Psychology news

• Why it’s time to end in-person voting once and for all | Ben Pryor

  25-02-2016 22:54
  
  Recent studies show how the building where you vote – whether it’s a church or a school – can subconsciously influence which boxes you check on the ballotDuring President Obama’s final State of the Union address, he called for reforms to the voting process, saying, “We’ve got to make it easier to vote, not harder. We need to modernize it for the way we live now.”Just ahead of Super Tuesday and in the midst of the presidential primaries – where we&r
  
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• Mental abilities are shaped by individual differences in the brain

  25-02-2016 21:38
  Everyone has a different mixture of personality traits: some are outgoing, some are tough and some are anxious. A new study suggests that brains also have different traits that affect both anatomical and cognitive factors, such as intelligence and memory.
  
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• Antidepressant may improve cognitive symptoms in people with HIV

  25-02-2016 21:36
  The antidepressant paroxetine modestly improves decision-making and reaction time, and suppresses inflammation in people with HIV-associated cognitive impairment, physicians report at the conclusion of a small, placebo-controlled clinical trial.
  
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• Only a small portion of synapses may be active during neurotransmission, study finds

  25-02-2016 20:04
  A new optical technique shows how information is transmitted in the brains of mice. Using this method, they found that only a small portion of synapses -- the connections between cells that control brain activity -- may be active at any given time.
  
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• What makes the brain tick so fast?

  25-02-2016 20:02
  Surprisingly complex interactions between neurotransmitter receptors and other key proteins help explain the brain's ability to process information with lightning speed, according to a new study. Scientists combined experimental techniques to examine fast-acting protein macromolecules, known as AMPA receptors, which are a major player in brain signaling.
  
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• Let it go: Reaction to stress more important than its frequency

  25-02-2016 20:02
  How you perceive and react to stressful events is more important to your health than how frequently you encounter stress, according to health researchers.
  
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• How brain oscillations might respond to teleportation

  25-02-2016 19:57
  Technology may not have caught up to the teleportation devices of science fiction, but now we have some idea of how the brain handles 'beaming up' from one location to another, thanks to research by neuroscientists involving some specially wired volunteers.
  
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• Discovery of key abnormality affecting brain development in people with Down syndrome

  25-02-2016 19:56
  For the first time, researchers have identified the lifelong changes in gene expression in the brains of people born with Down syndrome (DS). The findings may lead to possible therapies for DS patients.
  
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• Cooling technique protects speech during brain surgery

  25-02-2016 19:48
  A new cooling technique can both protect the brain’s speech centers during surgery and pinpoint the areas separately responsible for word formation and speech timing, report scientists.
  
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• The new SAT is A) a big change B) still important C) controversial D) all of the above

  25-02-2016 19:30 via cnn.com
  Some testing experts worry the new exam could put certain students at a disadvantage.
  
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• Attention bias modification treatment in depressed adolescents

  25-02-2016 18:00
  
  A study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) reports that adolescents with major depression who performed a computer-based task designed to...
  
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• This is your brain on exercise

  25-02-2016 16:12
  People who exercise have better mental fitness, and a new imaging study now shows why. The finding offers new insights into brain metabolism and why exercise could become an important part of treating depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders linked with deficiencies in neurotransmitters, which drive communications between the brain cells that regulate physical and emotional health.
  
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• New interactive tool to explore the brain

  25-02-2016 14:59
  PyramidalExplorer, a free distributed software toolkit, has been developed to allow researchers to study the organization of the pyramidal neuron in depth.
  
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• Composing and arranging music partly genetically determined

  25-02-2016 14:59
  A new study identifies genome variants and pathways that contribute to composing and arranging in musically trained individuals. The study estimates the inherited proportion as 30% for these characteristics. Genes linked to composing and arranging suggest the role of the cerebellar LTD pathway, known to affect the acquisition of novel information and memory, as a common denominator for these cognitive activities.
  
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• Team suppresses oxidative stress, neuronal death associated with Alzheimer's disease

  25-02-2016 14:56
  The brain is an enormous network of communication, containing over 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons, with branches that connect at more than 100 trillion points. They are constantly sending signals through a vast neuron forest that forms memories, thoughts and feelings; these patterns of activity form the essence of each person. Alzheimer's disease (AD) disrupts both the way electrical charges travel within cells and the activity of neurotransmitters. New research advances our understanding o
  
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• Sleep changes seen with fetal alcohol exposure partly explain learning and mood problems

  25-02-2016 13:00
  
  Slow-wave sleep - the deeper sleep during which the brain turns each day's events into permanent memories - is fragmented in adulthood in people exposed to high levels of alcohol in the womb.
  
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• Patterns of nonrandom mating within and across major psychiatric disorders

  25-02-2016 13:00
  
  Couples can tend to be more alike in some characteristics than might otherwise be expected by chance.
  
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• Study shows genetic counseling helps psychiatric patients

  25-02-2016 10:00
  
  A new University of British Columbia study shows that genetic counselling helps patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and similar conditions understand and cope with their illness.
  
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• Placebos: How Do They Work? What Is The Placebo Effect?

  25-02-2016 09:00
  
  The placebo effect is mysterious, pervasive and clinically important. Here we discuss what it is and theories as to how the placebo effect works.
  
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