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Research: Pain meds can affect emotional distress
ABC KGO-TV: Many of us take an over-the-counter medication to treat a headache or muscle pain, but new research says the active ingredient appears to have an effect on emotional distress as well. If you're suffering emotionally, the pain can almost feel physical, but can emotional pain be treated in the same way as physical pain? Researchers at the University of Florida measured brain activity in people who were experiencing social rejection -- even something as minor as an unreturned phone call. "Emotional pain hurts physically because, as research has shown, it targets the same neurological pathways," said clinical psychiatrist Clara Lora, MD.
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Spoilers actually enhance your enjoyment
The Guardian: Yes! Vindication! I am one of those people who can't read a book without flicking to the end to check what's going to happen, and it turns out that, rather than being an "impatient idiot who is spoiling it for myself", actually I am very wise. Scientists say so, so it must be true. A study by Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt of UC San Diego's psychology department, due to be published in the journal Psychological Science, gave subjects 12 short stories, by authors including Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl and John Updike. Some were presented in their classic form, others with spoiler paragraphs, with each version read by at least 30 people. And you know what?
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In Future Math Whizzes, Signs of ‘Number Sense’
The New York Times: Children as young as 3 have a “number sense” that may be correlated with mathematical aptitude, according to a new study. Melissa Libertus, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues looked at something called “number sense,” an intuition — not involving counting — about the concepts of more and less. It exists in all people, Dr. Libertus said, including infants and indigenous peoples who have had no formal education. The researchers measured this intuition in preschoolers by displaying flashing groups of blue and yellow dots on a computer screen. The children had to estimate which group of dots was larger in number.
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Understanding Mind-Body Influences
Wendy Berry Mendes focuses her research on embodiment -- how the mind and body reciprocally influence each other. Specifically, she looks at how the brain and body experience emotions, stress, and motivation and how physical responses influence behavior and decision-making. Her research looks at a wide range of topics from coping with stigma and discrimination, to the differentiation of “good” and “bad” stress physiology and how they influence decision-making, to mind-body relations across the lifespan.
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Learning from Experience
Daphna Shohamy researches learning, memory and decision making. Specifically, she tries to understand the underlying brain mechanisms of how we learn from experience and how we use what we learn to guide decisions and actions. She adopts an integrative approach that draws broadly on neuroscience to make predictions about cognition. Her research provides a deeper understanding of the cognitive and neural processes involved for different aspects of behavior. In 2011, Shohamy received a Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science (APS). Q&A with Daphna Shohamy
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La ricerca che boccia i ricchi “Più egoisti e insensibili”
La Repubblica Italia: Egoista, insensibile e incredibilmente avaro, l'Arpagone di Molière non avrebbe avuto nessun problema ad ammettere che i ricchi sono diversi dai poveri, e che l'abisso che separa le due categorie non sta tanto nelle possibilità economiche quanto in quelle emozionali. Dura da digerire, la sua teoria è stata snobbata in favore di quella della telenovela più famosa del mondo, Anche i ricchi piangono, ma dopo quasi quattro secoli per il commediografo francese è arrivato il momento della rivincita.
