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Four more former professional soccer players have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. ... Researchers say heading the ball is dangerous and should be phased out, especially for children. The new diagnoses come as soccer officials gather in Chicago for a Head Injury Summit. Some of the ex-players’ families say hearing from those who suffered from the disease is a key to preventing and treating it. (Golen, 5/16)

A growing number of scientific studies done over the past 15 years have found links between repeated head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease. Many of those have come via the C.T.E. Center at Boston University, which has examined the brains of hundreds of former N.F.L. players and other athletes and military personnel. (Belson, 5/18)

Looking to improve your mental health? Pay attention to birds. Two studies published last year in Scientific Reports said that seeing or hearing birds could be good for our mental well-being. (Sima, 5/18)

A dozen counselors on what it’s really like to sit in the other armchair. (Wang, 5/17)

People are lonely the world over. But as far back as the early 19th century, when the word “loneliness” began to be used in its current context in American life, some were already asking the question: Do the contours of American society — that emphasis on individualism, that spreading out with impunity over a vast, sometimes outsized landscape — encourage isolation and alienation? Or is that, like other chunks of the American story, a premise built on myths? (Anthony, 5/16)

Every day, Joseph Dituri wakes up around 5 a.m., walks to his work station and basks in the sun that hovers above him. This sun, however, is a yellow pillow with a smiling face in the center. Dituri hung it on his wall to remind him of the real sun, which he hasn’t seen in more than 75 days. Dituri, a hyperbaric medicine researcher and associate professor at the University of South Florida, has been living in an underwater pod in Key Largo, Fla., since March 1. He’s exploring whether living underwater is possible through daily tests on his brain, heart, lungs and blood. (Melnick, 5/16)

It’s a dark time for therapists treating adolescents in despair. But some things do work. (Jones, 5/17)

It’s hard to keep track of when to start getting screened for health issues. Here’s a guide. (Reddy, 5/18)

Raising children in your 40s can be wrenching, rewarding, complicated and sublime in all the ways parenthood is, but it also comes with its own triumphs and challenges. The Times recently asked mothers who had children after 40 to share their experiences, and nearly 1,200 responded. Here are seven of their stories. (Blum, 5/14)

China’s push to expand its economic reach is driving deforestation and escalating the risk of a bat virus infecting humanity, a Reuters data analysis shows. (McNeill, Nelson, Martell and Ovaska, 5/16)