Psychology News and Research

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Psychology is the study of human mental functions, behavior and processes.

Findings could lead to new targeted therapies for speech and learning disabilities

A team of University of Oregon researchers have isolated an independent processing channel of synapses inside the brain's auditory cortex that deals specifically with shutting off sound processing at appropriate times.

11 Feb 2010

Existing sleep deprivation theory challenged

What goes on in your brain when you're sleep deprived and how does it affect your ability to process information and make decisions?

11 Feb 2010

Brain researchers explore link between emotion and memory

In a novel study that used historical tape of a thrilling overtime basketball game between Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, brain researchers at Duke have found that fans remember the good things their team did much better than the bad.

10 Feb 2010

Are women set up for failure?

Leadership positions in business have proven to be precarious for women. Female business leaders are more likely to be appointed to powerful leadership positions when an organization is in crisis or high-risk circumstances.

10 Feb 2010

VSV has potential to be genetically modified to serve as anti-cancer agent

Vesicular stomatitis virus, or VSV, has long been a model system for studying and understanding the life cycle of negative-strand RNA viruses, which include viruses that cause influenza, measles and rabies.

10 Feb 2010

Autism Speaks: Ten most significant autism research achievements in 2009

Autism Speaks, the world's largest autism science and advocacy organization has released its annual list of the 10 most significant research achievements to have impacted autism during the previous year. Every year, Autism Speaks documents the progress made toward its mission to discover the causes and treatment for autism spectrum disorders, and compiles a list of the 10 most significant research achievements to have impacted autism during the previous year.

10 Feb 2010

Maternal obesity increases offspring's risk of developing inflammation-related disorders

As if there are not enough reasons for obese people to lose weight, a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), adds several more. In a study involving rats, researchers from Duke University found that obesity in mothers causes cellular programming in utero that predisposes offspring to inflammation-related disorders (such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and more) from the day that they are born, regardless of whether or not the offspring are obese themselves.

10 Feb 2010

Study challenges clinical myths about effects of depression on cognitive functioning

Many clinicians believe that depression goes hand in hand with cognitive difficulties such as memory problems or difficulties concentrating and paying attention, but a recent review of nearly 20 years of literature conducted by researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center has found that depression does not always lead to such impairments.

10 Feb 2010

Six months old infants know when we're "playing" them

A study by York University researchers reveals that infants as young as six months old know when we're "playing" them - and they don't like it.

10 Feb 2010

Risk of missed doses underestimated, effective guidance programmes needed

Many patients with chronic conditions do not take as much of their medication as they should. As a result, the effectiveness of the treatment is often suboptimal, and it also becomes more expensive. Until now, the extent to which the guidance of patients could be improved to promote the correct use of medication had been unclear.

9 Feb 2010

Finding provides new insight into economic behavior of human beings

Neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and their colleagues have tied the human aversion to losing money to a specific structure in the brain-the amygdala.

9 Feb 2010

Innovative health text messaging applications launched

Health Txts assists people in changing unhealthy behaviors by sending text messages that encourage specific self-improvement goals at the times and in the places people need it most. For example, someone may receive a message at 10pm saying "only floss the teeth you want to keep." Health Txts can be used for nearly any self-improvement goal such as reducing drinking, eating healthier or even becoming more environmentally conscious.

6 Feb 2010

"Kin selection hypothesis" may explain homosexuality from an evolutionary point of view

Male homosexuality doesn't make complete sense from an evolutionary point of view. It appears that the trait is heritable, but because homosexual men are much less likely to produce offspring than heterosexual men, shouldn't the genes for this trait have been extinguished long ago? What value could this sexual orientation have, that it has persisted for eons even without any discernible reproductive advantage?

5 Feb 2010

APA urges Pentagon and Congress to end restrictions on gays and lesbians serving in military

The American Psychological Association urged both the Pentagon and Congress today to move swiftly to end the restrictions on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, noting that there are decades of scientific research demonstrating no threat to military readiness or morale.

5 Feb 2010

Older married female cancer survivors have added health problems

A recently published study from Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences found 245 older married women who survived cancer had more health problems as compared to a sample of 245 married women without cancer.

4 Feb 2010

Regular physical activity prevents chronic illness: Surgeon General urged to make outdoor time a health priority

National Wildlife Federation (NWF), more than 200 health, conservation, youth, and other organizations, and 16,300 Americans are urging the new surgeon general to make time outdoors a health priority for children.

4 Feb 2010

Penn Medicine experts available to offer medical insight and commentary during 2010 Winter Olympics

Experts from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are available to offer expert medical insight and commentary during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver on issues ranging from the effects of performance enhancing drugs to concerns about the spread of novel H1N1, head trauma and more.

3 Feb 2010

Cancer survivors become advocates for other cancer patients

Sociologists at Case Western Reserve University found that when passive cancer patients become survivors, they have plenty of bold advice to offer other cancer patients, according to a study in JAGS, the Journal of American Geriatric Society.

3 Feb 2010

Novelty may help prevent relapse in drug addicts

The brain's innate interest in the new and different may help trump the power of addictive drugs, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. In controlled experiments, novelty drew cocaine-treated rats away from the place they got cocaine.

2 Feb 2010

Millennials overly optimistic about their health despite unhealthy habits

According to Life University, a leading chiropractic college and vital health university, Millennials (ages 15-27), are overly optimistic about their own health, despite admitting to the same unhealthy habits that have caused chronic illness in previous generations.

2 Feb 2010