readings in psychology for february 24 2011

Roger is always asking me to try this or smell that in search of my 'discerning' opinion; however, his latest foray into the field of culinary accessories is with a sauce made from India's Bhut Jolokia ( the world's hottest chili!). Should I be concerned?

Here are some of my readings for today:

• EEG diagnosis and autism

“A computational physicist and a cognitive neuroscientist at Children’s Hospital Boston have come up with the beginnings of a noninvasive test to evaluate an infant’s autism risk. It combines the standard electroencephalogram (EEG), which records electrical activity in the brain, with machine-learning algorithms. In a pilot study, their system had 80 percent accuracy in distinguishing between 9-month-old infants known to be at high risk for autism from controls of the same age.”

• brainfacts.org

“The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has been awarded $1.53 million in funding over six years to create and maintain  BrainFacts.org,  a unique nonprofit online source for authoritative public information about the progress and promise of brain research. With joint founding partners The Kavli Foundation and The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, SfN will launch the Web site in late spring 2012 to communicate with the public, educators, and policymakers about revolutionary advances in understanding the brain and mind.”

• baby names of the frontier

“Babies born in newer U.S. states have more distinctive names compared with their counterparts in older regions such as New England, a new study finds. It turns out, the same values that pushed adventurous individuals into new territories as our country was being populated may still show up in the names their descendants give to babies, a new study finds. In more recently established states, such as Washington and Oregon, parents tend to choose less common baby names, while parents in “older” areas, such as the original 13 states, go for more popular names. Frontiers typically have fewer established institutions or infrastructure, and often occupy harsh environments. Early pioneers couldn’t rely on others for help in such sparsely populated areas.”

• secret society of people with eating disorders

“It can be a helpless and heartbreaking situation for families as they try to confront a family member with an eating disorder. What they may not know is that there’s a society on the Internet that is dedicated to thwarting any recovery from this dangerous and possibly fatal behavior.”

• social activity reduces risk of disability in old age

“Afraid of becoming disabled in old age, not being able to dress yourself or walk up and down the stairs? Staying physically active before symptoms set in could help. But so could going out to eat, playing bingo and taking overnight trips.”

• Mother and daughter : soldiers life

“Kelly MacDonald and her mom, Betsy Thompson, are alike in a lot of ways. They’re both avid runners. They both have the Irish complexion of Betsy’s parents. They both like hiking. And they both decided to become soldiers. But MacDonald, who is about to graduate from West Point, is going into an Army much different from the one her mother joined in the early 1980s. There are more opportunities, but there’s also more risk.”

• FYI: Bhut Jolokia Peppers

“In 2007, Guinness World Records certified the Bhut Jolokia as the world’s hottest chili pepper, 401.5 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. On December 3, 2010, the Bhut Jolokia was replaced as the hottest known chili pepper by the Naga Viper, which has an average peak Scoville rating more than 300,000 points higher than an average Bhut Jolokia – but still not higher than the hottest ever recorded Dorset Naga.^“