science wire

The term "birdbrain" may take on new meaning as a Cornell study is the first to prove that the capacity for learning in birds is not linked to overall brain size, but to the relative size of their brain parts. The study finds that songbirds whose higher brain areas are larger in relation to lower brain areas have a greater capacity for learning songs.

A report published today (14 th September 2011) by the Autism Education Trust (AET) finds the current education system lacks flexibility in its approach to pupils on the autism spectrum.

Some people feel compelled to pet every furry animal they see on the street, while others jump at the mere sight of a shark or snake on the television screen. No matter what your response is to animals, it may be thanks to a specific part of your brain that is hardwired to rapidly detect creatures of the nonhuman kind.

An international music event which simultaneously spans two continents is to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ' Troops overseas often want nothing more than to get back home to loved ones ' but the reunion period often can be more emotionally taxing than the deployment. Returning service members are at a greater risk of both depressive symptoms and relationship distress, and research shows the two often go together, says University of Illinois researcher Leanne Knobloch (pronounced kuh-NO-block).

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Many wonder why bullies bully, but a new study looks at the other side of the equation: How do children respond to bullying and why' The answer, researchers say, may lead to more effective interventions to reduce the negative consequences - and perhaps even the frequency ' of bullying.

Out of the wreckage of the World Trade Center attacks and the events of 9/11 came some of the first large-scale research of mass trauma. The resulting findings have led to a broader understanding of how post-traumatic stress disorder can affect hundreds of thousands of people, not just individuals. Sandro Galea , chair of the epidemiology department at the Mailman School of Public Health , is one of the leading researchers on the topic, having written some 50 articles on the subject of 9/11 and trauma.

Aug. AUSTIN, Texas — Yan Zhang , assistant professor in the School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin, is creating an interactive online game to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) communicate their emotions.

— Coral Gables — The birth of a baby can elicit many emotions, from joy and excitement to fear and uncertainty.

PA 252/11 Researchers at The University of Nottingham are to investigate whether the therapeutic effects of clay modelling could help disturbed teenagers deal with their feelings of anger, anxiety and depression.

Three ANU researchers have won 2011 ACT Young Tall Poppy Science Awards. Cormac Corr, Gonzalo Estillo and Liana Leach were named at a ceremony held on 17 August.

Animal's brains are only roughly aware of how high-up they are in space, meaning that in terms of altitude the brain's 'map' of space is surprisingly flat, according to new research. In a study published online , scientists studied cells in or near a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which forms the brain's map of space, to see whether they were activated when rats climbed upwards.

Psychologist Michael Frank enters the world of high-speed mental math and finds that "Mental Abacus" users can calculate without using verbal working memory.

Aug. AUSTIN, Texas — The words people use are like fingerprints that can reveal their relationships, honesty or their status in a group, according to research by University of Texas at Austin social psychologist James W. Pennebaker.

'Mirroring' Might Reflect Badly on You Not Always Smart to Mimic a Person's Body Language, UC San Diego Study Shows July 28, 2011 Inga Kiderra Excerpt from one of the experimental videos, showing the condition of a condescending er, with body-language mimicry by the person being ed. The study by Winkielman and colleagues shows that an ee who does this mirroring of an undesirable model is rated as less competent than one who doesn't.

Researchers at the University of Warwick are calling for volunteers aged 65-85 across Coventry and Warwickshire to help them with some new research that may help reduce the risk of falls in older people. University of Warwick Psychology researchers Professor Elizabeth Maylor and Subhobrata Mitra believe that a better understanding of how we think about movement under certain conditions would provide valuable information that could help fall clinics develop programmes that could significantly reduce the risk of a serious fall in older people.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—If you think driving a luxury car like a BMW, Lexus or Cadillac makes you feel better—think again, says a University of Michigan researcher.

The UCL Institute of Child Health and partners have secured a five year, £4.6m grant from the Department of Health Policy Research Programme, to lead a new Policy Research Unit in the Health of Children, Young People and Families (abbreviated to CPRU). The Unit was formally launched on Wednesday 20 July at the UCL Institute of Child Health.

"Don't you know who I am? Remember my name. Fame! I'm gonna live forever." Fame is the No. 1 value emphasized by television shows popular with 9- to 11-year-olds, a dramatic change over the past 10 years, UCLA psychologists report in a new study. On a list of 16 values, fame jumped from the 15th spot, where it was in both 1987 and 1997, to the first spot in 2007.

This year more scientists from UCL than ever are taking part in the Royal Society's Summer Science exhibition, which showcases the most exciting cutting-edge science and technology research from around the country.

NASA made its final attempt to uplink a command to the Spirit rover May 25. That afternoon, a group of us who work with the rovers at Cornell gathered at a bar to mourn.

A new film highlighting the significant problem of fatigue in the seafaring industry has been screened at the School of Psychology.

PA202/11 Children from across Nottinghamshire are invited to become scientists for the day at the fifth annual Summer Scientist Week at The University of Nottingham.

Cardiff researchers based in the University's three Research Institutes are leading the way in tackling issues of global importance in the fields of cancer, neuroscience and mental health, and sustainability. Here Professor Nick Pidgeon, part of the research team at the Sustainable Places Research Institute and Professor of Environmental Psychology at the School of Psychology, discusses his research into the psychology of climate change.

University Park, Pa. How people choose to consume resources and use contraception influences their responses to climate change, according to a team of psychologists. Janet K. Swim, professor of psychology, Penn State, and her colleagues report that growing consumption and growing population are two significant contributors to human impact on the environment.

We all know people who are able to roll with life's punches, while for others, every misfortune is a jab straight to the gut. Research examining this issue has found that although most people require significant adversity to become depressed — the death of a loved one, say, or getting fired — roughly 30 percent of people with first-time depression and 60 percent of people with a history of depression develop the disorder following relatively minor misfortunes.

Although TV shows such as "Intervention" purport to reveal the unvarnished truth about addiction and recovery, the shows convey misinformation about treatment availability, practices and success rates, according to a new study by Jason R. Kosovski, left, a scholar of cultural issues in media, and Douglas C. Smith, a professor in the School of Social Work who researches addiction and treatment.

A research study to learn more about the causes and consequences of stress has featured in a special edition of BBC Radio Four's All in the Mind programme.

Study shows that flashy may work for the short term but not for marriage MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (06/16/2011) —New research by faculty at the University of Texas-San Antonio (UTSA), University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management and Rice University finds that men's conspicuous spending is driven by the desire to have uncommitted romantic flings.

Fear burns memories into our brain, and new research by University of California, Berkeley, neuroscientists explains how.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. In a new study, researchers tested the claims of a Boston police officer who said he ran past a brutal police beating without seeing it. After re-creating some of the conditions of the original incident and testing the perceptions of college students who ran past a staged fight, the researchers found the officer's story plausible.

Divorce is a drag on the academic and emotional development of young children, but only once the breakup is under way, according to a study of elementary school students and their families.

At the end of the eight-week study, breast cancer survivors participating in yoga reported substantial psychological benefits - their body images had improved, and they felt freed from the psychological barriers they had constructed that limited their physical activities. Photo by www.localfitness.com.au CHAMPAIGN, Ill.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—A new University of Michigan study found that African American men between the ages of 35 and 54 who experience discrimination also suffer from significant levels of depressive symptoms. Study participants were asked about daily discrimination within the past year. Responses included "people act as if they think you are dishonest" and "you are followed around in stores." But when African American men of all ages feel in control over their lives, it protects them from depressive symptoms, the study indicated.

People suffering serious mental illness can expect to live up to 18 years less than the national average, according to the latest research from King's Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) for Mental Health. The research is the first to examine life expectancy for people with specific mental illnesses in the UK and shows that women with schizoaffective disorder and men with schizophrenia are among those most affected, with a reduced life expectancy of 17.5 years and 14.6 years respectively.

While currently in the realm of sci-fi fantasy, the ability to read people's minds has taken a step closer to reality thanks to neuroscientists at the University of Glasgow. Researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience & Psychology have been able to identify the type of information contained within certain brainwaves related to vision.

— Coral Gables — Researchers from the University of Miami (UM) Department of Psychology participated in a multi-site study to examine different teaching models for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The study is one of the first to look at the fidelity of treatment models for preschoolers with autism.

Psychologists at the University of Birmingham have discovered that focussing on eating lunch and paying great attention to the food can reduce snacking in the afternoon, according to research published in the journal Appetite. This study was carried out with three groups of participants who were offered the same lunch and the same biscuits later in the afternoon.

The Centre for Mental Health Research (CMHR) at ANU has welcomed the Federal Government's commitment to establishing a national e-mental health portal but warned that sufficient ongoing funding must be allocated to ensure it is a success.

PA 152/11 Building work on a new £7 million home for a University of Nottingham-based research centre will be officially marked later this month with a ground-breaking ceremony.

When someone is acting suspiciously at an airport, subway station or other public space, how can law enforcement officers determine whether he's up to no good?

PASADENA, Calif.—When a group of gamblers gather around a roulette table, individual players are likely to have different reasons for betting on certain numbers.

In 1957, Max Mathews invented a program that allowed a mainframe computer to play a 17-second musical composition.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Researchers have long known that children with disabilities are at increased risk of being abused by their caregivers. But a groundbreaking new study by Jesse Helton, a faculty member in the Children and Family Research Center in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois, indicates that the risk and degree of physical abuse varies according to the child's type and level of disability - and those at greatest risk of maltreatment may be those with average functioning or only mild impairments.