readings in psychology for february 13 2011

My daughter Kristin took this picture of her sister Karen (center) at the Charlottesville culinary school making some very undietetic chocolate perfections!

Here is what I am reading today:

• brain zap anyone?

“Experience can be a disadvantage, since preconceptions may limit our ability to creatively solve a problem we think we’ve seen before. However, stimulating the brain in a certain way may provide flashes of insight, according to two scientists.”

• consuming alcohol does kill a lot of people

“Alcohol causes nearly 4 percent of deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence, the World Health Organization warned on Friday. Rising incomes have triggered more drinking in heavily populated countries in Africa and Asia, including India and South Africa, and binge drinking is a problem in many developed countries, the United Nations agency said.”

• stroke rehab doesn’t have to be high-tech

“The largest study ever on stroke rehabilitation found that doing physical therapy at home improved walking just as well as a high-tech treadmill program. More surprising, patients who started rehab late – six months after their strokes – still improved. It’s long been thought that there was little to gain from rehab after half a year.”

• how depression dulls

“A sad person who says that the world looks dull and gray and that flowers no longer smell so sweet may not just be speaking figuratively. Two recent studies from Germany provide evidence that sensory perception is diminished in depressed individuals.”

• squid sex hormone and aggression

“Mild-mannered male squid turn into furious fighting machines when their tentacles brush a chemical on the surface of squid eggs, a finding that could give insights into how aggression works.”

• sex and violence linked in the brain

“On his third consecutive evening of air combat, a military pilot closes in on the night’s quarry, a suspected Taliban fuel depot in Afghanistan. Fatigued, his alertness flagging, the pilot throws some chewing gum into his mouth. Laced with caffeine, it’s the cockpit alternative to a cup of coffee.”

• brain BOOSTERS!

“In his third consecutive evening of air combat, a military pilot closes in on the night’s quarry, a suspected Taliban fuel depot in Afghanistan. Fatigued, his alertness flagging, the pilot throws some chewing gum into his mouth. Laced with caffeine, it’s the cockpit alternative to a cup of coffee.”