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Developing Electrophysiology Training Resources
This event was supported by the APS Fund for Teaching and Public Understanding of Psychological Science, which invites applications for nonrenewable grants of up to $5,000 to launch new, educational projects in psychological science. Proposals are due October 1 and March 1. Cindy M. Bukach of the University of Richmond noticed a problem: The field of cognitive neuroscience relies on costly and complicated neuroimaging methodologies, creating a barrier to entry for undergraduates. An exception is the electroencephalography/event-related potential (EEG/ERP) technique, which offers inexpensive and accessible methodologies for investigating cortical dynamics during human cognition.
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The Terrible Teens
The New Yorker: C7BL/6J mice are black, with pink ears and long pink tails. Inbred for the purposes of experimentation, they exhibit a number of infelicitous traits, including a susceptibility to obesity, a taste for morphine, and a tendency to nibble off their cage mates’ hair. They’re also tipplers. Given access to ethanol, C57BL/6J mice routinely suck away until the point that, were they to get behind the wheel of a Stuart Little-size roadster, they’d get pulled over for D.U.I. Not long ago, a team of researchers at Temple University decided to take advantage of C57BL/6Js’ bad habits to test a hunch.
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Adolescent Friendships Linked to Adult Health
Pacific Standard: For most people, adolescence is a period of life marked by intense friendships, as well as a strong bias toward conformity. Fitting in with our peers is an urgent need, and we're generally willing to damp down our individuality in order to do so. Newly published research suggests there is a tangible reward for this sort of blending in: better health 10 or more years down the road.
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Why Depression Needs a New Definition
The Atlantic: In his Aphorisms, Hippocrates defined melancholia, an early understanding of depression, as a state of “fears and despondencies, if they last a long time.” It was caused, he believed, by an excess of bile in the body (the word “melancholia” is ancient Greek for “black bile”). Ever since then, doctors have struggled to create a more precise and accurate definition of the illness that still isn’t well understood.
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Hurricane Katrina’s psychological scars revealed
Nature: New Orleans still bears the scars of Hurricane Katrina, ten years later. More than 500,000 people fled when the storm hit, and many never returned. Large swathes of the city are sparsely populated, particularly in the poor neighbourhoods that suffered the most severe flood damage. Psychological scars linger, too. Many hurricane survivors continue to experience mental-health problems related to the storm, whether or not they returned to New Orleans, say researchers tracking Katrina’s psychological aftermath.
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What Would You Pay for This Meal?
The New York Times: How often have you bought something you felt wasn’t worth the money? What if you could set the price? What factors would influence your number? For years, behavioral scientists have studied such questions. They often look at a model called P.W.Y.W. (Pay-what-you-want, that is.) The idea may seem like a consumer’s giddiest fantasy. But a real-life extreme version of the experiment unfolding at a restaurant in Montclair, N.J., is affirming the researchers’ predictions. It has been triggering a panoply of reactions — including anxiety, delight, incredulity, guilt and, yes, rampant opportunism. ...
