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To Feel Full Faster, Pretend You’re Eating Junk Food
LiveScience: WASHINGTON — Brainpower is more important in dieting than scientists realized — not just in battling cravings but in physically changing the body's reaction to the intake of food, according to a new study. Whether or not we consider a food to be healthy has a big impact on a protein our bodies release to control metabolism and appetite, a researcher discovered. Participants who thought they were drinking a calorie-packed shake showed much greater and quicker spikes in a gut hormone, making them feel full faster, than those who were drinking what they thought was something healthier.
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The U.S. Open and the Vagaries of Spatial Perception
The Huffington Post: When the world's finest golfers descend on Maryland's Congressional Country Club for the 111th U.S. Open, there will be no hands-down favorite for the crowds to follow. Bubba Watson will bring his monstrous drives, K. J. Choi his intense focus and Luke Donald his consistency. Veterans Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson will have experience on their side, and Graeme McDowell his status as defending champion. That's the great thing about golf. Golfers may have different strengths, but at the end of the day, each of them faces an identical challenge: putting a sphere measuring 42.67 millimeters in diameter into a hole measuring 108 millimeters in diameter. Or do they?
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People fluent in English ‘easily translate what they hear into Chinese’
Yahoo India: Washington, June 15 (ANI): Chinese people who are fluent in English can translate English words into Chinese automatically and quickly, without thinking about it, a new study has found. Taoli Zhang of the University of Nottingham wanted to study how two different languages interact and are stored in the bilingual brain. "If you read in English, you don't really require your knowledge of Chinese. Do you switch it off?" For the study, Chinese students were shown pairs of words. The first word flashed on the computer screen so quickly that the person didn't realize they'd seen it.
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Most Americans See Cancer as a Death Sentence
My Heath News Daily: The death rate from cancer has gone down in recent years, but the majority of Americans still view cancer as a death sentence, a new survey says. Of the nearly 7,500 Americans surveyed, more than 61 percent said when they think of cancer, they automatically think of death. The findings are troubling because many types of cancer are preventable or treatable, said study researcher Richard Moser, a research psychologist at the National Cancer Institute. For instance, a healthy diet, frequent exercise and appropriate screening tests can prevent or detect many cancers in their early stages, Moser said.
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Defining manhood is no easy task
Milwaukee -Wisconsin Journal Sentinel: You've likely seen one of those TV ads where some guy is told to "man up!" You know, it's where some fellow is portrayed as a wimp, is subsequently insulted by some hot babe or a group of manly men, and then slinks off in humiliation. Well, these advertisers, shameful as they are for employing such tactics, are on to something. In an unconscious way, most men sense that their gender identity, or manhood, is determined by how they are perceived by others far more than by their physiology. Sure, any guy can look in the mirror to confirm his gender, but manhood is much more a state of mind than one of body.
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A Defect That May Lead to a Masterpiece
The New York Times: In learning to draw or paint, it helps to have a sense of composition, color and originality. And depth perception? Maybe not so much, neuroscientists are now suggesting. Instead, so-called stereo blindness — in which the eyes are out of alignment so the brain cannot fuse the images from each one — may actually be an asset. Looking at the world through one eye at a time automatically “flattens the scene,” said Margaret S. Livingstone, an expert on vision and the brain at Harvard Medical School who helped carry out a study on stereo vision.
