All posts from This Month
- June 3, 2013
- 12:50 PM
- 59 views
A bite of fresh lilac: The age-old allure of edible flowers
by Maria Konnikova in Literally Psyched
Why do we like to eat flowers - and what are we gaining, health-wise?... Read more »
Kelley, K. M., Behe, B. K., Biernbaum, J. A., & Poff, K. L. (2001) Consumer Preference for Edible-flower Color, Container Size, and Price. HortScience, 36(4), 801-804. info:/
Mlcek, J., & Rop, O. (2011) Fresh edible flowers of ornamental plants – A new source of nutraceutical foods. Trends in Food Science , 22(10), 561-569. DOI: 10.1016/j.tifs.2011.04.006
Rop, O., Mlcek, J., Jurikova, T., Neugebauerova, J., & Vabkova, J. (2012) Edible Flowers—A New Promising Source of Mineral Elements in Human Nutrition. Molecules, 17(12), 6672-6683. DOI: 10.3390/molecules17066672
- June 3, 2013
- 12:49 PM
- 49 views
Two Biofuel Production Processes Offer Significant Emission Reduction
by dailyfusion in The Daily Fusion
According to research published in the Forest Products Journal and currently featured on its publications page, there are two technologies for producing transportation fuels from woody biomass that can potentially exceed the current Environmental Protection Agency emission requirements for renewable fuels.... Read more »
Wang, M., Han, J., Haq, Z., Tyner, W., Wu, M., & Elgowainy, A. (2011) Energy and greenhouse gas emission effects of corn and cellulosic ethanol with technology improvements and land use changes. Biomass and Bioenergy, 35(5), 1885-1896. DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2011.01.028
- June 3, 2013
- 11:46 AM
- 45 views
Are Women Better Babysitters?
by Mark Fonseca Rendeiro in United Academics
Whenever you talk about babysitting and who to hire to do such a job, you rarely hear of anyone wanting to hire a man. Statistics from some of the biggest babysitting agencies in the US indicate that around 90% of their caregivers are female. In the wake of many horrifying abuse scandals involving men in places like daycare centers, churches, and private homes, trust is lower than ever when it comes to having a man take care of your child.... Read more »
KELLI K.GARCÍA. (2012) The Gender Bind: Men as Inauthentic Caregivers. DUKE JOURNAL OF GENDER LAW . info:/
- June 3, 2013
- 11:09 AM
- 42 views
Can Brain Imaging Aid in the Diagnosis of ADHD?
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Brain Cerebellum Highlighted in PurpleBrain imaging advances to date are predominantly within the domain of research with limited clinical utility.However, brain imaging techniques such as sensitive structural imaging methods, functional connectivity imaging, combined EEG and structural brain imaging and diffusion tensor imaging hold promise for clinical applications.An obvious application would be the use of brain imaging in confirmation of the diagnosis of brain disorders. Such methods would be particularly helpful in disorders with atypical presentations or diagnostic uncertainty.Lim and colleagues from the United Kingdom and Singapore recently published a study examining brain MRI with voxel-based morphometry in the classification of adolescents with ADHD.This study had the following key components in design:Study subjects: 29 male adolescents (primarily ADHD medication-naive) between the ages of 10 and 18 with ADHD combined typeControl subjects: 29 age-matched males without a diagnosis of ADHD and with low ADHD symptom scoresPsychiatric control subjects: 19 age-matched adolescents with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD)Imaging technique: whole brain MRI imaging with a GE 3T scanner using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) with application of the DARTEL algorithmStatistical analysis: multivariate pattern recognition comparing ADHD, controls and ASD groupsThe study identified significant patterns in ADHD, ASD and control groups:ADHD adolescents showed early development of ventral brain regions of the frontal, premotor, temporal, limbic and brain stem regionsControl adolescents showed later brain development in regions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, dorsal striatum, thalamus and inferior parietal regionsASD adolescents could be discriminated from ADHD adolescents by difference in the cerebellum, anterior cingulate cortex, caudate/thalamus, temporal and parietal regionsIn the more traditional VBM analysis, the most statistically different findings between ADHD and controls was a reduction in grey matter involving the right and left cerebellumThe authors noted in the discussion that regions identified with the most discrimination power for ADHD included key brain regions known in "mediating the higher level cognitive control, attention and timing functions that are impaired in ADHD". Accuracy of diagnosis is a key statistical measure of the power of a diagnostic tool. In this study, the algorithm achieved an overall accuracy of 79.3% in classifying cases and controls.This study will need to be replicated in independent samples by independent laboratories to confirm specific brain region findings and to confirm the accuracy estimate. Additionally, because imaging is an expensive tool, it's utility will need to be contrasted with other less expensive diagnostic tools such as rating scales and neuropsychological testing.Nevertheless, this study points to the approaching utility of brain imaging as a diagnostic tool in the diagnosis of ADHD and other brain disorders. Early accurate identification can provide clinicians with the opportunity to provide early interventions that may modify the course and severity of the disorder.So what is the answer to the question "Can Brain Imaging Aid in the Diagnosis of ADHD?" I would propose the answer is yes, but not yet. However, I believe further research including advances in cost-effectiveness will soon make structural brain imaging an important diagnostic tool in ADHD.Image of brain cerebellum is from an iPad screen shot using the app 3D Brain.Readers with more interest in this research can access the full free text article in the citation link below.Lim L, Marquand A, Cubillo AA, Smith AB, Chantiluke K, Simmons A, Mehta M, & Rubia K (2013). Disorder-specific predictive classification of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) relative to autism using structural magnetic resonance imaging. PloS one, 8 (5) PMID: 23696841... Read more »
Lim L, Marquand A, Cubillo AA, Smith AB, Chantiluke K, Simmons A, Mehta M, & Rubia K. (2013) Disorder-specific predictive classification of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) relative to autism using structural magnetic resonance imaging. PloS one, 8(5). PMID: 23696841
- June 3, 2013
- 09:22 AM
- 62 views
Dark Characters Are Attractive
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
Are we attracted to people we like? Not necessarily. Good character isn’t always sexually appealing. It may even be the undesirable personality traits that make potential mates desirable, scientists say.... Read more »
Holtzman, N., & Strube, M. (2012) People With Dark Personalities Tend to Create a Physically Attractive Veneer. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 4(4), 461-467. DOI: 10.1177/1948550612461284
Dufner, M., Rauthmann, J., Czarna, A., & Denissen, J. (2013) Are Narcissists Sexy? Zeroing in on the Effect of Narcissism on Short-Term Mate Appeal. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. DOI: 10.1177/0146167213483580
- June 3, 2013
- 07:08 AM
- 55 views
Kids show shadenfreude by age four, maybe earlier
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Some of the most popular videos on YouTube are of would-be thieves getting their comeuppance, either knocked-out by brave store-keepers or caught out by their own dazzling ineptitude. Seeing a person deservedly suffer this way brings a special pleasure known as schadenfreude. A new study is the first to study whether young children are capable of experiencing this delight.
Katrin Schulz and her colleagues presented simple picture stories to 100 children aged four to eight years (52 girls). The stories involved a child performing a good or bad deed - such as a girl climbing a tree to collect plums for her little brother, or climbing the tree so as to throw plums at her little brother - and then experiencing a misfortune, in this case falling from the tree and hurting herself.
The kids of all ages showed evidence of schadenfreude, suggesting their emotional response to another person's distress was influenced by their moral judgements about that person. They were more likely to say they were pleased and that it was funny if the story character experienced a misfortune while engaging in a bad deed. They were also less likely to say they'd help a bad character. These effects were strongest for the children aged over 7. And it was only for this age group that intensity of schadenfreude mediated the link between a character's good or bad moral behaviour and the participants' willingness to help.
There is some consolation for readers who believe in the innocence of childhood. Overall the children's levels of schadenfreude were low (averaging no more than 2.37 on a scale from 0 to 8, even for a morally bad character), whereas their levels of sympathy were much higher (always averaging higher than 5 on the same scale). Moreover, the kids showed almost zero schadenfreude when morally good characters suffered a misfortune, whereas they showed plenty of sympathy even for bad characters.
A weakness of the study is in the questions and pictorial rating system which some children found complicated. This means the age-related results may have been to do with basic comprehension and not to do with development of schadenfreude specifically. In fact, the researchers originally recruited three-year-olds, whom they believed would also show schadenfreude, but they had to be excluded because they didn't understand the questions or rating scale.
"Our data revealed first evidence that schadenfreude might have an important impact on social (i.e. helping) behaviour even among young children," Schulz and her colleagues concluded. "Thus, it is highly important to further analyse the determinants and consequences of schadenfreude. Right now, we are standing at the beginning of the understanding of this emotion."
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Schulz, K., Rudolph, A., Tscharaktschiew, N., and Rudolph, U. (2013). Daniel has fallen into a muddy puddle - Schadenfreude or sympathy? British Journal of Developmental Psychology DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12013
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
... Read more »
Schulz, K., Rudolph, A., Tscharaktschiew, N., & Rudolph, U. (2013) Daniel has fallen into a muddy puddle - Schadenfreude or sympathy?. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12013
- June 3, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 45 views
Want that job? Just recall a time you felt powerful!
by Rita Handrich in The Jury Room
We’ve written about striking a ‘power pose’ in the past here. It was in relation to how to manage your appearance in court but now we have new research that says something much more odd and maybe even a little bit spooky. You don’t even have to be present for an interviewer to see you more [...]
Related posts:
“Ethnic-sounding first names” and getting the job
Can you really sort out the liars from the truth tellers?
Should you meet with that prospective client first or last?
... Read more »
Lammers, J., Dubois, D., Rucker, D., & Galinsky, A. (2013) Power gets the job: Priming power improves interview outcomes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(4), 776-779. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.02.008
- June 3, 2013
- 06:33 AM
- 63 views
The Spartan ‘Agoge’
by Perikis Livas in Tracing Knowledge
The Spartan or Laconian ‘agoge’ (socio-military education and training) had been formed at the end of the Archaic period (7th cent - 479 BC). The Spartan/Lacedaemonian tradition claims that this system of civic and military education was contrived by the famous Spartan statesman Lycurgos.... Read more »
Periklis Deligiannis. (2013) THE SPARTAN ‘AGOGE’ (socio-military education . Delving into History. info:/
- June 3, 2013
- 03:48 AM
- 52 views
Cancer Vaccines from a Blue-Blooded Mollusk
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
Along about 1,000 miles of coastline between Monterey, California, and Isla Asuncion, Mexico, a large mollusk lives just under the breaking waves of the Pacific Ocean.
Megathura crenulata, or the giant keyhole limpet, runs up to 10 inches in size, and uses an unusual molecule for breathing: hemocyanin. Instead of its red-blooded terrestrial oxygen carrier hemoglobin, hemocyanin is blue in color, carries a copper molecule instead of iron, and is used by marine snails and mollusks for gill-based respiration.... Read more »
Kantele, A., Häkkinen, M., Zivny, J., Elson, C., Mestecky, J., & Kantele, J. (2011) Humoral Immune Response to Keyhole Limpet Haemocyanin, the Protein Carrier in Cancer Vaccines. Clinical and Developmental Immunology, 1-6. DOI: 10.1155/2011/614383
Lieb, B., Gebauer, W., Gatsogiannis, C., Depoix, F., Hellmann, N., Harasewych, M., Strong, E., & Markl, J. (2010) Molluscan mega-hemocyanin: an ancient oxygen carrier tuned by a ~550 kDa polypeptide. Frontiers in Zoology, 7(1), 14. DOI: 10.1186/1742-9994-7-14
- June 3, 2013
- 12:04 AM
- 47 views
Functional Testing Provides New Insights into Femoroacetabular Impingement
by Meghan Maume Miller in Sports Medicine Research (SMR): In the Lab & In the Field
Take Home Message: Objective measurements may provide added perspective to the rehabilitation of femoroacetabular impingement not otherwise measured by self-report surveys and clinical passive range of motion.
Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) is very common in some sports and can affect not only athletic activity but also activities of daily living. Despite functional impairments, we often evaluate the success of a treatment for FAI not with functional assessments but with just patient-reported pain levels and activity scales, post-surgical femoral head and acetabular rim shape, and clinical passive range-of-motion measurements. If we can develop new functional assessments to monitor FAI then this may improve our current treatment strategies. Rylander et. al. used 3-dimensional motion capture techniques to measure walking and stair climbing among 17 patients diagnosed with FAI prior to surgery and 1 year post-operatively. The authors also evaluated 17 age-, gender-, body mass index-matched volunteers, who reported no history of hip pain or lower extremity injury (assessed at one time point).... Read more »
Rylander, J., Shu, B., Favre, J., Safran, M., & Andriacchi, T. (2013) Functional Testing Provides Unique Insights Into the Pathomechanics of Femoroacetabular Impingement and an Objective Basis for Evaluating Treatment Outcome. Journal of Orthopaedic Research. DOI: 10.1002/jor.22375
- June 2, 2013
- 05:00 PM
- 91 views
Running economy: Forefoot vs Rearfoot striking
by Craig Payne in Running Research Junkie
Running economy: Forefoot vs Rearfoot striking... Read more »
Gruber AH, Umberger BR, Braun B, & Hamill J. (2013) Economy and rate of carbohydrate oxidation during running with rearfoot and forefoot strike patterns. Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985). PMID: 23681915
- June 2, 2013
- 12:42 PM
- 58 views
The allure of the superficial
by Iddo Friedberg in Byte Size Biology
Paraphrasing Sydney Brenner, we have a ‘high throughput low output problem’. Functional annotations coming from ‘factory science’ carrying low information are taking over what we deem to know about protein function, masking out, by sheer mass, the higher quality annotations. Low information is somewhat worse than no information For bioinformaticians and other biologists doing large scale analyses it is tempting to use these data. But we should beware the allure of the superficial annotations. We need to understand that high throughput experiments can provide only so much information, and that information should be used very carefully when performing large-scale analyses. Otherwise, you might begin to think that Python two-line script is actually worth something.... Read more »
Schnoes, A., Ream, D., Thorman, A., Babbitt, P., & Friedberg, I. (2013) Biases in the Experimental Annotations of Protein Function and Their Effect on Our Understanding of Protein Function Space. PLoS Computational Biology, 9(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003063
- June 2, 2013
- 12:08 PM
- 66 views
When Trick Questions Become False Memories
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
Simply asking people whether they experienced an event can trick them into later believing that it did occur, according to a neat little study just out: Susceptibility to long-term misinformation effect outside of the laboratory Psychologists Miriam Lommen and colleagues studied 249 Dutch soldiers were deployed for a four month tour of duty in Afghanistan. [...]... Read more »
Lommen, M., Engelhard, I., & van den Hout, M. (2013) Susceptibility to long-term misinformation effect outside of the laboratory. European Journal of Psychotraumatology. DOI: 10.3402/ejpt.v4i0.19864
- June 2, 2013
- 11:23 AM
- 134 views
Does music makes us move?
by Henkjan Honing in Music Matters
At TEDxWaterloo 2013 Jessica Grahn – a cognitive neuroscientist working at Western University, Canada – presented an engaging talk about why music moves us, and why picking up the beat might make us unique.
... Read more »
Grahn, J., & Brett, M. (2007) Rhythm and Beat Perception in Motor Areas of the Brain. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19(5), 893-906. DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2007.19.5.893
Patel, A., Iversen, J., Bregman, M., & Schulz, I. (2009) Experimental Evidence for Synchronization to a Musical Beat in a Nonhuman Animal. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2009.03.038
Zarco, W., Merchant, H., Prado, L., & Mendez, J. (2009) Subsecond Timing in Primates: Comparison of Interval Production Between Human Subjects and Rhesus Monkeys. Journal of Neurophysiology, 102(6), 3191-3202. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00066.2009
- June 2, 2013
- 09:49 AM
- 77 views
Sound it out: Do you "see" or "hear" words you have to spell?
by Jordan Gaines in Gaines, on Brains
What do we know about spelling, and why are some of our most brilliant peers some of the greatest misspellers out there?... Read more »
Norton ES, Kovelman I, & Petitto LA. (2007) Are There Separate Neural Systems for Spelling? New Insights into the Role of Rules and Memory in Spelling from Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Mind, brain and education : the official journal of the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, 1(1), 48-59. PMID: 20011680
- June 2, 2013
- 08:58 AM
- 59 views
Procrastination to find the most cited paper in the field of MRI
by Know Your Images in Know Your Images
I have posted recently about the most cited (important?) papers in Medical Imaging in the last ten/five/two years here. Today I look for the most cited papers in the field of MRI. Interesting to note that these 3 papers were published in Neuroimage.Most cited paper in Radiology, Nuclear Science and Medical Imaging Field about MRI:- of the last 10 years with 1346 citations:Ashburner, J., & Friston, K. (2005). Unified segmentation NeuroImage, 26 (3), 839-851 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.02.018 This paper is the basis for the SPM framework, one of the most important in the field of MRI. Thus, it is understandable that this paper has a lot of citations, because most researchers who use this framework (and there are a lot, myself included) use this paper in their citations.- of the last 5 years with 250 citations:Klein, A., Andersson, J., Ardekani, B., Ashburner, J., Avants, B., Chiang, M., Christensen, G., Collins, D., Gee, J., Hellier, P., Song, J., Jenkinson, M., Lepage, C., Rueckert, D., Thompson, P., Vercauteren, T., Woods, R., Mann, J., & Parsey, R. (2009). Evaluation of 14 nonlinear deformation algorithms applied to human brain MRI registration NeuroImage, 46 (3), 786-802 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.12.037I have to say that I am quite surprised by finding this paper on top. Brain MRI registration is nowadays considered almost a solved problem and I don't think there are many people looking into this anymore. However, it is always nice to put in your own paper: "I used this registration, because this paper says it is the best".- of the last 2 years with 106 citations:Smith, S., Miller, K., Salimi-Khorshidi, G., Webster, M., Beckmann, C., Nichols, T., Ramsey, J., & Woolrich, M. (2011). Network modelling methods for FMRI NeuroImage, 54 (2), 875-891 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.08.063 I have talked about brain networks some times in this blog and this paper shows me that this topic has been hot in the last two years. This papers discusses different methods to obtain networks with fMRI data: "Many different methods are being used in the literature, but almost none has been carefully validated or compared for use on FMRI timeseries data."... Read more »
Ashburner, J., & Friston, K. (2005) Unified segmentation. NeuroImage, 26(3), 839-851. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.02.018
Klein, A., Andersson, J., Ardekani, B., Ashburner, J., Avants, B., Chiang, M., Christensen, G., Collins, D., Gee, J., Hellier, P.... (2009) Evaluation of 14 nonlinear deformation algorithms applied to human brain MRI registration. NeuroImage, 46(3), 786-802. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.12.037
Smith, S., Miller, K., Salimi-Khorshidi, G., Webster, M., Beckmann, C., Nichols, T., Ramsey, J., & Woolrich, M. (2011) Network modelling methods for FMRI. NeuroImage, 54(2), 875-891. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.08.063
- June 1, 2013
- 06:24 PM
- 52 views
Number sense, age and school maths
by Aurelie in Coffee break Science
If someone offers you a bag of candies and there are two to pick from, the two not containing the same number of sweets, you will most likely try to estimate which bag contains the most candies and pick that … Continue reading →... Read more »
Halberda J, Ly R, Wilmer JB, Naiman DQ, & Germine L. (2012) Number sense across the lifespan as revealed by a massive Internet-based sample. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(28), 11116-20. PMID: 22733748
- June 1, 2013
- 11:46 AM
- 95 views
Get the Science Right: Semen Prevents Depression!
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
World-famous surgeon Lazar Greenfield probably meant no harm. In a 2011 Valentine’s Day themed article in the trade journal Surgery News, Greenfield, president of the American College of Surgeons and the inventor of a widely used surgical device that prevents blood clots, reflected on a study that reported mood-enhancement properties of semen. He then made the following statement: “So there’s a deeper bond between men and women than St Valentine would have suspected, and now we know there’s a better gift for that day than chocolate.”... Read more »
Gallup GG Jr, Burch RL, & Platek SM. (2002) Does semen have antidepressant properties?. Archives of sexual behavior, 31(3), 289-93. PMID: 12049024
- June 1, 2013
- 07:38 AM
- 57 views
Lifting the fog of war and climate
by Andy Extance in Simple Climate
Guy Callendar’s knowledge of climate and heat let him help devise a system to clear fog from British airfields during World War Two, and do detailed measurements on gases in the air that established how important CO2 is in driving climate change.... Read more »
Callendar, G. (1938) The artificial production of carbon dioxide and its influence on temperature. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 64(275), 223-240. DOI: 10.1002/qj.49706427503
Callendar, G. (1941) Infra-red absorption by carbon dioxide, with special reference to atmospheric radiation. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 67(291), 263-275. DOI: 10.1002/qj.49706729105
Sutherland, G., & Callendar, G. (1942) The infra-red spectra of atmospheric gases other than water vapour. Reports on Progress in Physics, 9(1), 18-28. DOI: 10.1088/0034-4885/9/1/304
Callendar, G. (1949) CAN CARBON DIOXIDE INFLUENCE CLIMATE?. Weather, 4(10), 310-314. DOI: 10.1002/j.1477-8696.1949.tb00952.x
Callendar, G. (1961) Temperature fluctuations and trends over the earth. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 87(371), 1-12. DOI: 10.1002/qj.49708737102
- June 1, 2013
- 05:11 AM
- 22 views
New method to produce red blood cells from stem cells
by beredim in Stem Cells Freak
In a recent study, researchers from the Boston University and the Boston Medical Centre have developed a new method to produce human red blood cells and platelets in vitro using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The newly developed technique, has the potential to answer the ongoing demand for blood donations needed by patients requiring blood transfusions and may help researchers identify new therapeutic approaches for several diseases, including sickle cell disease.Read More... Read more »
Smith BW, Rozelle SS, Leung A, Ubellacker J, Parks A, Nah SK, French D, Gadue P, Monti S, Chui DH.... (2013) The aryl hydrocarbon receptor directs hematopoietic progenitor cell expansion and differentiation. Blood. PMID: 23723449
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