The latest on our website
Updated on September 12th, 2025.
Study by UMSS Group reveals anxiety lowers pain threshold while depression raises it, creating medical paradox.
A study by the UMSS group shows that pain perception differs in people with anxiety and depression compared to the general population.
The study, recently published in The Journal of Pain, analyzed research evaluating the response to painful stimuli in healthy people, people with depression, and people with anxiety. The results show that people with anxiety have a lower … [read more]
New on our blog: The therapeutic power of music
At first glance, medicine and music might seem worlds apart, given how different their origins are. Yet both combine science and art with a shared purpose: to relieve human suffering. From different angles, they contribute to the individual’s overall well-being, exerting a positive influence on, emotional, and social health… [Read More]
New study by the UMSS Group begins
The patient recruitment phase for the new study being conducted by some members of UMSS has begun.
If you suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) or Long COVID (LC), and the need to travel has prevented you from attending rehabilitation or participating in studies in the past, you now have the opportunity…[Read More]
New on our Blog: Perception beyond the senses
In Livewired, David Eagleman proposes that the sensitivity of living beings is essentially the transformation of environmental information into patterns of neural activity, from which the sensation of perception emerges. The nature of the original stimulus is irrelevant; what matters is that it can be decoded by the nervous system that receives it, providing meaningful information about the environment. [Read More]
Also on our Blog: Sedentary lifestyle: Why is it important to look out for the opportunity to move?
In the 21st century, advances in technology and changes in our habits have led us to an unprecedented situation. Sitting in front of a computer, in a car, watching TV, or simply resting has become the norm in our daily lives.
On a typical day in 2025, the average person spends about half an hour commuting to work seated, 8 hours (or more) sitting in front of a computer, another half hour returning home, and finally at least 1–2 hours sitting in front of the TV. We’re exceeding even our nighttime sleep hours!
Also on our Blog: Training Interoception: A Possible Pathway Towards Bodily Self-Regulation
In the January blog post, we discussed interoception—the conscious experience of internal bodily states. Learning to listen to these signals may help us modulate how we perceive, anticipate, and interpret them. But how can we practice this? It sounds very interesting, but what exactly should we do if we want to improve our interoceptive skills?
Below, we propose four simple exercises that can help develop interoceptive ability:
1. Dynamic Heartbeat PerceptionTraditionally, cardiac interoception has been assessed through the heartbeat tracking task, [read more]
Latest post on UMSS:
- The therapeutic power of music
- Perception beyond the senses
- Sedentary lifestyle: Why is it important to look out for the opportunity to move?
- Training Interoception: A Possible Pathway Towards Bodily Self-Regulation
- THE IMPORTANCE OF VITAMIN D: ITS ROLE IN OUR HEALTH BEYOND BONE HEALTH
UMSS is an international research group focused on the identification of personal factors that may be associated to self-management in health conditions.
Our main research topics are:
- Exercise, movement and health.
- Psychology, health and multidisciplinary interventions.
- Epidemiology and public health.
- Advances in research methodologies.