Psychology news

• A probiotic stress fix

  27-03-2017 23:28
  An engineer is working to create a probiotic that would help protect the host from the negative health effects of adrenaline surges. The new probiotic could easily be mixed into yogurt or taken in pill form.
  
  Read more

• Psychologists enlist machine learning to help diagnose depression

  27-03-2017 22:49
  Cognitive neuroscientists are using the Stampede supercomputer to provide accurate predictions of risk for those with depression and anxiety. They have been able to classify individuals with major depressive disorder with roughly 75 percent accuracy using a machine learning approach. Stampede 2 -- which will come online later in 2017 -- will provide the increased computer processing required to incorporate more data and achieve even greater accuracy.
  
  Read more

• Microrna treatment restores nerve insulation, limb function in mice with MS

  27-03-2017 20:36
  Scientists partially re-insulated ravaged nerves in mouse models of multiple sclerosis (MS) and restored limb mobility by treating the animals with a small non-coding RNA called a microRNA. In a new article, researchers report that treatment with a microRNA called miR-219 restarted production of a substance called myelin that is critical to normal function of the central nervous system.
  
  Read more

• Graphene-based neural probes probe brain activity in high resolution

  27-03-2017 19:12
  Graphene-based transistors enable a flexible neural probe with excellent signal-to-noise ratio. Such probes are useful for examining neural activity for understanding diseases, as well as in neuroprosthetics for control of artificial limbs.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Why are primates big-brained? Researchers' answer is food for thought

  27-03-2017 17:47
  Brain size in primates is predicted by diet, an analysis by a team of anthropologists indicates. These results call into question “the social brain hypothesis,” which has posited that humans and other primates are big-brained due to factors pertaining to sociality.
  
  Read more

• Improving memory with magnets

  27-03-2017 17:43
  The ability to remember sounds, and manipulate them in our minds, is incredibly important to our daily lives -- without it we would not be able to understand a sentence, or do simple arithmetic. New research is shedding light on how sound memory works, and is even demonstrating a means to improve it.
  
  Read more

• Weight-loss drug shows potential to treat opioid abuse

  27-03-2017 16:00
  
  A new study shows the prescription weight-loss drug lorcaserin has potential to treat opioid abuse - it reduced oxycodone seeking and craving in rats.
  
  Read more

• Playing to beat the blues: Video games viable treatment for depression

  27-03-2017 14:31
  Video games and 'brain training' applications are increasingly touted as an effective treatment for depression. A new study carries it a step further, though, finding that when the video game users were messaged reminders, they played the game more often and in some cases increased the time spent playing.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Identifying genes key to human memory: Insights from genetics and cognitive neuroscience

  27-03-2017 14:31
  Researchers have identified more than 100 genes important for memory in people. The study is among the first to identify correlations between gene data and brain activity during memory processing, providing a new window into human memory. It is part of the nascent but growing field of 'imaging genetics,' which aims to relate genetic variation to variation in brain anatomy and function.
  
  Read more

• From the classroom to the NICU: Real-world neuroscience opening new avenues

  27-03-2017 14:31
  When going to the movies with friends, one small action can make a big difference to be on the same page after the movie: eye contact. A simple conversation before the movie sets you up to be more in sync with your friends after the movie. These findings come from an unlikely place -- not the lab, or even a movie theater, but a classroom.
  
  Read more

• Healing the Fractured Self

  27-03-2017 12:13 via counsellingresource.com
  
  Reconciling the kinds of deep internal divisions which trauma victims may experience, acknowledging and accepting the polar opposites in their own feelings and desires, can be the task of a lifetime. Tags: abuse and trauma, in practice, relationships
  
  Read more

• Bad language: why being bilingual makes swearing easier

  27-03-2017 12:07
  
  Bilingual reduced emotional resonance is fairly well-established, but why does it happen? And does that have a knock-on effect for different communities?My dad had a liberal philosophy of childrearing, but he would always tell us off for swearing. As a result, I grew up feeling very uncomfortable using swearwords. Or, at least, so I thought – when I first moved to Scotland, I noticed that it was actually very easy to swear in English. Interestingly enough, I also found it easy to talk to m
  
  Read more

• Toddlers Understand What Others Are Thinking, Studies Suggest

  27-03-2017 08:02 via feeds.socialpsychology.org
  
  Source: Time MagazineUntil a few decades ago, scholars believed that young children know very little, if anything, about what others are thinking. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, who is credited with founding the scientific study of children’s thinking, was convinced that preschool children cannot consider what goes on in the minds of others. The interviews and experiments he….
  
  Read more

Follow @PsychologyUKnws on Twitter!