New from us: Personality change after traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis link.springer.com/article/10.1... Developed and completed in collaboration a diverse team including members from @headwaylondon.bsky.social

Personality change after traumatic brain injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis - Journal of Neurology

Background Personality change is a debilitating consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI), yet its prevalence, characteristics, and treatment remain poorly understood. Methods We completed a pre-reg...

link.springer.com

Content warning: self-harm, suicide New preprint 🧵 Self-harm is strikingly common among autistic adults, yet we often treat it as one thing. In 327 autistic + 260 non-autistic people, we used network analysis to map how specific self-harming behaviours connect to each other and to suicidality.

🧘 New preprint! Can the way we experience empathy shift? We found 10 mins of mindfulness for 10 days nudged people towards a more balanced empathic state, narrowing the gap between emotional & cognitive empathy. Surprisingly, the shift wasn't driven by emotional reactivity. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

The nice thing about preprints is that they develop and improve 🤩 So here is a sharper version, featuring nicer figures and a complementary text directly comparing Self-Organising Maps with commonly used methods on the same dataset to emphasise how SOMs differ! osf.io/preprints/ps...

Ido Shalev@idoshal.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New preprint 🎉 Psych constructs are complex. Symptoms overlap, people rarely fit neat categories, and patterns are non-linear. Most methods compromise this richness. Self-Organising Maps don't. We provide a step-by-step tutorial with annotated R code to make them accessible. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Across 1,000+ people, eating disorder symptoms were linked to “empathic disequilibrium”, feeling others’ emotions strongly while finding them harder to understand. Heightened emotional reactivity helped explain the link: DOI.org/10.1186/s40337-026-01600-2 #EatingDisorders #Empathy

What is it like to feel haunted by something? To find out, read Matthew Ratcliffe's new paper "From hauntology (back) to phenomenology," published yesterday in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

From hauntology (back) to phenomenology - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

Since Derrida’s introduction of the term hauntology, there has been much discussion of ghosts, spectres, and hauntings across several disciplines. This work is not exclusively phenomenological in focu...

link.springer.com

Turns out empirically derived phenotypes (data-driven symptom sets) nested within traditional mental disorders can help reduce diagnostic heterogeneity! We learned so much cool and interesting stuff in this study. I could talk (/post) about it all day, but here’s a few highlights (🧵)

PsyArXivBot@psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Empirically derived phenotypes can reduce diagnostic heterogeneity: https://osf.io/8wtqx

Exploring the dynamic system changes underlying the resolution of social anxiety in individuals receiving cognitive behavioural therapy www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Exploring the dynamic system changes underlying the resolution of social anxiety in individuals receiving cognitive behavioural therapy

Cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) provide theoretical frameworks that explain maintaining factors and guide treatment protocols. While…

sciencedirect.com

New paper out! A two-study investigation of empathic disequilibrium in eating disorders. Symptoms were linked to feeling others' emotions more intensely than understanding them. A pleasure working with Dr Laura Vuillier, Dr Rachel Moseley & Prof @fuzefovsky.bsky.social doi.org/10.1186/s403...

Feeling more than understanding: empathic disequilibrium and emotional reactivity in eating psychopathology - Journal of Eating Disorders

Background Emotional dysregulation is a core feature of eating disorders, yet research has predominantly focused on intrapersonal emotion processes rather than interpersonal emotional mechanisms. Empa...

link.springer.com

I consider Dr. Foa’s exposure therapy work among the most profound achievements in clinical psychology. Her work has saved so, so many lives. She led a big life. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/h...

Edna Foa, Who Pioneered Exposure Therapy to Treat PTSD, Dies at 88

nytimes.com

World Psychiatry ~ The lived experience of persons who attempt suicide: a bottom-up review co-designed, co-produced and co-written by experts by experience and academics. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The lived experience of persons who attempt suicide: a bottom‐up review co‐designed, co‐produced and co‐written by experts by experience and academics

This is the first bottom-up review of the lived experience of persons who attempt suicide. The study has been co-designed, co-conducted and co-written by experts by experience and academics, focusing...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

New research publication: Predicting mental health trajectories after potentially traumatic events: a machine learning approach by Dunja Tutus, Tanmay Nayyar, Jörg M. Fegert & Ann-Christin Haag: link.springer.com/article/10.1... #mentalhealth #PTSD #resilience #ECAP #openaccess

Predicting mental health trajectories after potentially traumatic events: a machine learning approach - European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - This study aimed to investigate the trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems following childhood potentially traumatic events (PTEs) and...

link.springer.com

Hey friends, my new paper was just published in JAMA Psychiatry. I draw on biological species classification to sketch a new framework for psychiatric nosology. Brief summary follows below. Full text link: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... 🧪 #PsychSciSky #MentalHealth

Mental Disorders as Homeostatic Property Clusters

This narrative review explores the idea of understanding mental disorders according to homeostatic property clusters rather than through typical classification systems.

jamanetwork.com

I wasn’t sure whether to post, but decided I wanted to share and thank everyone who joined Saturday's focus group on identity loss in mental health conditions. When these wars end, we'll need kind, humane ways to heal and reconcile who we are with what we've lost, both in the world and in ourselves.

💕 Does oxytocin help wounds heal faster? Not on its own. In 80 healthy couples, intranasal oxytocin accelerated wound healing only when paired with affectionate touch and partner appreciation. Oxytocin acts as a "social amplifier". buff.ly/IvuBcTq #Oxytocin #SocialHealth #RelationshipScience

Our new paper, led by Dr Giorgos Georgiou. In 4–10-year-olds, autistic traits predict empathic disequilibrium (affective > cognitive empathy), echoing adult findings. Callous–unemotional traits show lower empathy and reduced disequilibrium in both forms. doi.org/10.1007/s108...

Empathic Disequilibrium in Autistic Traits and CU Traits: Investigating Empathy Imbalance in Children - Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

The current study investigated the relationship between CU traits, autistic traits, and empathic disequilibrium, which reflects the imbalance between cognitive empathy (CE) and affective empathy (AE)....

doi.org

Delighted to present our SOMs tutorial with fresh-out-of-print slides at @mrccbu.bsky.social Weekly Seminar today! Even better getting to present alongside @estherina.bsky.social 🙌

A new study from Anthropic finds that gains in coding efficiency when relying on AI assistance did did not meet statistical significance; AI use noticeably degraded programmers’ understanding of what they were doing. Incredible.

Pavel@spavel.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The latest from Anthropic: using Anthropic's products makes you worse at your job

Here it is! #rstats

GitHub - mattansb/Practical-Applications-in-R-for-Psychologists: Lesson files for Practical Applications in R for Psychologists.

Lesson files for Practical Applications in R for Psychologists. - mattansb/Practical-Applications-in-R-for-Psychologists

github.com

Mattan S. Ben-Shachar@mattansb.msbstats.info · 7mo ago

The course also had #rstats exercises for all topics developed by my amazing TAs - using #marginaleffects throughout and of course @easystats.github.io! I hope to have all those materials on GitHub soon.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Delighted to see our paper out in The Lancet Psychiatry!

Delusion as embodied emotion: a qualitatively driven, multimethod study of first-episode psychosis in the UK

Delusions in psychosis involve complex and dynamic experiential, affective, cognitive, behavioural, and interpersonal alterations. Their pattern of em…

sciencedirect.com

New preprint 🎉 Psych constructs are complex. Symptoms overlap, people rarely fit neat categories, and patterns are non-linear. Most methods compromise this richness. Self-Organising Maps don't. We provide a step-by-step tutorial with annotated R code to make them accessible. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Empathic disequilibrium could change the way we think about empathy and help recognise and accept diverse empathic experiences, moving us beyond the usual “low” or “high” empathy narrative. #Neurodiversity #Autism #Empathy www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Excited to announce a new open-access EMP Lab paper on empathic AI: an interdisciplinary collaboration between psychology, philosophy, & engineering on motivated empathy expression and reception with social robots. @ssripennstate.bsky.social @psuliberalarts.bsky.social @rockethics.bsky.social 1/n

Empathy for and From Embodied Robots: An Interdisciplinary Review - C. Daryl Cameron, Alan R. Wagner, Martina Orlandi, Eliana Hadjiandreou, India G. Oates, Stephen Anderson, 2025

Several years ago, the world was stunned when the cute robot HitchBOT was destroyed. Does empathy for robots—sharing experiences and feeling compassion—make sen...

journals.sagepub.com

Rethinking the mechanism of @dissociation . Combines first-principles & nonlinear dynamics: collapses in "temporal depth" is the key driver behind the loss of self-coherence. tinyurl.com/2wevuvvp @drmichaellevin.bsky.social , ‪@tolchinsky.bsky.social @lancelotdacosta.bsky.social

Frontiers | Temporal depth in a coherent self and in depersonalization: theoretical model

Multiple theoretical models of dissociative experiences have been formulated over the last century. These theories are clinically useful; however, it remains...

frontiersin.org

What if it’s not about having “too much” or “too little” empathy, but about the balance between understanding and sharing others’ emotions? A new paper review empathic disequilibrium in autism and mental health, moving beyond deficit-oriented narratives: https://ow.ly/p5lH50XzTUW

Researchers from MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge and University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties. Find out more in the BBC article 👉 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl6klez226o

🧵 New paper! Five years ago, we, @fuzefovsky.bsky.social, Dr Alal Eran, and I, introduced empathic disequilibrium, the mismatch between cognitive and emotional empathy. In our article published in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, we discuss the theoretical and clinical implications of the concept.

Empathic disequilibrium: theoretical implications and clinical relevance

Empathy is central to social cognition, yet efforts to link it with neurodiverse and clinical conditions have yielded contradictory findings, often reinforcing a deficit-focused narrative that conflic...

cell.com

Online Now: Empathic disequilibrium: theoretical implications and clinical relevance

Empathic disequilibrium: theoretical implications and clinical relevance

Empathy is central to social cognition, yet efforts to link it with neurodiverse and clinical conditions have yielded contradictory findings, often reinforcing a deficit-focused narrative that conflicts with individuals’ experiences. While traditional models distinguish cognitive (understanding others’ emotions) from emotional empathy (being affected by others’ emotions), they often neglect how their interplay shapes individual outcomes. Addressing these limitations, this article focuses on the emerging concept of empathic disequilibrium, the intrapersonal imbalance between cognitive and emotional empathy. We synthesise current evidence linking empathic disequilibrium with individual differences in autistic traits and mental health, discuss its potential mechanisms, and propose a framework that recognises empathy as a multifaceted system with interacting components, with implications for advancing theory and practice across cognitive sciences.

dlvr.it

Our new preprint is out! We show a replicable relationship between empathic disequilibrium and eating disorders. Led by Dr Laura Renshaw-Vuillier, @fuzefovsky.bsky.social, and Dr Rachel Moseley. So lucky to be working with this brilliant team.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Path Asymmetry in Complex Dynamic Systems of Psychopathology

This article illustrates the assumption of path symmetry in current theories of psychopathology and calls for the development of dynamical systems of mental illness that incorporate asymmetry.

jamanetwork.com