Weekly Roundup: Anxiety and Cognitive Control, New Signature for Depression, Creativity Emerges in Baby Brains, and Curiosity Imaged

A bunch of these research updates have been sitting on my computer for a bit. There have been some interesting insights into various brain processes such as in anxiety and how our cognitive control network seems to play a critical role here, but also in depression with a new neural signature being identified. These two are important because both of these affects large parts of the population.

Other research that is interesting, focuses on precisely that (“interesting”) — curiosity and creativity, curiosity being imaged and measured in new research and the first development of creativity measured in babies’ brains!

Please read on:

The Brain, Anxiety, and Cognitive Control

There has been plenty of research into anxiety and the brain as it is a major ailment and negatively impacts million of people globally.

Previous research has shown relationships to cognitive control regions in the prefrontal cortex. However there has been inconsistency in the findings, with some showing increased activity and some showing decreased activity. One of the reasons for this inconsistency could be other disorders that…