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The Three-Billion-Dollar Brain
The New Yorker: Last week, the Human Connectome Project, supported jointly by sixteen components of the National Institutes of Health, released its first set of data, a massive set of structural and functional images of the brains of sixty-eight adult volunteers—to almost no fanfare whatsoever. The amount of data, two terabytes, is so great that it poses problems for the Internet; you can download it for free if you like, but the organizers of the project would rather mail it to you on a hard drive. ...
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The New Power of Memory
The Wall Street Journal: Memory allows for a kind of mental time travel, a way for us to picture not just the past but also a version of the future, according to a growing body of research. The studies suggest that the purpose of memory is far more extensive than simply helping us store and recall information about what has already happened. Researchers from University College London and Harvard University have made strides charting how memory helps us draw a mental sketch of someone's personality and imagine how that person might behave in a future social situation. They detailed their latest findings in work published in the journal Cerebral Cortex last week. ...
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Pop Culture? There’s an Effect for That.
Scientific American: Hello, my name is Melanie, and I’m addicted to horrible television. Well, I’m also addicted to social media. And politics. And The Daily Show. And Jennifer Lawrence interviews… Okay, it’s probably fair to skip to the end of this list and admit that really, I’m just plain addicted to pop culture. ... The truth is, no matter what we’re looking at in the world around us — be it trends, television, current events, or celebrities — psychology is right there, smack dab in the middle of it. Apple might have built its brand by telling you that there’s an app for everything, but me? I’m here to tell you that there’s an effect for everything.
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Study: Moving Backward Alters Our Perception of Time
The Atlantic: When college students were asked to look one month either into the past or the future, they perceived the future as closer ("a really short time from now"), while feeling more "psychologically distant" from the past. Commuters at a Boston train center, when asked to do the same (for 12 months' time), felt much closer to the future. A third group, Internet users anticipating Valentine's Day a week in advance, thought the holiday was quickly approaching; a week after the event, others thought it had been over for quite awhile, now.
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Who’s more jealous: Men or women?
MSN: In a report for Scientific American, Christine Nicholson explains that when it comes to sex differences in jealousy, it's not so much about levels as it is types of jealousy: "Studies from around the world have reported that men are more jealous of sexual infidelity than emotional infidelity," Nicholson explains.
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Escludere una persona provoca sofferenza e non sollievo (Excluding a person causes suffering and no relief)
La Stampa: Secondo uno studio dell’Università di Rochester gli atteggiamenti di rifiuto non aumentano il benessere perché l’essere umano è propenso all’empatia e alla solidarietà Emarginare deliberatamente gli altri provoca angoscia e sofferenza. Un nuovo studio dell’Università di Rochester ha dimostrato che l’esclusione sociale non causa dolore solo negli esclusi ma anche in chi promuove l’esclusione. Assumere atteggiamenti di rifiuto verso una persona non aumenta il nostro benessere ma, al contrario, abbassa la nostra autostima, riduce la nostra autonomia e ci fa sentire più soli e meno supportati socialmente.
