Psychology news

• Neural networks: Why larger brains are more susceptible to mental illnesses

  21-07-2016 21:12
  In humans and other mammals, the cerebral cortex is responsible for sensory, motor, and cognitive functions. A new study shows that the global architecture of the cortical networks in large-brained primates and small-brained rodents is organized by common principles. However, primate brains have weaker long-distance connections, which could explain why large brains are more susceptible to mental illnesses including schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
  
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• Researchers temporarily turn off brain area to better understand function

  21-07-2016 20:41
  Capitalizing on experimental genetic techniques, researchers have demonstrated that temporarily turning off an area of the brain changes patterns of activity across much of the remaining brain.
  
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• How the brain improves motor control

  21-07-2016 20:35
  Adaptation in reaching -- gradual improvement of motor control in response to a perturbation -- is a central issue in motor neuroscience. However, even the cortical origin of errors that drive adaptation has remained elusive. Scientists have now shown that error signals encoded by motor cortical neurons drive adaptation in reaching.
  
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• Cerebrospinal fluid signals control the behavior of stem cells in the brain

  21-07-2016 20:34
  The choroid plexus, a largely ignored structure in the brain that produces the cerebrospinal fluid, is an important regulator of adult neural stem cells, research indicates. The study also shows that signals secreted by the choroid plexus dynamically change during aging which affects aged stem cell behavior.
  
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• HD monkeys display full spectrum of symptoms seen in humans

  21-07-2016 16:44
  Transgenic Huntington's disease monkeys display a full spectrum of symptoms resembling the human disease, strengthening the case that they could be used to evaluate emerging treatments before launching human clinical trials.
  
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• Preventive therapy in brain-injured patients lowers risk of pulmonary embolism, DVT

  21-07-2016 16:38
  People who sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at high risk for developing deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. But blood-thinning medications started within 72 hours of hospital arrival have a significant protective effect against these conditions in patients with severe TBI and do not increase risk of bleeding complications or death, say investigators.
  
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• Brains of college athletes with prior concussion show physical changes months, years later

  21-07-2016 16:38
  University athletes with a history of concussion had changes in the size, blood flow and connections in their brains months and even years after the injury -- changes not seen in athletes without prior concussions, a new study has found.
  
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• People estimate their own abilities based on others' performance

  21-07-2016 14:00
  
  Ratings of our own abilities are strongly influenced by the performance of others, according to a study published July 20 in Neuron.
  
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• ‘Verbal judo’: the police tactic that teaches cops to talk before they shoot

  21-07-2016 13:00
  
  The de-escalation technique espoused by George ‘Doc’ Thompson in the 1990s, inoculating officers against high-stress scenarios, is making a comeback in the face of high-profile police shootingsBored with his life in academia, George “Doc” Thompson left his prestigious career and went on to teach a million police officers to ask questions first and shoot later. Thompson was a judo black belt who ran a dojo, studied rhetoric and persuasion at Princeton and had a PhD in Engl
  
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• Postmenopausal hormone therapy has no effect on memory

  21-07-2016 09:00
  
  One of the first large-scale, long-term studies to investigate the effects of hormone therapy on memory in postmenopausal women draws a blank.
  
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• Brain stimulation to reduce food cravings? The data so far...

  21-07-2016 09:00
  
  Available research suggests that noninvasive stimulation of a specific brain area can reduce food cravings - particularly for high-calorie, "appetitive" foods, according to a review in the...
  
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• Abnormalities found in 'insight' areas of the brain in anorexia

  21-07-2016 09:00
  
  Abnormalities in brain regions involved in forming insight may help explain why some people with anorexia nervosa have trouble recognizing their dangerous, dysfunctional eating habits.
  
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• Why is Pokemon Go making people crazy?

  21-07-2016 06:12 via today.com
  
  Psychologists have several explanations for why players forget a basic sense of decorum and safety.
  
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• The murky role of mental illness in extremism, terror

  21-07-2016 06:11 via cbsnews.com
  
  Though mental illness cannot be blamed, questions have been raised again about the links between mental illness, extreme ideology and mass violence.
  
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• Glutamate levels in the brain may be linked to alcohol craving

  21-07-2016 03:54
  Craving consists of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral elements related to a desire to drink alcohol, and can be experienced during intoxication, withdrawal, and/or prior to relapse. Different types of craving are hypothesized to be associated with different neurotransmitter systems. For example, reward craving may be mediated by dopamine and opioids, obsessive craving by serotonin, and relief craving by glutamate. A new study used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) to examine the correl
  
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