Slate begins a series on creative pairs: Two is the Magic Number. The sensation of “mirror neurons” helped further dissolve the distinction. About 10 years ago, a team of Italian researchers showed that certain neurons that fire during actions by macaque monkeys—when they pick up a peanut, for example—also fire when they watch someone else […]
Kids who really don’t want to go to school addressed in When a Doctor’s Note for a Student Doesn’t Help (NYT): The first time I realized I was complicit in school refusal, I didn’t even know the term. It was about a decade ago, and my patient was a boy who seemed to be spending his
New at YANSS: The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy. The Misconception: You take randomness into account when determining cause and effect. The Truth: You tend to ignore random chance when the results seem meaningful or when you want a random event to have a meaningful cause. The fallacy gets its name from imagining a cowboy shooting at
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From Wired: Alcohol can increase longevity…but why? In recent years, sociologists and epidemiologists have begun studying the long-term effects of loneliness. It turns out to be really dangerous. We are social primates, and when we’re cut off from the social network, we are more likely to die from just about everything (but especially heart disease). At
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NYT: How Debt Can Destroy a Budding Relationship. Nobody likes unpleasant surprises, but when Allison Brooke Eastman’s fiancé found out four months ago just how high her student loan debt was, he had a particularly strong reaction: he broke off the engagement within three days…
NYT Magazine: Can Preschoolers Be Depressed? One established [treatment] method is called Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, or P.C.I.T. Originally developed in the 1970s to treat disruptive disorders — which typically include violent or aggressive behavior in preschoolers — P.C.I.T. is generally a short-term program, usually 10 to 16 weeks under the supervision of a trained therapist,
Preschool Depression? Read More »
Another NYT “Your Brain on Computers” dispatch: Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime “Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories,” said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in learning and memory. He
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Some ASU psychologists have taken it upon themselves to update the Maslow hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s pyramid describes human motivations from the most basic to the most advanced. According to experts, Maslow’s time-tested pyramid, first proposed in the 1940s, needed to be updated to reflect the last 50 years of research…The bottom four levels of
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Yoga, meditation, pets, nature, and 15 other mood helpers. Meditation Can Improve Brain Function (PsychCentral) 15 Ways to Help Treat Depression Naturally (WebMD) New study finds new connection between yoga and mood (ScienceDaily) Do Pets Help with Depression and Stress? (WebMD)
What is it About 20-Somethings? asks the NYT. We’re in the thick of what one sociologist calls “the changing timetable for adulthood.” Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent
“Emerging Adulthood” Read More »