Psychology news

• Can autism be measured in a sniff?

  02-07-2015 19:22
  Imagine the way you might smell a rose. You'd take a nice big sniff to breathe in the sweet but subtle floral scent. Upon walking into a public restroom, you'd likely do just the opposite -- abruptly limiting the flow of air through your nose. Now, researchers have found that people with autism spectrum disorder don't make this natural adjustment like other people do.
  
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• Water to understand the brain

  02-07-2015 19:17
  To observe the brain in action, scientists and physicians use imaging techniques, among which functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is the best known. These techniques are not based on direct observations of electric impulses from activated neurons, but on one of their consequences. Indeed, this stimulation triggers physiological modifications in the activated cerebral region, changes that become visible by imaging. Until now, it was believed that these differences were only due to modifi
  
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• School shootings, mass killings are 'contagious,' study finds

  02-07-2015 16:26
  
  A new study finds that mass killings spread contagiously
  and the window for copycat killings lasts about 13 days.
  
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• Health information causing new moms anxiety

  02-07-2015 15:49
  Pregnancy and motherhood are both wonderful and worrisome times -- could public health campaigns and social stereotypes be contributing to anxiety for mothers? Researchers suggest that perinatal anxiety disorders are common but much less attention has been paid to anxiety than depression.
  
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• Intrusiveness of old emotional memories can be reduced by computer game play procedure

  02-07-2015 15:49
  Unwanted, intrusive visual memories are a core feature of stress- and trauma-related clinical disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they can also crop up in everyday life. New research shows that even once intrusive memories have been laid down, playing a visually-demanding computer game after reactivating the memories may reduce their occurrence over time.
  
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• Hearing words, writing sounds: examining the author's brain

  02-07-2015 15:35
  
  Kamila Shamsie always revises her work by reading aloud, but AS Byatt looks for the rhythms of the page. Richard Lea goes in search of what happens in the brain when we write and read fictionThe novelist Kamila Shamsie measures out her life as an author in chapters, punctuated by a familiar ritual.“Usually at the end of writing every chapter I’ll print out and read aloud,” she says. It’s something she’s been doing since university, she continues, citing the Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Al
  
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• How the human brain might reconstruct past events

  02-07-2015 13:36
  When remembering something from our past, we often vividly re-experience the whole episode in which it occurred. New research has now revealed how this might happen in the brain. The study shows that when someone tries to remember one aspect of an event, such as who they met yesterday, the representation of the entire event can be reactivated in the brain, including incidental information such as where they were and what they did.
  
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• New epigenetic mechanism revealed in brain cells

  02-07-2015 12:00
  For decades, researchers in the genetics field have theorized that the protein spools around which DNA is wound, histones, remain constant in the brain, never changing after development in the womb.
  
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• Major depression tied to smaller hippocampus

  02-07-2015 12:00
  The hippocampus - an area of the brain involved in forming new memories - is significantly smaller in people with major depression, says a large international study.
  
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• Statins 'lower aggression in men but increase it in women'

  02-07-2015 10:00
  Women who take the cholesterol-lowering drugs statins may experience increased aggression, a new study suggests, while men who take them may have reduced aggression.
  
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• St John's Wort side effects warning

  02-07-2015 09:00
  The popular herbal medicine St. John's Wort, commonly used in the treatment of depression, has been found to cause the same adverse reactions as prescription antidepressants in a new study...
  
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• Rise in numbers of teenagers given antipsychotics

  02-07-2015 09:00
  Teenagers between 13 and 18 are being treated more with antipsychotics, and mostly for conditions that do not involve psychosis, study suggests.
  
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• Placebos 'relieve symptoms, improve treatments'

  02-07-2015 09:00
  A new research paper hails the medical benefits of the placebo effect, describing how 'dummy pills' can relieve symptoms and make other treatments more effective.
  
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• U.S. Police Kill Someone in Mental or Emotional Crisis Every 36 Hours

  02-07-2015 08:10 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: Time MagazineIn most cases, police were called not because of a crime but by a concerned bystander or loved one.
  
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• There's a Sign Women Are Ovulating, But Men Can't Detect It

  02-07-2015 08:10 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: Yahoo News - ScienceWomen's cheeks get redder when they are the most fertile, but this color change is so subtle that it is undetectable by the human eye, a new study finds. After analyzing the photos, the researchers concluded that the women's faces got redder around the time they ovulated. "This is the first study to conclusively show that women's faces do change in redness over the course of the menstrual cycle," said Robert Burriss, a co-author of the study and...
  
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• Episcopalian Church Votes to Approve Same-Sex Marriage

  02-07-2015 08:10 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: CBS News - U.S. NewsFollowing the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the denomination makes religious weddings open to all couples.
  
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• Do Cholesterol Drugs Affect Aggression?

  02-07-2015 08:10 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: U.S. News and World ReportStudy finds it's possible, but more research is suggested.
  
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• Brain Activity Predicts Promiscuity and Problem Drinking

  02-07-2015 08:10 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: ScienceDailyA new pair of brain-imaging studies suggest that researchers may be able to predict how likely young adults are to develop problem drinking or risky sexual behavior in response to stress. The research is part of the ongoing Duke Neurogenetics Study or DNS, which began in 2010 to better understand how interactions between the brain, genome, and environment shape risky behaviors predicting mental illnesses including depression, anxiety, and...
  
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• Antipsychotics Prescribed More Often for Boys Than Girls

  02-07-2015 08:10 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: ScienceDailyBoys are more likely than girls to receive a prescription for antipsychotic medication regardless of age, researchers have found. Approximately 1.5 percent of boys ages 10-18 received an antipsychotic prescription in 2010, although the percentage falls by nearly half after age 19. Among antipsychotic users with mental disorder diagnoses, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was the most common among youth ages 1-18, depression was the most...
  
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