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Psychology News

These research articles involve many aspects of psychology such as cognitive psychology, depression studies, mental health, stress, happiness and neuropsychology, Scroll below for more specific categories.

Girls with ADHD More Prone to Self-Injury, Suicide as They Enter Adulthood

New findings from UC Berkeley caution that, as they enter adulthood, girls with histories of ADHD are more prone to internalize their struggles and feelings of failure – a development that can manifest itself in self-injury and even attempted suicide.

Brain Hubs Boil when Hoarders Face Pitching Their Own Stuff

In patients with hoarding disorder, parts of a decision-making brain circuit under-activated when dealing with others’ possessions, but over-activated when deciding whether to keep or discard their own things.

One Week of Therapy May Help Reorganize Brain, Reduce Stuttering

Just one week of speech therapy may reorganize the brain, helping to reduce stuttering, according to a study published in the August 8, 2012, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Children’s Healthy Diets Lead to Healthier IQ

Children fed healthy diets in early age may have a slightly higher IQ, while those on heavier junk food diets may have a slightly reduced IQ, according to new research.

Brain Signal IDs Responders to Fast-Acting Antidepressants

Scientists have discovered a biological marker that may help to identify which depressed patients will respond to an experimental, rapid-acting antidepressant like ketamine. The brain signal, detectable by noninvasive imaging, also holds clues to the agent's underlying mechanism, which are vital for drug development, say NIH researchers.

Pupil Dilation Reveals Sexual Orientation

Researchers used a specialized infrared lens to measure pupillary changes to participants watching erotic videos. Pupils widened most to videos of people who participants found attractive, thereby revealing where they were on the sexual spectrum from heterosexual to homosexual.

Brain Development is Delayed in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Researchers found that development of the cortical surface is delayed in frontal brain regions in children with ADHD. The typically developing children attained 50% peak area in the right prefrontal cortex at a mean age of 12.7 years, whereas the ADHD children didn’t reach this peak until 14.6 years of age.

Sum of the Parts? How Our Brains See Men as People and Women as Body Parts

Study finds that both genders process images of men, women differently.

Virtual Reality Allows One to Feel Own Arm is Three to Four Times the Length of Real Arm

A study shows that using virtual reality, an arm up to three or possibly even four times the length of a person’s real arm can be felt as if it was the person’s own arm, even if it incorporates strong asymmetries in the body shape.

Researchers Find Evidence of Link between Immune Irregularities and Autism

A new Caltech study suggests that specific changes in an overactive immune system can indeed contribute to autism-like behaviors in mice, and that in some cases, this activation can be related to what a developing fetus experiences in the womb.

Why the Thrill is Gone: Scientists Identify Potential Target for Treating Major Symptom of Depression

Scientists have laid bare a novel molecular mechanism responsible for the major depression symptom, anhedonia, the loss of the ability to experience pleasure. The brain circuit involved in this newly elucidated pathway is largely identical between rodents and humans, upping the odds that the findings point toward new therapies for depression and other disorders. Additionally, opinion leaders hailed the study’s inventive methodology, saying it may offer a much sounder approach to testing new antidepressants.

When Anxiety Won’t Go Away

Scientists discovered a mechanism which stops the process of forgetting anxiety after a stress event. They showed that feelings of anxiety don’t subside if too little dynorphin is released into the brain. The results can help open up new paths in the treatment of trauma patients.