When a favourite creator falls, memories of their work often stay fond
Across five experiments, researchers asked people to rate both a creator and that creator's work before and after learning about the creator's wrongdoing. Ratings of the person fell in hindsight, yet people's recalled enjoyment of the work itself held steady, a split the researchers describe as separating the maker from the making when looking back. The work comes from the University of South Florida, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University, and appears in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Source: Phys.org — https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rewrite-memories-fallen-artists-art.html
Mindfulness training alongside medication shifted brain responses to drug cues in a small trial
In a randomized trial, 86 people with opioid use disorder who were already receiving methadone or buprenorphine at a New York City inpatient facility were assigned to eight weeks of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement or to a comparison supportive therapy matched for length and format. Brain scans before and after showed the mindfulness group had less drug-related activity in a lateral prefrontal region when reinterpreting drug images, and shifts toward natural rewards went along with larger drops in craving. About four months after treatment, that group also showed larger gains in how long they stayed abstinent. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, was small and set in one facility, so larger and more varied studies are needed before the results can be generalized, and the therapy was tested as an addition to medication, not as a replacement for it.
Source: Mount Sinai — https://www.mountsinai.org/about/newsroom/2026/mindfulness-based-therapy-may-change-brain-responses-to-drug-cues-in-people-with-opioid-use-disorder-mount-sinai-study-finds
Why certain hugs stay with us for years
In a survey of more than 15,000 UK adults about touch, nearly seven in ten could bring to mind a hug that mattered emotionally, usually because it left them feeling comforted, understood, or supported. People who scored higher on empathy and on noticing bodily sensations were more likely to recall such a hug, while people less at ease with emotional closeness were less likely to do so. The study, published in PLOS One on October 28, 2026 and led by the University of Bristol, is observational and cannot show that personality traits cause these memories, and most participants were women.
Source: University of Bristol — https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2026/october/more-than-a-squeeze.html