Amy DiNoble, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist

01/02/2026

Important lessons from Robert Sapolsky on the role of testosterone. Decades of research indicates that testosterone doesn't create aggression but often rises when faced with competition and in response to status threats-which then can result in aggression. Sapolsky notes research that shows how monkeys reaffirm their given status in their group after testosterone administration. But what happens when status is defined by kindness or being fair and just? It turns out that testosterone amplifies these characteristics...
"If you’re a Siamese fighting fish or a baboon, you respond to status challenges by fighting. But humans gain status in extraordinarily varied ways — by winning an election, being proclaimed the finest haiku writer of your generation, snagging that Nobel Prize, having Beyoncé’s phone number. Our primate status battles can be highly symbolic. A tennis or chess tournament, for example, provokes a status-protecting rise in testosterone secretion, even if the loser is not destined to be a co**se picked over by hyenas.

This raises an intriguing possibility: What would testosterone do in a situation where status comes from being kind? In pioneering work at the University of Zurich by Christoph Eisenegger, female volunteers played an economic game in which reputation with other players depended on making fair offers. Remarkably, fairness of game play was enhanced in subjects administered testosterone (without, of course, the subjects knowing whether they were receiving the hormone or a placebo). Other studies showed that testosterone even decreased lying in men in games in which their cheating was undetectable. This is probably because the temptation to lie in these settings constituted a challenge to the high moral status that subjects valued in themselves, with that valuation strengthened by testosterone.

What does this tell us? If society is riddled with aggression, don’t blame testosterone; blame us for being too prone to dole out status for aggression."

Testosterone neither ensures dominance nor acts as a straightforward trigger for aggression.

12/31/2025

Critically important to recognize the inherent vulnerability of boys and men and how our constructs of masculinity work against the natural proclivity to nurturing this vulnerability. Boys stress regulating brain systems mature more slowly than girls requiring more parental nurture and comfort than girls yet studies show that girls receive more parental interaction in the form of nurture and conversation than boys. Boys are also more susceptible to poverty and lack of social resources than girls yet no or little attention is given to this vulnerability.
While prior to the 19th century, boys and men were often given positive reinforcement for being loving, kind, and tender-even in public, cultural expectations began to shift in the mid 19th century with increased competitive capitalism...
"Steven Mintz, a historian and the author of Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood, told me that 'when Darwinian notions about life as a struggle began to spread through the culture, fathers, in particular, began to emphasize instilling toughness in boys.'...
How masculinity is defined and enforced within households is a concern for families. But even the most sensitive parenting can’t fully insulate boys from the cultural forces that equate masculinity with stoicism, dominance, and economic power—pressures that can shape male identity across class lines, and that can have societal reverberations. The many boys and young men Whippman interviewed for Boymom, some of whom belonged to misogynist online incel forums that glorify violence against women, spoke repeatedly about the torment of trying to achieve a certain type of masculinity. 'A wide body of research shows that it is not masculinity itself that makes men violent, but the sense of shame that they are not masculine enough,'...
It took several decades to begin to reverse American stereotypes about what was possible for girls. It may likewise take decades to reverse current attitudes and perceptions, in our politics and culture, about what boys should be. But if Americans truly want to improve the outcomes for boys—and, by extension, for society—the place to begin is at home, with fathers’ and mothers’ first attempts at nurturing."

Daughters tend to receive higher levels of affection and patience at home than sons. But the sons might need it more.

11/25/2025

Valuable new research on interoception-the unconscious and sometimes conscious perception of our internal experience. New research examines the role of the peptide, Piezo, on interoception. Nerve endings throughout the body use the peptie to detect changes in pressure to various organs as well as the intricately connected vagus nerve. Changes are then relayed to higher level brain regions including those that process and communicate emotion. Studies indicate that many people suffering with psychiatric illnesses have unusual activity in a primary area, the mid-insula, for interoceptive signaling indicating that there may be a misinterpretation or prediction error of the bottom-up signals and regulating activity of this region could provide relief...

"As vital as interoception is to our survival, Dr. Nord and other researchers suspect that it is also responsible for many disorders. If the brain misinterprets signals from the body, or if those signals are themselves faulty, the brain may send out commands that cause harm...
In addition to mimicking the body’s signals, treatment for an interoception disorder could also entail retuning regions of the brain to interpret signals differently. Dr. Nord and her colleagues have found that people with a range of psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder, anxiety, major depression, anorexia and schizophrenia, share unusual activity in a brain region known as the mid-insula, which is essential to interpreting signals from the body. Dr. Nord and her colleagues are currently running a trial in which they are delivering low-frequency ultrasonic waves to the mid-insula of patients with psychiatric disorders, to see if the region can be coaxed into responding to interoception in a healthier way.

But Dr. Patapoutian cautioned that interoception would be hard to harness until it was better understood. He and colleagues at Scripps Research hope to provide a foundation for such advances by creating an atlas of interoception throughout the entire body. In one recent discovery, they found that fat is infiltrated with nerve endings that sense pressure with Piezo proteins.

“Apparently it is important there, but we still don’t what it’s sensing,” Dr. Patapoutian said. “Is it that when your fat grows, it becomes denser and adds more pressure on the nerves? Is it, when fat grows, you have much more blood flow and this is what’s being sensed? We just don’t the answer.”

Dr. Patapoutian hopes his interoception atlas will help scientists get a firmer understanding of what our nerves are sensing not just in our fat, but throughout our bodies.

“In many, many of these organs, we have no idea what they do, or how they do it,” he said.

Scientists are learning how the brain knows what’s happening throughout the body, and how that process might go awry in some psychiatric disorders.

11/01/2025

Diving into this new masterpiece by !

10/15/2025

Parents who are regulated have the flexibility necessary to balance the child’s need for autonomy and limits.

10/14/2025

Parental self-regulation predicts child success across many domains

10/11/2025

Allowing our children to experience the full range of emotions is a gift that will help them manage challenges and relationships successfully throughout their lives.

09/14/2025

Grateful to receive my endorsement as an Infant-Family Mental Health Specialist in California

09/05/2025

Seems timely to repeat today. No legitimate, valid studies have shown a link between vaccines and autism. The studies showing a link were fraudulent, faked in part to promote costly "cures" for vaccine injuries that financially benefited those publishing these fake studies...
"In the scientific community, Mr. Geier is infamous for the deeply flawed studies he conducted with his father, Mark Geier, claiming that vaccines cause autism. Researchers have long called attention to the serious methodological and ethical defects in their work.
The Geiers once created an illegitimate review board for their research, composed of themselves, family members and business associates. They also promoted the drug Lupron, used for chemical castration and prostate cancer, as a supposed treatment for autism, charging $5,000 to $6,000 monthly for unproven therapies. As a result, Mark Geier’s medical license was ultimately revoked or suspended by all 12 states in which he was licensed, and David Geier was fined for practicing medicine without a license.
Because of David Geier’s track record and the fact that Mr. Kennedy has said he believes that autism is caused by vaccines, many public health experts think that the upcoming study may echo the same flawed science. We’ve broken down the anti-vaccine research playbook to help you spot the telltale signs of shoddy studies and show why Mr. Geier is such a divisive choice. (Mr. Geier did not respond to The Times's request for comment.)...
This controversy started when Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor, published a study in 1998 that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (M.M.R.) vaccine to autism. He was later found to have falsified data and received funding from lawyers in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers. The paper was retracted, and he was barred from practicing medicine in Britain, but not before vaccination rates began dropping and measles outbreaks began rising again...
A whopping two-thirds of studies that claimed to have found a link were written by David and Mark Geier. These studies have been heavily criticized for using deceptive research techniques and flawed data.
Among the eight other studies that found a link, four were retracted for data manipulation, flawed methods or undisclosed conflicts of interest. Most of the authors have been involved in anti-vaccination campaigns and have had other papers retracted.
One such study that Mr. Kennedy referred to in his Senate confirmation hearing was published in a WordPress blog disguised as a journal and was funded by an anti-vaccine organization, among other problems.
Fortunately, independent scientists have conducted more than 40 high-quality studies since 1998 involving over 5.6 million people across seven countries. All found no connection between vaccines and autism. These studies were rigorously designed, were reviewed by independent peers and do not contain telltale signs of data manipulation, as the Geier studies do...."

Data can easily be manipulated to show causation that doesn’t exist.

08/18/2025

A recent review of studies surrounding blue light from electronics reveals that it isn't as harmful-or harmful at all, as was once thought. Mounting evidence suggested that it does not decrease melatonin production as was once asserted. Amount of time, brightness of screen and types of use play a role in the negative impact-such as social media use. On the other hand, reading and watching neutral shows may help people get to sleep more readily....

Sleep scientists are changing how they think about screen use at night.

08/06/2025

Join us at the Center for Connection for a discussion led by my wonderful, insightful colleague, Tina Bryson, to explore ways to support our children after the devastating fires.

06/27/2025

Yes, "The Ick" is a real thing...
"The term even prompted psychology researchers from Azusa Pacific University to do a study, published in May, which found that over a quarter of surveyed singles who had experienced “the ick” found it worrisome enough that they reported ending the relationship immediately.

“The Ick” may have a catchy name, but it captures something significant about the uncertainty of dating: the sneaking realization that a person might not be right for you.

It can be tricky to figure out how much weight to give an “ick,” said Brian Collisson, a professor of psychology at Azusa Pacific University who coauthored the study. “You could reject a really great person over a superficial trait, or you could be tapping into something that could be a problem later on,” he said...

Noisy eating, clapping when a plane lands — experts explain how to handle sudden feelings of disgust.