Psychology news

• 'A national hero': psychologist who warned of torture collusion gets her due

  13-07-2015 22:24
  
  Jean Maria Arrigo was largely ignored and the subject of a smear campaign for sounding alarms about psychologists’ post-9/11 torture complicity but has emerged from the damning report as the story’s hero – and martyrJean Maria Arrigo’s inbox is filling up with apologies.For a decade, colleagues of the 71-year-old psychologist ignored, derided and in some cases attacked Arrigo for sounding alarms that the American Psychological Association was implicated in US torture. But now that a deva
  
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• Psychologists could torture because they have no Hippocratic oath | Garrett Koren

  13-07-2015 19:15
  
  It would have been out of the question for a physician to participate in torture. For psychologists, this was a subject for debateIt should come as no surprise that the architects of the CIA’s enhanced torture program were psychologists and not psychiatrists. During my psychiatry residency in the federal prison system, there was one divide between doctors and prison guards that could not be crossed: I was exempt from firearms training. The psychologists in my cohort, however, were required to
  
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• Learning impacts how the brain processes what we see

  13-07-2015 19:14
  From the smell of flowers to the taste of wine, our perception is strongly influenced by prior knowledge and expectations, a cognitive process known as top-down control. Neuroscientists and neurobiologists report that in mouse models, the brain significantly changed its visual cortex operation modes by implementing top-down processes during learning.
  
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• New compounds may treat depression rapidly with few side effects

  13-07-2015 19:13
  A new study has identified promising compounds that could successfully treat depression in less than 24 hours with few side effects. The compounds could offer significant advantages over current antidepressant medications.
  
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• Brain study reveals insights into genetic basis of autism

  13-07-2015 17:33
  A link between autism and genetic changes in some segments of DNA that are responsible for switching on genes in the brain has been uncovered by researchers. The finding is the result of a world-first study of the human brain that identified more than 100 of these DNA segments, known as enhancers, which are thought to play a vital role in normal development by controlling gene activity in the brain.
  
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• Microbleeds, diminished cerebral blood flow in cognitively normal older patients

  13-07-2015 17:32
  A small imaging study suggests cortical cerebral microbleeds in the brain, which are the remnant of red blood cell leakage from small vessels, were associated with reduced brain blood flow in a group of cognitively normal older patients, according to a new article.
  
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• New applications of drug fingolimod to improve cognitive deficits in Huntington's disease

  13-07-2015 16:36
  Fingolimod, a drug used to treat multiple sclerosis, restores hippocampal synaptic plasticity and improves memory function. This is the main conclusion of a study in a mouse model of Huntington disease.
  
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• How to cut children's screen time? Say no to yourself first.

  13-07-2015 16:23
  Parents have a better chance of controlling their children’s addiction to texting and gaming if they set aside family times for putting down devices.
  
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• Gwyneth Paltrow's guide to yawning

  13-07-2015 16:14
  
  What would we do without Gwynnie? Not only has she taught the world to cook an egg but she has now explained how to yawn properlyFrom suncream to bed-making, the internet is full of advice on mundane endeavours which you have apparently been “doing wrong” your whole life.And you’ve been doing yawning wrong too, according to Gwyneth Paltrow.Related: Contagious yawning in the red-footed tortoise “Not only do predicted brain and localised body temperature fluctuations surround yawning event
  
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• Amotivational Syndrome Isn’t All About Cannabis Use

  13-07-2015 12:52 via counsellingresource.com
  
  Amotivational Syndrome doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with chronic marijuana use, but it does appear to be associated with use of reliable, easily accessible sources of instantaneous gratification.Tags: drug abuse, in practice, motivation
  
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• How do common medications influence moral decisions?

  13-07-2015 08:00
  
  A recent study shows that medications used to treat depression and Parkinson’s disease can alter moral decision-making in healthy people. Lead author Molly Crockett discusses what we can and cannot conclude from these findings.Can drugs change our morals? My colleagues and I recently addressed this question in a study carried out at University College London. We gave healthy people the opportunity to earn money by delivering painful electric shocks to either themselves or others, and investiga
  
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• U.N. Push Ended Extreme Poverty for a Billion People, Report Concludes

  13-07-2015 01:29 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: The GuardianBan Ki-moon hails achievements of millennium development goals but warns world still riven by inequality. The millennium development goals (MDGs) have driven “the most successful anti-poverty movement in history” and brought more than a billion people out of extreme penury, but their achievements have been mixed and the world remains deeply riven by inequality, the UN ’s final report on the goals has concluded. Ban Ki-moon, the UN...
  
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• Top Psychologists Aided CIA and Pentagon, Says Torture Investigation

  13-07-2015 01:29 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: USA Today - Top StoriesAmerican Psychological Association's board wants to ban psychologists from interrogations.        
  
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• Psychologists Could Face Charges After Alleged Post-9/11 "Collusion"

  13-07-2015 01:29 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: The GuardianFollowing repeated denials that its members were complicit in Bush administration-era torture, leading group of psychologists faces a reckoning. The largest association of psychologists in the United States is on the brink of a crisis, the Guardian has learned, as an independent review prepares to reveal that medical professionals lied and covered up their extensive involvement in post-9/11 torture. The revelation, puncturing years of denials,...
  
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• Disability Pride Parade Draws Thousands Marking Milestone

  13-07-2015 01:29 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: Google NewsNew York City hosted its first parade Sunday supporting people with disabilities, with more than 3,000 participants heading up Broadway using wheelchairs, canes and guide dogs. "We're here full force," said rapper Namel Norris, 33, now in a wheelchair
  
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• Comic-Con: Women Tired of Groping Geeks and Credibility Checks

  13-07-2015 01:29 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: BBC News - Top HeadlinesWomen are taking back Comic-Con in the face of sexism.
  
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• British Slave Ownership Unearthed in New Documentary

  13-07-2015 01:29 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: The GuardianA new BBC documentary tells how a trove of documents lays bare the names of Britain’s 46,000 slave owners, including relatives of Gladstone and Orwell The past has a disconcerting habit of bursting, uninvited and unwelcome, into the present. This year history gate-crashed modern America in the form of a 150-year-old document: a few sheets of paper that compelled Hollywood actor Ben Affleck to issue a public apology and forced the highly...
  
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