With the Association for Psychological Science Convention happening later this month, no trip is complete without an invitation to the Adler Planetarium. Like many, you may not get married there... but it is worth the experience.
Here is what I am reading today:
“Our decisions to trust people with our money are based more on how they look then how they behave, according to new research from the University of Warwick.”
“What goes bump in the night? In many U.S. households: people. That’s according to new Stanford University School of Medicine research, which found that about 3.6 percent of U.S. adults — or upward of 8.4 million — are prone to sleepwalking. The work also showed an association between nocturnal wanderings and certain psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety.”
“When an animal is born, its early experiences help map out the still-forming connections in its brain. As neurons in sensory areas of the brain fire in response to sights, smells, and sounds, synapses begin to form, laying the neuronal groundwork for activity later in life. Not all parts of the brain receive input directly from the external world, however, and researchers have wondered how these regions build their wiring early in development.”
“For nonsmokers, exposure to low levels of secondhand smoke for just 30 minutes can cause significant damage to the lining of their blood vessels, the results of a new study indicate. “
“An Indiana University-led research team, along with a group of national and international collaborators, has identified and prioritized a comprehensive group of genes most associated with schizophrenia that together can generate a score indicating whether an individual is at higher or lower risk of developing the disease.”
“For the first time, researchers at the University of California, San Diego have peered inside a living mouse cell and mapped the processes that power the celebrated health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. More profoundly, they say their findings suggest it may be possible to manipulate these processes to short-circuit inflammation before it begins, or at least help to resolve inflammation before it becomes detrimental.”
“A new UCLA rat study is the first to show how a diet steadily high in fructose slows the brain, hampering memory and learning — and how omega-3 fatty acids can counteract the disruption. The peer-reviewed Journal of Physiology publishes the findings in its May 15 edition.
“Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think,” said Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a professor of integrative biology and physiology in the UCLA College of Letters and Science. “Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain’s ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage.””
Here’s what we have going at APS this year in the biggest convention ever!
10 Comments
madisonwalter · May 16, 2012 at 9:51 am
I read the article about sleep walking, which is something I find fascinating. My roommate sleep walks and has woken up with huge bruises and even sprained her ankle in her sleep one time with no recollection of how she did it. I thought for some reason that the percentage of people (only 3%??) who walked in their sleep would be higher. I also thought it was really interesting that almost 30% of the people who sleep walk when they are young will continue sleep walking throughout their life and that it seems to be almost heritable.
madisonwalter · May 16, 2012 at 9:52 am
I read the article on trusting people with more “trusting” faces which I thought was really interesting. I would think that I personally trust body language more than simply just looking at a person’s face but this experiment shows that we almost do this subconsciously. This article is also a little discouraging because you really can’t help it if you have a trusting face or not. This article also makes me wonder if I have a trusting face or not! I would be curious to be a participant in this experiment and see if I have a trusting face and if my intuition is correct regarding trust.
mpakele · May 17, 2012 at 1:48 pm
I read the article “do looks matter in trust” and agree with the results. I think we tend to make a lot of unconscious judgments of people based on their looks alone, and this is simply another area we do it. It is interesting that we judge so much of someone’s character in their face. It is also interesting to think about the impact this can have on someone’s life who does not have “a trustworthy face.” Many negative judgments could be made against them and it would pretty much be out of their control. It also suggests that someone who appears to “look trustworthy” can get away with robbing someone blind because they are in fact untrustworthy. Overall it highlights how we rank attractiveness in our daily lives and how it influences the decisions we make. This study is just more research confirming this idea.
christucker · May 19, 2012 at 12:59 pm
“omega-3 oils at the cellular level”
This article is scary to modern America. High fructose corn syrup is in nearly everything that has some sweetness, especially the all so popular cold coffee drinks and other sweet beverages. Its scary when you check out the nutritional facts.
As humans progress in knowledge, I feel as if we are going in a big circle in terms of health. We went from natural foods so many hundreds and thousands of years ago to a boom in processed foods with technology and capitalism. Now we are learning that the healthiest foods were the natural ones and that they were made for us for good reason. Very intriguing. It seems as if we should have never gotten our hands dirty with processing foods in the first place. It will be interesting to see how our generations’ sugar addiction affects them in later years.
Laura Freberg · May 19, 2012 at 1:08 pm
My husband and I have been trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup for years, and it’s nearly impossible. It’s in products you don’t even think of as needing sweetness, like Rice Krispies and pickle relish. If I want sweet Rice Krispies, I can always add some table sugar. I was very influenced by an article by Bart Hoebel of Princeton, in which rats were fed equal amounts of calories from different sweeteners. In spite of what the corn industry is saying to the public about HFCS just being another type of sugar, ALL of Hoebel’s HFCS rats became obese, when rats fed equal calories of other types of sugars did not. Buyer beware, I suppose, is the moral of that story. The big problem is that natural foods are extremely expensive, so poor families don’t have many options when it comes to healthy eating. If you have a dollar in your purse with which to feed your hungry child, it’s unlikely you’ll buy fruits and vegetables. Very sad.
LyudmilaFeldsher · May 20, 2012 at 2:53 pm
I read the article about trusting people depending on what they look like and I kind of agree. I personally already have trust issues, but I suppose on a subconscious level it could have something to do with what they look like. It’s unfortunate if you have a distrustful face because there is nothing you can do. I wonder what people think of me when they see me.
corrieesmon · May 23, 2012 at 5:45 am
I was a smoker for years and it was not until the last few years was I conscious of second hand smoke. It was when I moved down here that I started really making myself aware of the affects of second smoke. I now no longer smoke for my own health purposes. It has been almost two years and I still have breathing problems.
corrieesmon · May 23, 2012 at 6:51 am
Positive feedback to the brain: I think that as we get a better understanding of how we truly develop from the second we are born will hopefully someday give us enough information on the diseases we may develop as we get older and maybe do come up with with a therapy approach to it.
kdevlugt · May 24, 2012 at 8:12 am
What you eat, affects what you think, a.k.a.”Sugar makes you stupid” article made me nervous. I know that eating junk foods isn’t good for you, but I also reasoned, “ehhh, I don’t mind being slightly fatter tomorrow if it means I get to eat a mess of cookies today.” But the thought of it hurting my think box, no good. Maybe I eat too much candy for nomnom today?
But in all seriousness, most of what’s left in my pantry has high fructose corn syrup, and is low on the omega-3 fatty acids. Time to go to farmers and pick up some naturally sugary fruits and maybe some omega-3 fatty acid rich nuts.
LauraPolacci · June 6, 2012 at 9:47 am
After reading the article Sugar Makes You Stupid, I feel like I have some eating habits to change! I think it’s time I added some omega-3 fatty acids to my meals and trade out some of my high-fructose foods in my diet! Not only does high-fructose foods hinder memory and learning in the brain, but adding omega-3’s can help minimize the damage. Thankfully, i am not a terribly unhealthy eater, but I still would like to eat a more balanced, natural diet, especially after reading this article and few others like it. I knew the effects of sweeteners and sugar on the body/diabetes, but hadn’t ever thought of it’s effect on my brain! Instead of giving up my ice cream desserts all together, I can slowly make a change in my diet and add some omega-3’s along the way. I’m certain my brain, memory, and learning will thank me later! Thanks for sharing this article – going to share it with my family and friends!
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