Psychology posts
- March 11, 2013
- 05:49 AM
- 163 views
Inflammatory bowel disease in autism: distinctive features?
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
Where to start with this very long post... where to start?That autism, some cases of autism, also coincide with various comorbidities sometimes including severe gastrointestinal (GI) issues is a relatively undisputed finding these days. I'm actually getting a little bored of saying this myself on this blog and I'm sure some readers are getting bored of hearing it too.Health inequalityLymphocytic infiltration @ Wikipedia The reason why I continue to keep hammering away at this line however ........ Read more »
Walker, S., Fortunato, J., Gonzalez, L., & Krigsman, A. (2013) Identification of Unique Gene Expression Profile in Children with Regressive Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Ileocolitis. PLoS ONE, 8(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058058
- March 11, 2013
- 05:13 AM
- 136 views
Smiling fighters more likely to lose
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
The day before mixed martial artists compete in the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC), they pose with each other in a staged face-off. A new study has analysed photographs taken at dozens of these pre-fight encounters and found that competitors who smile are more likely to lose the match the next day (pdf via author website).
Michael Kraus and Teh-Way David Chen recruited four coders (blind to the aims of the study) to assess the presence of smiles, and smile intensity, in photograph........ Read more »
Kraus, M., & Chen, T. (2013) A Winning Smile? Smile Intensity, Physical Dominance, and Fighter Performance. Emotion. DOI: 10.1037/a0030745
- March 11, 2013
- 01:31 AM
- 168 views
Physiological responses to chew & spit – ghrelin and obestatin
by Shelly Fan in Neurorexia
This is my second guest post for Science of Eating Disorders blog. Tetyana has a lovely piece up looking at Deep Brain Stimulation as a potential therapy for intractable AN. If you haven’t seen it yet, please go check it out and join the discussion! Your body responds to food long before it reaches your [...]... Read more »
Monteleone P, Serritella C, Martiadis V, & Maj M. (2008) Deranged secretion of ghrelin and obestatin in the cephalic phase of vagal stimulation in women with anorexia nervosa. Biological psychiatry, 64(11), 1005-8. PMID: 18474361
Méquinion, M., Langlet, F., Zgheib, S., Dickson, S., Dehouck, B., Chauveau, C., & Viltart, O. (2013) Ghrelin: Central and Peripheral Implications in Anorexia Nervosa. Frontiers in Endocrinology. DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2013.00015
- March 10, 2013
- 07:00 AM
- 179 views
High-impact journals: where newsworthiness trumps methodology
by Dorothy Bishop in bishopblog
Because it is hard to get a paper published in a high-impact journal, it is often assumed that such papers are of particularly high quality. In practice, however, these journals focus more on newsworthiness of findings than methodological rigour, and, as Tressoldi et al (2013) have shown, their standards of statistical reporting can be low. This point is illustrated by a recent paper in Current Biology entitled "Action video games make dyslexic children read better." This study was ser........ Read more »
Tressoldi, P., Giofré, D., Sella, F., & Cumming, G. (2013) High Impact . PLoS ONE, 8(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056180
- March 9, 2013
- 05:18 PM
- 169 views
Tropes Against Video Games
by Jesse Marczyk in Pop Psychology
Back in mid-May of last year, Anita Sarkeesian launched a Kickstarter project to help fund her video series on portrayals of women in video games called “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games”. Her initial goal was set at $6000 for … Continue reading →... Read more »
Zahavi, A. (1975) Mate selection—A selection for a handicap. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 53(1), 205-214. DOI: 10.1016/0022-5193(75)90111-3
- March 9, 2013
- 04:07 PM
- 185 views
Dopamine and Reward Prediction Error
by TheCellularScale in The Cellular Scale
I am back from the IBAGS conference and full of new information! I plan to blog about tons of amazing things over the next month or so, but today we'll start with some foundation building.Dopamine nails (source)The IBAGS (international basal ganglia society) meeting is all about the basal ganglia (which includes the striatum), and as you may know, dopamine is a super important molecule for the proper function of the striatum (it is the dopamine cells that die in Parkinson's Disease).There were m........ Read more »
Schultz W. (1998) Predictive reward signal of dopamine neurons. Journal of neurophysiology, 80(1), 1-27. PMID: 9658025
- March 9, 2013
- 03:38 PM
- 173 views
Methionine synthase and autism
by Paul Whiteley in Questioning Answers
The paper by Christina Muratore and colleagues* (open-access) including Dick Deth and Antonio Persico in the authorship line-up, is the source of today's post. Concerned with quite an important enzyme, methionine synthase (MS), and in particular MS mRNA status in post-mortem frontal cortex samples, the authors report lower levels of MS mRNA in cases of autism. I should add that quite a good overview of this paper can also be found here.Recycle @ Wikipedia OK, let's start from the beginning........ Read more »
Muratore, C., Hodgson, N., Trivedi, M., Abdolmaleky, H., Persico, A., Lintas, C., De La Monte, S., & Deth, R. (2013) Age-Dependent Decrease and Alternative Splicing of Methionine Synthase mRNA in Human Cerebral Cortex and an Accelerated Decrease in Autism. PLoS ONE, 8(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056927
- March 9, 2013
- 12:06 PM
- 149 views
More Bad News For Voice “Lie Detection”
by Neuroskeptic in Neuroskeptic_Discover
“Layered Voice Analysis” (LVA) is a controversial technology promoted as a tool for helping detect stress and other emotions by analysis of the human voice. According to the company behind the method, Nemesysco: LVA technology enables better understanding of your suspect’s mental state and emotional makeup at a given moment by detecting the emotional cues [...]... Read more »
Horvath F, McCloughan J, Weatherman D, & Slowik S. (2013) The Accuracy of Auditors' and Layered Voice Analysis (LVA) Operators' Judgments of Truth and Deception During Police Questioning*. Journal of forensic sciences. PMID: 23406506
- March 9, 2013
- 10:12 AM
- 220 views
Researchers pinpointed the chemicals released in happiness and sleep
by Usman Paracha in SayPeople
Main point: Researchers have found a peptide/a neurotransmitter, the release of which greatly increases in happiness and decreases in sadness.
Journal: Nature Communications
Study Further:
The name of the peptide is hypocretin that can increase both mood and alertness in humans. According to experts, this chemical can become the basis of treating the psychiatric disorders such as depression.
Researchers also worked on another chemical, a peptide called as melanin concentrating hormon........ Read more »
Blouin, A., Fried, I., Wilson, C., Staba, R., Behnke, E., Lam, H., Maidment, N., Karlsson, K., Lapierre, J., & Siegel, J. (2013) Human hypocretin and melanin-concentrating hormone levels are linked to emotion and social interaction. Nature Communications, 1547. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2461
- March 8, 2013
- 11:49 AM
- 181 views
Deep Brain Stimulation for Severe Anorexia Nervosa
by Tetyana Pekar in Science of Eating Disorders
This week, a team of researchers from the University of Toronto published a paper in The Lancet describing the results of a small study using deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treatment severe/chronic anorexia nervosa. Major news outlets, including the BBC, reported on the findings. A few people emailed and messaged me asking me to do a post about it (which is cool! I love it!). So here it is.
DBS is a surgical procedure that involves implanting an electrode that delivers electrical........ Read more »
Lipsman, N., Woodside, D., Giacobbe, P., Hamani, C., Carter, J., Norwood, S., Sutandar, K., Staab, R., Elias, G., Lyman, C.... (2013) Subcallosal cingulate deep brain stimulation for treatment-refractory anorexia nervosa: a phase 1 pilot trial. The Lancet. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(12)62188-6
- March 8, 2013
- 10:46 AM
- 118 views
SWAG: The American Choice Fixation
by Psych Your Mind in Psych Your Mind
Yes. I Exist! (source)
Every Wednesday afternoon, I gather with a bunch of faculty and graduate students at the University of Illinois to discuss a journal article about social psychology, and to eat a snack. This blog post reflects the discussion we had during this week's seminar affectionately called Social Wednesdays and Grub (SWAG).
Right before our SWAG meeting this week, I attended a laboratory meeting of a colleague here at the University of Illinois. One of the graduate students ........ Read more »
Savani K, Markus HR, Naidu NV, Kumar S, & Berlia N. (2010) What counts as a choice? U.S. Americans are more likely than Indians to construe actions as choices. Psychological science, 21(3), 391-8. PMID: 20424076
- March 8, 2013
- 07:02 AM
- 159 views
“It was ‘a man’s work’ and I just didn’t like working with those incompetent women….”
by Doug Keene in The Jury Room
Research shows, even though it’s now 2013, that stereotypes of women as passive, not ambitious, and not energetic continue to abound. Researchers wondered whether the proportion of women in a mixed-gender group doing a male-stereotyped task would affect gender-related evaluations of the group process. Researchers recruited 110 students (71 women, 39 men) enrolled in a [...]
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If you’re a man, you don’t just get mad, yo........ Read more »
West, T., Heilman, M., Gullett, L., Moss-Racusin, C., & Magee, J. (2012) Building blocks of bias: Gender composition predicts male and female group members’ evaluations of each other and the group. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(5), 1209-1212. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.04.012
- March 7, 2013
- 10:51 AM
- 133 views
Researching Diviner's Sage
by Mitchell Harden in Mitch's Blog
As I mentioned before I worked in a rat lab, and over the next few weeks I'd like to write a bit about some of the research I did as a graduate student at UMSL. I spent my time depressing rats and treating some of them with novel plant-derived compounds (some poor rats just got depressed and given placebo). Before I can tell you more about my project I'd like to share with you some of the work that influenced me. "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants ." -- Is........ Read more »
Willmore-Fordham CB, Krall DM, McCurdy CR, & Kinder DH. (2007) The hallucinogen derived from Salvia divinorum, salvinorin A, has kappa-opioid agonist discriminative stimulus effects in rats. Neuropharmacology, 53(4), 481-6. PMID: 17681558
- March 7, 2013
- 10:49 AM
- 164 views
The Science Behind Todd Akin's Gaffe
by Mitchell Harden in Mitch's Blog
Recently Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) made a very bad gaffe. It is pretty serious and you might have already heard about it. The quote in question as made during an interview with KTVI on Sunday was:“If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down."Now a lot of people have been very upset about the phrasing of "legitimate rape" and rightfully so (you can already buy "illegitimate rapist" T-shirts). But that's not what I want to write about. I want to talk about........ Read more »
Jonathan A. Gottschall, & Tiffani A. Gottschall. (2003) Are per-incident rape-pregnancy rates higher than per-incident consensual pregnancy rates?. Human Nature, 14(1), 1-20. DOI: 10.1007/s12110-003-1014-0
Tarín JJ, Hamatani T, & Cano A. (2010) Acute stress may induce ovulation in women. Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB, 53. PMID: 20504303
Wilcox AJ, Dunson DB, Weinberg CR, Trussell J, & Baird DD. (2001) Likelihood of conception with a single act of intercourse: providing benchmark rates for assessment of post-coital contraceptives. Contraception, 63(4), 211-5. PMID: 11376648
- March 7, 2013
- 07:23 AM
- 152 views
Sex Can Relieve Severe Headaches
by Carian Thus in United Academics
Maybe you’re not really into it when you have a splitting headache, but new research proves that sexual activity can acutally sooth or even stop your pain.... Read more »
Hambach, A., Evers, S., Summ, O., Husstedt, I., & Frese, A. (2013) The impact of sexual activity on idiopathic headaches: An observational study. Cephalalgia. DOI: 10.1177/0333102413476374
- March 7, 2013
- 06:30 AM
- 163 views
Games, culture, and the Turing test (Part I)
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Intelligence is one of the most loaded terms that I encounter. A common association is the popular psychometric definition — IQ. For many psychologists, this definition is too restrictive and the g factor is preferred for getting at the ‘core’ of intelligence tests. Even geneticists have latched on to g for looking at heritability of [...]... Read more »
Strannegård, C., Amirghasemi, M., & Ulfsbäcker, S. (2013) An anthropomorphic method for number sequence problems. Cognitive Systems Research, 27-34. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2012.05.003
- March 7, 2013
- 04:06 AM
- 193 views
The Mastermind effect - psychologists boost students' general knowledge using placebo effect
by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest
Believing a treatment will work, even if in reality it is entirely inert, can lead to profound beneficial changes. This is the wonder of the placebo effect and most of us have heard it discussed in relation to helping people with physical ailments.
Less explored is the potential the effect could have in other contexts. There are some examples, such as a paper published two years ago by Sophie Parker showing that memory performance was enhanced when participants thought they'd taken ........ Read more »
Weger, U., & Loughnan, S. (2013) Mobilizing unused resources: Using the placebo concept to enhance cognitive performance. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(1), 23-28. DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2012.751117
- March 6, 2013
- 12:46 PM
- 183 views
Chewing and spitting – a neglected symptom?
by Shelly Fan in Neurorexia
This is a cross-post from the wonderfully informative Science of Eating Disorders blog. ScienceofED covers a broad range of peer-reviewed research articles related to all aspects of eating disorders. Head over and check it out! Eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes, but all of them are characterized by the same goal: to avoid weight gain or [...]... Read more »
Guarda AS, Coughlin JW, Cummings M, Marinilli A, Haug N, Boucher M, & Heinberg LJ. (2004) Chewing and spitting in eating disorders and its relationship to binge eating. Eating behaviors, 5(3), 231-9. PMID: 15135335
- March 6, 2013
- 12:14 PM
- 64 views
Abusive [Law Firm] Bosses: When “Company” Men & Women Are Bad For Business
by Dan DeFoe in Psycholawlogy
“Bad” bosses who are “company” men or women are bad for the firm’s business. Organizations empower supervisors to direct, evaluate, and coach employees. Some supervisors support their direct reports and empower them to reach their goals. Others belittle, demean, intentionally devalue, hold in contempt, humiliate, insult, or otherwise abuse their subordinates. Victims who [...]The post Abusive [Law Firm] Bosses: When “Company” Men & Women Ar........ Read more »
Shoss, M., Eisenberger, R., Restubog, S., & Zagenczyk, T. (2013) Blaming the organization for abusive supervision: The roles of perceived organizational support and supervisor's organizational embodiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98(1), 158-168. DOI: 10.1037/a0030687
- March 6, 2013
- 11:20 AM
- 177 views
Hey Hey! We’re The Monkeys!
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
A tamarin rock star (photographed by Ltshears at Wikimedia)Our moods change when we hear music, but not all music affects us the same way. Slow, soft, higher-pitched, melodic songs soothe us; upbeat classical music makes us more alert and active; and fast, harsh, lower-pitched, dissonant music can rev us up and stress us out. Why would certain sounds affect us in specific emotional ways? One possibility is because of an overlap between how we perceive music and how we perceive human voic........ Read more »
Snowdon, C., & Teie, D. (2009) Affective responses in tamarins elicited by species-specific music. Biology Letters, 6(1), 30-32. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0593
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