Psychology news

• Brain injury researchers find retrieval practice improves memory in youth with tbi

  03-12-2014 22:11
  Brain injury researchers have identified retrieval practice as a useful strategy for improving memory among children and adolescents with traumatic brain injury, researchers have found. Difficulties with memory and learning are common after TBI in childhood. To improve academic achievement and long-term outcomes such as employment, effective neurorehabilitative strategies need to be identified, they note.
  
  Read more

• Computer-based approach to treating anxiety may reduce suicide risk

  03-12-2014 22:10
  A group of psychology researchers has developed a simple computer-based approach to treating anxiety sensitivity, something that could have major implications for veterans and other groups who are considered at risk for suicide. "We have been using computer-delivered interventions for many years now in an effort to more efficiently deliver effective treatments," said a psychology professor. "This study gives us evidence that a brief intervention may help to prevent suicide risk."
  
  Read more

• Brain network detected that gives humans superior reasoning skills

  03-12-2014 20:26
  When it comes to getting out of a tricky situation, we humans have an evolutionary edge over other primates. Scientists have found mounting brain evidence that helps explain how humans have excelled at 'relational reasoning,' a cognitive skill in which we discern patterns and relationships to make sense of seemingly unrelated information.
  
  Read more

• Barrier-breaking drug may lead to spinal cord injury treatments

  03-12-2014 20:25
  
  Injections of a new drug may partially relieve paralyzing spinal cord injuries, based on indications from a study in rats. Every year, tens of thousands of people are paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. The injuries crush and sever the long axons of spinal cord nerve cells, blocking communication between the brain and the body and resulting in paralysis below the injury. On a hunch, researchers came up with the idea of designing a drug that would help axons regenerate without having to touch the
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Brain activity after smokers quit predicts chances of relapsing, suggests study

  03-12-2014 17:07
  Quitting smoking sets off a series of changes in the brain that researchers say may better identify smokers who will start smoking again—a prediction that goes above and beyond today’s clinical or behavioral tools for assessing relapse risk.
  
  Read more

• Taming neural excitations: Pulses might one day lead to controlling harmful signals such as those in strokes

  03-12-2014 16:01
  What do lasers, neural networks, and spreading epidemics have in common? They share a most basic feature whereby an initial pulse can propagate through a medium - be it physical, biological or socio-economic, respectively. The challenge is to gain a better understanding - and eventually control - of such systems, allowing them to be applied, for instance to real neural systems. This is the objective of a new theoretical study.
  
  Read more

• Brain study uncovers new clues on how cues may affect memory

  03-12-2014 14:40
  
  The brain activity prior to seeing an item is related to how well it is later remembered, a new study shows. Moreover, researchers also found that the activity in different areas of the brain was unexpectedly related to how the information was remembered.
  
  Read more

• Brain research reveals new hope for patients with anorexia nervosa

  03-12-2014 14:37
  Researchers used state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to investigate the consequences of anorexia nervosa on brain structure. Their novel findings obtained by measuring “cortical thickness” for the first time in the eating disorder are now published. The authors conclude, “The global thinning of cortical gray matter observed in acutely ill adolescent patients can be completely reversed following successful weight rehabilitation therapy”. 
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Better detection, prevention, and pre-clinical treatment: Three effective tools in the fight against Alzheimer's

  03-12-2014 14:36
  Detection, prevention, and preclinical treatment are three key areas that may make a difference in the battle to reduce the rapid rise of new Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases every year. These three topics are the focus of a new journal supplement.
  
  Read more

• Boys may actually be meaner than girls

  03-12-2014 14:28 via time.com
  
  Study reveals that at every grade level, boys engage in aggressive relationship behavior more often than girls.
  
  Read more

• Close to eight percent of Americans are depressed, but few seek mental health treatment

  03-12-2014 14:27 via latimes.com
  
  Study says one in 13 Americans suffers from moderate or severe depression, with women disproportionately affected.
  
  Read more

• Close to 8 percent of Americans are depressed, but few seek mental health treatment

  03-12-2014 14:27 via latimes.com
  
  Study says one in 13 Americans suffers from moderate or severe depression, with women disproportionately affected.
  
  Read more

• The brain's "suffocation alarm" - new study reports on a genetic clue to fear

  03-12-2014 10:00
  
  Panic disorder is a severe form of anxiety in which the affected individual feels an abrupt onset of fear, often accompanied by profound physical symptoms of discomfort.
  
  Read more

• From specific to generalized fear: neuronal encoding of the switch

  03-12-2014 09:00
  
  "I can't get the memories out of my mind!... I am right back in Vietnam, in the middle of the monsoon season at my guard post. My hands are freezing, yet sweat pours from my entire body...
  
  Read more

• For docs, more biology info means less empathy for mental health patients

  03-12-2014 09:00
  
  Give therapists and psychiatrists information about the biology of a mental disorder, and they have less -- not more -- empathy for the patient, a new Yale study shows.The findings released Dec.
  
  Read more

• You're doomed!

  03-12-2014 07:00
  
  Forget about positive thinking. If you really want to be happy, focus on all the ways your life could go wrong
  
  Download the free Happy for Life app for iOS and Android
  Edgar Allan Poe’s 1845 short story The Imp of the Perverse is a tale told by a murderer. He has committed an undetectable crime, killing his wealthy benefactor by poisoning his bedside candle, then stealing his fortune. He’s guaranteed to escape unpunished. But then, one day, an “unnameable feeling” creeps over his heart
  
  Read more

• Stroke researchers link frontal lesions with improved spatial neglect after prism therapy

  03-12-2014 00:33
  Stroke researchers have found that the presence of frontal lesions predicts better functional improvement in individuals with spatial neglect who received prism adaptation therapy.
  
  Read more

• Blows to head damage brain's 'garbage truck,' accelerate dementia

  03-12-2014 00:33
  
  Traumatic brain injury can disrupt the function of the brain's waste removal system, research confirms. When this occurs, toxic proteins may accumulate in the brain, setting the stage for the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
  
  Read more

• Multiple sclerosis: First evidence of a rogue protein

  03-12-2014 00:33
  A rogue protein has been identified in multiple sclerosis, which attacks the body's central nervous system. Reporting for the first time, researchers believe this finding could pave the way for better understanding of multiple sclerosis and new treatments against neurodegenerative diseases.
  
  Read more

Follow @PsychologyUKnws on Twitter!