Psychology

Schizophrenia is a severe and complex psychiatric illness that affects about 1% of the population. Diagnosis currently relies on subjective clinical interviews and the assessment of ambiguous symptoms, which frequently leads to delayed diagnosis and treatment. As such, biomarkers that would indicate schizophrenia risk or onset would be extremely useful. A protein found in immune cells may be a reliable marker for schizophrenia risk, say researchers behind a new proteomics study. Sabine Bahn and colleagues sought to find such a "protein fingerprint" in the blood (due to its accessibility).…

Depression is the most important single factor predisposing to suicide, and more than half of all subjects completing suicide are known to have suffered from depression. Unfortunately, depression is still often untreated or undertreated, even after a suicide attempt. Antidepressive drugs represent the cornerstone of treatment of depressive patients but their role has become somewhat controversial over the last few years due to reports suggesting that antidepressants might, in a small subgroup of younger patients (recently estimated at 0.7% in clinical trials) actually worsen suicidal…

What constitutes valid therapy? It depends on who you ask. Some will say that if a treatment works, it is valid. This is why there might be those who regret the unemployment of Tribal Shamen or magic amulet manufacturers - they were associated with success just often enough to stay in business. Art makes many people feel better, as does music or Boggle, but is it valid therapy or just a happy coincidence? Elizaberta López Pérez, a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Doctor in Painting at the University of Granada, has carried out a study on the use of art therapy for the treatment of acute mentally…

A normal-sized, black coffee cup with a handle, of course, sitting in the middle of a wooden picnic table, is filled with hazelnut coffee. While one many view this simply as a cup on a table, it is possible that another will view the cup as a metaphor for the fresh beginning of a new day. In the cyber world, Kine Dorum, a PhD Student at the University of Leicester, in Great Britain, analyzes the way humans use images from past experiences as a guide when using the computer rather then directly associating computer images to real-life. Dorum hopes to develop a set of common attributes in…

It is well known that a powerful perceptual experience can change the way a person sees things later. If you are startled to discover a mouse in your kitchen, you may suddenly you see mice in every dark corner - or at least think you do. Is it possible that imagining something, just once, might also change how you perceive things? To test how imagery affects perception, the researchers had subjects imagine simple patterns of vertical or horizontal stripes, which are strongly represented in the primary visual areas of the brain. They then presented a green horizontal grated pattern to one eye…

Nearly one in 10 obstetricians in a new study has considered giving up obstetric practice because of the emotional toll of stillbirths and infant deaths. Three-quarters of the 804 obstetricians who responded to a survey by researchers at the University of Michigan Health System reported that the experience took a large emotional toll on them personally. "Our survey reveals that perinatal death has a profound effect on obstetricians, and 8 percent had considered giving up obstetrics because of the emotional difficulty of caring for patients with perinatal death," says lead author Katherine…

With as many as one in eight Americans suffering from chronic migraines, Dr. Yousef Mohammad, a neurologist and principal investigator of the study at Ohio State's Medical Center, says a new study's results of an electronic device designed to "zap" away migraine pain are promising, given that only 50 to 60 percent of migraine patients respond to traditional migraine drug treatments. Results of the study, to be presented Friday (6/27) at the annual American Headache Society meeting in Boston, found that the experimental device is safe and effective in eliminating headaches when administered…

Firing someone? Do it on Friday because they would have the weekend off anyway and they are less likely to show up after two days with a rifle. Some things don't change. But the 'Friday Effect' for publicly traded companies has diminished with the advent of instant news so they have little to gain from saving bad news until Fridays on the assumption that traders are distracted by the approaching weekend, says economist Leon Zolotoy in his research, for which he will be awarded a PhD at Tilburg University in the Netherlands on 25 June. Zolotoy researched how international stock markets…

Female chimps think sleeping around is more important than finding the strongest mate, according to University of St Andrews scientists. They even go so far as to keep quiet during sex so that other females don't find out about it, thus preventing any unwanted competition. The research, by psychologists Simon Townsend and Klaus Zuberbühler, sheds new light on the sophisticated mental capacities and social intelligence of our closest living relatives. The researchers observed the behavior of chimps in the Budongo Forest, Uganda, in collaboration with Tobias Deschner of the Max Planck…

My name’s Ethan White and I’m currently trying to finish my PhD in Evolutionary Psychology. I’m interested in the evolution of creativity and language and how it relates to sexual and relationship behavior. If anyone would be interested I have a survey I’d like you to take which would really help me out. It shouldn't take more than an hour and some people finish it in around 30 minutes. Now you might say, "I don’t know you, you pervert. I'm not telling you any of that. To which I would respond, "Good call. However, it's 100% anonymous." Really, plus I already have over 100 people who have…