Laura’s Psychology Blog

My Presentation “Be the Scientist” at the Western Psychological Association Conference in Reno, Nevada this past weekend! So many interesting young scholars!

Here is what I am reading today:

• autism risks

“Senior author Harvey Kliman, M.D., research scientist in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, and research collaborators at the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, have found that abnormal placental folds and abnormal cell growths called trophoblast inclusions are key markers to identify newborns who are at risk for autism.”

• the role in healing the brain

“”The injury recovery process is complex,” said senior author Chay T. Kuo, M.D., PhD, George W. Brumley Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Pediatrics and Neurobiology at Duke University. “There is a lot of interest in how new neurons can stimulate functional recovery, but if you make neurons without stopping the bleeding, the neurons don’t even get a chance. The brain somehow knows this, so we believe that’s why it produces these unique astrocytes in response to injury.”"

• the enemy of my friend

“Prof. Michael E. McCullough discussed the research he and his colleagues, Eric J. Pedersen and Dr. Robert Kurzban, conducted. “As a psychologist who does a fair amount of laboratory experimentation,” McCullough tells Phys.org, “I was rather surprised by some of the inferential holes in the studies that others were holding up as ‘proof’ for the existence of altruistic punishment. For starters, much of the most widely-touted work had been conducted in such a fashion that subjects were simply asked, in advance of interacting with a stranger, whether they would punish that the stranger if the stranger were to harm, help, or treat indifferently the participant. Generally,” he notes, “I think we can all agree that we expect the behavioral effects of life’s slings and arrows to come after those slings and arrows, but the economic third-party punishment games that are so important for the claim that altruistic punishment exists shine a spotlight on behaviors that occurred before their supposed causes had even happened. It was easy to design an experiment that solved this problem – and actually, I was also surprised to discover that no one had conducted this experiment before us.”"

• developmental neurobiology

“”The mechanisms that control the expansion and folding of the brain during fetal development have so far been mysterious,” says Professor Magdalena Götz, a professor at the Institute of Physiology at LMU and Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Research at the Helmholtz Center Munich. Götz and her team have now pinpointed a major player involved in the molecular process that drives cortical expansion in the mouse. They were able to show that a novel nuclear protein called Trnp1 triggers the enormous increase in the numbers of nerve cells which forces the cortex to undergo a complex series of folds. Indeed, although the normal mouse brain has a smooth appearance, dynamic regulation of Trnp1 results in activating all necessary processes for the formation of a much enlarged and folded cerebral cortex.”

• anxiety and exercise

“People who may feel forced to exercise could include high school, college and professional athletes, members of the military or those who have been prescribed an exercise regimen by their doctors, said Benjamin Greenwood, an assistant research professor in CU-Boulder’s Department of Integrative Physiology.

“If exercise is forced, will it still produce mental health benefits?” Greenwood asked. “It’s obvious that forced exercise will still produce peripheral physiological benefits. But will it produce benefits to anxiety and depression?”"

• “APS” and weight loss

“Overweight or obese women were randomly allocated to one of two study groups an intervention group and a control group. The intervention group received an MRP Support app. The control group received a static app based on the information available with the MRP. A total of 58 adult women) participated in the 8-week trial.”

• do you lose weight ‘virtually’ with ‘virtual reality?’

“Looking at the results from twenty overweight and obese individuals after 3 months of a weight loss program at a weekly clinic delivered via face-to-face or virtual reality and then 6 months of weight maintenance delivered via virtual reality, the investigators found virtual reality compares favorably with face-to-face for weight loss and may facilitate greater weight maintenance. Debra Sullivan, lead investigator, adds, “Although we found weight loss was significantly greater for face-to-face compared to virtual reality, weight maintenance was significantly better for virtual reality.”"

My daughter Karla has autism and loves to support causes involved in Autism. In San Luis Obispo, this year marked the 5th event and the turnout was fantastic!

To all who participated, Karla and I say “thank you!”

A wild turkey was munching on our neighbor’s garden!

Here is what I am reading today:

• can we 3d print a liver??

“Chief Technology Officer for the company, Sharon Presnell explained to those at the conference that Organovo’s 3D printing process involves printing out two different types of liver cells—hepatocytes and stellates—along with the linings of blood cells. The result is tissue that the company claims looks, feels and in many ways, behaves just like real human liver tissue. They say it can produce albumin, cholesterol and cytochrome P450s (enzymes that metabolize drugs)—and because of that is much better suited for testing new drugs. She added that the new 3D printing process marks another step towards the creation of full-size human livers for implanting in people to replace those that have failed, and even went so far as to predict that such technology will come to pass in her lifetime. ”

• liver disease? I can see it in your face!

“Mice with mutations in these genes show similar kidney disease to humans. In this recent collaborative study with groups at University College London and the University of Cambridge, Professor Sharpe and his team identified specific facial and dental abnormalities in PKD2 mutant mice. These features develop after birth and correlate with the function of PKD2 as a mechanoreceptor, and thus influence the structure of the face by influencing jaw strength and other features. To the naked eye, patients with ADPKD are not known to have any characteristic facial or dental features. To test whether there was any relationship in humans with these mutations, 3D facial shape analysis—using techniques developed by Professor Peter Hammond’s lab at UCL’s Institute of Child Health—was carried out on a small group of patients (11 female, 8 male, mean age 48 years).”

• breakthrough in motion perception

“Lead researcher Mark Wexler describes some of the challenges he and his colleagues – Andrew Glennerster, Patrick Cavanagh, Hiroyuki Ito, and Takeharu Seno – encountered in conducting their study. “We had the idea that these illusory jumps are related to dmax, the supposed upper speed limit on the steps that leads to motion perception, varies between individuals, and must be measured using random textures,” Wexler tells Medical Xpress. “For displacements below dmax you’re supposed to see the motion more or less correctly,” he explains, “while for displacement above dmax you’re just supposed to see noise – and the latter also turns out to be false.”"

• linguistic deficits and autism

“”If a kid doesn’t interact in the right way because of a social deficit, that could be a communication difficulty, but you wouldn’t really say that their linguistic ability in a computational sense was hurt,” says Kenneth Wexler, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT. Wexler, a psychologist and linguist who has previously developed comprehensive models of how children learn language as part of normal development, has spent the past few years studying autistic children, in hopes of creating a framework to help pinpoint the source of their communication difficulties.”

• oliver sacks and musical hallucinations

““Many hallucinations are accompanied by a feeling of astonishment,” Sacks says. Although most of us don’t feel like we have much direct control over even our everyday process of creativity, we can still usually tell the difference between imagining something – a musical composition or a narrative arc – and witnessing a performance of it. Hallucinations blur that boundary.”

• for best diet results: change both your diet and your exercise regimen 

“”It may be particularly useful to start both at the same time,” said Abby King, PhD, lead author of the study and a professor of health research and policy and of medicine. “If you need to start with one, consider starting with physical activity first.” The few published studies on how to introduce more than one shift in healthy habits report conflicting findings—and few have looked at exercise and dietary change together. In examining the issue, the researchers also wanted to study people who specifically complained that the demands of their schedules didn’t give them enough time to make healthy dietary and exercise choices. The reasoning was that if successful programs could be developed for these time-strapped individuals, they would likely work for others, as well.”

COME TO THE WPA in RENO

Come hear me speak on ‘forbidden research’ and the challenge to the future of Psychology.

Here is what I am reading today:

• where our brain places numbers

“Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have determined the precise anatomical coordinates of a brain “hot spot,” measuring only about one-fifth of an inch across, that is preferentially activated when people view the ordinary numerals we learn early on in elementary school, like “6″ or “38.”"

• bacteria and supernovas have a lot in common

“Sediment in a deep-sea core may hold radioactive iron spewed by a distant supernova 2.2 million years ago and preserved in the fossilized remains of iron-loving bacteria. If confirmed, the iron traces would be the first biological signature of a specific exploding star.

Shawn Bishop, a physicist at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, reported preliminary findings on 14 April at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Denver, Colorado.”

• autism and genetics

“”These discoveries in mice may eventually pave the way towards understanding autism in human patients and devising new treatments,” said co-senior author, Elliott H. Sherr, MD, PhD, a pediatric neurologist at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and professor of neurology at UC San Francisco (UCSF). The findings are reported in a study published on April 15 in PLOS One.”

• mental health on-line searches and time of year

“Summer means longer days, warmer weather and, apparently, relief for people suffering from a variety of mental health problems. That’s the takeaway from a study that tracked Google searches about mental health subjects.

Researchers used Google’s public database of queries to identify and monitor searches related to a variety of psychological issues in the U.S. and Australia between 2006 and 2010.”

• attack of the giant snails!

“ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - South Florida is fighting a growing infestation of one of the world’s most destructive invasive species: the giant African land snail, which can grow as big as a rat and gnaw through stucco and plaster.

More than 1,000 of the mollusks are being caught each week in Miami-Dade and 117,000 in total since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011, said Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.”

• men read emotions of other men better than women

“Men are traditionally thought to have more problems in understanding women compared to understanding other men, though evidence supporting this assumption remains sparse. Recently, it has been shown, however, that meńs problems in recognizing women’s emotions could be linked to difficulties in extracting the relevant information from the eye region, which remain one of the richest sources of social information for the attribution of mental states to others.

Have you remembered Valentine’s Day? It’s not too late… this handmade chocolate came from our good friend and Chocolatier Dennis Wetzel!

Here is what I am reading today:

• thought control robotics!

“Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC describe in PLoS ONE how an electrode array sitting on top of the brain enabled a 30-year-old paralyzed man to control the movement of a character on a computer screen in three dimensions with just his thoughts. It also enabled him to move a robot arm to touch a friend’s hand for the first time in the seven years since he was injured in a motorcycle accident.”

• a brain test ap??

“Smartphones offer a wealth of possibilities for psychological research. A new study shows that an iPhone app yields as reliable results as laboratory tests.”

• two hearts beat as one??

“When modern-day crooner Trey Songz sings, “Cause girl, my heart beats for you,” in his romantic ballad, “Flatline,” his lyrics could be telling a tale that’s as much physiological as it is emotional, according to a University of California, Davis, study that found lovers’ hearts indeed beat for each other, or at least at the same rate.”

• when are genes for autism active??

“Genes linked to autism and schizophrenia are only switched on during the early stages of brain development, according to a study in mice led by researchers at the University of Oxford. This new study adds to the evidence that autism and schizophrenia are neurodevelopmental disorders, a term describing conditions that originate during early brain development. The researchers studied gene expression in the brains of mice throughout their development, from 15-day old embryos to adults, and their results are published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

• Dating your College Coach?

“…In both cases, the university has said the relationships between the coaches and students were consensual. But Kearney’s lawyer, Derek Howard, has suggested the track coach was treated unfairly and may sue the university. Howard did not immediately respond to an email message….”