Michael Anderson

Does suppressing negative thoughts harm us? According to our paper in @ScienceAdvances with Zulkayda Mamat , suppressing fearful thoughts can improve mental health, done correctly, with bigger benefits seen in those with worse intrusive thought symptoms science.org/doi/full/10.11…

Excited to be heading to #CNS2026 in Vancouver this weekend! Come say👋 if you’re around as I will be presenting some very promising results from the first completed study of my PhD work into affective blunting conducted @mrccbu Poster Session B, March 8, 8-10 AM (Number: B19)

Review paper arguing that the #brain has a built-in mental brake that stops unwanted thoughts. Via a fronto-temporal pathway, it relies on GABA to calm mental loops. Weak brakes may underlie #PTSD, #OCD, anxiety, and #depression nature.com/articles/s4158…

@Wessel_Lab @UIowaCLAS Congratulations Jan and Kristi!! Well deserved.

Big day in the household as my wife Kristi Hendrickson won the Dean's Scholar Award for outstanding tenure package, and I was named Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family Chair of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Many thanks to @UIowaCLAS for continuing to support both of us!

To my surprise, our Nature Reviews Neuroscience review on the Brain Mechanisms Underlying the Inhibitory Control of Thought has landed on the cover! Cover art below! For an "explainer thread", see our earlier tweet. @mrccbu #memory #ptsd x.com/Memory_Control…

Research on inhibitory control over memory provides a rich neurocognitive framework through which to understand disordered thought control.More broadly, it complements response inhibition as a tool for understanding the control of action and thought.

Fundamentally, if neuroscience is going to inform how unwanted thoughts are controlled by the brain and address central features of psychiatric disorders, a theoretically valid construct and set of tools for measuring that construct are needed.

How does the brain stop thoughts? Find out in my article in @natrevneuro.nature.com with S. Subbulakshmi & Maite Crespo-Garcia integrating 25 yrs of psychology and neuroscience on this function. @mrccbu nature.com/articles/s4158… #memory #ptsd @PsychToday @Psychonomic_Soc @SfNtweets