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Sick Body, Vigilant Mind
We know that in keeping the body physically healthy, the mind both conscious and unconscious is a principle actor. Indeed, research has shown that the biological, or physiological, immune system that fights pathogens once they’ve entered the body can be kick-started by the “behavioral immune system,” with which we notice, feel repulsed by, and act to avoid people who might make us sick. Now a study in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, offers intriguing new evidence of the connection moving in the other direction: from physiological to psychological immune reactions.
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Don’t Mess With a Nursing Mom!
U.S. News & World Report: Breast-feeding mothers protect their babies and themselves more aggressively than mothers who bottle-feed or women without children, researchers say. The study of 18 nursing mothers, 17 formula-feeding mothers and 20 non-mothers also found that aggression in breast-feeding moms is associated with reduced blood pressure. This suggests that breast-feeding helps lower the body's typical stress response to fear, which gives women extra courage in defending their babies and themselves, according to the authors of the study in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science. Read the full story: U.S. News & World Report
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Psychopaths on Wall Street?
Financial News: 'Are you good or evil', a BBC Horizon documentary which aired last night, examined what makes humans liable to violence. The programme charts the research of criminal psychologist Professor Robert Hare, who developed the Pyschopathy Checklist, which is used to diagnose cases of psychopathy and to ascertain the likelihood of violent behaviour, and neuroscientist Professor Jim Fallon. The two main factors in ascertaining whether an individual is liable to become a psychopath, according to the programme, are: the existence of the so-called 'warrior gene', the Monoamine oxidase A enzyme, and a violent childhood. Read the full story: Financial News
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Seeing is not always believing
Yahoo! Philippines: Paying attention to keep a close watch may quite have the reverse effect. It actually distorts perception of where things are in relation to one another, says a research. 'Figuring out where objects are in the world seems like one of the most basic and important jobs the brain does,' says Yale University cognitive psychologist Brandon Liverence, who led the study. 'It was surprising to discover that even this simple type of perception is warped by our minds,' adds Liverence, the journal Psychological Science reports.
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Food Insecurity: 1 in 6 Americans Struggles to Buy Food
ABC News: The number of Americans struggling to put food on the table remains at record levels though the Obama administration says the government’s safety net has kept hunger from getting worse. The USDA reports about one out of every six Americans had trouble coming up with enough money to buy food at some point last year. That’s nearly 49 million people – 14.5 percent of the population – a figure virtually unchanged from previous year. That marks a second consecutive year that the USDA’s annual hunger survey has found ”food insecurity” at the highest levels since the government started the report in 1995.
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Breast-Feeding Makes Women ‘Mama Bears’
LiveScience: Like mama bears ferociously protecting their young, new research suggests human moms, at least those who are breast-feeding, can act more aggressively than others. In a controlled lab setting, breast-feeding moms were indeed more aggressive toward people who were rude to them. "Breast-feeding mothers aren’t going to go out and get into bar fights, but if someone is threatening them or their infant, our research suggests they may be more likely to defend themselves in an aggressive manner," study researcher Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, of the University of California in Los Angeles, said in a statement.
