Health

Can taking CBD help people smoke less weed? New study explores

Lisa Marshall — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 01:46:59 +0000

Can taking CBD help people smoke less weed? New study explores Lisa Marshall Mon, 12/08/2025 - 18:46

Lisa Marshall

A new ��ý�� study is exploring whether taking cannabidiol (CBD), a non-intoxicating ingredient in the Cannabis sativa plant, can help people with an unhealthy dependency smoke less weed or give it up entirely.

“It’s one of the biggest myths out there—that you can’t become addicted to or dependent on cannabis,” said Cinnamon Bidwell, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience who is leading the study. “Cannabis use disorder can be rough, and we really have no frontline, empirically supported treatments for it.”

As many as one in five cannabis users develop a dependency on the drug, with cannabis use disorder growing more common as products become more potent.

But unlike with nicotine, alcohol and other drugs of abuse, few remedies exist for those wanting to cut back or quit. CBD, which interacts with some of the same receptors in the brain as the psychoactive compound THC, could potentially help fill that gap.

For the study, launched earlier this year with a $3 million grant from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, Bidwell’s lab is recruiting 150 heavy cannabis concentrate users who wish to reduce their use or abstain. Along with remote psychotherapy sessions and educational support, participants will receive daily doses of either hemp-derived CBD alone, hemp-derived CBD with a very small amount of THC (less than 0.03%), or a placebo for eight weeks.

Bidwell’s previous research has shown that users of concentrates, which can contain as much as 90% THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) compared to about 20% in flower products, are more likely to grow dependent. When trying to cut back, they often experience anxiety, sleeplessness, loss of appetite and other symptoms.

In 2014, only 17% of products in Colorado were concentrates. By 2019, well over a third were, and concentrates have continued to flood the market since.

“As potency has shifted, we have also seen a shift in the percentage of people developing problematic uses or behaviors,” said Bidwell, noting that this percentage has risen from 10% to between 15% and 20% in recent years.

Fighting cannabis use disorder with cannabis

While non-intoxicating and non-addictive, CBD acts on some of the same reward-related receptors in the brain—known as CB₁and CB₂—as THC does. Because it changes how THC interacts at those sites, CBD may reduce or change a THC high, so people don’t want to use it as much, said Bidwell.

CBD also has anti-inflammatory properties and can influence serotonin levels, potentially reducing the anxiety and sleep loss that can come with withdrawal.

One animal study found that a single 5 milligram dose of CBD inhibited drug-seeking behavior for two weeks. Another small study found that a 400-800 milligram CBD dose reduced craving and anxiety in humans. Some research has shown that very low dose synthetic THC improves withdrawal symptoms among cannabis users.

But to date, there has been no placebo-controlled clinical trial testing whether commercially available CBD can make cutting back on THC easier.

“That’s where our study comes in,” said Bidwell. “We want to study forms of cannabis that people can actually buy on the legal market today.”

'It didn't feel like a hard drug'

Abril, a 26-year-old study participant from Denver, said she first started smoking at age 17.

“It didn’t feel like a hard drug, like something you could get hooked on, and I would hear it all the time: ‘You can’t get addicted to weed,’” said Abril, who asked that her last name not be used.

After she turned 21, she was vaping cannabis four to five times a day.

Cinnamon Bidwell

She tried repeatedly to quit. But when she did, she lost her appetite and had trouble finding joy in “the little things”—like going to the movies or hanging out with friends.

When she saw an Instagram ad soliciting study participants, she didn’t hesitate.

“I’m from a Hispanic background and people like me are not always present in these types of studies,” she said. “There are so many kids like me that started so young and didn't really know how it can affect your body and your mind once you make it a habit. We really need to know more about the effects.”

It will be years before the study results are published, and Abril will have to wait to know whether she was in the placebo or CBD group. But she says she has already benefited from participating over the summer. She has cut her use back drastically.

“It was just easier this time,” she said. “I feel lucky.”

Inquire here about participating in the Longitudinal Outpatient Treatment for Cannabis Use (LOTUS) study.

A first-of-its-kind clinical trial is looking at whether the non-intoxicating compound cannabidiol (CBD) can help high-potency cannabis users with an unhealthy dependence to cut back or quit.

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Cannabidiol capsules next to a cannabis plant. Source: Pixabay

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Scientists use ultrasound to soften and treat cancer tumors without damaging healthy tissue

Amber Carlson — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:13:24 +0000

Scientists use ultrasound to soften and treat cancer tumors without damaging healthy tissue Amber Carlson Mon, 12/08/2025 - 14:13

Amber Carlson

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., second only to heart disease. But a new cancer treatment method from CU ��ý�� researchers uses sound waves to soften tumors and could be a potent tool against the disease.

Chemotherapy can help treat many types of cancer. Chemo drugs aim to disrupt or destroy cancer cells, which tend to grow and divide quickly. But the drugs aren’t always effective, partly because tumor tissue can be so dense that drugs can’t penetrate the inner layers of cells. Chemo drugs can also damage healthy cells and cause unpleasant side effects.

Shane Curry

In a new study in the journal ACS Applied Nano Materials, a team of researchers led by former CU ��ý�� graduate engineering student Shane Curry used two tools to soften tumors. They paired high-frequency ultrasound waves with a type of sound-responsive particle to reduce the protein content of tumors.

Andrew Goodwin, senior author of the study and associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU ��ý��, said softening tumors this way could make chemotherapy more likely to work.

“Tumors are kind of like a city. There are highways running through, but it's not laid out very well, so it's hard to get through,” he said. “Are there ways we can improve these lines of transport so the drugs can do their job?”

Ultrasound can also treat cancer by breaking down tumor tissue, but like chemo, the sound waves can also be damaging to the body. The researchers’ particles could make it easier to treat tumors with less intense sound waves, making the procedure safer for patients.

"A major limitation in many tumor treatments is delivering sufficient therapeutic doses without damaging healthy tissue,” said Curry. “My hope is that these particles can expand the applications and increase the potency of a variety of treatments."

Changing body tissue through sound

Sound creates physical waves that move through air, liquid and solid objects. Goodwin said the sounds we hear are essentially small packets of fluctuating pressure moving through the space around us.

“When a packet of high pressure and low pressure pushes your eardrum, the pressure makes it vibrate, and these vibrations are interpreted by your brain,” he said.

Ultrasound imaging, like the kind pregnant women undergo, uses this principle to visualize what’s inside the body. It sends sound waves into the body, and as those sound waves bounce off internal organs and tissues, the echoes are converted into live images and videos.

A microscopic image of the researchers' sound-responsive particles. (Credit: Andrew Goodwin)

Doctors also sometimes use ultrasound to treat cancer. Ultrasound waves can destroy tumor cells and tissue, but the sound waves are strong enough to also damage healthy tissue and disrupt blood vessels. They can also heighten the risk of the cancer spreading, or metastasizing, to another part of the body.

To solve that problem, Goodwin and his research team developed a type of microscopic particle that vibrates and pulses in response to sound waves. High-frequency ultrasound waves make the particles vibrate so fast they vaporize the water surrounding them, creating tiny bubbles—a process called cavitation.

These particles, which measure about 100 nanometers across, are made from silica and coated in a layer of fatty molecules.

In the new study, the researchers added these particles into both 2D and 3D cultures of tumor tissue. When they applied ultrasound, the particles changed the structure of both the 2D and 3D tumor cultures, but in slightly different ways.

In the 2D cultures, which consisted of a layer of cells grown on a plastic dish, the particles destroyed the tumor tissue. But in the 3D cultures, which were more lifelike, the particles simply reduced the amounts of certain proteins surrounding the tumor cells, which made the tissue softer.

The fact that the cells in the 3D culture didn’t break down is a good sign, Goodwin said. It means the treatment softened, but didn’t destroy, the tumor tissue, so it’s also less likely to damage healthy tissue.

Possibilities for the future

Goodwin believes this type of cancer treatment would work well for prostate, bladder, ovarian, breast and other cancers that have tumors located in a specific part of the body. Other cancers, such as those that affect the blood and bones, can be more spread out and harder to treat in this way.

Currently, Goodwin and his team are using similar sound-responsive particles to treat tumors in mice, but eventually, the researchers hope to administer the particles inside the human body.

Goodwin thinks it could be possible to attach the particles to antibodies—immune system proteins that bind to bacteria, viruses and other invaders—and then add those antibodies to the bloodstream, where they could travel to a tumor. Once the particles have arrived, the researchers could apply ultrasound and test the treatment.

Although that day could still be a ways off, Goodwin said he’s excited about the possibilities this treatment could unlock.

“The technology for focused ultrasound has come a really long way in the last decade,” he said. “I'm hoping that the particles we build in the lab can start to meld with the acoustic, imaging and therapy technologies that are part of the clinical regimen.”

Beyond the story

Our bioscience impact by the numbers:

Top 7% university for National Science Foundation research funding
No. 30 global university system granted U.S. patents
89-plus biotech startups with roots at CU ��ý�� in past 20 years

Follow CU ��ý�� on LinkedIn

CU researchers are using ultrasound with particles that respond to sound waves to soften tumors and make them easier to treat.

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Does mental illness have a silver lining? Mounting research says yes

Lisa Marshall — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 20:35:24 +0000

Does mental illness have a silver lining? Mounting research says yes Lisa Marshall Tue, 12/02/2025 - 13:35

Lisa Marshall

Ask June Gruber about life growing up in Half Moon Bay, California, and her eyes light up as she recalls the times spent with her dad.

They played basketball at the school playground and splashed around in the river beneath the redwoods near her house. He cracked her friends up with his wry one-liners. When she was a teenager, they talked books and philosophy during walks on the beach.

He also had his struggles. At one point, his bipolar disorder forced him to abandon the family business and quit work for six months. At times, his midlife journey into psychosis and back frightened him.

Now 76, he looks back and says he is a stronger and better person for it.

“He is and always has been one of my favorite people,” said Gruber, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU ��ý��.

Her father’s experience and Gruber’s many other encounters with exceptional people who live with mental illness got her thinking: Are there positives associated with psychological disorders that we are overlooking?

In a new paper titled “Silver Linings in Psychological Disorders: An Agenda for Research and Social Change,” she and collaborators at Cornell University make this case, pointing to dozens of studies associating mental illness with heightened creativity, empathy, resilience and other positive attributes.

June Gruber with her father Glenn Gruber on the beach in Half Moon Bay, California, in 2022.

The authors stress that they do not intend to make light of the suffering that mental illness can bring. They have personally felt the pain of watching loved ones go through it. But they contend that studying and acknowledging these silver linings could reduce stigma and, ultimately, improve patient care.

“The prevailing narrative in clinical psychology focuses on mental health from a disease model perspective—we are taught to diagnose what’s wrong and try to fix it,” said Gruber. “This leaves out the fact that at the same time people struggle with mental health challenges, they may also grow, thrive and even develop unique strengths.”

Looking for silver linings

The project began when Chloe Plaisance, then an undergraduate in Gruber’s Positive Emotion and Psychopathology Lab, stumbled upon a paper showing that people with certain psychological disorders tend to be more creative.

Plaisance was struck by the paper’s rare attention to a positive versus negative association, and she, Gruber and colleagues at Cornell began scouring the literature for more.

“No one had put this perspective out into the world,” said Plaisance, a co-author. “We wanted to change the narrative.”

Some of the strongest evidence highlighted in the paper shows that people with mild schizophrenia, hypomania and bipolar disorder tend to score higher on measures of creativity and gravitate toward more creative professions.

One biographical review of 1,005 famous writers, poets, musicians and designers found that about 8% had experience with mania, compared to about 1% in the general public.

“Some of the most creative minds in our society have also been the minds of people who had mental illness,” said Gruber.

People with a history of depression also tend to show more willingness to cooperate, research has shown.

While conventional wisdom holds that people with mood disorders tend to be isolated or lack interpersonal skills, some studies have found the opposite.

One study of nearly 2,000 college students, led by CU ��ý�� graduate student Stevi Ibonie, found that although those on the bipolar spectrum report greater social conflict, they also report significantly larger social networks and feel greater social support. Another study from Gruber’s lab found that while young adults at increased risk for mania tend to perceive even negative situations in an overly positive light, they are also better at detecting emotional shifts in others.

“Our findings show that along with well-documented social challenges that come with mood disorders, there may also be meaningful social strengths,” said Gruber.

As with Gruber’s dad Glenn Gruber, who is now writing about his experiences (a promise he made to Gruber’s mother before she passed away), many people in remission look back on their darkest mental health struggles as catalysts that helped them build resilience and self-awareness.

Take one 2019 study, led by Cornell Psychology Professor Jonathan Rottenberg, a co-author on the “silver linings” paper. It found that 10 years after being diagnosed with clinical depression, 10% of study participants were “thriving” (meaning they were not only free of depression but had a psychological wellbeing better than one-quarter of nondepressed adults).

June Gruber with her dad, Glenn Gruber, in 1988.

“The perspective we offer is needed now, because most of the conversation about mental health problems and their prognosis is terribly dispiriting,” said Rottenberg, noting that positive outcomes are seldom highlighted.

He is particularly careful to not convey a “Pollyanna,” or “all-will-be-well” approach that glosses over the suffering that mental illness can bring to individuals and their families.

He knows it well. His own daughter Sophie tragically died by suicide.

But by opening people’s eyes to the full range of outcomes and possibilities for people with mental illnesses, he believes the paper can honor everyone who has battled them (those who have overcome them and those who have not).

It can also offer hope rooted in data.

“Yes, mental health problems exact tremendous pain and are often cruel,” he said. “That makes real hope even more important to nourish.”

Decreasing stigma, improving care

Gruber believes that people who have come through the depths of depression or the highs of mania may have a “wider aperture” of emotional experience that enables them to see the world through a different, and richer, lens.

She also suspects there may be evolutionary reasons that psychological disorders and neurodivergent conditions like ADHD and autism (which, the paper notes, also have silver linings) persist.

“For the health of a broader physical ecosystem, we need biodiversity, right?” she said. “In order to have a society that has all the different components, it needs to work as an integrated whole. We need psychological diversity, too. No single kind of mind can do it.”

The paper is not a call to abandon medication or psychotherapy, which can both be lifesaving and critical, said Gruber. And, she adds, for some people at some points in their illness, there are no silver linings.

But by acknowledging the positives that do exist, she believes her field can help reduce stigma and potentially develop treatment plans that seek to preserve the unique qualities people like about themselves while keeping the harmful elements of their illness at bay.

“If you have a more holistic understanding of a person, you can do more to support them,” she said.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Read about suicide prevention resources at CU ��ý��.

A new review paper points to the positive qualities, including empathy, creativity and resilience, that often accompany psychological disorders. By recognizing them, the authors argue, we can decrease stigma and improve care.

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DNA origami: Unfolding genetic breakthroughs

Megan M Rogers — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 20:22:51 +0000

DNA origami: Unfolding genetic breakthroughs Megan M Rogers Thu, 11/20/2025 - 13:22

ATLAS Institute

Assistant Professor Mirela Alistar and postdoctoral researcher Joshua Johnson are working to develop nanorobots that more quickly and accurately build DNA to meet researchers' specifications in a matter of days instead of weeks.

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Researchers redefine hip arthroscopy with breakthrough surgical device

Megan M Rogers — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:16:57 +0000

Researchers redefine hip arthroscopy with breakthrough surgical device Megan M Rogers Mon, 11/17/2025 - 07:16

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Research Professor Jacob Segil collaborated with Dr. Omer Mei Dan from the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine to create a redesigned surgical instrument that has been used in over 100 successful surgeries.

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Older adults share more political misinformation. Here's why

Lisa Marshall — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 16:48:11 +0000

Older adults share more political misinformation. Here's why Lisa Marshall Wed, 11/05/2025 - 09:48

Lisa Marshall

Adults aged 55 and older are significantly more likely to share political misinformation than younger social media users. And it’s not because they’re unable to discern fake news from real news, according to new CU ��ý�� research.

The study of nearly 2,500 adults across the United States and Brazil found that the older people get, the more partisan they become—and that partisanship can muddy their judgment.

“We found that older people are more likely to believe as true and to share information that aligns with their party, whether that information is true or not,” said senior author Leaf Van Boven, professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU ��ý��.

The study was a collaboration with Guilherme Ramos, assistant professor of marketing at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

It was published Nov. 3 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Are older adults more gullible?

Numerous previous studies have shown that older adults spread more misinformation. One found that during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook users over the age of 65 shared almost seven times more fake news than adults under age 30. On Twitter, 80% of fake news was shared by users over age 50.

The reason remains a matter of debate.

These fake news clips were among those used as part of a recent study on misinformation sharing.

Some research has pointed to age-related cognitive decline, suggesting that older adults are less able to think analytically and more vulnerable to being duped. Other studies have found they are more likely to confuse the origin of a piece of information and often fail to distinguish paid ads from objective news.

In contrast, a recent meta-analysis of 31 studies concluded the opposite: that older adults are better than young adults at spotting fake news.

In 2022, Van Boven and co-author Ramos, who was at CU as a visiting PhD student from the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (FGV-EBAPE) in Rio de Janeiro, decided to take a deeper look.

At the time, misinformation storms swirled across both countries around the upcoming midterms in the U.S. and the controversial runoff between presidential candidates Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.

The researchers recruited 700 participants in Brazil and 1,700 in the U.S., ranging in age from 18 to 80.

Participants viewed news headlines related to political events in their country. Some painted Republican or conservative ideologies in a favorable light. Others favored Democrat or liberal ideologies. Unbeknownst to the participants, some headlines had been flagged by fact-checking websites to be false.

For instance, one widely circulating, false pro-Republican headline in the U.S. read:
“Pope Frances shocks world and endorses Donald Trump for President.”

A pro-liberal and false headline widely circulating in Brazil read:
“Bolsonaro wants to cut 25% of civil servants’ salaries.”

Participants were asked, “How likely would you be to share this news in your social media?” In a follow-up experiment, participants were also asked whether the claim was, to the best of their knowledge, true or false.

Researchers also assessed respondent’s political ideology and ability to “override their intuitions and think analytically.”

The trouble with partisanship

The research found no evidence that older adults are less able to think analytically and distinguish fake from real news.

It did find that the 55-and-older set was far more partisan and that partisanship shaped how critically they assessed headline accuracy.

“They had different standards of evaluating evidence depending on whether it reflected well on their side or not,” said Van Boven.

The study stopped short of concluding that older adults knowingly share fake news. Instead, the study suggests that older adults are more skeptical when the news is favorable to “the other side.” If it makes their candidate look good, “they tend to behave in a knee-jerk partisan fashion,” assume it’s true and share it, said Van Boven. The older people get, the stronger this reaction becomes.

Notably, this trend held true across political parties and across both the U.S. and Brazil, which currently has roughly 30 political parties.

“This suggests that the two-party system is not necessarily the issue here,” said Ramos. “People in Brazil behave in the same partisan way.”

Stepping out of the echo chamber

Many interventions developed to combat misinformation have centered around helping people distinguish truth from fiction.

“Our study suggests that it is equally important to encourage people to behave in a less politically partisan way when they are communicating on their social networks,” said Van Boven.

He recommends that people take a hard look at what, and how much, they are posting, and how their own partisanship may be influencing the way they vet headlines.

In addition, said Ramos, stop unfriending people you disagree with politically.

“As someone who studies political polarization, I am very much in favor of inter-group contact. It’s critical for a healthy democracy that we can talk to and have friends who think differently.”

A new international study sheds light on why the 55-and-older set tends to share more fake news on social media—and what can be done about it.

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Scientists discover new way to shape what a stem cell becomes

Lisa Marshall — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 15:04:47 +0000

Scientists discover new way to shape what a stem cell becomes Lisa Marshall Mon, 11/03/2025 - 08:04

Lisa Marshall

How do stem cells know what to become?

Nearly three decades after scientists isolated the first human embryonic stem cells, researchers are still working hard to understand precisely how a single, undifferentiated cell can become any one of the roughly 200 cell types that make up the human body.

Research published this week offers key insights, describing how cellular storage units known as “P bodies” heavily influence a cell’s fate. By manipulating P bodies, the scientists were able to efficiently create hard-to-develop cell types in the lab, including “germ cells” (the cells that precede sperm and egg) and “totipotent” cells, which can become any type of cell in the body.

“I like to think of it as cellular alchemy,” said Justin Brumbaugh, co-senior author and assistant professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at CU ��ý��. “If we can understand how to manipulate cell fate— to drive one type of cell to become another type of cell— a whole world of applications opens up. Our paper sets the foundation for that.”

The findings, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, could help advance understanding of how embryos form and disease originates. They could also open new avenues for developing fertility treatments, regenerating organs and testing new drugs, said co-senior author Bruno Di Stefano, an assistant professor at the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center at Baylor College of Medicine.

“There is great value in understanding, at the most basic level, how biology works,” Di Stefano said.

Cracking open the vaults

For the study, the research team examined embryonic human, mouse and chicken stem cells as they moved through various stages of differentiation. They zeroed in on P bodies, or processing bodies, clusters of Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) and protein found in the cytoplasm of cells across a variety of vertebrate species.

CU ��ý�� Biochemistry Professor Roy Parker discovered P bodies in 2003. Since then, studies have associated P body dysregulation with disease, including Parkinson’s and certain cancers.

Scientists previously believed P bodies served as a sort of junk drawer for the cell, where RNA—the instructional molecule that tells a cell which genes to express—was hidden away and degraded when unused.

The new study found that P bodies are more like organized storage bins than a junk drawer, with different cell types holding different types of RNA that, if released, would have guided the cell toward a different fate.

“Our work shows that P-bodies sequester the products of certain genes to dampen their function and direct cell identity changes,” said Brumbaugh.

Critically, the researchers found that if they perturbed the P bodies, or broke open the storage container, they could make those instructions readable again and rewind the cells to a previous, more malleable, developmental stage.

If you think of the stages of development as an upside-down tree, with a single cell at the top, moving down through a trunk, and branching out into more and more specialized cells (skin, lung, neuron, etc.), the researchers were able to guide cells at the tips of the branches back to the trunk where they could be more easily nudged to become something else.

In doing so, they were able to efficiently guide more mature cells to become primordial germ-cell-like cells (PGCLCs) or totipotent-like cells.

“Totipotent-like cells are sort of the holy grail for stem cell biology,” said Brumbaugh. “Being able to make these cell types and study them is something that's been extremely challenging.”

Potential ramifications for human health

The researchers imagine a day when germ cells developed in a lab via this process could form sperm or eggs to assist with new fertility treatments.

And, theoretically, totipotent cells, derived from something as simple as a skin cell, could be used to regenerate organs or tissues ravaged by disease.

In the shorter term, early-development cells generated in the lab could be invaluable for understanding the origins of disease.

For example, scientists could take a neuron from a person with Parkinson’s disease, nudge it back to its earliest developmental stages and examine what went wrong. Or they could examine lab-grown germ cells to explore what might drive infertility or birth defects.

Drug developers could also use such cells to create specialized tissue for drug testing, researchers said.

The study also found that noncoding RNAs called microRNAs play a critical role in determining which RNAs get stored inside the P bodies. Modulating these microRNAs could lead to new therapies.

More research is already underway.

“It’s exciting to understand how things work,” said Di Stefano. “Now that we know what drives this process, we can manipulate it.”

New research shows that cellular storage units known as “P bodies” play a critical role in cell differentiation. The findings could open new avenues for fertility treatments and regenerative medicine.

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Cells dividing. Adobe sock photo.

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Cells dividing. Credit: Adobe stock photo

'Jump scare' science: Study explains how the brain responds to fear

Lisa Marshall — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 20:22:14 +0000

'Jump scare' science: Study explains how the brain responds to fear Lisa Marshall Thu, 10/30/2025 - 14:22

Lisa Marshall

In haunted houses across the country this month, threatening figures will jump out of the shadows, prompting visitors — wide-eyed and heart racing —to instinctively freeze and flee.

Evolutionarily speaking, this “innate threat response” is key to survival, helping a wide variety of animal species escape predators. But when stuck in overdrive it can cause problems for humans.

A ��ý�� research team has identified a novel brain circuit responsible for orchestrating this threat response. Known as the interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), this dense cluster of specialized neurons not only jump starts that freeze-and-flee reaction but dials it down when animals learn there’s no real danger.

Assistant Professor Susanna Molas

In people with anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this circuit may be broken, the authors said.

The findings could help explain why some people have a greater appetite for risk than others and lead to new therapies for psychiatric disorders.

“The brain’s threat system is like an alarm. It needs to sound when danger is real, but it needs to shut off when it’s not,” said first author Elora Williams, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. “Our study shows how the brain learns to fine-tune those responses through experience, helping us adapt to the world.”

The findings were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

False alarm

For the study, Williams and senior author Susanna Molas, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, developed something akin to a mouse haunted house.

For three consecutive days, they periodically projected a predator-like shadow, or “visual looming stimulus,” on a screen above a large arena where mice were busy navigating a maze.

Cameras rolled. Through the use of an imaging technique called fiber photometry, which uses fluorescent proteins to signal neural activity, the researchers measured what was happening in real-time inside the mouse brains.

On day one, when the ominous figure appeared overhead, the mice, as expected, froze.

This makes sense, explained Molas. Freezing is a fundamental stress-response, enabling animals including humans to focus their heightened senses on detecting where a danger might be coming from, and how fast it’s approaching.

The mice then fled to a shelter in the corner and hunkered down, before eventually venturing out again.

By day two, the mice began to respond differently to the looming shadow. They stopped freezing, spent less time in the nest and did more exploring. By day three, the spooky figure barely fazed them.

Their brain activity also changed.

On day one, when the shadow appeared, their IPN crackled to life, with cells called GABAergic neurons putting the body on high alert by signaling fear-related brain regions. By day three, once the animals realized the threat wasn’t real, much of the IPN had gone dark.

Brain cells in the interpenduclear nucleus glow green in a mouse's brain after a shadow appears on the ceiling.

Other types of neurons in the IPN activated when the animals entered the shelter area, signaling safety and helping to “silence the brain’s alarm,” Williams said.

In other experiments, the team used a technique called optogenetics, which uses light to manipulate brain cells, to control the activity of neurons within the IPN circuit. The impact on the mouse behavior was profound.

When GABAergic neurons were silenced before the shadow appeared, the animals froze less and spent less time hiding in the shelter. When those neurons were switched on throughout the three-day experiment, the animals never got used to the looming shadow.

Elora Williams, PhD candidate

“Collectively, these findings implicate the IPN as a critical circuit for helping us process potential threats and adapt accordingly when we learn they aren’t putting us in danger,” said Molas.

Short-circuited

For decades, research using older methods, like Pavlovian conditioning, has pointed to the amygdala and hippocampus as key players in fear and threat response.

The new study is the first to identify the lesser-known IPN, a tiny part of the ancient midbrain, as a key tool in enabling us to adapt to false threats and get past unwarranted fears.

More research is needed, but it’s possible that risk-takers might have a less active IPN, while those who struggle to bounce back after a frightening experience might have more activity in that circuit.

Disruptions in the IPN could also play a role in fueling anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric disorders, the authors said.

They’ve already launched their next studies.

Ultimately, they hope their discovery could lead to new ways to precisely target the IPN.

“Identifying the neuronal circuits underlying threat processing and adaptive learning is vital to understanding the neuropathology of anxiety and other stress-related conditions,” said Williams.

Researchers have identified a brain circuit that helps animals swiftly respond to perceived threats—and dial down that response when they learn there’s no real danger. In people with anxiety disorders, this circuit may be broken.

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A spooky shadow walks through the trees

Young adults fear mass shootings but don't necessarily support gun control

Lisa Marshall — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:11:51 +0000

Young adults fear mass shootings but don't necessarily support gun control Lisa Marshall Mon, 10/27/2025 - 09:11

Lisa Marshall

More than 60% of adults aged 18 to 29 worry that a mass shooting will impact their lives in some way. About 17% worry a lot. But when it comes to sentiments about gun control, the age group dubbed the “massacre generation” is deeply divided, new ��ý�� research shows.

The study, published in the journal Social Science Quarterly, found that while young adults overall modestly favor gun control, their viewpoints differ wildly depending on their gender and political leanings: Among young Republicans, young conservatives and young men, for instance, the more they fear mass violence, the more they oppose firearm restrictions.

Jillian Turanovic, associate professor of sociology

The findings call into question some previous assumptions that as this generation — raised in an era of unprecedented mass violence—gains political power, stricter gun legislation will follow, the authors said.

“This is a generation of people who live with significant fear and anxiety over mass violence,” said senior author Jillian Turanovic, associate professor of sociology. “But we found that those shared fears do not unite them in attitudes on gun policy. In fact, they polarize them.”

The ‘massacre generation’

In 2022, sociologists coined the phrase ‘massacre generation’ to describe young people growing up in a post-Columbine, post 9/11-era in which mass shootings dominate news coverage and social media, and lockdown drills are the norm.

As voters, they are poised to be extremely influential.

“Young adults today represent the most powerful potential voting bloc in the future of American policy making, so it is very important to understand how they feel about policy issues,” said Turanovic, pointing to research estimating that by 2032, Millennials and Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) will comprise almost half of the electorate.

While mass shootings are relatively rare — making up only about 1% of all gun deaths each year—they have dominated discourse around policy making for the ‘massacre generation.’

After a gunman killed 17 people at Parkland High School Shooting in Florida in 2018, young survivors launched the gun-control organization March for our Lives. In contrast, in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, in which 20 children and six adults died, some gun rights advocates embraced the slogan “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

“In the wake of nearly every high-profile mass shooting incident, there is a predictable flurry of opposing discourse by gun control and gun rights activists,” she said.

National polls by Pew and Gallup have suggested that the 18- to 29-year-old set is more liberal in general and more favorable toward gun restrictions than older generations.

Turanovic and co-authors at Clemson University and Florida State University set out to dig deeper, looking specifically at how fear of mass violence influences sentiments about firearms among different groups.

The team surveyed a racially representative national sample of nearly 1,700 emerging adults and asked them to rank, on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 3 (a lot), how much in their everyday lives they fear that:

You or someone you love will be a victim of a mass shooting.
A mass shooting will happen to you or someone you love at a public event or gathering with large crowds.
A mass shotting will happen to you or someone you love at a shopping mall, store, school, bar or a night club.

Overall, 44% of the sample scored in the range of “moderate fear” and an additional 17% scored in the “high fear” range.

When asked about viewpoints on gun control, the responses were strikingly varied.

While 58% of respondents said that owning a gun does not make you safer, 42% said that it does; 32% said they believe that guns should be permitted on college campuses; 32% indicated that a permit should not be required to carry a gun in public; and 42% said gun control laws are unconstitutional.

Overall, those who feared mass violence more tended to have modestly higher support for gun control. But this pattern did not hold true for Republicans, conservatives and men.

For them, the opposite was true: The more they feared mass shootings, the more they viewed expanded access to guns as a solution.

“This shows that emerging adults today are very divided in their gun control sentiment, and those divisions are most pronounced when fear of mass shootings runs high,” she said.

Mental health support needed

At a minimum, Turanovic said she hopes the data in her study on fear itself will serve as a wake-up call to policymakers, nudging them to boost mental health support for the ‘massacre generation.’

For those interested in gun policy, regardless of whether they want controls tightened or loosened, the message is clear, she said: Tomorrow’s voters are not all of the same mindset.

“Generational change alone will not resolve America’s gun policy debates,” she said.

A new study of the 'massacre generation' reveals deep divisions along gender and party lines in sentiments about firearms.

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Students gather for a candlelight vigil in February, 2018 after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

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Students gather for a candlelight vigil in February, 2018 after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Credit: Wikamedia Commons

Researchers pioneer fluid-based laser scanning for brain imaging

Megan M Rogers — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 19:37:26 +0000

Researchers pioneer fluid-based laser scanning for brain imaging Megan M Rogers Tue, 10/21/2025 - 13:37

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Researchers explored a fluid-based optical device known as an electrowetting prism to steer lasers at high speeds for advanced imaging applications. This new frontier in miniature lasers opens the door to new technologies in microscopy, LiDAR, optical communications and even brain imaging.

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