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The use of antidepressants during pregnancy significantly increased the risk of a child experiencing functional constipation—a common DGBI that may be painful—during their first year of life. “After adjusting for covariates, SSRI/SNRI exposure was associated with an over 3-fold increased risk for functional constipation,” the investigators wrote.

“We found that, at the age of one, 63% of children exposed to antidepressants during pregnancy experienced constipation, compared with 31% of children whose mothers did not take medication,” said study co-author Larissa Takser, MD, professor of pediatrics at the Université de Sherbrooke in Québec. “This finding suggests a potential connection between serotonin levels in utero and gut development, and opens new doors to examine SSRI properties not previously studied.”

The investigators’ collective findings point to a promising avenue of future studies: the gut epithelium as a new and potentially safer target for treating mood disorders, particularly for pregnant women. “Together, these data define a novel potential mechanism for gut-brain communication and identify intestinal epithelial 5-HT as a new and potentially safer therapeutic target for mood regulation,” the authors stated.

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Psychological studies have shown that the way humans respond to others’ emotions is strongly influenced by their own past emotional experiences. When a similar emotional situation—such as a past stressful event—is observed in another person, we can react in two different ways. On one hand, it may generate empathy, enhancing the ability to understand others’ problems and increasing sensitivity to others altered emotions. On the other hand, it may induce self-distress resulting into an avoidance towards others.

The research group at IIT has demonstrated that a similar phenomenon also occurs in animals: recalling a negative experience strongly influences how an individual responds to another who is experiencing that same altered emotional state. More specifically, animals exhibit different reactions only if the negative event they experienced in the past is identical to the one they observe in others. This indicates that even animals can specifically recognize an emotional state and react accordingly even without directly seeing the triggering stimuli.

italiano di tecnologia.


“Everything about this discovery was surprising.”

The team’s research was published on Thursday (Dec. 12) in the journal Science.

This year, the sun has been particularly turbulent, blasting Earth with usually strong solar storms and ramping up auroral displays as a reminder of how violent our star can be. While scientists have been able to study this behavior and collect invaluable data, this represents the sun’s behavior over a tiny fraction of its 4.6 billion-year life so far.

Technology has shaped our civilization as it grew down the centuries, and since the industrial revolution, each new generation seems defined by some new technological revolution… So what will the next revolution be?

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The instrument uses light to move atoms to measure incredibly small forces.


A new study finds that chimpanzees’ self-medication has helped scientists identify some promising plants for future pharmaceuticals. In the study, Oxford researchers have identified no less than 13 plants with potent wound-healing and infection-fighting properties.

The researchers made this astounding discovery thanks to the help of wild chimpanzees. By observing them in the wild, the team found that chimps tend to eat bark, dead wood, and leaves that are not part of their diet when sick or injured.