Posts tagged psychology
Articles and news from the latest research reports.
When rules change, brain falters
For the human brain, learning a new task when rules change can be a surprisingly difficult process marred by repeated mistakes, according to a new study by Michigan State University psychology researchers.
Imagine traveling to Ireland and suddenly having to drive on the left side of the road. The brain, trained for right-side driving, becomes overburdened trying to suppress the old rules while simultaneously focusing on the new rules, said Hans Schroder, primary researcher on the study.
New link found between MS treatment and vitamin D
July 30, 2012
(Medical Xpress) — A new study by researchers at the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania (Menzies) suggests that one of the main treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) may also increase the amount of vitamin D patients receive from sun exposure.
More people suffer with MS per capita in Tasmania than in any other state in Australia. There is currently no cure, but treatments are available to ease some of the symptoms.
This observational study published in the prestigious journal Neurology found that patients taking one of the most common treatments for MS, interferon-beta, had higher vitamin D levels than those not on this treatment or those using other forms of treatment for MS.
Around 60 per cent of MS patients with the relapsing-remitting form of MS are treated with interferon-beta. It is derived from a naturally-occurring component of the human immune system and has been found to reduce the frequency of relapse and other specific symptoms of MS.
Despite being a front-line treatment in MS, how interferon-beta actually works in MS is unclear, though it is thought to act by affecting the immune system.
The study used data from the MS Longitudinal Study, from 2002-2005, and this analysis used data from 178 persons with MS living in southern Tasmania.
Menzies researchers Dr. Niall Stewart and Dr. Steve Simpson, Jr. were co-first authors on the paper. Dr. Simpson says the findings suggest that part of the therapeutic effects of interferon-beta on relapse in MS may be through its effects on vitamin D, since vitamin D has the ability to reduce inflammatory pathways in the immune system.
“Not only did we find that persons taking interferon-beta had higher vitamin D levels than those not taking it, we also found that this increase in vitamin D was due to an enhancement of the association between sun and vitamin D, with persons on interferon-beta having nearly three-times as much vitamin D from similar amounts of sun exposure to those not taking interferon-beta,” Dr. Simpson said.
“We have previously shown persons with MS with higher vitamin D levels had lower numbers of relapses. In this analysis, however, we found that vitamin D was only associated with reduced risk of relapse among those using interferon-beta.
“Interestingly, the reciprocal was also true, with interferon-beta only associated with reduced risk of relapse among those with higher levels of vitamin D,” Dr. Simpson said.
Senior author, Professor Bruce Taylor, says the new findings have the potential to markedly affect clinical practice in the treatment of MS, but cautions that more research is required.
“This study adds to the growing body of research into MS, but before we can apply these findings to MS treatment practice, clinical trials must be done to prove these associations. Menzies is planning to undertake such a trial in the future,” Professor Taylor said.
“This study does provide further support for persons with MS to periodically have their vitamin D measured, particularly in winter, and if they are deficient, to seek the advice of their physician as to whether supplementation is appropriate for them.”
Provided by University of Tasmania
Source: medicalxpress.com
A better judge of character with oxytocin nasal spray?
In other contexts, oxytocin is already well-known as the “bliss hormone”. The hormone is secreted upon stimulation by touch and is known to result in a feeling of calm and physical relaxation. It is also used to induce labour in childbirth and as an aid for women experiencing difficulties in breastfeeding.
Oxytocin has also been referred to as a “mindreading” hormone. Recent research findings show that there may be some truth to these claims – although the mindreading component may have a more down-to-earth explanation.
Smell the potassium: Surprising find in study of sex- and aggression-triggering vomeronasal organ
"We found two new ion channels—both of them potassium channels—through which VNO neurons are activated in mice," says Associate Investigator C. Ron Yu, Ph.D., senior author of the study. "This is quite unusual; potassium channels normally don’t play a direct role in the activation of sensory neurons."
Humans have shrunken, seemingly vestigial VNOs, but still exhibit instinctive, pre-programmed behaviors relating to reproduction and aggression. Scientists hope that an understanding of how the VNO works in mice and other lower mammals will provide clues to how these innate behaviors are triggered in humans.
The VNO works in much the same way as the main olfactory organ that provides the sense of smell. Its neurons and their input stalks, known as dendrites, are studded with specialized receptors that can be activated by contact with specific messenger-chemicals called pheromones, found mostly in body fluids. When activated, VNO receptors cause adjacent ion channels to open or close allowing ions to flood into or out of a neuron. These inflows and outflows of electric charge create voltage surges that can activate a VNO neuron, so that it signals to the brain to turn on a specific behavior.
Science of Eyewitness Memory Enters Courtroom
Science has prevailed over injustice in the state of New Jersey, where all jurors will soon learn about memory’s unreliability and the limits of eyewitness testimony.
According to instructions issued July 19 by New Jersey’s Supreme Court, judges must tell jurors that “human memory is not foolproof,” and enumerate the many ways in which eyewitness recall can be distorted or mistaken.
“Emotion Detectives” Uncover New Ways to Address Youth Anxiety and Depression
26 July 2012
Emotional problems in childhood are common. Approximately 8 to 22 percent of children suffer from anxiety, often combined with other conditions such as depression. However, most existing therapies are not designed to treat coexisting psychological problems and are therefore not very successful in helping children with complex emotional issues.
To develop a more effective treatment for co-occurring youth anxiety and depression, University of Miami psychologist Jill Ehrenreich-May and her collaborator Emily L. Bilek analyzed the efficacy and feasibility of a novel intervention created by the researchers, called Emotion Detectives Treatment Protocol (EDTP). Preliminary findings show a significant reduction in the severity of anxiety and depression after treatment, as reported by the children and their parents.
“We are very excited about the potential of EDTP,” says Ehrenreich-May, associate professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at UM and principal investigator of the study. “Not only could the protocol better address the needs of youth with commonly co-occurring disorders and symptoms, it may also provide additional benefits to mental health professionals,” she says. “EDTP offers a more unified approach to treatment that, we hope, will allow for an efficient and cost-effective treatment option for clinicians and clients alike.”
Emotion Detectives Treatment Program is an adaptation of two treatment protocols developed for adults and adolescents, the Unified Protocols. The program implements age-appropriate techniques that deliver education about emotions and how to manage them, strategies for evaluating situations, problem-solving skills, behavior activation (a technique to reduce depression), and parent training.
In the study, 22 children ages 7 to 12 with a principal diagnosis of an anxiety disorder and secondary issues of depression participated in a 15-session weekly group therapy of EDTP. Among participants who completed the protocol (18 out of 22), 14 no longer met criteria for an anxiety disorder at post-treatment. Additionally, among participants who were assigned a depressive disorder before treatment (5 out of 22), only one participant continued to meet such criteria at post-treatment.
Unlike results from previous studies, the presence of depressive symptoms did not predict poorer treatment response. The results also show a high percentage of attendance. The findings imply that EDTP may offer a better treatment option for children experiencing anxiety and depression.
“Previous research has shown that depressive symptoms tend to weaken treatment response for anxiety disorders. We were hopeful that a broader, more generalized approach would better address this common co-occurrence,” says Bilek, doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at UM and co-author of the study. “We were not surprised to find that the EDTP had equivalent outcomes for individuals with and without elevated depressive symptoms, but we were certainly pleased to find that this protocol may address this important issue.”
The study, titled “An Open Trial Investigation of a Transdiagnostic Group Treatment for Children with Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms,” is published online ahead of print in the journal Behavior Therapy.
The team is currently recruiting participants for a randomized controlled trial comparing the EDTP to another group treatment protocol for anxiety disorders. For more information, please contact the study coordinators at www.miami.edu/childanxiety.
Source: ScienceBlog
Fear study reveals mental processes
July 25, 2012
A University study has shown how our minds unconsciously respond to threats.
Researchers studying how our minds develop fears in response to danger found that people can quickly learn to recognise a threat even when they are unaware of it.
However, they also found that this learning is swiftly forgotten. In contrast, when people are aware of the threat, they take longer to learn to be afraid of it, but retain the fear in the long term.
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh and New York University, who carried out the study, say the finding may be a key insight into the differences between conscious and nonconscious mental processes.
Fear study
Researchers measured physiological fear responses - the amount of sweat on the fingertips - in groups of people who looked at pictures and were given mild electric shocks whenever one of these pictures was shown.
All the people who participated in the study saw the pictures with just one eye. But whereas some of them were allowed to see the pictures clearly, the researchers suppressed the pictures from other subjects’ awareness by showing colourful, dynamic images to the other eye.
The study found that subjects who were prevented from consciously seeing the pictures learned to be afraid of the image associated with a shock more quickly than those who were allowed to see them without suppression.
However, these subjects quickly forgot this association between the images and the electric shocks as the experiment continued.
In contrast, those subjects who were allowed to see the image clearly formed a stronger association over time.
How the brain reacts to threats is key to understanding how human beings function. This study shows that we are capable of learning very rapidly that something is a threat even when we don’t perceive it consciously. Such learning, however, is fleeting.
-David Carmel, Researcher, Department of Psychology
Source: The University of Edinburgh
What links Alzheimer’s disease, the bridges of Königsberg and Twitter?
A mathematical puzzle originating in 18th century Prussia has led to insights in fields as diverse as banking, social networking, epidemiology – and now Alzheimer’s disease
The progression of Alzheimer’s is accompanied by a buildup in the brain of amyloid plaque and the breakdown of communication between nerve cells. Recent research suggests that graph theory can provide fascinating insights into the faulty wiring behind the progressive memory loss of Alzheimer’s. But what exactly is graph theory?
To discover the origins of the theory we have to go back to the 18th century and the ancient Prussian city of Königsberg, now Kaliningrad – that tiny city state wedged between Poland and Lithuania. It was here that Leonard Euler solved the long-standing Bridges of Königsberg Problem, which has had a profound effect on the development of network theory.
The Internet global network is a phenomenon of technological civilization, and its exceptional complexity surpasses anything mankind has ever created. In essence, what we are dealing with here is a huge quantity of utterly unstructured information. The Internet map is an attempt to look into the hidden structure of the network, fathom its colossal scale, and examine that which is impossible to understand from the bare figures of statistics.
Opinion: Scientists’ Intuitive Failures
Much of what researchers believe about the public and effective communication is wrong.
Scientists in the United States and Europe have long been concerned with how well the public understands science, whether or not the media adequately covers science, and how the public reaches decisions on complex science-related policy issues. Given the norms of our profession, however, it is ironic that many of these debates about how to best communicate science with lay populations are driven by intuitive assumptions on the part of scientists rather than the growing body of social science research on the topic that has developed over the past 2 decades.
In May, more than 500 researchers, journalists, and policy professionals gathered at the National Academies in Washington, DC, for a 2-day forum on the “Science of Science Communication” to dispel some of these intuitive but persistent myths about science, the media, and the public.
1. Americans no longer trust scientists. Prominent scientists warn that we have entered a new “dark age,” where the public no longer trusts scientific expertise.
2. Science journalism is dead. Though scientists are often critical of the news media, calling attention to perceived bias on the part of journalists, they also fear that budget cuts at news organizations have meant the death of science journalism.
3. Entertainment media promote a culture of anti-science. Since the 1970s, scientists have feared that entertainment TV and film undermine public trust in science.
4. The problem is the public, not scientists or policymakers. Scientists have long believed that when the public disagreed with them on matters of policy, public ignorance was to blame.
5. Political views don’t influence the judgments of scientists. In debating science-related policy matters, we tend to assume that scientists are not influenced by their own political views. Yet in a recent study co-authored by one of us (Scheufele), we find that even after controlling for their scientific judgments, scientists’ political ideologies significantly influence their preferences for potential regulatory policies.