Interesting new article in Frontiers - exploring affective versus predatory violence in terms of evolutionary adaptation (24 Sep 2025). They claim that this distinction matters not only in forensic settings but in organisational threat assessment and structured conflict resolution.

Recent arXiv study: “Portable Silent Room” prototypes for neurodivergent women and non‑binary people show that VR environments tailored to sensory regulation can reduce anxiety and emotional dysregulation. Designing for intersectional needs matters more than many suspect! arxiv.org/abs/2508.18591

EY’s Global Neuroinclusion at Work Study 2025 reveals only ~25% of neurodivergent professionals feel “truly included” in their workplace, even as many report proficiency in high-growth skills when inclusion is present. Suggests inclusion is a strong performance lever. www.ey.com/content/dam/...

Children with ADHD differ not just in how often they check the time but how strategically they monitor time in everyday‑tasks (aged 9‑13) when using a naturalistic VR task. Possible that training strategic monitoring will improve school performance. Link: buff.ly/KsoBoF1

A new preprint finds that “body doubling” (human or AI) in virtual reality helps adults with ADHD finish construction tasks faster and maintain attention (15 Sep 2025). Suggests social scaffolding could reduce mismatch in high‑demand jobs. Intriguing Stuff. Link: buff.ly/i3j4rRc

A study published this month surveys autistic doctors internationally: language preferences (‘identity‑first’ vs ‘person‑first’) correlate with views of autism as disorder vs difference, which in turn correlate with experience of distress. Link: buff.ly/zSPnDsK

Research finds that many young children suspected of autism are later diagnosed with ADHD as they grow older; ADHD traits may have been present but under‑detected early. This suggests early screening with flexible observation, and avoiding fixed labelling too early. Link: buff.ly/CvXM5rg

Quick research‑update: a study published 2 weeks ago introduces Tether, an LLM‑powered desktop assistant to help software engineers with ADHD manage task initiation, self‑regulation and attention in real‑time. Could these tools reduce mismatch in job design?

🎉New pre-print!🎉 “Our findings represent the most robust evidence to date that evolutionary psychiatry offers normalising causal stories with various positive effects, in this case by casting anxiety as a calibrated defence system that can overshoot in contemporary contexts."

Tim Ingold argues for mental health practice rooted in presence, responsiveness and kinship rather than detached professional distance. "we seek ways to shift from models that distance and obscure mental health phenomena and practices as objects of study."

A King’s College London review reveals nearly 90% of middle‑aged and older autistic adults in the UK remain undiagnosed, underlining the need for lifespan‑focused diagnostic services

ADHD @ Work: Practical strategies like structured to‑do lists, body‑doubling, AI task aids, and flexible schedules are increasingly used to support focus and creativity in professional settings. buff.ly/LgHUC7D

Ensuring Neurodiverse children thrive in education: a new preprint identifies 18 success factors—ranging from inclusive teaching practices to structured tools—for autistic students in software engineering education. Unlocking talent! buff.ly/xAYrpYN

Update: some interesting new research reframes ADHD and autism as context‑sensitive neurodevelopmental variants shaped by sociobiological mismatch with modern work cultures (Frontiers in Psychology, July 2025). buff.ly/cRb54dY

Last chance to sign up join us this August 31st in Cambridge for lively debate on evolutionary psychiatry! Debates on depression, research, practise. Panels interspersed with pizza and coffee. Sure to be fascinating! www.femh.uk/activities/e...

Still a week left to sign up for the evolutionary psychiatry debate day in Cambridge - the best opportunity of this year to meet up with others interested in the field! Discussing key topics of depression and the future of the field www.femh.uk/activities/e...

Meagre financial handouts for neurodivergent individuals probably aren't the best option for support and maximising their long term potential. A better (cough evolution cough) informed system could do a more nuanced job at helping people integrate into classrooms and workplaces!

ADHD is in the media a lot recently. Complaints about excessive support, too easy diagnosis. Ignoring the fraudsters, a lot of people do struggle with modernity (understandably, we weren't built for this!) and supporting our individual differences to maximise our potential does make sense

This summer, August 31st, we are hosting an evolutionary psychiatry debate in Cambridge. Experts discussing whether depression is functional and whether evolutionary perspectives are more important in research or the clinic. Audience participation possible. Join us! www.femh.uk/activities/e...

Humans evolved as long distance runners... But this was another level. Last weekend I crewed one of my best friends as he ran 100 miles, up and down hills on the South Downs, in 26 hours and 45 minutes. An incredible achievement. Honored to be there for the journey!

Tinbergen's Four Questions - A recursive stack of explanations that from near-mode to far-mode causality. From the 'Physical Mechanism' underlying the behaviour, to what the fitness value of a behaviour was from the concrete to the abstract.

Every day I receive an email from 'The Transmitter', sponsored by 'Spectrum' and funded by the Simons Foundation - originally tasked with better understanding autism... I get that it's cool science but.... this research has never really helped anyone right?

From enhanced risk-taking in ADHD to the social deception strategies of psychopathy, each row in the table shows a proposed “trade-off.” While these traits can lead to impairment, they may also reflect specialized abilities that, under certain ecological or social conditions, conferred an edge

Homo Sapiens have a very rare ability to obtain calories from decaying fruit. Our appreciation for alcohol being a happy-side effect of this trait, then co-opted for socialising

The evolutionary origins of mental health issues cannot be understood purely in terms of dysfunction. Many psychological traits represent adaptive trade-offs or by-products. Billions have been spent on simple dysfunction chasing have been wasted!

Personality traits and psychopathological traits share foundational characteristics—like moderate heritability and early onset, on dimensional spectrums—yet are investigated through distinct research traditions.

From enhanced risk-taking in ADHD to the social deception strategies of psychopathy, each row in the table shows a proposed “trade-off.”

The modern mental health crisis is not only about dysfunction, but about disorientation. Evolution shaped minds for nested belonging. Ancestral minds expected context—ritual, role, rhythm. Inter-dependency in relationships. Remove those, and alienation, struggles, are predictable.

Personality traits and psychopathological traits share foundational characteristics—like moderate heritability and early onset, on dimensional spectrums—yet are investigated through distinct research traditions.

Darwin's insights are genius and simple - and apply to larger systems, societies, businesses, etc. The generalised process of variation and differential success in replication isn't just relevant to the passing on of genes. It defined our world.

What is a mental 'dysfunction'? Or a 'disease'? 'Disorder'? Evolutionary principles are the only way to define these terms by an objective process! (our evolutionary history - historical 'function'). Without this, medicine lacks objective definitions

Is ADHD simply a pathology? Evolutionary accounts often emphasise the weirdness of modern environments. A brain tuned for high novelty, wide-scanning, quickly jumping attention, suddenly placed in an environment demanding focus on mundane phenomena.

Interesting anecdote from the history of schizophrenia: schizophrenic delusions often 'update' dependent on the surrounding environment. In the 1900s, patients claimed to be in conversation with radio waves, in the 1960s, the television - now often it's the internet.

Evolutionary Psychiatry aims to complement mainstream psychiatry - not replace it. Strengthen the underlying theoretical basis - connecting psychiatric/psychological facts with the evolutionary theory of human development.

Most psychiatric labels are descriptive, not explanatory. “Depression” tells you what someone feels - not the reason this feeling came to be. It tells you nothing about why that mode was conserved in evolution. We should be thinking about that more.

Evolution didn’t build the mind to be happy. It built it to be responsive. Our affective systems track relative status, effort return, social bonds, and reproductive viability. If the world warps those metrics, suffering follows.

Evolutionary Psychiatry aims to complement mainstream Psychiatry - not to replace it. Strengthen the underlying theoretical basis - connecting psychiatric/psychological facts with the facts evolutionary human development.

Amusing to be planning a study on ADHD when I accidentally find such an UNBELIEVABLY satisfying new fidget toy

The Social Pain of humans - the condition of simply being apart from others is places stress on the Homo Sapien's nervous system. Even in prisons, where the average conditions of social life are unlikely to be pleasant - there is nothing worse than being put into Isolation.

Hunter-Gatherer lifestyle patterns can be seen as downstream of their inability to store food over time without it spoiling. Hunting is a daily necessity - but results are always uncertain -hence Humans evolved strong collective norms around food sharing, to decrease the risk to individuals.

I feel like we must tread the middle road, between wrongly blaming peoples for evolved conditions, inherited habits, for our programming - or denying our agency entirely. You've got your genes - don't feel ashamed about that -- but you can always learn to live with greater harmony alongside them.

Reason for empathy: we're all vulnerable to the emotions and traits of mental disorder - they are all part of the spectrum of human experience. They can go array; fire unhelpfully; but are ultimately never apart of the core human 'OS,' that we all share.

Far from being random anomalies, individual differences in cognition and emotion may have provided ancient communities with complementary skill sets. We evolved TOGETHER. So important to realise.

Human groups throughout history thrived by drawing on diverse talents—from meticulous planners to bold explorers. Contemporary workplaces can leverage evolved individual differences - the result likely to be a more adaptive workforce, where individuals and the team

We evolved - and our brains evolved with us. Ceteris paribus, in the absence of gross dysfunction or exceeding rareness, it makes sense to assume that our brain structure, however seemingly unproductive in current environments , made sense enough for it not to be removed by selection.

In ancestral societies, consistent social roles and shared responsibilities allowed for a spectrum of specialized behaviours. Applying these evolutionary perspectives can help us identify unique capabilities early on, guiding more tailored human development and better team collaboration.

A key insight of evolutionary psychiatry is that behavioral extremes can be contextual adaptations. Examining context can thus reframe our understanding of “pathological” traits, opening up avenues for more nuanced workplace support.

Traits often labelled as “pathologies” may hold latent advantages under certain social or ecological conditions. By acknowledging these evolutionary roots, organizations can tailor roles that align with each individual’s unique cognitive strengths, fostering both well-being and productivity.

Evolutionary Psychiatry should be clear - we don't to say that depression today is “good.” But it may not be random malfunction. Evolutionary psychiatry asks what the system was built for—and how modern environments might distort its outputs. Cartography - understanding - helps us to treat!

Evolution doesn’t aim for happiness. It shapes mechanisms that optimize survival and reproduction, often through tradeoffs. Pain, withdrawal, even despair can serve functions—at least in specific contexts.