news 2012

The frontal lobes are the largest part of the human brain, and thought to be the part that expanded most during human evolution. Damage to the frontal lobes—which are located just behind and above the eyes—can result in profound impairments in higher-level reasoning and decision making. To find out more about what different parts of the frontal lobes do, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) recently teamed up with researchers at the world's largest registry of brain-lesion patients.

Two Stanford psychologists have found that the emotional difficulties faced by many individuals with autism come from a lack of effective emotion regulation strategies. In an ongoing collaboration with the Stanford Autism Center, the researchers are now planning to help people with autism learn to cope better.

Childhood adversity is linked to chronic stress in adolescence, setting the stage for a host of physical and mental health problems, finds a new Cornell study published online in July in Psychological Science. The longitudinal study found that the greater proportion of childhood spent in poverty, the greater number of risks children were exposed to, and this was linked to increased markers of chronic stress by the time the children were 17.

Such behavior problems in adolescence as aggression and delinquency are linked to chronic stress in early childhood, which interferes with children's development of self-control, reports a Cornell study published online in April in Developmental Psychology. To better understand the well-documented link between poverty and poor outcomes for children, the researchers analyzed data on risk factors, maternal responsiveness and child characteristics in 265 adolescents and their parents.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-For young adults today who were weaned on iPods and the Internet, the practice of "sexting," or sending sexually explicit photos or messages through phones, may be just another normal, healthy component of modern dating. University of Michigan researchers looked at the sexting behavior of 3,447 men and women ages 18-24 and found that while sexting is very common, sexting isn't associated with sexually risky behaviors or with psychological problems.

Parents of young children who show extreme behaviour problems and a lack of empathy or remorse may find new hope from research at the University of Sydney. "We found that the quality of a parent's emotional interaction and attachment with a young child is crucial to predicting if that child will develop this high-risk pattern of behaviour," said David Hawes , the research leader from the School of Psychology at the University.

Clinical psychologists from the University of Sheffield have discovered young children's concentration in class can be significantly improved by introducing mindfulness sessions into their school timetable. Lisa-Marie Berry and Georgina Rowse conducted a pilot project at Broomhill Infant School to see whether a mindfulness-based intervention, which is already proven to have positive effects on secondary school pupils, would have similar outcomes for children between the ages of 4-6 years.

When it comes to dealing with mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, elite athletes are 'just like us', and 'just like us' they need help, research from The Australian National University reveals. Amelia Gulliver, a PhD candidate at the Centre for Mental Health Research, in the ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, recruited young elite athletes in a collaborative project with the Australian Institute of Sport to study the effectiveness of three online interventions aimed at increasing knowledge about mental disorders and reducing stigma.

Researchers led by a team from the University of Glasgow and Oslo University Hospital, Norway have discovered that while changes in the emotions of adolescent females are directly related to age those from young males are influenced by the changing patterns of reproductive hormones that occur as individuals become more sexually mature.

PHILADELPHIA- Being the top dog - or, in this case, the top gelada monkey - is even better if the alpha male is willing to concede at times to subordinates, according to a study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania , the University of Michigan and Duke University. Alpha male geladas who allowed subordinate competitors into their group had a longer tenure as leader, resulting in an average of three more offspring each during their lifetimes.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Behavioral problems in preschoolers may mirror the intensity and frequency of their parents' marital conflict and signal possible child maltreatment, suggests a new study co-written by Jun Sung Hong, a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois, and researchers at Ewha Womans University and Duksung Women's University, both in Seoul, South Korea.

New research from psychologists at the Universities of Exeter and Cardiff shows that people can train their brains to become less impulsive, resulting in less risk-taking during gambling. The research could pave the way for new treatments for people with addictions to gambling, drugs or alcohol as well as impulse-control disorders, such as ADHD.

Children who are skilled in understanding how shapes fit together to make recognizable objects also have an advantage when it comes to learning the number line and solving math problems, research at the University of Chicago shows. The work is further evidence of the value of providing young children with early opportunities in spatial learning, which contributes to their ability to mentally manipulate objects and understand spatial relationships, which are important in a wide range of tasks, including reading maps and graphs and understanding diagrams showing how to put things together.

A nuzzle of the neck, a stroke of the wrist, a brush of the knee—these caresses often signal a loving touch, but can also feel highly aversive, depending on who is delivering the touch, and to whom. Interested in how the brain makes connections between touch and emotion, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered that the association begins in the brain's primary somatosensory cortex, a region that, until now, was thought only to respond to basic touch, not to its emotional quality.

— Coral Gables — A new study shows that one in three children who have an older sibling with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) fall into a group characterized by higher levels of autism-related behaviors or lower levels of developmental progress. The study will be presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in May, 2012.

As the Supreme Court considers whether to further limit sentences given to juveniles, new research by Stanford psychologists shows how an offender's race shifts people's support for severe punishment. When it comes to holding children accountable for crimes they commit, race matters. According to a new study by Stanford psychologists, if people imagine a juvenile offender to be black, they are more willing to hand down harsher sentences to all juveniles.

How horses use memory, sight and sound to recognise humans A new University of Sussex study published online today (16 May 2012) shows that domestic horses use a sophisticated cognitive system to identify individuals of species other than their own. A previous prize-winning study* by the University's Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research Group in the School of Psychology demonstrated that horses have the ability to combine auditory and visual information cross-modally to recognise each other.

Genes play a greater role in forming character traits than was previously thought, new research suggests. A study of more than 800 sets of twins found that genetics were more influential in shaping key traits than a person's home environment and surroundings. University psychologists, who carried out the study, say that genetically influenced characteristics could well be the key to how successful a person is in life.

Boys who reach sexual maturity more rapidly than their peers have more problems getting along with others their age and are at a higher risk for depression, according to a Cornell study published in Developmental Psychology (47:2). "The dramatic physical changes of puberty are paralleled by equally dramatic social and emotional changes because boys are transitioning into the new roles and expectations that go along with biological maturity," said lead author Jane Mendle, assistant professor of human development in Cornell's College of Human Ecology.

A new analysis of hundreds of existing research studies shows that lesbians, gays and bisexuals experience high rates of victimization.