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Feel the Noise
National Geographic: If you’ve ever clenched up at the sound of nails on a chalkboard, or felt a pleasant chill when listening to an opera soprano, then you have an intuitive sense of the way our brains sometimes mix information from our senses. For the latest issue of Nautilus magazine I wrote a story about a woman whose brain mixes more than most, allowing her to feel many types of sounds on her skin. Over the past decade or so, neuroscientists have revamped their view of how the brain processes sensory information. According to the traditional model, the cortex, or outer layers of the brain, processes only one sense at a time.
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Les personnes malades sont détectables à l’odeur (Sick people have a detectable odor)
Le Figaro: Bière rance, pain brûlé ou encore viande de boucherie: ces senteurs peu avenantes se dégagent de personnes atteintes respectivement de scrofule (une sorte d'affection tuberculeuse), de fièvre typhoïde et de fièvre jaune. Mais la liste ne semble pas s'arrêter là. Selon différents travaux, les malades émettent en effet différentes odeurs caractéristiques dues à la production de substances volatiles libérées dans le souffle, la transpiration ou encore les urines. Une nouvelle étude parue fin janvier dans Psychological Science va plus loin et montre que ce phénomène apparaît dès les prémices de la maladie et peut être repéré par un nez humain.
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Study: pretending to be Voldemort could increase your villainous behaviour
Wired: Pretending to be Voldemort makes you more dastardly, whereas pretending to be Superman makes you more good natured -- at least, that's according to new research published in Psychological Science, which claims the way in which you decide to represent yourself in a virtual environment can influence your behaviour in the real world. "Our results indicate that just five minutes of role-play in virtual environments as either a hero or villain can easily cause people to reward or punish anonymous strangers," says lead researcher Gunwoo Yoon of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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The fine art of cuddling
CBS: Los Angeles-based “hugging therapist” Steve Maher hugs his clients, and explains to Mo Rocca the difference between hugging and cuddling, because there IS a difference. Rocca also gets close to Samantha Hess, who started a Portland, Ore.-based business that touts the benefits of touch. Read the whole story: CBS
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New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Mismatch or Cumulative Stress: The Pathway to Depression Is Conditional on Attention Style Esther Nederhof, Johan Ormel, and Albertine J. Oldehinkel It has been suggested that people use their childhood environment to predict how their future environment will be and develop accordingly. However, on the basis of this theory, a mismatch between a childhood and an adult environment could be detrimental. Adolescents were split into attention-style groups (shifting, sustained, or more balanced) and were assessed for early life stress, recent life stress, and major depression.
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How Gossip Serves a Greater Good
Pacific Standard: Halfway through the 1800s, someone named Cecil B. Hartley wrote a guide titled The Gentlemen’s Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness, which offers instruction on everything from conversation to dress to table manners to manly exercises. On the topic of gossip, Hartley advises readers to shun the practice outright, deeming it “detestable” in a woman and “utterly despicable” in a man. His sentiment was neither new nor dated.
