news 2017

A new study by experimental psychologists from the University of Bristol has examined whether cognitive bias modification (CBM) for facial interpretation, a digital health intervention that changes our perception for emotional expressions from negative to positive, might be useful in treating depression.

Digital screen use is a staple of contemporary life for adults and children, whether they are browsing on laptops and smartphones, or watching TV. Paediatricians and scientists have long expressed concerns about the impact of overusing technology on people's wellbeing. However, new Oxford University research suggests that existing guidance managing children's digital media time may not be as beneficial as first thought.

It is the first representative survey of the state's youth population to measure gender expression Rachel Dowd A new UCLA study finds that 27 percent, or 796,000, of California's youth, ages 12 to 17, report they are viewed by others as gender nonconforming at school. The study also assessed differences in mental health among gender nonconforming youth and gender conforming youth in the state, and found no significant difference in the rates of lifetime suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts between gender nonconforming youth and their gender conforming peers.

Study finds people in areas historically reliant on coal-based industries have more 'negative' personality traits. Psychologists suggest this cognitive die may well have been cast at the dawn of the industrial age.

Study finds people in areas historically reliant on coal-based industries have more 'negative' personality traits. Psychologists suggest this cognitive die may well have been cast at the dawn of the industrial age.

When parents struggle to juggle family and work responsibilities, they become tired, stressed, cranky and unhappy, which has an impact on family relationships and their children's wellbeing. Jobs that are overly demanding at the expense of family time put the mental health of employees' children at risk, a new study led by ANU has found.

ANN ARBOR-Research has shown that a woman's emotional and physical health during pregnancy impacts a developing fetus. However, less is known about the effect of past stressors and posttraumatic stress disorder on an expectant woman. To that end, researchers at the University of Michigan measured the stress hormone cortisol in pregnant women from early pregnancy to when their baby was 6 weeks old.

An experimental therapy which involves a face-to-face discussion between a person with schizophrenia and an avatar representing their auditory hallucination may help reduce symptoms, when provided alongside usual treatment, according to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal. The randomised controlled trial compared the avatar therapy to a form of supportive counselling (adapted specifically for the study).

An experimental therapy which involves a face-to-face discussion between a person with schizophrenia and an avatar representing their auditory hallucination may help reduce symptoms, when provided alongside usual treatment, according to a study led by King's College London and published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.

Babies as young as 10 months can assess how much someone values a particular goal by observing how hard they are willing to work to achieve it, according to a new study from MIT and Harvard University. This ability requires integrating information about both the costs of obtaining a goal and the benefit gained by the person seeking it, suggesting that babies acquire very early an intuition about how people make decisions.

Adolescents whose fathers have depressive symptoms are more likely to experience symptoms of depression themselves, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. While the link between mothers' depression and depression in their children is well-established, the new Lancet Psychiatry study is the first to find an association between depression in fathers and their teenaged children, independent of whether the mother has depression, in a large sample in the general population.

Recalling the names of old classmates 50 years after graduation or of favorite childhood television series illustrates the amazing abilities of human memory. Emotion and repeated exposure are both known to play a role in long-term memorization, but why do we remember things that are not emotionally charged and have only been seen or experienced a few times in the past?

Horses can read our body language, even when they don't know us Horses can tell the difference between dominant and submissive body postures in humans, even when the humans are not familiar to them, according to a new University of Sussex-led study. The findings enhance our understanding of how animals can communicate using body posture across the species barrier, and are specifically helpful for informing horse handlers and trainers about the ways horses perceive human body language.

There is little debate over the link between air pollution and the human respiratory system: Research shows that dirty air can impair breathing and aggravate various lung diseases. Other potential effects are being investigated, too, as scientists examine connections between toxic air and obesity , diabetes and dementia.

ANN ARBOR-Getting spanked as a child can lead to a host of mental health problems in adulthood, say University of Michigan researchers. A new study by Andrew Grogan-Kaylor and Shawna Lee, both U-M associate professors of social work, and colleagues indicates the violence caused by spanking can lead adults to feel depressed, attempt suicide, drink at moderate-to-heavy levels or use illegal drugs.

Expectant and new parents often turn to the internet for parenting prep, but it turns out that dads often don't seem to find the information they say they need about pregnancy, parenthood and routes to their own mental health and well-being. Now, a new study from a Canadian team led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) with funding from global men's health charity the Movember Foundation highlights just what soon-to-be and new fathers want to see in a dad-focused website and how best to meet those needs.

14-day smartphone-based mindfulness training program lowers stress For the millions of mindfulness meditation mobile app users, there is good news: New research shows they can reduce the body's response to biological stress. A Carnegie Mellon University-led study found that one component of mindfulness interventions - acceptance training, or learning how to be open and accepting of the way things are in each moment - is critical for the stress reduction effects.

How do we know whether a patient is conscious when he or she is unable to communicate? According to an Inserm study conducted in 127 patients aged 17 to 80, changes in heartbeat in response to sound stimulation is a good indicator of state of consciousness. This is what Inserm researcher Jacobo Sitt and his team, based at the Brain & Spine Institute (ICM) at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, AP-HP, demonstrate in an article published in Annals of neurology.

Compared to their counterparts twenty years ago, today's 65-year-olds not only feel younger but are generally healthier overall - and enjoy greater life satisfaction. That is just one of the latest results of the Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study on Adult Development and Aging (ILSE) that was launched in 1993 at the Institute of Gerontology at Heidelberg University.

How do people assign a cause to events they witness' Some philosophers have suggested that people determine responsibility for a particular outcome by imagining what would have happened if a suspected cause had not intervened. This kind of reasoning, known as counterfactual simulation, is believed to occur in many situations.