Tag: Psychology

A team of New Jersey researchers has shown that changes in perceptual certainty and response bias, two central metrics of signal detection theory (SDT), correlate with changes in cognitive fatigue. They also show that SDT measures change as a function of changes in brain activation. This finding was reported in Frontiers in Psychology on January

We all feel physical pain in different ways, but people with nerve injuries often have a dysfunctional pain suppression system, making them particularly prone to discomfort. Now researchers have uncovered that virtual reality (VR) can reduce types of pain typically seen in patients with nerve injuries – and that VR can boost the dysfunctional pain

“I had a patient recently who demanded that I remove the diagnosis of opioid use disorder [OUD] from his chart. He’s been on them for years, and has had abnormal urine drug screening. At that point, OUD isn’t a ‘thought,’ it’s a fact.” One radiologist apparently copied and pasted notes into various medical records. A

How come we don't hear everything twice: After all, our ears sit on opposite sides of our head and most sounds do not reach both our ears at exactly the same time. While this helps us determine which direction sounds are coming from, it also means that our brain has to combine the information from

There is no cure for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Therapy aims to reduce the symptoms to allow for normal learning and growth of the child. Basic tenets of therapy include medication and counselling. Other parts of therapy include accommodating the child in regular classrooms and providing family and community support. Types of ADHD Medication

Imagine the scene—gleeful children ripping open presents, harassed parents surveying the carnage of once-tidy homes, disgruntled relatives muttering disapproval into their third glass of sherry. All familiar sights around Christmas, when the social obligations of the festive season draw people together with their kith and kin. This type of social event is perfectly natural. Humans

Social network users risk becoming more and more addicted to social media platforms even as they experience stress from their use. Social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and Instagram are known to cause stress in users, known as technostress from social media. However, when faced with such stress, instead of switching off or using

“Birds of a feather flock together” or rather “opposites attract”? The recently published study on male macaques in Thailand speaks for the former: Behavioral biologists from the German Primate Centre — Leibniz Institute for Primate Research and psychologists from the University of Göttingen have observed that the more similar male Assamese macaques are in their

A new mathematical analysis suggests that migration can generate patterns in the spatial distribution of individuals that promote cooperation and allow populations to thrive, in spite of the threat of exploitation. Felix Funk and Christoph Hauert of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, present these findings in PLOS Computational Biology. Cooperation between individuals is necessary

Real and fake smiles can be tricky to tell apart, but researchers at the University of Bradford have now developed computer software that can spot false facial expressions. By analysing the movement of the smile across a person’s face, the software can determine whether or not the expression is genuine. The most significant movements detected

Could a computer, at a glance, tell the difference between a joyful image and a depressing one? Could it distinguish, in a few milliseconds, a romantic comedy from a horror film? Yes, and so can your brain, according to research published this week by University of Colorado Boulder neuroscientists. “Machine learning technology is getting really

Social media use is contributing to poor mental health in Indonesia, research presented in a paper by Sujarwoto Sujarwoto, Gindo Tampubolon and Adi Cilik Pierewan has found. The paper examines the specific effect of social media on mental health in the developing country. It found that social media had a detrimental effect on mental health

Organisms on this planet, including human beings, exhibit a biological rhythm that repeats about every 24 h to adapt to the daily environmental alteration caused by the rotation of the earth. This circadian rhythm is regulated by a set of biomolecules working as a biological clock. In cyanobacteria (or blue-green algae), the circadian rhythm is

Anger may be more harmful to an older person’s physical health than sadness, potentially increasing inflammation, which is associated with such chronic illnesses as heart disease, arthritis and cancer, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. “As most people age, they simply cannot do the activities they once did, or they may

Humans use imagination a lot, whether it be thinking about what’s for dinner later tonight or trying to imagine what someone else on the other side of the world may be experiencing after reading the news. As situations become farther away from reality and more distal, imagining a situation becomes more difficult. The limits to

Each May, the United States celebrates Mother’s Day, and for good reason. According to surveys I’ve conducted, over 25% of Americans cite their mother as their number one hero. Fathers come in a distant second at 16%. Moms are indeed the mother of all heroes. More than 60 years ago, psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed his

Researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), part of the University of Oxford, used an eight-year survey of UK households (Understanding Society, part of the UK Household Longitudinal Study) to study how long teenagers spent using social media on a normal school day and their corresponding life satisfaction ratings. This is the first large-scale and

The causes for bipolar disorders in the genes? People suffering from bipolar disorder, experience the day-to-day a roller coaster ride of emotions. The feeling of the sky can change in a highly scattering up to very sad within the shortest period of time. In bipolar disorder, manic phases with delusions of grandeur and severely depressed

A KAIST research team identified the intrinsic control architecture of brain networks. The control properties will contribute to providing a fundamental basis for the exogenous control of brain networks and, therefore, has broad implications in cognitive and clinical neuroscience. Although efficiency and robustness are often regarded as having a trade-off relationship, the human brain usually

Research suggests that having a happy spouse leads to a longer marriage, and now study results show that it’s associated with a longer life, too. The study was published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. “The data show that spousal life satisfaction was associated with mortality, regardless of individuals’ socioeconomic