part, they're mostly just a long process of forgetting.

A new study shows that employing certain techniques-known as "mental time travel"-can improve recall of that memory.

However, the effects of these techniques wane severely after 24 hours, showing that rejuvenating memories this way is still subject to the inevitable process of forgetting.

One of the many dreams of sci-fi writers and enthusiasts is the idea of time travel. The kind you're probably thinking of (the physical kind) is still very firmly situated in the realm of fiction, but humans do have a remarkable ability to whisk themselves back into the past thanks to a process known as "mental time travel." This remarkable ability is a key feature of human cognition (though, not necessarily exclusive to us), and the idea describes how our minds can seemingly reconstruct the past while forming conceptions about the future.

Now, a new study from a team of German scientists at Regensburg University has shown that using "mental time travel" techniques can actually enhance the brain's ability to recall memories, especially in the short term. The rate of "forgetting" isn't linear-details of a memory will quickly be forgotten over days or weeks, but less and less of the memory is lost over longer periods. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), wanted to test whether mental time travel could stave off this rapid decline in memory retention.

To test this hypothesis, the authors selected 1,216 participants (split into four groups) to undergo two memory experiments. The first experiment involved remembering a word list while the second focused on a particular passage. One of the four groups was tasked with simply recalling the information at four-hour, 24-hour, and 7-day intervals. The other groups used various forms of context reinstatement-such as recalling contextual details (thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc...) of the time the memory was encoded or looking at a small subset of the information (known as "selective retrieval")-to see if the recall displayed any evidence of greater accuracy.

They found that these contextual reinstatements did improve recall accuracy, especially within 4-hour and 24-hour periods. Remembering emotions restored memories with 70 percent accuracy at four hours and 59 percent at 24 hours, while selective retrieval restored memories with 84 percent and 68 percent accuracy, respectively. (Both techniques were improvements of the group with no context reinstatement.) However, at 7-day recall, things didn't look quite so rosy. Triggering emotions didn't improve any noticeable recall, and selective retrieval only delivered 31 percent of the memory.

The researchers liken this forget-recall cycle to a kind of Sisyphean task-a reference to the Ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus who was forever destined to roll a boulder up a hill. Within a 24-hour period, mental time travel could return the mind to a similar state as the original encoding, but the process of forgetting remained similar.

"This picture of a Sisyphus-like resurrection of memories contrasts with the idea that context reinstatement as induced by mental time travel is a transient contextual phenomenon," the authors wrote. "If transient in character, the induced enhancement effect should have vanished shortly after the reinstatement attempts, and the memories' retrievability quickly become indistinguishable from the retrievability when previous reinstatement attempts were missing."

Of course, the variety of memories extends far beyond recalling certain facts and figures, so this process could look different when trying to rejuvenate a particular strong or emotive memory. Bur for now, even though mental time travel does allow us to reinforce recent memory, the process of forgetting is always there, waiting once again to start us rolling the rock back up that hill.

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A Study Says Your Brain Can Travel Through Time. Here's What It Does to Your Memory.

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Recalling thoughts and feelings when a memory was encoded improved memory recall, but this mental trick has its limits.

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A Massive New Study Says This Is What Happens to People Who Drink Black Coffee Every Day

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A Massive New Study Says This Is What Happens to People Who Drink Black Coffee Every Day

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A study finds that drinking 1 cup of black coffee per day is linked to a 16% lower risk of death from any cause, and drinking more is linked to a 17% lower risk of "all-cause mortality." This is an association claim because it describes the correlation between two measured variables, the amount of black coffee drunk per day and risk of death over the study period. The original study is article is at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002231662500286X?via%3Dihub

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A Massive New Study Says This Is What Happens to People Who Drink Black Coffee Every Day

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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Scientists found a link between increasing temperatures and increased consumption of sugars through sugary drinks and frozen snacks. Americans categorized as low-income groups, men, outdoor workers, and people not used to heat are eating 100 million more pounds of sugar than 15 years ago. The increased sugar intake is going to worsen people's health because of increased risk of diabetes, heart problems, and obesity, just to name a few.

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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The researchers found that men consumed more sugary soft drinks when temperatures spiked.

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How cutting US air pollution could save 6,000 lives a year by 2030

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How cutting US air pollution could save 6,000 lives a year by 2030

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A study from Princeton found that reducing fossil fuel combustion will significantly benefit the overhealth of the US population. They predicted that incorporating more renewable energy to cut US air pollution could help prevent 6,000 air polluted-related deaths by 2030.

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How cutting US air pollution could save 6,000 lives a year by 2030

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Shift from fossil fuels could lower deaths from particle pollution in some states by 19% in five years, study finds

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4 Dead, 7 Sickened by Flesh‑Eating Bacteria in Florida

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4 Dead, 7 Sickened by Flesh‑Eating Bacteria in Florida

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Link:https://people.com/flesh-eating-bacteria-florida-4-dead-vibrio-beaches-11774472

Summary/findings: As of mid-2025, Florida had reported four deaths and seven more cases of Vibrio vulnificus which is a dangerous "flesh-eating" bacteria that lives in saltwater and brackish areas. The number of cases has dipped compared to 2024, which saw a spike linked to Hurricane Helene. Though the bacteria still remains a serious public health concern to the people swimming in the gulf coast.

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4 Dead, 7 Sickened by Flesh-Eating Bacteria in Florida

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The bacterium Vibrio vulnificus thrives in saltwater and brackish water and can cause severe illness.

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One number at age 7 could predict how long you live

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One number at age 7 could predict how long you live

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This ScienceDaily article discusses research from the original study "High Blood Pressure in Childhood and Premature Cardiovascular Disease Mortality" from Jama Network. The ScienceDaily article reports the association between elevated childhood blood pressure and the increase risk of dying in your mid-50s, prematurely, from Cardiovascular disease mortality. The ScienceDaily article provides an accurate representation of the Jama study's findings. I think this is an association claim because it describes a relationship between two variables (childhood blood pressure and adult mortality risk).

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One number at age 7 could predict how long you live

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Children with higher blood pressure as young as age 7 face a sharply increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by their mid-50s, according to a massive decades-long study. Researchers found that even moderately elevated readings, not just full hypertension, raised the danger, with risks climbing as much as 40–50%.

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What’s behind a spike in childhood speech development delays across the U.S.

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What’s behind a spike in childhood speech development delays across the U.S.

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Link:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whats-behind-a-spike-in-childhood-speech-development-delays-across-the-u-s

Summary:

PBS NewsHour has recently reported an increase in speech development delays among children in the United States, particularly due to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several contributing factors have been identified, including the lack of social interactions, higher levels of screen time, and significant disruptions to early childhood education. The report also emphasizes the growing demand placed upon speech-language pathologists and the importance of early intervention services.

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Hameister says Next Door is fortunate enough to have a lot of community support. But she worries about schools that are dealing with a budget crunch and a surge in speech referrals.

In the last state budget, Governor Tony Evers proposed using the budget surplus to put an extra billion dollars into special education funding, Republicans in the legislature only allotted an extra 107 million statewide over the next two years, just a 2 percent increase.

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Zac Schultz, Wisconsin Public Television

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What's behind a spike in childhood speech development delays across the U.S.

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Since the COVID pandemic, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of young children who are slow to develop language skills, with pediatric speech delays more than doubling for children aged 12 and younger. PBS Wisconsin's Zac Schultz reports on what's behind the delays and whether schools have the resources to help teachers, students and caregivers.

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Chimpanzees pick up communication styles from their moms, not their dads - Association claim - Lexx Lang

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Chimpanzees pick up communication styles from their moms, not their dads - Association claim - Lexx Lang

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Summary: The journal, PLOS Biology (https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003270) found that young chimpanzees mostly pick up and learn communication patterns such as visual cues and vocal patterns from their mothers and maternal side of genetics, rather than their fathers. The researchers believe that the ability for this mimics how babies (humans) learn communication patterns and styles from their primary caretakers (parents in most cases), similar to the chimpanzees. The study identifies a relation between mothers' influence on the formation and development of communication behaviors in young chimpanzees. This therefore shows a correlation between being raised by the chimp's mother and learning specific communication patterns, therefore representing an association claim.

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Chimpanzees pick up communication styles from their moms, not their dads

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A new study finds that chimpanzee babies learn vocal and visual communication patterns from their mothers. The findings may shed light on the way human babies learn from those close to them.

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Heatwaves May Quietly Make You Age Faster, Scientists Say

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Heatwaves May Quietly Make You Age Faster, Scientists Say

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Article link: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a65912646/heatwaves-human-aging/

Claim: Association. The article claims to link heatwave exposure to accelerated aging processes. However, they do not establish it as the direct cause.

Summary: A 15-year study of 25,000 Taiwanese adults found that each 1.3 °C increase in cumulative heat exposure corresponded to approximately 8-11 days of added biological aging. Outdoor manual laborers and rural residents experienced even greater aging, up to 33 days over two years. Researchers hypothesize that heat-induced DNA damage, such as telomere shortening, may underlie this effect.

Original Study:

Long-term impacts of heatwaves on accelerated ageing

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02407-w#citeas

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Heatwaves May Quietly Make You Age Faster, Scientists Say

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Using an array of medical tests, scientists discerned that heatwaves can age humans as quickly as smoking and drinking.

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https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2838505?guestAccessKey=f420494d-a51d-442c-9d7c-4d14dbbe1aae&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=090425

This article addresses the positive effects of LSD for adults with generalized anxiety disorder. These findings stem from clinical trial in which the participants were either given a placebo or 25 mg, 50mg, 100mg, or 200mg of LSD. The positive results for the higher dosed groups lasted the entirety of the 12 week study. It also considers other environmental confounds such as guides/therapists and aesthetically pleasing treatment centers in the overall understanding of this treatments impact on the higher dosed group.

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‘One and done’ dose of LSD keeps anxiety at bay

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People with generalized anxiety disorder improved significantly after they got a single dose of LSD powerful enough to induce a psychedelic trip.

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Key Atlantic current could start collapsing as early as 2055, new study finds

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Key Atlantic current could start collapsing as early as 2055, new study finds

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A new study using 25 advanced climate models found that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, an ocean current that moderates global climate, could begin to collapse as early as 2055 due to human-driven climate change, leading to impacts like harsher winters, crop losses, and rising sea levels on the East Coast.

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Key Atlantic current could start collapsing as early as 2055, new study finds

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The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation brings heat to the Northern Hemisphere and regulates the climate globally, but research suggests it could weaken significantly in the coming decades.

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Risk of concussions and benefits of amateur sports. 

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Risk of concussions and benefits of amateur sports. 

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Article link:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/sep/04/concussion-risks-outweighed-by-benefits-amateur-sport-study-finds?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Summary: A study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry found that those who sustained concussions in amateur contact sports, meaning they do not play at professional levels, tended to have better recall than those who received concussions doing non-sport-related activities. The article explores how participating in sports enhances cognitive function and is not associated with long-term cognitive decline. They discuss how the benefits of playing contact sports outweigh the risk of receiving a head injury. Scientists express the importance of not misinterpreting the results, as this only applies to amateur sports players. Professional contact sports have more frequent and severe head injuries and therefore have different risks.

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Concussion risks are outweighed by benefits of amateur sport, study finds

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Surprise results have been published after analysis of 15,000 individuals, but the study’s authors stress that the risks in professional sport are very different

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Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies

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Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies

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A new study in Nature shows that carbon emissions from 180 major oil, gas, and cement producers made about half the increase in intensity of 213 major heatwaves from 2000 to 2023. Particularly, emissions from the top companies, like ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, individually made more than 50 heatwaves “virtually impossible” without their contributions.

Link to studies: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09450-9

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08751-3

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Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies

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Nearly one-quarter of heatwaves would have been ‘virtually impossible’ without global warming — and can be attributed to the emissions of individual energy producers.

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The carnivore diet: why it’s not good for your health

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The carnivore diet: why it’s not good for your health

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Katherine Rodriguez. A 2021 survey of self-selected carnivore diet followers found that the carnivore diet could severely raise cholesterol levels, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases long-term. Although some participants reported weight-loss and improved blood sugar, the findings were self-reported and not verified. Overall, the diet is very high in saturated fat and has zero fiber, raising health concerns.

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The carnivore diet: why it’s not good for your health

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Find out why this extreme meat diet, without any fruits or vegetables, can be harmful for your health.

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Loneliness Drives Teens to Seek Rewards 

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Loneliness Drives Teens to Seek Rewards 

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This study reports that there is a high likelihood that teens are becoming more susceptible to seeking out interactions that will bring them "rewards" such as dopamine. Most teens that participated in the study after being alone in a room for a couple hours, and did not talk with their friends through the phone, sought out games that give rewards or prizes for completion. Those who were able to chat with friends and or family did not seek out rewards shortly after their isolation. My only issue with the research method/design, is that there were only 40 people that were participating in the experiment. To make such a strong claim after only testing the theory with 40 people between the ages of 16-19 is not honest science because there should be more data that would solidify the claim.

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Loneliness Drives Teens to Seek Rewards - Neuroscience News

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A new study reveals that adolescents are highly sensitive to even brief periods of social isolation, showing a sharp increase in motivation to seek rewards after just a few hours alone.

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What causes stuttering? It might be in your DNA

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What causes stuttering? It might be in your DNA

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Although research has been limited, scientists have long believed that stuttering has a genetic basis. Researchers Piper Below and Dillon Pruett discovered 57 genetic regions associated with stuttering, including one gene linked to rhythm and beat synchronization, using data from 23andMe. According to their findings, stuttering is caused by a variety of small genetic variations, which helps explain why there are variances in recovery between boys and girls, as well as connections to disorders such as autism and depression. Rather than searching for a “cure,” these researchers want their work to shed light on the mystery of stuttering, recognize it as a meaningful part of humanity, and create more individualized ways of supporting people who stutter.

Association claim

original report: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02267-2

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What causes stuttering? It might be in your DNA : Short Wave

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For a long time, scientists have suspected that stuttering — a common speech condition that affects an estimated 1 in every 100 people — could be heritable. Despite how common it is, it’s still a remarkably understudied condition. Geneticists Piper Below and Dillon Pruett were determined to fix that. With the help of 23andMe data, they recently identified 57 genetic regions linked to stuttering in the human genome. Their findings represent a new breakthrough in how researchers think about speech conditions, genetics and the conditions that are linked to them. They’re what some are calling a “quantum leap” in the field.Interested in more human biology and genetics episodes? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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Is unhealthy food actually unhealthy? Science says...

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Is unhealthy food actually unhealthy? Science says...

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Brazilian researcher Carlos Monteiro made up the term ultra-processed foods (UPF's), to explain rising obesity since traditional diets were replaced by heavily industralized products. Since then governments and scientists have debated wether UPF's are harmful because of their processing itself or simply the nutritional makeup. Critics argue the UPF category is too broad and vague but supporters say it highlights the role of modern food systems that shape public health.

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Are ultra-processed foods really so unhealthy? What the science says

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These foods have been linked to obesity and other health troubles, but some scientists argue the grouping is too broad to guide dietary choices.

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Sucralose is affecting the efficiency of Cancer treatments

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Sucralose is affecting the efficiency of Cancer treatments

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Sucralose, found in many "zero sugar" or "diet" items such as soda, syrups, and energy drinks, are affecting the potecy of treatment for patients with cancer. Sucralose affects the gut microbiome and the T cells that help help your body recognize and attack tumors.

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New studies confirm it—scientists discover that sucralose could sabotage your cancer treatments

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Sucralose has become a common staple in American kitchen cabinets of those who seek to reduce calories —and sugar levels— while maintaining a sweet tooth.

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Rapid autopsies on people infected with HIV may help researchers find a cure

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Rapid autopsies on people infected with HIV may help researchers find a cure

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Analyzing patients afflicted with HIV immediately after death allows doctors to locate "reservoirs" in the body where the virus migrates in the presence of antiretroviral drugs.

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American Association for the Advancement of Science

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The last gift: How bodies donated for research may help find a cure for HIV

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Pioneering project uses “rapid autopsies” to find virus hideouts in infected people

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Even if not losing weight, simply eating better has drastic positive effects on weight.

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Even if not losing weight, simply eating better has drastic positive effects on weight.

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Association: Shows connections between diet and body health, at multiple levels.

This article shows that consumption of a green Mediterranean diet, creates more positive effects than the number on the scale going down. It lowered triglycerides, leptin, and blood pressure, while increasing HDL cholesterol, even when weight remained the same.

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New Studies Remind Us Eating Well Is About More Than Just Weight

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Healthy foods are good for the body, beyond numbers on the scale. Three new studies show the health benefits of eating well.

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Drinking Coffee Linked to Healthy Aging in Middle-Aged Women

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Drinking Coffee Linked to Healthy Aging in Middle-Aged Women

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At the 2025 Nutrition conference, researchers reported in a study of nearly 50,000 women from the Nurses' Health Study that moderate midlife (about three cups per day) caffeinated coffee consumption was associated with a 2–5% higher probability of "healthy aging" (living to age 70 without major chronic diseases and with superb mental, physical, and cognitive health).

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Drinking Coffee Linked to Healthy Aging in Middle-Aged Women

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Good news for coffee lovers: A new study suggests drinking a cup each day could be linked to long-term health benefits.

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Effects of a 14-day social media abstinence on mental health and well-being: results from an experimental study

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Effects of a 14-day social media abstinence on mental health and well-being: results from an experimental study

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BMC psychology tested if 14 days of abstinence from social media would improve mental health using randomly assigned groups. While there was a decrease in depression, anxiety, "fomo", and loneliness after the abstinence, this decrease in negative feelings was also observed in the other group that did not take the abstinence. The findings suggest there might be some positive effects to taking breaks from social media, however we can not claim this is the main reason for poor mental health.

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Effects of a 14-day social media abstinence on mental health and well-being: results from an experimental study - BMC Psychology

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Background and aim The study investigated the effects of a 14-day social media abstinence on various mental health factors using an experimental design with follow-up assessment. Hypotheses included positive associations between problematic smartphone use (PSU) and depression, anxiety, fear of missing out (FoMO), and screentime. Decreases in screentime, PSU, depression and anxiety, and increases in body image were assumed for the abstinence group. Additionally, daily changes in FoMO and loneliness were explored. Methods Participants completed different questionnaires assessing PSU, FoMO, depression and anxiety, loneliness and body image and were randomized into control and social media abstinence groups. Daily questionnaires over 14 days assessed FoMO, loneliness, screentime, and depression and anxiety. 14 days after the abstinence, a follow-up questionnaire was administered. Multilevel models were used to assess changes over time. Results PSU was positively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety and FoMO, but not with screentime. Spline models identified decreased screentime and body image dissatisfaction for the intervention group. Depression and anxiety symptoms, PSU, trait and state FoMO, and loneliness, showed a decrease during the overall intervention time but no difference between the investigated groups could be observed (hence this was an overall trend). For appearance evaluation and body area satisfaction, an increase in both groups was seen. Daily changes in both loneliness and FoMO were best modelled using cubic trends, but no group differences were significant. Discussion Results provide insights into effects of not using social media for 14 days and show that screentime and body image dissatisfaction decrease. The study also suggests areas for future studies to better understand how and why interventions show better results for some individuals.

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Physicists examined Adelie and chinstrap penguins and determined that they can generate pressures of 60 kPa which is several times higher than humans to propel their poop from their nest. Then, using fluid dynamics and trajectory modeling, they showed that penguin poop can be propelled as far as 1.3 meters like a tiny biological cannon. The absurd yet careful research even received a Nobel Prize, showing physics can tell the story behind nature's strangest behaviors.

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Penguins Can Shoot Their Poop 4 Feet… Which Rules

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Finally, scientists are studying the important stuff.

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As temperatures rise each summer, so does American's sugar intake.

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As temperatures rise each summer, so does American's sugar intake.

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Deanna Moyer. NPR reports on a recent scientific studying linking warmer temperatures to increased sugar intake. This increase is reportedly due to sugary, cold drinks such as sweet tea, lemonade, and frozen slushes. They also report that with climate change, longer summer weather, and increasing temperatures, American's sugar intake over during this time of year has steadily increased over the past few years and the trend is expected to continue.

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You’re more likely to reach for that soda when it’s hot outside

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People drink more sugary beverages when it’s hot, researchers found, significantly increasing their sugar intake. That impact could grow as climate change raises the world’s temperatures.

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Increased Social Media Use Linked to Rising Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescents

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Increased Social Media Use Linked to Rising Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescents

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A recent study in JAMA Network Open tracked nearly 12,000 children beginning at ages 9–10 over the course of three years. The researchers found that when a child’s social media use increased, they were more likely to show higher levels of depressive symptoms the following year. Interestingly, the reverse pattern did not hold, children who already had higher depressive symptoms were not more likely to increase their social media use in the future. This suggests that greater social media use may play a contributing role in the development of depressive symptoms during early adolescence, rather than being a result of them.

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Increased social media use and rising depressive symptoms during early adolescence exhibited a significant association in newfindings published today in . ¹ The data yielded from a cohort study from the national Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, which tracks nearly 12,000 children and adolescents, suggest that social media use may play a contributing role in declining mental health among younger adolescents.

Concerns surrounding declining mental health in the US have garnered heightened awareness and increased investigation in recent years. The number of young people grappling with mental health conditions surged by 28% since 2018, with an even more staggering increase of 48% observed among those diagnosed with more than 1 mental health issue. ² In 2023, an advisory on social media and youth mental health was issued by the US Surgeon General. ³

Social Media Use May Precede Mental Health Decline

The new study analyzed data from 11,876 participants, aged 9 to 10 years at baseline, over a 3-year period, assessing both self-reported time spent on social media and depressive symptoms annually. ¹ After accounting for individual differences and demographic factors, the study found that within-person increases in social media use were significantly associated with greater depressive symptoms a year later. This pattern was consistent from year 1 to year 2 (β = 0.07; P = .01) and from year 2 to year 3 (β = 0.09; P < .001).

Importantly, the reverse was not true; elevated depressive symptoms did not predict increased social media use in the following year, indicating a one-way relationship in which more time online appears to precede worsening mental health.

Filling a Critical Research Gap in Youth Mental Health

The research addresses an important issue highlighted in the 2023 US Surgeon General's Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, which stressed the necessity for more robust longitudinal data. ³ Most existing studies have been cross-sectional or concentrated on older teens and young adults. In contrast, this study provides a unique perspective by examining younger adolescents, beginning at age 9, and tracking their development through the critical early teen years. ¹

"These findings provide initial evidence of temporal ordering and could suggest that social media use is a potential contributing factor to adolescent depressive symptoms rather than merely a correlate or consequence of such symptoms," the authors wrote.

No Evidence of Baseline Risk Driving Social Media Use

Contrary to concerns that young people with depressive symptoms may be turning to social media as a coping mechanism, this investigation found no evidence that preexisting depression led to increased social media use. Nor did differences between individuals in average time spent on social media predict depressive symptoms when controlling for family and demographic factors. Increases in usage beyond an individual's typical amount predicted worsening mood in the following year.

"Although our findings suggest that there is a unidirectional association between social media use and depression, with increases in social media use associated with depressive symptoms through subsequent years, prior research on adolescents, especially those with depressive symptoms, has shown that they can shift from maladaptive to more positive patterns of social media use when they become aware of its impact on their mood," the authors noted.

Changes in individual social media habits, especially increases during early adolescence, may indicate a risk for developing depressive symptoms, according to the study. The authors recommend that clinicians provide anticipatory guidance to families regarding the mental health effects of screen time and social media use.

1. Nagata JM, Otmar CD, Shim J, et al. Social media use and depressive symptoms during early adolescence. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(5):e2511704. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.11704

2. Grossi G. Mental health diagnoses, care challenges rise among US youth, report finds. AJMC®. April 26, 2024. Accessed May 21, 2025. https://www.ajmc.com/view/mental-health-diagnoses-care-challenges-rise-among-us-youth-report-finds

3. Office of the US Surgeon General. Social media and youth mental health: the US Surgeon General's Advisory. 2023. Accessed May 21, 2025. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-health-social-media-advisory.pdf

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Increased Social Media Use Linked to Rising Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescents

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As concerns grow nationally about the mental health of young people, a new study provides insight into ongoing debates about social media's role.

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Artificial sweeteners aged the brain by over 1.5 years, study says

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Artificial sweeteners aged the brain by over 1.5 years, study says

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Eleni Sakoufakis

CNN Health posted an article that discusses a study that reviewed artificial sweeteners impact on the brain. In this study researchers found how sweeteners can age the brain by up to 1.5 years. The study did in fact show an association with cognitive decline and high intake of sweeteners, but there was no way to confirm a cause to brain aging from sweeteners.

The original study: https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000214023

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Artificial sweeteners aged the brain by over 1.5 years, study says | CNN

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People consuming the high levels of certain artificial sweeteners - about 1 teaspoon daily - saw their cognitive abilities decline by 1.6 years, a new study found.

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Research suggests doctors might quickly become dependent on AI

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Research suggests doctors might quickly become dependent on AI

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This NPR article summarizes a study about the connection between AI and a decline in doctors' ability to recognize polyps and other abnormalities during colonoscopies on their own. The researchers found that in the absence of AI assistance, doctors appeared to be around 20% worse at spotting abnormalities. The end of the article calls for "more studies like these examining how AI might be changing the way doctors work in the real world."

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Research suggests doctors might quickly become dependent on AI

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A study in Poland found that doctors appeared less likely to detect abnormalities during colonoscopies on their own after they’d grown used to help from an AI tool.

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Study Finds “Small But Significant” Impact of Electronic Media Use on Mental Health in Children

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Study Finds “Small But Significant” Impact of Electronic Media Use on Mental Health in Children

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This study from Brian and Behavior said there are small but significant effects between media usage and children’s depression. Depression was also tied to kids watching video games. However, anxiety was linked to playing video games, specifically ones with a chat box. The article does make a point to state that it is not an official cause. It could be that kids struggling with their mental health turn to screens more, making this an association claim.

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Study Finds “Small But Significant” Impact of Electronic Media Use on Mental Health in Children | Brain & Behavior Research Foundation

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Researchers studying the results of questionnaires filled out by thousands of children aged 9 to 11 and their parents has found “significant” and “real” associations between electronic media use and mental health, although they say the magnitude of the impact they measured is statistically small.

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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A new study published in Nature Climate Change found that as U.S. temperatures rise (especially between 54 °F and 86 °F), Americans consume significantly more added sugars, such as sugary drinks and frozen desserts. Researchers estimate this translates to over 100 million additional pounds of sugar consumed annually compared to 15 years ago, and they attribute this increase causally to temperature changes.

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As world gets hotter, Americans are turning to more sugar, study finds

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A new study finds that climate change is increasing sugar consumption in the United States. As temperatures rise, Americans, especially those who are poorer and less educated, are drinking more sugary beverages.

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Chris Delanos. This CNN article reviews a study about diet soda. Now, scientists have found that when you mix the artificial sweetener sucralose with a carbohydrate, it can change the body's metabolism, which can lead to metabolic syndrome. The scary part is that researchers found that when mixing a carbohydrate with sucralose, using "sensitive brain scans," they found that it changes the part of the brain that controls our metabolism.

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Diet soda by itself may not cause weight gain, study says, but combining with carbs can | CNN

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It’s good and bad news for diet soda lovers: Drinking diet soda alone may not lead to weight gain, but eating with carbs can quickly alter the body’s metabolism.

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Carbon emissions from oil giants directly linked to dozens of deadly heatwaves for first time

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Carbon emissions from oil giants directly linked to dozens of deadly heatwaves for first time

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Global heating is causing more frequent and severe heatwaves, resulting in an estimated 500,000 heat-related deaths each year. One example is the 2021 heatwave in the Pacific Northwest, which was nearly 3°C hotter due to climate change. A recent Nature study found that emissions from each of the 14 largest fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, have individually contributed to over 50 extreme heat events that would have been nearly impossible without their emissions, increasing their likelihood by at least 10,000 times. In total, 180 major “carbon-major” companies were responsible for nearly half of the global increase in heatwave intensity between 2000–2009 (1.4°C) and 2020–2023 (2.2°C).

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Carbon emissions from the world's biggest fossil fuel companies have been directly linked to dozens of deadly heatwaves for the first time, according to a new analysis. The research has been hailed as a "leap forward" in the legal battle to hold big oil accountable for the damages being caused by the climate crisis.

The research found that the emissions from any one of the 14 biggest companies were by themselves enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves that would otherwise have been virtually impossible. The study shows, in effect, that those emissions caused the heatwaves.

The carbon pollution from ExxonMobil's fossil fuels, for example, made 51 heatwaves at least 10,000 times more likely than in an unheated world, the researchers found, as did the emissions from Saudi Aramco.

Global heating is making heatwaves more frequent and more intense across the globe, contributing to at least 500,000 heat-related deaths a year. The searing heatwave that struck the Pacific Northwest of the US in 2021 was made almost 3C hotter, for example.

The new research found that the total emissions from the 180 "carbon major" companies included in the analysis were responsible for about half the increase in intensity, with emissions due to forest destruction making up most of the rest. It also found that the 213 heatwaves studied became 200 times more likely on average from 2010 to 2019 due to the climate crisis.

"Being able to trace back the contribution of these single [carbon major] emitters and quantify their contribution could be very useful for establishing potential liability," said Prof Sonia Seneviratne, at ETH Zurich university in Switzerland, a senior author of the new report.

Dr Davide Faranda, a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and not part of the study team, said: "This study adds a crucial new step: it connects the dots between specific climate disasters and the companies whose emissions made them possible. This bridge could become a cornerstone for legal and policy action to hold polluters accountable."

The heatwave that hit the Pacific Northwest of the US in 2021 (Seattle, pictured) was made almost 3C hotter by global heating, the study found. Photograph: Jason Redmond/Reuters

Cassidy DiPaola, a spokesperson for the Make Polluters Pay campaign, said: "We can now point to specific heatwaves and say, 'Saudi Aramco did this. ExxonMobil did this.' When their emissions alone are triggering heatwaves that wouldn't have happened otherwise, we're talking about real people who died, real crops that failed, and real communities that suffered, all because of decisions made in corporate boardrooms."

The world's highest court, the International Court of Justice, ruled in July that failing to prevent climate harm could result in having to pay compensation, while a German high court set a legal precedent in May that fossil fuel companies could be held liable for their contribution. "Here's the evidence the courts have been waiting for," said DiPaola. "The bill is coming due, and it's time these polluters pay for the damage they've done."

The research, published in the journal Nature, used a type of analysis called attribution. This compares the hotter world today with the world before mass burning of fossil fuels to assess how emissions have driven up temperatures, using weather data and computer models.

The scientists first worked out how much each carbon major's emissions had pushed up temperatures and then how much these higher temperatures increased the likelihood of heatwaves. Previous research has linked hundreds of individual events to global heating, but this study is the first to systematically analyse a series of events.

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"Climate change has made each of the 213 heatwaves more likely and more intense, and the situation has worsened over time," said Dr Yann Quilcaille, at ETH Zurich and the lead author of the study.

The research found the increase in average intensity of the heatwaves rose from 1.4C in 2000-09 to 2.2C in 2020-23. The 213 major heatwaves assessed happened from 2000 to 2023 and spanned every continent. The data on them was taken from the biggest disaster database, EM-DAT, but Africa and South America were significantly underrepresented due to lack of reporting and suitable weather data.

"The study's findings likely underestimate the true scale of these events, and the real consequences are probably far greater," said Dr Friederike Otto, at Imperial College London.

Aramco's oilfield in Shaybah, Saudi Arabia; fossil fuel companies have a particular responsibility, said the study's lead author. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters

Even the emissions from the fossil fuel companies at the bottom of the list of carbon majors had a significant impact on heatwaves. The carbon pollution from each of these caused 16 heatwaves to become at least 10,000 times more likely than before the climate crisis.

"This study is a leap forward that could be used to support future climate lawsuits," said Dr Karsten Haustein, at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and not part of the study team. "It is also a reminder that denial and anti-science rhetoric will not make climate liability go away."

Carbon emissions are emitted when people use oil, gas or coal to heat their homes or power their transport, but Quilcaille said fossil fuel companies had a particular responsibility - they had pursued profit through disinformation and lobbying, despite having known since the 1980s that burning fossil fuels would lead to global heating.

However, no polluter had yet been held accountable in court and challenges remained, said Prof Michael Gerrard and Dr Jessica Wentz, of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

"The problem is the various legal issues that must be resolved before scientists can take the witness stand," they said in a commentary in Nature. The issues included which courts should hear the cases, whether fossil-fuel producers should be liable for their customers' emissions, and if long campaigns of deception by some fossil fuel companies were relevant, they said.

"The new study is one more building block, and a useful one, but the road to actual liability for the carbon majors is still littered with legal and evidentiary potholes," they said.

ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco did not respond to requests for comment.

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Linking of oil giants to major heatwaves marks 'leap forward' for legal liability cases

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Study shows how individual fossil fuel companies are making previously impossible heatwaves happen and could have to pay compensation

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This article is a causal suggesting that Margarine consumption is linked to divorce rates. The article actually goes on to discuss how a Harvard student created a website to help others look carefully at claims rather than believing it straight away. The article goes on to show a graph where they followed margarine consumption and divorce rates over the time period of 10 years, with both increasing.

The original website it was taken from: https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations

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By James Fletcher
BBC News

A website set up by a student at Harvard teaches us to look carefully at statistics. And it's fun at the same time.

"Margarine consumption linked to divorce." If you saw that headline on a newspaper or website, what would you think?

What if you read a little further and found a compelling graph showing the rates of divorce and margarine consumption tracking each other closely over almost 10 years.

Tempted to believe there could be a link?

"Maybe when there's more margarine in the house it's more likely to cause divorce," muses Tyler Vigen, "or there's a link with some of the molecules in margarine or something."

Vigen is the man behind the margarine graph, which he published on his website Spurious Correlations. The name gives the game away - he's a statistical provocateur.

"I've seen a lot of headlines, especially sensationalist ones - 'Scientists find a connection between x and y,' he says."

"In a lot of those situations there might be a correlation, but it's really important for us to be critical about whether there's a causal mechanism."

One of the golden rules of statistics is that correlation does not equal causation. Just because the movements of two variables track each other closely over time doesn't mean that one causes the other.

To make this important, but somewhat dry, point more accessible, Vigen, a criminology student at Harvard Law School, wrote a computer programme to mine datasets for statistical correlations. He posts the funniest ones to Spurious Correlations.

"What's kind of fun about it is it allows people to be their own scientist for a few minutes, because they get to come up with their own hypothesis," he says.

The site contains plenty of raw material to test out your ability to come up with a creative causal mechanism.

What links rising per capita cheese consumption to the number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets?

Why do murders by steam, hot vapours and hot objects rise and fall with the age of the winner of the Miss America beauty pageant?

And how does the number of films Nicholas Cage appears in each year influence the number of female editors of the Harvard Law Review?

"We think about that for a second, and realise that we have no basis for that in reality," says Vigen. "There's just nothing that can confirm that for us and we can kind of reject our own hypothesis outright."

Real world examples of the difference between correlation and causation abound. A classic is that in summer, ice cream sales and murder rates rise. The two are correlated, but it's easy to see that neither causes the other. Perhaps there's a third variable - like hot weather - that causes both?

More seriously, when hormone replacement therapy became commonplace, doctors noticed that women taking HRT seemed less likely to get coronary heart disease. Some doctors suggested a causal relationship - that HRT lowered the risk of heart disease.

Again it turned out that there was a third variable at play. Women who were taking HRT were more likely to come from higher socio-economic groups, with healthier diet and exercise habits. It's this that lowered the risk of heart disease. In the end, other tests showed that HRT actually raised the risk slightly.

Vigen's site has attracted lots of attention on social media, where making fun of correlations is a healthy meme. A quick search turns up graphs "proving" Facebook caused the Greek debt crisis, or that a pirate shortage "caused" global warming.

Spurious Correlations goes further in illustrating the pitfalls of our data-rich age.

One is that if you throw enough processing power at a large data set you can unearth huge numbers of correlations.

Many will be statistically significant, meaning that they're unlikely to have occurred by chance alone. But causal relations, where a change in one variable causes a change in the other, are much harder to find.

Another pitfall is the seductive power of graphs. Numbers in datasets can be hard to grasp, but show someone two lines moving up or down in apparent unison and you're halfway to convincing them that one causes the other.

"A lot of my charts illustrate where there isn't a statistically significant correlation but it looks like there is because of how I plotted them on a graph," he says.

Take the graphs of Nicholas Cage's film appearances - there are several on Vigen's website. Cage's appearances only vary between zero and four each year, but by choosing the scale carefully they can be made to track other variables which rise and fall by millions.

"When you only have maybe 10 (data) points to go by, it's not that hard to find overlapping lines that curve or vary together," says Vigen.

So what are Tyler Vigen's tips to make sure the statistical wool isn't being pulled over your eyes?

1. Be critical of statistics that you see

2. Look for a causal link or mechanism

3. Demand a little bit of scientific rigour in showing that there's a strong, statistically significant correlation

Something to bear in mind next time a sensational headline catches your eye.

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Spurious correlations: Margarine linked to divorce?

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By James Fletcher BBC News A website set up by a student at Harvard teaches us to look carefully at statistics. And it's fun at the same time. "Margarine consumption linked to divorce." If you saw that headline on a newspaper or website, what would you think?

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Drugs like Ozempic might lower cancer risk

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Drugs like Ozempic might lower cancer risk

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A new study of nearly 90,000 overweight and obese adults in Florida found that people who took GLP-1 drugs (such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Saxenda) were about 17% less likely to develop obesity-linked cancers compared to those who did not. While the results suggest a protective effect, researchers caution that the evidence is observational, meaning the reduced cancer risk could be due to weight loss, direct biological effects, or other factors. The study also flagged a possible increased risk of kidney cancer, showing the need for further research. Once again proving the point that it's important to keep in mind every factor that may be playing an altering role in the research, and correlation does not equal causation.

link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ozempic-cancer-risk-glp1-weight-loss

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Meghan Rosen is a senior writer who reports on the life sciences for Science News. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology with an emphasis in biotechnology from the University of California, Davis, and later graduated from the science communication program at UC Santa Cruz.

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Drugs like Ozempic might lower cancer risk

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GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro might lower people's risk of developing certain cancers, especially ones linked to obesity.

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This UNICEF press release describes findings from the Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) project, which shows that well-designed video games can support children's well-being by promoting autonomy, creativity, emotional regulation, and social connection in children. The research combined a 10-week intervention with 255 children across three countries, 14 months of home observations with 50 families, and lab studies of 69 children measuring heart-rate, eye-tracking, and emotional responses. I believe that this article is a causal claim, since it argues that the design of games can directly shape children's well-being outcomes. Here's the link to the original report: https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/responsible-innovation-technology-children

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Video games can have a positive impact on children – if they are designed right, says new study

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New research shows games can be good for children

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Researchers at the University of Chicago evaluated claims that TikTok spreads misinformation through medical videos. Through analyzing videos using hashtags #sinusinfection #sinusitis #sinus, they were able to test the influence of the app's rapidly changing algorithm. In just 24 hours, the study showed that 44% of the reviewed videos featured misleading, non-factual medical information.

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Health information on TikTok: The good, the bad and the ugly

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UChicago researchers analyzed health information on TikTok to identify trends in video quality — how much misinformation is out there, and does it come from specific sources?

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This study conducted by PBS concluded that teen smoking is at an all-time low in 25 years. This article points out the drastic decline in E-cigarette use, smoking, and E-cigarette use. Health officials suggest that public health campaigns, price increases, and stricter regulations have likely contributed to the decline. I believe this article is conducted upon a frequency claim due to the specific quantity and rates used to describe how much teen tabbaco use has decreased. For example, e-cigarette use fell under 6% for the first time in a decade.

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Smoking and other tobacco use by teens drop to lowest level in 25 years, CDC reports

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Teen smoking hit an all-time low in the U.S. this year, part of a big drop in the youth use of tobacco overall, the government reported Thursday.

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The study claims that drinking coffee, whether that be caffeinated or decaffeinated, will increase your lifespan. Specifically, in study of half a million British adults, coffee drinkers were found to have lower mortality rate.

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Drinking as many as eight cups of coffee a day could help you live longer, study says

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Drinking coffee could boost your chances of a longer life, research shows, even for those who consume as many as eight cups a day.

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The foods that delay dementia and heart disease. Backed by a 15-year study

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The foods that delay dementia and heart disease. Backed by a 15-year study

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Study of over 2,400 older adults found that healthy diets slow the development of dementia and heart disease, while inflammatory diets accelerate these conflicts. Researchers created 4 diets, MIND, AHEI, AMED, AND EDII, with the first 3 having better results than the last. The findings highlight how diet plays a big role in the contributions of the increase/decrease of these diseases.

I believe this is an association study

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from research organizations

Date:

Source:

Karolinska Institutet

Summary:

What we eat as we age may determine how many chronic illnesses we face later in life. A 15-year study of more than 2,400 older adults reveals that diets rich in vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and healthy fats slow the accumulation of diseases like cardiovascular problems and dementia-while inflammatory diets heavy in red meat and sugary drinks speed it up. Researchers now aim to pinpoint the most effective dietary recommendations to promote longer, healthier lives.

Share:

A major Swedish study shows that diet plays a key role in how chronic diseases accumulate with age. Healthy diets protect the brain and heart, while inflammatory diets raise risks. Credit: Shutterstock

A healthy diet can slow down the accumulation of chronic diseases in older adults, while inflammatory diets accelerate it. This is shown by a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in Nature Aging.

Researchers have investigated how four different diets affect the accumulation of chronic diseases in older adults. Three of the diets studied were healthy and focused on the intake of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, nuts, legumes, unsaturated fats and reduced intake of sweets, red meat, processed meat and butter/margarine. The fourth diet, however, was pro-inflammatory and focused on red and processed meat, refined grains and sweetened beverages, with lower intake of vegetables, tea and coffee

Just over 2,400 older adults in Sweden were followed for 15 years. The researchers discovered that those who followed the healthy diets had a slower development of chronic diseases. This applied to cardiovascular disease and dementia, but not to diseases related to muscles and bones. Those who followed the pro-inflammatory diet, on the other hand, increased their risk of chronic diseases.

"Our results show how important diet is in influencing the development of multimorbidity in aging populations," says co-first author Adrián Carballo-Casla, postdoctoral researcher at the Aging Research Centre, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet.

The next step in their research is to identify the dietary recommendations that may have the greatest impact on longevity and the groups of older adults who may benefit most from them, based on their age, gender, psychosocial background and chronic diseases.

The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, FORTE, among others. The researchers state that there are no conflicts of interest.
Facts about the diets:
MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay): A diet designed for brain health and to reduce the risk of dementia.

AHEI (Alternative Healthy Eating Index): A diet that measures adherence to dietary guidelines that reduce the risk of chronic diseases in general.

AMED (Alternative Mediterranean Diet): A modified version of the Mediterranean diet adapted to Western eating habits.

EDII (Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Index): An index that estimates the inflammatory risks of a diet.

Story Source:
Materials provided by Karolinska Institutet. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

David Abbad-Gomez, Adrián Carballo-Casla, Giorgi Beridze, Esther Lopez-Garcia, Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo, Maria Sala, Mercè Comas, Davide Liborio Vetrano, Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga. Dietary patterns and accelerated multimorbidity in older adults. Nature Aging, 2025; 5 (8): 1481 DOI: 10.1038/s43587-025-00929-8

Cite This Page:

Karolinska Institutet. "The foods that delay dementia and heart disease. Backed by a 15-year study." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 September 2025. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250909031513.htm>.

Karolinska Institutet. (2025, September 9). The foods that delay dementia and heart disease. Backed by a 15-year study. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 9, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250909031513.htm

Karolinska Institutet. "The foods that delay dementia and heart disease. Backed by a 15-year study." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/09/250909031513.htm (accessed September 9, 2025).

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heart disease; nutrition; healthy aging; gender difference; intelligence; memory; scientific conduct; stem education; public health

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The foods that delay dementia and heart disease. Backed by a 15-year study

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What we eat as we age may determine how many chronic illnesses we face later in life. A 15-year study of more than 2,400 older adults reveals that diets rich in vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and healthy fats slow the accumulation of diseases like cardiovascular problems and dementia-while inflammatory diets heavy in red meat and sugary drinks speed it up.

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Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors

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Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors

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This study assessed heatwave events from 2000-2023, finding that 213 of them were either worsened or more likely to happen because of climate change factors (like fossil fuel production), and that almost 25% of these events would not have happened without it. It also found that the top 180 cement and fossil fuel producers contributed greatly to this phenomenon.

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Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors - Nature

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Climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000–2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed.

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“Study Suggests BJJ Chokes Do Not Impair Cognitive Function And May Improve Arterial Blood Flow”

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“Study Suggests BJJ Chokes Do Not Impair Cognitive Function And May Improve Arterial Blood Flow”

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This study compared 11 elite Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes with 11 fitness-matched non-athletes and found that the athletes had significantly higher resting cerebral blood flow, with no cognitive impairment. Researchers suggest BJJ training, including repeated exposure to neck chokes, may actually lead to neuroprotective adaptations.This is an association claim, since the study links BJJ experience with brain outcomes but does not prove direct causation.

Elevated cerebral perfusion and preserved cognition in elite Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes; evidence for neuroprotection

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34343371/

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Study Suggests BJJ Chokes Do Not Impair Cognitive Function And May Improve Arterial Blood Flow

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Adding to this site’s database of combat sports safety studies, a recent study was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports addressing whether BJJ athletes, who are s…

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American consumption of ultra-processed foods

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American consumption of ultra-processed foods

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Summary: This article talks about how the calories from "ultra-processed" foods are contributing to America's obesity epidemic. The claims made are statistically sound and even offer insights from scientists not involved with the research to provide an external opinion. Though the data used coherently support the paper's argument, it is hard to verify the claims due to the magnitude of the data sets in the original paper. Moreover, though the scientist interviewed provides a helpful external opinion, it would have been beneficial to speak with a professional involved with the research.

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Americans consume more than half of their calories from ultra-processed foods: CDC

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Adults and children in the U.S. are getting more than 50% of their total calories from ultra-processed foods, according to a new federal report released early Thursday.