Psychology news

• How depression and antidepressant drugs work

  18-05-2016 22:52
  New research demonstrates the effectiveness of ketamine to treat depression in a mouse model of the disease. The brings together two hypotheses: 1) that depression results from deficits in GABA signaling and 2) that depression results from deficits in glutamate signaling. It shows that the depression-like behavior in the research mice results from the reduction of both GABA and glutamate, and importantly, that both can be restored with a single dose of ketamine.
  
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• From drug of abuse to a glimpse into depression

  18-05-2016 21:34
  Ketamine, a synthetic analogue of PCP, has recently taken the spotlight as a novel, fast-acting antidepressant. However, experts say that more research on usage of ketamine as an antidepressant is needed.
  
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• How your brain learns to ride the subway, and why AI developers care

  18-05-2016 18:55
  In machine learning, a programmer might develop an AI that can calculate all possible consequences of a single action. Humans, however, don't have the same raw computational power; we have to efficiently create and execute a plan. We mentally invent different 'layers' to organize our actions and then think about the higher levels rather than individual steps, according to a new study.
  
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• Mexico's President Calls for Legalization of Same-Sex Marriage

  18-05-2016 18:24 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: The GuardianMexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has called for the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage, announcing that he had signed initiatives proposing that marriage equality be written into the country’s constitution and federal civil code.
  
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• World Bank Head: Invest in Girls' Health to Compete in the Digital Future

  18-05-2016 18:23 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: Yahoo News - HealthCountries which fail to invest in young women's health will be left behind because the underdeveloped brains of their children will not be equipped to compete in an increasingly complex, digital world, the head of the World Bank said on Wednesday. Jim Yong Kim said childhood stunting, which impairs cognitive ability, was a "great unrecognized disaster happening in the world right now."
  
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• U.S. Public Schools Becoming More Racially Segregated

  18-05-2016 18:23 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: MSNBC - Top NewsRacial segregation has been deepening in public education, offering a sobering reminder of the nation's history when it comes to racial and economic isolation in classrooms, according to a recent report published by the Government Accountability Office Tuesday.
  
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• New York Aims to Become the Next State to Toss the Tampon Tax

  18-05-2016 18:21 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: Google News - HealthFeminine products are having a moment. With some calling for a red wave to take the taboo out of menstruation, politicians across the country are trying to make tampons and sanitary pads as affordable and accessible as possible.
  
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• Muslim Nations Block Gay Groups from United Nations AIDS Conference

  18-05-2016 18:21 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  Source: Yahoo News - Top HeadlinesMajor Western nations are protesting a move to block gay and transgender groups from attending a high-level United Nations conference on AIDS.
  
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• Colors of autism spectrum described by researchers

  18-05-2016 18:05
  Children with autism have a wide range of ability to talk with other people, but it has been difficult to group children by their specific skills. Now researchers have developed an autism classification system that defines levels of social communications ability among those with autism spectrum disorder.
  
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• Conventional radiation therapy may not protect healthy brain cells

  18-05-2016 18:04
  Repeated radiation therapy used to target tumors in the brain may not be as safe to healthy brain cells as previously assumed. The findings of a new study show that the treatment also kills important support cells in the brain and may cause as much, if not more damage, than single dose radiation therapy.
  
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• Magic mushroom compound could help treat depression

  18-05-2016 18:00
  
  Psilocybin - the hallucinogenic ingredient in magic mushrooms - could relieve symptoms in people with treatment-resistant depression, suggests new research.
  
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• Elton John: North Carolina "Bathroom Bill" Shows "Failure of Compassion"

  18-05-2016 17:50 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: The GuardianNorth Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill” demonstrates lawmakers’ “failure of compassion” because it shuts out the state’s LGBT community, Sir Elton John has said. The state’s HB2 bill – signed by the Republican governor, Pat McCrory, in March – blocks local governments from creating protections for LGBT people and requires transgender people to use the bathroom for the gender they don’t identify with.
  
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• Tourette's syndrome: More than meets the ears

  18-05-2016 17:00
  
  Though it only affects 10-15 percent of people with Tourette's, involuntary swearing is perceived as a key symptom of the neurological condition. We investigate why.
  
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• ADHD in young adulthood examined in JAMA Psychiatry studies

  18-05-2016 17:00
  
  Many Young Adults with ADHD Did Not Have Childhood Diagnosis Among a group of young adults with ADHD at age 18, many of them did not meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD at any assessment in...
  
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• The Power Paradox by Dacher Keltner review – how success triggers self-absorption

  18-05-2016 16:30
  
  Powerful people believe it’s fine for them to break rules others should follow. The psychologist whose work informed the movie Inside Out discovers how to get to the top“It is far safer to be feared than loved,” wrote Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince, the founding text of the philosophy of realpolitik. These days, anyone wishing to establish their credentials as a hard-headed commentator on global affairs need only echo that bleak assessment: sure, it’s all very w
  
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• Researchers shed light on pathway from virus to brain disease

  18-05-2016 16:28
  Why people on immunosuppressant drugs for autoimmune conditions have a higher incidence of an often-fatal brain disease may be linked to a mutation in a common virus, according to researchers.
  
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• How depression and antidepressant drugs work: New insight from depressed mice helps researchers unite two hypotheses

  18-05-2016 14:00
  
  New research demonstrates the effectiveness of ketamine to treat depression in a mouse model of the disease and brings together two hypotheses for the cause of depression.
  
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• Enhanced hippocampal-cortical coupling improves memory

  18-05-2016 13:42
  For the first time, scientists have produced direct evidence that the long-term storage of memories involves a dialogue between two brain structures, the hippocampus and cortex, during sleep; by enhancing this dialogue, they succeeded in triggering the consolidation of memories that would otherwise have been forgotten.
  
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• Scientists develop 'virtual partner' that can elicit emotional responses from a human partner in real-time

  18-05-2016 13:00
  
  Can machines think? That's what renowned mathematician Alan Turing sought to understand back in the 1950s when he created an imitation game to find out if a human interrogator could tell a human...
  
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• Not feeling confident? Here are six ways to fake it

  18-05-2016 12:20
  
  From adjusting your body language, to dressing in a way that makes you feel good, here’s our guide to projecting the best version of yourself
  “Fake it til you make it” – the concept that if you act more confident than you feel, it will become a self-fulfilling prophesy – is widely proposed as a way to boost self-esteem. Rachel Davis, a 21-year-old linguistics student at University College London, has tried this technique in new situations with unfamiliar people. &ld
  
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• As attention grows, transgender children’s numbers are elusive

  18-05-2016 05:22 via nytimes.com
  Researchers have not figured out how to obtain consistent, reliable answers from teenagers, much less younger children.
  
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• Moms’ middle-school blues

  18-05-2016 05:20 via wsj.com
  
  Mothers feel more anxious, dissatisfied and doubtful about their own parenting skills when their children are in middle school than at any other stage, new research shows.
  
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• Magic mushrooms 'promising' in depression

  18-05-2016 05:20 via bbc.com
  
  A hallucinogenic chemical in magic mushrooms shows promise for people with untreatable depression, a very short study hints.
  
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