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A team from the University of Geneva shows that the maternal voice reduces signs of pain in premature babies when they undergo life-saving medical interventions. A baby born prematurely often has to be separated from its parents and placed in an incubator in intensive care. For several weeks, he or she will undergo routine medical procedures that can be painful, without being relieved by too many pharmaceutical painkillers, which are risky for his or her development.

The brain mechanisms underlying the suppression of fear responses have attracted a lot of attention as they are relevant for therapy of human anxiety disorders. Despite our broad understanding of the different brain regions activated during the experience of fear, how fear responses can be suppressed remains largely elusive.

One-third of children and adolescents experienced mental health problems during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland. Parents and young adults also perceived considerable stress, yet the perceived stresses differed from those of children and adolescents, the first Switzerland-wide representative study by the University of Zurich and La Source School of Nursing Lausanne has shown.

Scientists have shown that when we look at each other, our attention is focused on the social interaction, disrupting our perception of time. Eyes play an important role in social communication by expressing the intentions of our interlocutors, and even more so in times of pandemic when half of the face is hidden.

The human scream signals more than fear of imminent danger or entanglement in social conflicts. Screaming can also express joy or excitement. For the first time, researchers at the University of Zurich have demonstrated that non-alarming screams are even perceived and processed by the brain more efficiently than their alarming counterparts.

By confirming the link between children's cardiorespiratory fitness and their school results, researchers at the UNIGE underline the importance of physical education classes at school. Recent studies indicate a link between children's cardiorespiratory fitness and their school performance: the more athletic they are, the better their marks in the main subjects - French and mathematics.

The brain's emotion-processing center — the amygdala — is one of several brain regions involved in social behavior. But the exact role that this almond-shaped structure plays in the so-called 'social brain' remains mysterious. Now, the Lüthi group has found that the activity of different populations of neurons in the amygdala reflects whether mice interact with their peers, or whether they focus on self-centered behaviors such as grooming.

A researcher from the University of Geneva has compiled the scientific literature of the last five years linking emotion and climate change, highlighting the main levers that will make it possible to strengthen behaviour in favour of sustainable development. Emotions are often the victim of their bad reputation, as they are considered "irrational", but they play a major role in helping us assess the world and guide our behaviour.

The Covid-19 pandemic is impacting people's mental health. But what helps and hinders people in getting through a lockdown? A new study led by researchers at the University of Basel addressed this question using data from 78 countries across the world. The results hint at the pivots and hinges on which the individual's psyche rests in the pandemic.

Characterising our emotions is the subject of much debate, as is the identification of their neural substrates. A team from the University of Geneva has been examining the brain components of emotions, confirming that they are the brain's synchronised response to events. Emotions are complex phenomena that influence our minds, bodies and behaviour.

Resilience is the ability to adjust readily to traumatic events and to reorganise one's life positively. Greater flexibility, adaptation to difficulties and control of one's emotions become even more relevant in times of crisis, such as that triggered by the coronavirus to avoid depression, anxiety and stress.

Using an experiment conducted in a simulated group office environment, ETH researchers have proved for the first time that repeated workplace interruptions cause the body to increase the release of stress hormones. And they do so to a higher degree than the perceived psychological stress. According to the Job Stress Index 2020 compiled by Stiftung Gesundheitsförderung Schweiz, a Swiss health foundation, almost one-third of the Swiss workforce experience work-related stress.

Bad attitudes lead to moral judgments rooted in our basic survival mechanisms. And scientists from the University of Geneva have demonstrated that they are linked to foul smells. Unhealthy behaviours trigger moral judgments that are similar to the basic emotions that contribute to our ability to survive.

Over the long-term, what one partner in a two-person relationship wishes to avoid, so too does the other partner - and what one wants to achieve, so does the other. These effects can be observed regardless of gender, age and length of the relationship, as researchers from the University of Basel report in a study of more than 450 couples.

Scientists propose that periods of unconscious processing-during which the brain integrates information-precede brief moments of consciousness. When we watch a movie or hear an orchestra playing, it seems that we perceive images and sounds as a continuous stream of information. But a new study suggests that the brain makes information conscious only at certain moments of time, which are preceded by intervals of unconscious processing that can last up to half a second.

A trusting therapeutic relationship and outcome-oriented collaboration between therapist and patient are critical for the successful treatment of mental illness. And it pays to start early in therapy, a series of meta-studies by a task force of the American Psychological Association (APA) led by UZH psychology professor Christoph Flückiger shows.

Scientists have tracked the eye movements of children to show how they make the link - spontaneously and without instructions - between vocal emotion (happiness or anger) followed by a natural or virtual face. Do children have to wait until age 8 to recognise - spontaneously and without instructions - the same emotion of happiness or anger depending on whether it is expressed by a voice or on a face? A team of scientists from the University of Geneva and the Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences (CISA) has provided an initial response to this question.

When we make decisions, we don't always have all options available to choose from at the same time. Instead they often come one after another, so we have to decide on something without knowing if a better option might have come along later. A study at the University of Zurich has shown that our standards drop more and more in the course of decision-making.

The EmoDémos project - led by the University of Geneva among children aged 7 to 12 years - has shown that playing an instrument in an orchestra can facilitate the acquisition of cognitive and emotional skills in two years.

Recent years have seen a renewed interest in the clinical application of classic psychedelics in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders. Researchers of the University of Zurich have now shown that mindfulness meditation can enhance the positive long-term effects of a single dose of psilocybin, which is found in certain mushrooms.