Shrooms Rollout - Primate Homosexuality - Motivation Circuit - Exercise & Depression

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/health/shrooms-lead-the-pack-in-psychedelic-medicine-but-rollout-is-bumpy.html

Shrooms Lead the Pack in Psychedelic Medicine, but Rollout Is Bumpy

By Andrew Jacobs

In the billion-dollar race to commercialize psychedelic medicine, psilocybin, a naturally occurring hallucinogen better known as magic mushrooms, or “shrooms,” has decisively pulled ahead of the pack.

The Food and Drug Administration in November said it would move up its review of a psilocybin treatment for severe depression by nine to 12 months, according to the applicant, Compass Pathways. It hopes to receive the agency’s approval for the therapy before the end of the year.

The news is among the first concrete signs that the Trump administration is recognizing psychedelic medicine as a potential therapy tool. The moves have injected a fresh dose of optimism into a nascent field, which was rattled by the F.D.A.’s rejection in 2024 of MDMA-assisted therapy, the first psychedelic to reach a formal review by federal regulators.

“Between research results and policy changes, it’s a watershed moment for psychedelic health care, and psilocybin is the star,” said Nate Howard, director of operations at InnerTrek, a psilocybin clinic in Portland, Ore. Mr. Howard was a driving force behind a successful ballot measure in 2023 that created Oregon’s psilocybin program.

State lawmakers, however, are not waiting for regulators in the nation’s capital.

Last year, New Mexico joined Colorado and Oregon in offering legal psilocybin therapy to adults. Lawmakers in a dozen states, including North Carolina, Maryland, Georgia and California, are considering easing restrictions on the drug using public funds to research the potential benefits of psilocybin therapy.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jan/12/primates-same-sex-sexual-behaviour-reinforce-social-bonds-study

Primates’ same-sex sexual behaviour ‘may reinforce bonds amid environmental stress’

Nicola Davis Science correspondent

Same-sex sexual behaviour among non-human primates may arise as a way to reinforce bonds and keep societies together in the face of environmental or social challenges, researchers have suggested.

Prof Vincent Savolainen, a co-author of the paper from Imperial College London, added that while the work focused on our living evolutionary cousins, early human species probably experienced similar challenges, raising the likelihood they, too, showed such behaviour.

“There were many different species that unfortunately [are] all gone, that must have done this same thing as we see in apes, for example,” he said.

Writing in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, Savolainen and colleagues reported how they analysed accounts of same-sex sexual behaviour in non-human primates, finding it to be widespread in most major groups, with reports in 59 species including chimpanzees, Barbary macaques and mountain gorillas. That, they added, either suggested an evolutionary origin far back in the primate family tree, or the independent evolution of the behaviour multiple times.

While some studies have previously highlighted the possibility such behaviour could help reduce tensions in groups or aid bonding, the new study looked across different species to explore its possible drivers. The results reveal it to be more likely in species living in drier environments, where resources are scarce, and where there is greater risk from predators.

“Previous research has shown there is a heritable element to [same-sex sexual behaviour], however, there is also environmental influence which is often overlooked,” said Chloe Coxshall, the first author of the study.
© 2026 Guardian News & Media Limited
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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00062-5

Can’t get motivated? This brain circuit might explain why — and it can be turned off
Lynne Peeples

Sometimes the hardest part of doing an unpleasant task is simply getting started — typing the first word of a long report, lifting a dirty dish on the top of an overfilled sink or removing clothes from an unused exercise machine. The obstacle isn’t necessarily a lack of interest in completing a task, but the brain’s resistance to taking the first step.

Now, scientists might have identified the neural circuit behind this resistance, and a way to ease it. In a study1 published today in Current Biology, researchers describe a pathway in the brain that seems to act as a ‘motivation brake’, dampening the drive to begin a task. When the team selectively suppressed this circuit in macaque monkeys, goal-directed behaviour rebounded.

“The change after this modulation was dramatic,” says study co-author Ken-ichi Amemori, a neuroscientist at Kyoto University in Japan.

The motivation brake, which can be particularly stubborn for people with certain psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia and major depressive disorder, is distinct from the avoidance of tasks driven by risk aversion in anxiety disorders.

Pearl Chiu, a computational psychiatrist at Virginia Tech in Roanoke, who was not involved in the study, says that understanding this difference is essential for developing new treatments and refining current ones. “Being able to restore motivation, that’s especially exciting,” she says.
Motivated macaques

Previous work on task initiation has implicated a neural circuit connecting two parts of the brain known as the ventral striatum and ventral pallidum, both of which are involved in processing motivation and reward2,3,4. But attempts to isolate the circuit’s role have fallen short. Electrical stimulation, for example, inadvertently activates downstream regions, affecting motivation, but also anxiety.

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https://www.sciencenews.org/article/chimpanzees-thrill-seeking-toddlerd

Among chimpanzees, thrill-seeking peaks in toddlerhood

By Sujata Gupta

Chimps ages 2 to 5 are more likely than older chimps to free-fall from tree limbs in the forest canopies or leap wildly from branch to branch, researchers report January 7 in iScience. Past age 5, those dangerous canopy behaviors decrease by roughly 3 percent each year.

Among humans, teens are the real daredevils. They are, for instance, more likely than other children to break bones and die from injuries. But human toddlers might behave as recklessly as chimp toddlers were it not for parents and caregivers putting the kibosh on all the fun — and broken bones, says biologist Lauren Sarringhaus of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. “If humans scaled back their oversight, our kids would be way more daredevilish.”

Humans and chimpanzees show markedly different caregiving patterns, say Sarringhaus and others. Chimp moms largely parent alone. Dads don’t help. Nor, typically, do grandmothers, older siblings or other group members. Chimpanzees cling to their moms for the first five years of life, but by age 2 or so, they begin to explore more independently. Moms can’t readily help kids swinging high up in the air.

By comparison, the presence of alloparents, or caregivers beyond the parents, are a defining feature of human groups, Sarringhaus says. In modern times, alloparents have come to include teachers and coaches for a plethora of supervised after-school activities. Nowadays, many developmental experts in the Western world have been decrying the rise of intensive or helicopter parenting in which kids spend less time unsupervised and playing outside than those in generations past.

“It’s a really exciting avenue of research of how caregiving influences risk-taking behavior. There’s not a lot of research out there addressing this point,” says Lou Haux, a psychologist and primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, who was not involved with the study.

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/12/nx-s1-5667599/exercise-is-as-effective-as-medication-in-treating-depression-study-finds

Exercise is as effective as medication in treating depression, study finds

Allison Aubrey

If you feel a lift after exercise, you're in good company. Movement can boost mood, and according to the results of a new study, it can also help relieve symptoms of depression.

As part of a review of evidence by the Cochrane collaboration — an independent network of researchers — scientists evaluated 73 randomized controlled trials that included about 5,000 people with depression, many of whom also tried antidepressant medication.

"We found that exercise was as effective as pharmacological treatments or psychological therapies as well," says Andrew Clegg, a professor at the University of Lancashire in the U.K.

The findings are not a surprise to psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Mateka, medical director of psychiatry at Inspira Health. "This new Cochrane review reinforces the evidence that exercise is one of the most evidence-based tools for improving mood," says Mateka.

He explains how it mirrors some of the effects of medication. "Exercise can help improve neurotransmitter function, like serotonin as well as dopamine and endorphins. So there is certainly overlap between exercise and how antidepressants offer relief," Mateka says.

And there's another powerful effect too. Exercise can trigger the release of brain growth factors, explains Dr. Nicholas Fabiano of the University of Ottawa. He says depression can decrease neuroplasticity, making it harder for the brain to adapt and change.

"The brain in depression is thought to be less plastic. So there's less what we call neurotrophic factors, or BDNF," Fabiano explains. He calls it the Miracle-Gro for the brain. "And we know that exercise can also boost it. So I think exercise is a fundamental pillar we really need to counsel patients on," he says.