The Impact of Elevated Temperatures on Cognitive Performance: A Review of the Evidence

Over the past few weeks, as the United Kingdom experienced yet another prolonged heatwave, I found myself struggling to maintain my usual level of productivity. Tasks that typically required moderate effort felt disproportionately demanding. Concentration wavered, decision-making felt slower, and a persistent sense of mental fatigue set in despite adequate rest. I was constantly exhausted, and the familiar comfort of my workspace seemed to offer little respite. Now that temperatures have finally dropped and can finally relax in more temperate conditions, I wanted to investigate whether the research supports what I experienced firsthand: does heat exposure genuinely impair cognitive function, and if so, to what extent? The literature provides a clear answer. Elevated ambient temperatures have been associated with measurable declines in cognitive performance. As global temperatures continue to rise and heatwaves become more frequent, understanding the relationship between heat exposure...

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Sylvia Frumkin as a Case of Chronic Schizophrenia, Family Adaptation and Mental Health Service Fragmentation

Susan Sheehan's Is There No Place on Earth for Me? follows the life of "Sylvia Frumkin", the pseudonym for Maxine Mason, a woman with chronic schizophrenia whose adult years involved frequent contact with psychiatric institutions in New York. The book can be treated as a long-term case study of how severe mental illness interacts with a person's thinking, family relationships and the way mental health services are organised. It speaks directly to questions in clinical psychology, cognitive neuroscience and mental health services research. Schizophrenia as life course and trajectory Frumkin was born in 1948 and entered psychiatric care in adolescence, first through therapy in her mid-teens and then through admission to Creedmoor Psychiatric Center at sixteen. Over the following decades she was repeatedly admitted to hospital, moved between public and private wards, lived for periods in halfway houses and rehabilitation programmes, and at other times returned to live with her family....

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