Editor’s Selections: Autism rates, looking young, earworms, and pain management
January 5th, 2010 Editor's Selections 9 Comments
Dave Munger selects several notable posts each week from psychology and neuroscience. He blogs at Cognitive Daily and has a weekly column on SEEDMAGAZINE.COM.
Since I didn’t post any Editor’s Selections over the holiday break, you get an extra bonus selection — five, instead of my usual four choices. Happy New Year! (And a big thanks to Vincent Racaniello and Dr. SkySkull for holding down the fort over break!)
- Is autism really surging? Michelle Dawson wonders whether the recent rise in autism rates can be traced to methodological differences in studies tracking autism rates.
- We know many men are attracted to younger women, but what does it mean to look younger? Wayne Hooke looks at a recent study and concludes that looking younger may be a matter of looking less masculine.
- Ever had a song that you just can’t get out of your head — an “earworm”? You’d think that psychologists would be all over explaining why that happens. Actually, says Christian Jarrett, there has been little research into the phenomenon. Jarrett discusses one of the few studies shedding light on the phenomenon
- Bronwyn Thompson, the pain-management expert, has recently undergone surgery. Now she’s blogging about her own experiences managing pain during recovery. And as a bonus, she’s discussing a fascinating study about women’s experiences with self-pain-management.
- Finally, Scicurious gives us a holiday-themed post about a fascinating phenomenon: A patient who can remember and work with some numbers, but not others. What’s the difference? Read When Dec 25th Isn’t Christmas Day to find out.
