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Post by TheWeeMan on May 21, 2004 21:41:05 GMT 1
This thread is about new and interesting happenings in psychology. This first one is brand new. And being thought about by a Scottish person. Have a look and see/say what you think. Maybe help develop the idea by adding to this thread? Or pointing us to similar/related stuff Even better you yourself tell us about what's new and happening in psychology. Maybe you have got an idea of your own. Or maybe come across something that you think 'WOW'. If so, please share it with us here in New Ideas In Psychology. For starters read 'Neural Conferences', which can be found at www.gerardkeegan.co.uk/blog/blogbase.htm
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Post by Eyronbroo on Jun 10, 2004 15:19:29 GMT 1
Came across this today, and think people will find it interesting. Research Finds Dogs Understand LanguageBy RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - As many a dog owner will attest, our furry friends are listening. Now, for the doubters, there is scientific proof they understand much of what they hear. German researchers have found a border collie named Rico who understands more than 200 words and can learn new ones as quickly as many children. Patti Strand, an American Kennel Club board member, called the report "good news for those of us who talk to our dogs." "Like parents of toddlers, we learned long ago the importance of spelling key words like bath, pill or vet when speaking in front of our dogs," Strand said. "Thanks to the researchers who've proven that people who talk to their dogs are cutting-edge communicators, not just a bunch of eccentrics." The researchers found that Rico knows the names of dozens of play toys and can find the one called for by his owner. That is a vocabulary size about the same as apes, dolphins and parrots trained to understand words, the researchers say. Rico can even take the next step, figuring out what a new word means. The researchers put several known toys in a room along with one that Rico had not seen before. From a different room, Rico's owner asked him to fetch a toy, using a name for the toy the dog had never heard. The border collie, a breed known primarily for its herding ability, was able to go to the room with the toys and, seven times out of 10, bring back the one he had not seen before. The dog seemingly understood that because he knew the names of all the other toys, the new one must be the one with the unfamiliar name. "Apparently he was able to link the novel word to the novel item based on exclusion learning, either because he knew that the familiar items already had names or because they were not novel," said the researchers, led by Julia Fischer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. A month later, he still remembered the name of that new toy three out of six times, even without having seen it since that first test. That is a rate the scientists said was equivalent to that of a 3-year-old. Rico's learning ability may indicate that some parts of speech comprehension developed separately from human speech, the scientists said. "You don't have to be able to talk to understand a lot," Fischer said. The team noted that dogs have evolved with humans and have been selected for their ability to respond to the communications of people. Katrina Kelner, Science's deputy editor for life sciences, said "such fast, one-trial learning in dogs is remarkable. This ability suggests that the brain structures that support this kind of learning are not unique to humans and may have formed the evolutionary basis of some of the advanced language abilities of humans." Perhaps, although Paul Bloom of Yale University urges caution. "Children can understand words used in a range of contexts. Rico's understanding is manifested in his fetching behavior," Bloom writes in a commentary, also in Science. Bloom calls for further experiments to answer several questions: Can Rico learn a word for something other than a small object to be fetched? Can he display knowledge of a word in some way other than fetching? Can he follow an instruction not to fetch something? Fischer and her colleagues are still working with Rico to see if he can understand requests to put toys in boxes or to bring them to certain people. Rico was born in December 1994 and lives with his owners. He was tested at home. Funding for this research was provided in part by the German Research Foundation.
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Post by TheWeeMan on Jun 16, 2004 16:52:56 GMT 1
Being bilingual 'protects brain' Thanks to Meph for bringing this to our attention. Being fluent in two languages may help to keep the brain sharper for longer, a study suggests. Researchers from York University in Canada carried out tests on 104 people between the ages of 30 and 88. They found that those who were fluent in two languages rather than just one were sharper mentally. Writing in the Journal of Psychology and Ageing, they said being bilingual may protect against mental decline in old age. Previous studies have shown that keeping the brain active can protect against senile dementia. Research has shown that people who play musical instruments, dance or read regularly may be less likely to develop the condition. Other activities like doing crosswords or playing board games may also help. Language skillsThis latest study appears to back up the theory that language skills also have a protective effect. Dr Ellen Bialystok and colleagues at York University assessed the cognitive skills of all those involved in the study using a variety of widely recognised tests. They tested their vocabulary skills, their non-verbal reasoning ability and their reaction time. Half of the volunteers came from Canada and spoke only English. The other half came from India and were fluent in both English and Tamil. The volunteers had similar backgrounds in the sense that they were all educated to degree level and were all middle class. The researchers found that the people who were fluent in English and Tamil responded faster than those who were fluent in just English. This applied to all age groups. The researchers also found that the bilingual volunteers were much less likely to suffer from the mental decline associated with old age. "The bilinguals were more efficient at all ages tested and showed a slower rate of decline for some processes with aging," they said. "It appears...that bilingualism helps to offset age-related losses." The UK's Alzheimer's Society welcomed the study. "These findings, that early development of second language may improve a specific aspect of cognitive function in later life, are very interesting," said Professor Clive Ballard, its director of research. "It is a possibility that the acquisition of a second language in early childhood may influence the process of the development of neuronal circuits. "However, the results of this particular study need to be interpreted cautiously as they were comparing groups of individual of different nationalities, educated in different systems. "It is also well recognised that education in general can bestow benefits on cognitive function in later life."
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Post by Meph on Jun 18, 2004 21:45:21 GMT 1
VR tool re-creates hallucinations June 16/23, 2004 By Kimberly Patch, Technology Research News Reality can seem different depending on who you are. Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia have written software designed to allow psychiatrists to gain an understanding of the reality of patient hallucinations. "The idea is to get [medical students] to understand what it is like from the patient's point of view," said Geoffery Ericksson, the research fellow at the University of Queensland. This is needed, Ericsson said. In a survey conducted by fellow researcher Jennifer Tichon, students said they could adequately diagnose mental illnesses like schizophrenia that include hallucinations, but said they didn't really understand what it was they were diagnosing. The hallucination simulation software is a three-dimensional environment something like the game Quake, said Ericsson. The researchers interviewed a patient to get descriptions of a set of real-life hallucinations, then depicted them in the software. In addition to providing doctors with the means to better understand patient hallucinations, such software can be used in cognitive behavioral therapy, which teaches people to learn to ignore some of their hallucinations, said Ericsson. Virtual reality systems have also been used to help phobics deal with their fears, including the fear of flying. The key to the project is that good quality graphics hardware and memory have finally become inexpensive enough to make it possible to create a virtual environment on a personal computer in real-time, said Ericsson. The environment is a model of a psychiatric ward. "As the user navigates through the ward, hallucinations occur," said Ericsson. The researchers used photographs of room layouts and equipment from a local psychiatric unit to build the virtual reality model. They also used photographs to generate textures of wall and floor coverings. The prototype software runs on a university virtual reality system that includes three projectors and a 9-meters-wide by and 2.5-meters-high screen curved to provide a 150-degree field of view. The user is able to navigate around the environment using a mouse and keyboard, and can trigger hallucinations via hotkeys or clicking. Hallucinations also automatically occur when the user gets near certain objects. Visual hallucinations include an abyss appearing where the floor should be, random flashes of light, the user's image in a mirror getting thinner and bleeding from the eyes, and an initially comforting but increasingly abusive Virgin Mary. Abusive voices that say things like "you're worthless" and "go and kill yourself" start at random and [in] proximity to items such as stereos and televisions. These occur simultaneously, giving the effect of many different sounds and voices interjecting and occurring simultaneously, according to Jorgensen. The technical challenge to creating the virtual psychiatric ward was finding a scenegraph that achieved high enough frame rates to make the model realistic enough, said Ericsson. Scenegraphs are hierarchical structures that three-dimensional graphics programs use to store the three-dimensional model. When the researchers showed the patient the virtual environment, she deemed it effective in re-creating the emotions she experienced during her psychotic episodes, according to Ericsson. One surprising result came out of the initial prototype, said Ericsson. "The hallucinations are repetitive -- they say the same thing over and over again, unlike the portrayal presented in movies like A Beautiful Mind, he said. The researchers' next step is to increase their library of hallucinations by interviewing more patients. Eventually the software will have enough fodder that clinicians will be able to re-create the hallucinations of a particular patient by simply piecing together existing hallucinations from the library, said Ericsson. The researchers are also looking to begin critical trials to test the software's utility in cognitive behavioral therapy. The software will be used this year as a part of teaching courses, said Ericsson. If subsequent studies show that virtual reality is helpful in cognitive behavioral therapy, a commercial tool could be ready within five years, and widely available in 20 years, said Ericsson. Ericksson's research colleagues were Jasmine Banks, Kevin Burrage, Peter Yellowlees, Sean Ivermee and Jennifer Tichon. The work appeared in the January, 2004 issue of the Journal of Network and Computer Applications. The research was funded by Eli Lilly Australia and from the Schizophrenia Fellowship of Southeast Queensland. Timeline: 5 years, 20 years Funding: Corporate, Institute TRN Categories: Applied Technology; Human-Computer Interaction Story Type: News Related Elements: Technical paper, "Constructing the Hallucinations of Psychosis in Virtual Reality," Journal of Network and Computer Applications, January, 2004 www.trnmag.com/Stories/2004/061604/VR_tool_re-creates_hallucinations_061604.html
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Post by Meph on Jun 20, 2004 18:34:41 GMT 1
Panel OKs implant to fight depression
SHANKAR VEDANTAM
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - A surgical implant that stimulates the brain should get government approval to treat chronic depression, an expert panel of federal experts said Tuesday - marking the first time an implanted device has been recommended for the treatment of a psychiatric disorder.
Using a technique known as vagus nerve stimulation, the device uses electrodes implanted in the neck to activate brain regions that are believed to regulate mood.
The decision by an expert advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration came after a day of clashing scientific opinions about whether the data submitted by the manufacturer were adequate for approval. Proponents of the device prevailed, citing the desperate need of patients with chronic depression that does not respond to existing treatments.
The verdict by the advisory panel came after FDA scientists and some panel members argued the data presented by the manufacturer to show the device works were not convincing.
The agency is not required to follow the guidance of its advisory committee but usually does.
The device has been used in the United States since 1997 to control epileptic seizures.
The implant involves connecting a wire to the left vagus nerve in the side of the neck.
Meph
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Post by Meph on Jun 28, 2004 23:26:55 GMT 1
This is not exactly a new idea in psychology but the 3d pictures produced by this new form of ultrasound are so good I felt the need to share. "From 26 weeks, they appear to exhibit a whole range of typical baby behaviour and moods, including scratching, smiling, crying, hiccoughing, and sucking. " the rest of the pictures are here news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/3847319.stmand the article here; news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3846525.stmMeph
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Post by Meph on Jul 6, 2004 15:46:29 GMT 1
Article from the times. July 06, 2004 Brain enzyme linked to suicide By Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor A “SUICIDE enzyme” has been identified in the brains of teenagers who killed themselves, American researchers have reported. The enzyme, protein kinase C (PKC), had earlier been linked with mood disorders. The findings show it is significantly less plentiful in the brains of teenagers who have committed suicide than in the brains of a comparable group who died of other causes. Whether lack of the enzyme was the cause or the effect of the mental state that led the teenagers to take their own lives is unclear. Whatever the mechanism, the decreased level of the enzyme is a “vitally important observation that will help not only in understanding the neurobiological profile of teen suicide but also in advancing ideas for therapeutic intervention”, said Ghanshyam Pandey, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, the lead author of the study, published in Archives of General Psychiatry. The team, led by Dr Pandey, examined the brains of 34 dead teenagers. Half had causes of death that were not self-inflicted; the rest were suicide victims. The team found that PKC levels were consistently lower in the suicide victims — typically, half or less. The team said that the lower levels of the enzyme might be related to abnormal-ities in the interactions between the brain and hormonal glands, and suggest that it could provide a new target for drugs designed to prevent suicide. Suicide rates among teenagers, especially boys, have risen in the past two decades and remain a serious concern. A study to be reported today at the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists suggests that suicide rates could be cut by better services for young people with mental illness who also abuse alcohol or drugs, by better treatments of those with depression, and risk assessments in older patients. A second study suggests that among mental patients suicide may be “catching”, as imitation is a common factor. www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1169289,00.html Meph
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Post by Meph on Jul 6, 2004 16:08:29 GMT 1
An article from the sunday times; July 04, 2004 The Sunday Times Too much salt ‘cuts brainpower’ HIGH levels of salt in the British diet affect intelligence, a study has claimed. The research shows that raised blood pressure from high salt levels may harm memory, reasoning power and attention span, writes Jonathan Leake. The substance is already well known as a major cause of the raised blood pressure that affects 16m Britons. Salt-induced hypertension is blamed for about 13,000 strokes and 70,000 heart attacks in Britain every year — half of which are fatal. British consumers eat more salt than those of almost any other nation because it is so widely used as a flavour substitute in processed foods. Until now it had been thought that damage took years to accumulate and so mainly affected the elderly. The idea that salt might also be causing more subtle and progressive damage in the brains of younger and apparently healthy people is likely to cause concern. The latest findings have emerged from the Framingham study in America in which researchers have traced the health of more than 2,500 volunteers over a period of nearly 30 years. Dr Merrill Elias at Boston University, one of the researchers overseeing the study, will shortly publish the latest findings about salt- induced hypertension and brain damage. He said: “There is a direct relationship between blood pressure and cognitive function. What we have found is that as blood pressure rises people suffer progressive minor brain damage that slowly reduces their brain power. Salt is a major element in causing that raised blood pressure.” Humans need half a gram of salt a day but the average British adult man consumes about 12g and women about 10g. Bread, cured meats and ready meals are among the biggest sources. www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8126-1169156,00.html Meph
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Post by Meph on Jul 6, 2004 16:15:11 GMT 1
July 06 2004 at 11:28AM By James Burleigh The torture of commuting, frustrations with computers crashing and parents' infuriating child problems could all have health benefits, says a new study which found that stress is not always bad for you. Researchers found that a brief dose of stress might actually be healthy as it strengthens the body's defences. But the study, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, also discovered that long-lasting stress can do serious damage by wearing out the immune system. The most dangerous stressful situations include living with permanent disabilities from injuries or disease, caring for a spouse with severe dementia or being a war refugee. The longer that stress persists, the more the immune system is hit. First the defences of individual cells are broken down and then the broader immune function. Researchers from Kentucky University, Lexington and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver found that when stress is accompanied by the comforting knowledge that at some point it will end, such as public speaking or academic tests, it can strengthen the immune system. But stress has the greatest negative impact. This article was originally published on page 8 of London Independent on July 06, 2004 www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=vn20040706112849261C117184Meph
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Post by Graeme Houston on Jul 7, 2004 18:52:53 GMT 1
Whoa!
Meph, Gerry, Eyroonbru... I salute you.
Hadn't been in this thread for a while and came to find that it's got tons of great information!
Well done
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Post by Graeme Houston on Jul 10, 2004 14:22:46 GMT 1
SIDS and SerotoninBrain cells that contain serotonin, like the ones highlighted here in green and yellow, may play an important role in sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS. Some researchers suspect that these cells, situated in the brain near large arteries, highlighted in red, are part of a system that normally monitors the blood for high levels of carbon dioxide, which can be harmful. Through a release of serotonin, the brain cells are thought to increase breathing and keep carbon dioxide levels low. This system, however, may not work properly in some babies and could help contribute to SIDS. Image reprinted with permission from Nature Neuroscience, S. Risso Bradley et al., Vol. 5, 401 (2002). See the whole article here:www.sfn.org/content/Publications/BrainBriefings/sids.htmlAlso useful is: www.biopsychology.com/
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Post by TheWeeMan on Jul 22, 2004 9:43:24 GMT 1
graphics7.nytimes.com/images/article/header/nytlogoleft_article.gif[/img]When the Brain Says, 'Don't Get Too Close' By SANDRA BLAKESLEE Published: July 13, 2004 A century ago, neurologists noticed that when ladies wearing big feathered hats ducked through entryways, they would align their bodies just so. It was as if they could feel the tops of doors with the tips of the feathers. From this and other observations, the scientists concluded that each person holds within the brain a mental representation of the body and its parts - even the clothing it wears - as it moves through space. Those early scientists could not explain how the brain creates such sensations, or body schemas. But using modern methods for probing brains, researchers are uncovering the cells and circuits that are responsible. For example, research has found that brain cells become active as objects approach the space around the body. These cells will fire when, say, you see an insect fly toward your face. This so-called peripersonal space extends to arm's length; people with longer arms have a bigger peripersonal space. And when they use a tool, a rake, a joystick or an automobile, their body schema and peripersonal space expand to include it. Moreover, perceptions change as the body schema changes in response to outside stimuli. A hill looks steeper when you wear a backpack than when you do not. The findings, from laboratories worldwide, offer tantalizing biological explanations for many phenomena, including anorexia and syndromes in which stroke patients neglect one side of the body. They may explain why people are sucked into video games, and even why drivers get so upset when their car is dented. "To act efficiently, we need to locate objects in the space around our bodies," said Dr. Angelo Maravita, a psychology professor at the University of Milan. "We need to hold a constantly updated report on the body's shape and posture." The new research draws on the principle that the brain forms internal maps of the external world; groups of cells hold mental models of everything a person sees, hears, feels and knows. The brain also forms a mental map of the body itself. Clumps of brain tissue represent each hand, foot, trunk or lip. If someone touches your hand, cells in the brain's "hand area" become active. Neurons respond to both vision and touch in at least six brain areas. For example, a cell will fire when the right hand is touched, or when the person sees an object moving toward it. The closer the object, the faster the cell fires. Such cells encode the space around the body, within arm's reach. It is as if you walked around in your own private soap bubble. But the brain also has cells to map space farther away. Dr. Atsushi Iriki, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Riken Institute in Japan, was one of the first to explore body schema using modern techniques. He inserted single electrodes into monkey brains and identified single cells that responded to both a touch on the hand and visual space next to the hand. Then he gave the monkeys a rake and for three weeks trained them to pull in food pellets with the tool. After training, he found that the cells that represented the hand and arm, as well as space around the arm, changed their firing pattern to include the rake and the space around it. The moving tool was incorporated into the monkey's body schema, Dr. Iriki said. When the monkey held the tool passively, its body schema shrank to normal size. In another experiment, Dr. Iriki allowed the monkeys to see a virtual hand on a video monitor while the monkey's real hand, hidden from view, operated a joystick. When he made the image of the hand larger, the monkey's brain treated the virtual hand as if it were an enlarged version of its own; the brain's hand area blew up like a cartoon character's hand. When he put the image of a spider or snake on the screen and made it approach the image of the hand in the monitor, the monkey suddenly retracted its own hand. These neurons may constitute the neural basis of a person's feeling a sense of reality when playing video games, Dr. Iriki said. People say they can feel the joystick touching objects in the monitor as they extend their bodies into far space.
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Post by Meph on Jul 29, 2004 11:26:05 GMT 1
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Post by Meph on Aug 3, 2004 22:53:14 GMT 1
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Post by TheWeeMan on Aug 4, 2004 10:53:03 GMT 1
Cheers Meph.
This is EXTREMELY USEFUL for HNC Psychology 'B' Atypical Behaviour topic.
Thanks.
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