Here are a few readings for today:

“In a breakthrough that may aid treatment of learning impairments, strokes, tinnitus and chronic pain, UT Dallas researchers have found that brain nerve stimulation accelerates learning in laboratory tests.”

“Today, there is increasing exposure of individuals to a public audience. Television shows and the Internet provide platforms for this and, at times, allow observing others’ flaws and norm transgressions. Regardless of whether the person observed realizes their flaw or not, observers in the audience experience vicarious embarrassment.”

“John Gunstad, an associate professor in Kent State University’s Department of Psychology, and a team of researchers have discovered a link between weight loss and improved memory and concentration. The study shows that bariatric surgery patients exhibited improved memory function 12 weeks after their operations.”

“I like to believe that women are the superior sex. We’re smarter, more intuitive and, with the exception of Joan of Arc, know better than to get involved in 100-year wars. We pick up things more quickly than men, whether it’s the kids’ toys, the link between chicken-wing consumption and heartburn, or, unfortunately, alcoholism.”

“In The Humans Who Went Extinct the author makes much of the fact that Neandertals obviously lacked skill at crossing the water, insofar as their range was constricted by barriers to their south in Iberia. This sort of issue is kind of confusing to me, insofar as it seems probable that very ancient humans did make water crossings of a more arduous nature in Southeast Asia, if the Hobbits finds are valid.”


2 Comments

ehhunt · April 15, 2011 at 1:15 pm

The article “I feel your pain” was really interesting to me because I feel myself feeling embarrassed and sorry for characters on TV and in movies all the time! Movies like Meet the Parents are difficult for me to watch because I cringe the whole time! I think it’s really fascinating that we can now link that reaction to a specific physiological function in the brain.

mdean · April 17, 2011 at 5:41 pm

I never knew that women had less water in their bodies and that alcohol metabolizes differently in women than in men. It is good articles like this spring up because most people think of alcoholism as more of a male issue, but clearly women are more susceptible to it than men.

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