readings in psychology for 4 april 2013 @PsychScience

Leg of Lamb is a special treat that we enjoy on holidays. What is your favorite meal?

Here is what I am reading today:

• mirror neurons and hatred

“Mentally simulating the actions of others is thought to be a key component of empathy. Yet new research suggests that our so-called mirror neurons may also expose hidden divisions. A study published in October in the journal PLOS ONE reveals that these copycat neurons do not reflect all people equally.”

• diabetes and melatonin

“”Melatonin receptors have been found throughout the body in many tissues including pancreatic islet cells, reflecting the widespread effects of melatonin on physiological functions such as energy metabolism and the regulation of body weight,” according to background information in the article. “Loss-of-function mutations in the melatonin receptor are associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Additionally, in a cross-sectional analysis of persons without diabetes, lower nocturnal melatonin secretion was associated with increased insulin resistance.” A prospective association between melatonin secretion and type 2 diabetes has not been previously reported. Ciaran J. McMullan, M.D., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and colleagues conducted a study to investigate the association of melatonin secretion and the incidence of type 2 diabetes”

• the superiority illusion

“Dr. Makiko Yamada discussed the research she conducted with her colleagues, starting with the main challenges they encountered in examining the default states of neural and molecular systems that generate the superiority illusion. “Our multidisciplinary approach is quite new to the investigation of the integrated neural and molecular systems of human behavior – that is, combination of three different neural stages: molecular systems, using PET; resting-state brain functions using fMRI; and the degree of superiority illusion using a cognitive task,” Yamada tells Medical Xpress. “Because these three stages have previously been approached separately using different research protocols, it was challenging to link them in the best possible way. In addition, the setup of the experiment is extensive in terms of time, money, and researchers from each required field.””

• smelling personality

“Research suggests that human body odor signals quite a bit of information, including sex, age, genetic compatibility, and female fertility status. Which raises the obvious question: Can you smell someone’s personality?! Recent research suggests you actually can (at least for some traits). Agnieszka Sorokowska and colleagues gave 30 women and 30 men 100% cotton white T-shirts (after washing them all in the same washing powder) and asked them to wear them for three consecutive nights on a scheduled weekend. All participants were single and slept alone during the weekend. During the daytime, the T-shirts were left wrapped in their bed linen and after three days the experimenters collected the shirts, placed them in sealed plastic bags, and froze them. Within a week of collecting the T-shirts, 100 men and 100 women each rated three men’s and three women’s thawed samples in non-transparent plastic bags in a closed, well-ventilated room. What did they find?”

• a laser zaps cocaine addiction

“”When we turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone,” said Antonello Bonci, MD, scientific director of the intramural research program at the NIH’s National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), where the work was done. Bonci is also an adjunct professor of neurology at UCSF and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University. Described this week in the journal Nature, the new study demonstrates the central role the prefrontal cortex plays in compulsive cocaine addiction. It also suggests a new therapy that could be tested immediately in humans, Bonci said.”