Two of our daughters birthdays sre coming up: Karen (Sept. 29th) and Kristin (Sept. 30th)! Happy Birthday!
Here is what I am reading today:
“A few cups of coffee a day may help keep the blues at bay. According to a large new study, women who drink caffeinated coffee are less likely to become depressed — and the more they drink, the more their risk of depression goes down.”
“hough not very well known in the United States, at least until the past few years, the miracle fruit is a cranberry like fruit that has the unique property of being able to make acidic or bitter foods taste sweet. And while the protein that makes this possible has been known for quite a while, just how exactly it did its trick has been a mystery; until now. A team of Japanese and French researchers working together have solved the puzzle and have published the results of their efforts in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
“Perception of race is altered by cues as simple as the clothes worn. Researchers at Tufts University, Stanford and University of California, Irvine found that computerized faces accompanied by business attire were more likely to be seen as white, whereas faces with blue-collar attire were more likely to be seen as black. More subtle evidence of bias was revealed by a novel-mouse tracking technique that recorded participants’ hand movements while using a computer mouse to choose a racial category. Even when participants ultimately decided that a face with low-status attire was white or a face with high-status attire was black, they were still drawn to the other race that was stereotypically tied to the status cue and moved the mouse slightly closer to that response before making their final decision. “
4 Comments
lexi williams · September 27, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I really enjoyed the article about the link between caffeine and fighting depression. Personally, I have seen the elevated mood effect that coffee has on me. However, as a Bio major, I speculate as to whether this effect shares similar structure to the effect of addictive drugs on brain pathways (the reward pathway). Perhaps caffeine increases levels of dopamine as well, or up-regulates dopamine receptors? I will have to further research this. On the other hand however, it may be true that the link between caffeine and heightened happiness may be because non-depressed people are more behaviorally activated as stated in the article. Maybe caffeine makes a person more social or productive which in turn makes them non-depressed. Also, the article stated that caffeine can have the opposite effect by increasing levels of anxiety. I have experienced this as well. Overall, this was very interesting and got me wondering. As an avid coffee drinker, its always nice to hear that there may be some beneficial effects from my addiction!
annieaitken · September 28, 2011 at 8:19 pm
I thought the article pertaining to the correlation between coffee and depression was very well written. The study was explained in depth as well as the possible lurking variables. Although, it is comforting to believe coffee could help relieve depression I can’t help but be a bit skeptical. If it is the case that the caffeine is acting as a stimulant to certain neurotransmitters then why don’t other stimulants have the same effect? Or maybe they do. I was pleased to see Evatts opinion in the article as well. Personally, the idea that non-depressed people tend to be more drawn to coffee seems like a more plausible explanation for the trend. I’m definitely interested in the idea though and would like to see other studies. Hopefully these studies could be executed in a experimental setting so that we could get more cause and effect results.
mfitzpatrick · September 29, 2011 at 12:05 am
I throughly enjoyed the article about the “miracle fruit”, the cranberry. I drink 100% cranberry juice on a regular bases and really enjoy the tart taste. It amazes me, however, that through all the gallons of this bitter drink that I consume on a daily basis, I have never even begin to notice this interesting correlation. The fact that cranberries can alter the taste of other foods and give them the taste of a sweeter version of the morsel is astonishing. After reading this article, I have actually tried eating cranberries and drinking cranberries and observing the effects. This hypothesis of a sweeter alternative is fact. Following cranberry juice consumption, I ate a grapefruit and it tasted much sweeter than the grapefruit I consumed later that day. I hope this realization continues to be studied so that we can in fact create this everlasting sweeter sensation without natures help.
CCrosson · October 2, 2011 at 8:22 pm
The article about how we view stereotypes and status was really interesting. I took a social psychology course last quarter, and we had a number of discussions about stereotypes and where they come from. The study brought to light that our perception of someone’s race can be defined by something as simple as the type of clothes someone is wearing. The use of the hand-tracking technique was a great choice, because it showed what happened before an answer was chosen. It’s important for us to understand that our perception of facial features is not only controlled by our brain and the visual cues, but also the stereotypes that we have learned throughout our lifetime. This article got me thinking again about the stereotypes that I may hold, but never really think about, and how I may correlate status with someone’s race.
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