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Shivering Liberals, Parched Conservatives
The Huffington Post: Imagine you're reading a newspaper and you come across an article about a woman lost in a nearby forest. She had hiked several miles to a small cabin for a bit of an escape from her stressful work life, and a freak spring snowstorm dropped eight inches of powder overnight as the temperature plummeted. This forest is difficult to navigate under the best of conditions, and the woman is a fairly inexperienced hiker. Her family and friends are concerned because she didn't pack food or water for a long stay, and she dressed for mild weather. Rangers are combing the forest. How do you feel about this woman as you read her story?
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Crisscrossing Senses
Ever wonder what the number 5 tastes like? What color is G sharp? Or what type of personality does January have? If you were a synesthete, you might be able to answer these questions. Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. More recently, scientists have speculated that babies are born synaesthetes and slowly lose those sensory connections as neurons are pruned as their brains develop. A recent article from Psychological Science Synaesthetic Associations Decrease During Infancy, provides some evidence for this theory.
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Why Rose-Colored Glasses May Be Just What the Relationship Doc Ordered
Glamour: Yeah, we all know there's no such thing as the perfect guy (OK, maybe 69 percent perfect), but when we're happy and in love, some of us think our guys are sent from heaven above. And while in the past, there have been conflicting reports on whether idealizing your partner is actually beneficial for your relationship, a new study in Psychology Today says it helps to keep the love alive—even after you say "I do." The study, published in Psychological Science, looked at how idealizing partners impacted marriage satisfaction by following 193 newlyweds over three years. Researchers then asked participants to rate their partners, themselves and their "ideal" mates.
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Developmental Rerouting
Scientists often think of the adult brain as being “modular,” containing many systems that each specialize in a given function like language or number, relatively independent of one another; this explains why damage to the mature brain in adults tends to impair certain brain functions while leaving others intact. However, Annette Karmiloff-Smith believed that this modular framework cannot be applied to the developing brain.
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Be Nice To Yourself
Prevention: “Be kind to yourself.” If you keep good company, someone has probably uttered these words to you at some point, maybe during a particularly hard spell, or at a time when you were being a little too harsh on yourself. It’s always sound advice—irksome though it may be to hear at the time—but new research published in Psychological Science reveals it’s especially apropos when you’re dealing with a broken heart. Self-compassion, according to researchers, may just be the secret to bouncing back after a breakup. In the study, researchers met with recently divorced people to assess how they were coping.
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Caminar, hacer figuras con las manos, alinear objetos, ayuda a solucionar problemas
El Sol de Mexico: Reconozco que soy un autista que trascendió esa condición mediante la palabra, la escritura y, de haberme dedicado al dibujo y la pintura, igual habría superado esa condición. Autista sí porque desde pequeño jugaba a solas, con decenas de clavos, todavía no tenía soldaditos de plomo, que extendía sobre el piso y formaba ejércitos enfrentándose en batallas. Alineaba los clavos: la fila de infantería, la caballería detrás y, a los lados, los batallones en forma de triángulo. Dos ejércitos. Y pronunciaba los diálogos y las órdenes de la batalla. Un día descubrí un vendedor de soldaditos de plomo y fui comprándole decenas de ellos, poco a poco, hasta tener un ciento o más.
