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Study suggests link between stress hormone and PTSD in women
The Los Angeles Times: Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a lingering psychological response to a major traumatic event. And researchers studying the condition now have a clue about its development. Hint: Women and men are different. Their study, conducted in part at Emory University in Atlanta, was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Researchers tested 64 people who had experienced significant trauma in noncombat settings. In women but not men, they found a link between PTSD and high levels of a hormone called pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide produced in response to stress. Read the whole story: The Los Angeles Times
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Why Women Have BFFs
Live Science: When faced with the threat of being excluded from a group, women are likely to respond by excluding someone else, a new study indicates. Meanwhile, that threat made no difference to men playing the same competitive game. "It was striking — it was like a different world," said Joyce Benenson, the lead researcher, who is affiliated with Emmanuel College and Harvard University, referring to the difference. Benenson and her colleagues write the results indicate that women and men use different strategies when faced with a social threat. Read the whole story: Live Science
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People Who Think Their Partners Are a Perfect Fit Stay Happier—Even if They’re Wrong
Conventional wisdom says that if you idealize the person you marry, the disappointment is just going to be that much worse when you find out they aren’t perfect. But research challenges that assumption
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Emotions by the roomful
I have a friend who sucks the air out of the room whenever he comes around. He is so blustery and self-absorbed that people don’t interact with him; they capitulate. I also have friends who by their mere presence light up the room, raising the spirits of everyone gathered. I know people who cast a pall over the group and drag it down; others who have a calming effect on gatherings. These are all caricatures, of course. Nobody can sway the emotions of an entire room, energizing or subduing or infuriating every member of the group. After all, each of us has his or her own emotional make-up, which is surely more powerful than the mere presence of another person.
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Video games produce a mixed report card for classroom skills
The Kansas City Star: He’s only 9, so Michael Kelly’s analysis of what video games are doing to kids’ schooling is more instinct than all the new academic talk out there. “Picture that I’m Mario,” he begins. After some hand-on-chin pondering, the third-grader is shaping an idea how all those hours he spends leaping walls, escaping lava and rescuing princesses as Super Mario just might be making him a better student. Read the whole story: The Kansas City Star
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Terrorists taunts may tell attack timing
USA Today: Osama bin Laden mumbling from his cave, a cassette tape threatening the West with yet more violence: In an era filled with worries over terrorism, can we turn the taunts of terrorists against them, using their own words to predict their next move? Read the whole story: USA Today
