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Autism Expert on Proposed Changes to Autism Diagnosis
Autism has been the subject of much discussion recently due to proposed changes in diagnostic criteria, as laid out in the forthcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). These proposed changes would collapse three current diagnoses – Autistic Disorder, Asperger Disorder, and a diagnosis called PDD-Not Otherwise Specified – into one diagnosis. This change has led to concerns about how individuals with these previous diagnoses, as well as individuals who have yet to receive a diagnosis, will be impacted.
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New Insight Into Aging Brains
The Wall Street Journal: Nearly a quarter of the changes often seen in a person's intelligence level over the course of a lifetime may be due to genes, a proportion never before estimated, new research shows. The study suggests that genes may partly explain why some people's brains age better than others, even though environmental factors likely play a greater role over a lifetime. Understanding the factors behind healthy mental aging has become an increasingly vital one for societies with large elderly populations. However, it isn't an easy task. Read the full story: The Wall Street Journal
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New Research From Psychological Science
Overcoming the Negative Consequences of Interference From Recognition Memory Testing Kenneth J. Malmberg, Amy H. Criss, Tarun H. Gangwani, and Richard M. Shiffrin Researchers have found that the more people are tested the worse their ability to recall and recognize past information becomes. This phenomenon is known as output interference. In this study participants were presented with words from two different categories, and were tested on their memory for the words. The words were tested in either a random order, in two large-blocks by category, or in alternating short-blocks by category.
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When Making Meaning of the World, the Brain is a Multi-tasker
How does the brain confer meaning on the things we perceive in the world? “Many of us favor the theory that, whether it comes in through the eyes or ears, through reading [or other stimuli], it’s all eventually arriving at a common place where the meaning of things is represented,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology psychologist Mary C. Potter. “If that were so,” she continues, “you’d expect there to be a problem in extracting meanings simultaneously from different sources.” That is why Potter and her MIT colleague Ansgar D.
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Can’t go anywhere without your sat-nav? You might be wiping out your memory
The Daily Mail: They are supposed to make getting around easier. But over-reliance on sat-navs could leave us completely lost, a study has suggested. Scientists think our memory for places is like a mental map which we have learnt from looking at a real map of where we live. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany tested 26 residents of a town, all of whom had lived there for at least two years. Read the whole story: The Daily Mail
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Neuroscience Pioneer Will Speak at APS Convention
Imagine waking up every morning for 50 years without any recollection of what you had done or whom you had met the day before. Henry Gustaf Molaison — known only as HM prior to his death in 2008 — experienced this degree of amnesia after a brain surgery in 1953 that cured his epilepsy but destroyed his ability to form new memories. APS Fellow and Charter Member Brenda Milner is widely recognized for her work with HM. Milner, who is considered one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century, will be speaking about her career with social psychologist and writer Carol Tavris at the 24th APS Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
