Psychology 2023, March

  • Relatives: Do we know each other?
    2023

    Relatives: Do we know each other?

    Do we know each other? Did King Oedipus have a chance? After all, he couldn't smell that this beautiful older woman was his mother. Or is it? Relatives may also recognize each other by smell - but it works quite differently between brother and sister.

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  • Nervous diseases: gambling addiction as medication
    2023

    Nervous diseases: gambling addiction as medication

    Gambling as a medication side effect? Medications that act as dopamine agonists for neurological diseases could trigger compulsive behavioral changes in individual cases. This is what doctors fear, led by Maja Tippmann-Peikert from the Mayo Clinic, after they had treated a few patients with restless leg syndrome – which is associated with involuntary night-time leg wriggling and leads to sleep disorders – with an active ingredient that acts as an agonist of the neurotransmitt

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  • Zoology: Long Frog
    2023

    Zoology: Long Frog

    Long frog love cries attract females and enemies Scientists at the University of Texas can now explain in a little more detail the risks and rewards of two song variants with which male Túngara frogs wanting to mate advertise themselves as a worthwhile sexual object:

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  • Information theory: Guide
    2023

    Information theory: Guide

    Directions Bees track down buried explosives, dogs the hideout of escaped convicts - following a scent seems like child's play. But sending sniffing robots on a search is by no means trivial. The math shows where to go. Maybe still looking for the station bakery or for "

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  • Language Learning: Insights into Foreign Language Acquisition and Native Language Loss
    2023

    Language Learning: Insights into Foreign Language Acquisition and Native Language Loss

    Learning about foreign language acquisition and loss of the mother tongue Adopted toddlers who learn a new language without tuition go through the same steps as learning their first language – even though they are older and have more developed brains.

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  • Brain research: A number is a number is a number
    2023

    Brain research: A number is a number is a number

    A number is a number is a number Numbers in the world always come in a concrete form - but they have a meaning independent of this form: the digit "2" and the word "two" mean the same number. How is this reflected in processing in the brain?

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  • Brain Research: Amnesia also limits imagination
    2023

    Brain Research: Amnesia also limits imagination

    Amnesia also limits imagination If patients suffer from amnesia as a result of an injured hippocampus, not only is their memory severely impaired, they are also unable to imagine realistic everyday scenes. Researchers working with Eleanor Maguire from University College London had found that their test subjects failed primarily because they failed to put together individual aspects of the fictional scene into a meaningful whole and to paint them vividly in front of their inne

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  • Decision Psychology: A Formula for Procrastination
    2023

    Decision Psychology: A Formula for Procrastination

    A formula for procrastination Not perfectionism, but rather a lack of self-confidence is the root of an all too familiar evil: the bad habit of putting off important and better things to do immediately and looking for distractions - also called "

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  • Learning: Proven molecular basis of learning
    2023

    Learning: Proven molecular basis of learning

    Molecular Basis of Learning Proven A European research team has demonstrated a connection between neuronal signal transmission and the learning processes in mice: A permanent change in the synapses - the switching points between the nerves - and the learning behavior are based on common molecular mechanisms.

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  • Perception: Sky blue to the right
    2023

    Perception: Sky blue to the right

    Sky blue right Does language affect thinking and perception? Partly, partly, say researchers: The power of the word may end up in the brain's left hemisphere. Because whether two colors have different names is of little interest to the speechless other half.

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  • Brain research: Detail of language processing clarified
    2023

    Brain research: Detail of language processing clarified

    Speech processing detail clarified The rear part of the corpus callosum makes a decisive contribution to the fact that prosodic aspects of an utterance, such as speech rhythm, intonation and intonation, can be included in speech processing.

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  • Senses: Protein mediates touch stimuli
    2023

    Senses: Protein mediates touch stimuli

    Protein mediates touch stimuli Scientists around Gary Lewin from the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin-Buch have for the first time detected a molecule in mammals that plays an important role in the conversion of mechanical stimuli into nerve impulses.

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  • Medical practice: Take a break
    2023

    Medical practice: Take a break

    Take a break Anyone who has had to stay awake for 24 hours at a time performs just as poorly on behavioral tests as a person with one per thousand alcohol in their blood. Physicians, who are regularly forced to work shifts with such a lack of sleep, should nevertheless always make the right decisions, because they are vital.

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  • Neuroinformatics: targeting "wetware"
    2023

    Neuroinformatics: targeting "wetware"

    Targeting "Wetware" A computing power that was unthinkable only a short time ago, and new, high-resolution examination methods are finally paving the way for a project of the century. Some compare it to the decoding of the human genome, some to the moon landing:

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  • Prion diseases: RNA
    2023

    Prion diseases: RNA

    RNA interference against scrapie Mice infected with the prion disease scrapie live longer when the gene for the prion protein is knocked out in a large proportion of their cells using RNA interference. This is what scientists around Alexander Pfeifer from the University of Bonn report.

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  • Behavioural Psychology: With reputation, there is almost no punishment
    2023

    Behavioural Psychology: With reputation, there is almost no punishment

    With reputation, there is almost no pen alty Praise good or punish bad? It is not easy to decide what is more useful and less harmful as soon as some suffer from those others who gain an advantage at the expense of others. An optimal reaction should then definitely be one thing:

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  • Social behavior: Women are more likely to follow the looks of others
    2023

    Social behavior: Women are more likely to follow the looks of others

    Women are more likely to follow the gaze of others If familiar people look in a specific direction, women are more likely to follow this look than men. Researchers led by Michael Platt from Duke University see this as an indication that women are better at social communication.

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  • Neuroscience: The hippocampus predicts the future
    2023

    Neuroscience: The hippocampus predicts the future

    Hippocampus makes predictions for the future The hippocampus, a brain region important for learning and memory, also appears to make short-term predictions for the future. Dharshan Kumaran and Eleanor Maguire of University College London have shown in humans that brain structures become active when the brain processes new events that do not match expectations.

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  • Cancer: Chemotherapy can change brain structures
    2023

    Cancer: Chemotherapy can change brain structures

    Chemotherapy can change brain structures Certain brain regions can temporarily shrink as a result of chemotherapy. This was observed by Japanese scientists working with Masatoshi Inagaki in breast cancer patients who were treated with chemotherapy after the operation.

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  • Attention Disorder: Genetic Traces of Hectic
    2023

    Attention Disorder: Genetic Traces of Hectic

    Heritage traces of the hustle and bustle The phase of hyperactivity seems to have come to an end in the discussion of the in-disease of the past decade: ADHD, the notorious fidget-philip syndrome. There is slowly enough reliable factual fodder for a fruitful dialogue between those affected, doctors and therapists - which has made a few of the previously common hostilities impossible.

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  • Senses: Bat noses channel ultrasound
    2023

    Senses: Bat noses channel ultrasound

    Bat Noses Channel Ultrasound Some bats use their noses to control the propagation of their sonar ultrasonic waves. This is reported by Qiao Zhuang and Rolf Müller from Shandong University in Jinan, China. The scientists studied the function of the bats' distinctively shaped nasal lobes, which are often crisscrossed with folds, wrinkles and furrows.

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  • Psychology: Tricky
    2023

    Psychology: Tricky

    Tricky Why do we keep falling for this? If the rabbit wriggles in the supposedly empty hat or the pretty assistant in the box riddled with sabers, even sworn realists can no longer believe their eyes. Are you so easily fooled? To dazzle their viewers, savvy illusionists often need nothing more than a few tools - and the ability to deftly manipulate the audience's attention.

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  • Psychology: The power of money
    2023

    Psychology: The power of money

    The Power of Monetary In today's world, almost everything revolves around one thing: dear money. The fact that it influences us shouldn't really surprise anyone anymore. How strongly it can intervene in our consciousness is astounding - yes, frightening.

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  • Neuroscience: Alzheimer's
    2023

    Neuroscience: Alzheimer's

    Alzheimer's enzyme important regulator The enzyme Bace1, which plays a central role in Alzheimer's disease, is also responsible for the myelin covering of nerve fibers. Future Alzheimer's therapies that try to switch off Bace1 could therefore lead to serious side effects, warn researchers led by Riqiang Wan from the Lerner Research Institute.

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  • Pedagogy: How toddlers learn from picture books
    2023

    Pedagogy: How toddlers learn from picture books

    How toddlers learn from picture books Looking at picture books together not only introduces young children to reading culture at an early age, but also trains their sense of reality in other ways. As psychologists from the University of Queensland and Virginia have observed, even very young children are able to take in the images, understand them, and grasp their relation to real objects.

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  • Transplant medicine: Age matters
    2023

    Transplant medicine: Age matters

    It's all about age To restore sight to the blind - a dream. Therefore, experiments with transplanting retinas and photoreceptors have been going on since the beginning of the last century. So far, however, the transplants have failed, even if they actually grew quite well.

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  • Criminology: Low economic morality of the middle class
    2023

    Criminology: Low economic morality of the middle class

    Middle Class Low Economic Morality The "law-abiding majority of citizens" often cited by politicians does not seem to exist. Rather, there is a widespread propensity for everyday crimes in mainstream society, warn two UK criminologists.

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  • Pain research: gene variant reveals sensitivity to pain
    2023

    Pain research: gene variant reveals sensitivity to pain

    Gene variant reveals sensitivity to pain Resistance to pain is less a question of bravery than of genetics. This is reported by an international team of scientists led by Clifford Woolf from Massachusetts General Hospital. People who are less sensitive to pain have a specific version of the so-called GCH1 gene, which regulates the amount of the newly identified pain molecule BH4.

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  • Behavioral Science: Emancipation on the Prairie
    2023

    Behavioral Science: Emancipation on the Prairie

    Emancipation on the Prairie The female pronghorn go on a complicated and exhausting search for a partner every year. For this to be worthwhile, something has to jump out. But what? Women are emancipated. Women are picky. After all, they're looking for the man of their dreams, and he's not waiting on every street corner.

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  • Listen: Beyond Silence
    2023

    Listen: Beyond Silence

    Beyond Silence Are diseases beneficial? Certainly not at first glance, but sometimes yes at second glance. Now and then they help to unravel mysteries of the human body. There are many more things to hear, and French researchers have now tracked down one.

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  • Hypoxia: tremor pause saves brain in diving seals
    2023

    Hypoxia: tremor pause saves brain in diving seals

    Quitter pause protects the brain of diving seals Seals suppress shivering during their dives in icy water to conserve oxygen and prevent brain damage. However, as soon as they are able to surface and breathe, they start shaking again, observed Norwegian scientists from the University of Tromsö.

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  • Behavioral research: Pheromone in breast milk works as a smell teacher
    2023

    Behavioral research: Pheromone in breast milk works as a smell teacher

    Pheromone in breast milk works as a smell teacher An odorant in rabbits' mother's milk helps newborns learn the meaning of other smells. As a result, the little ones will probably find their way around more quickly in their environment and increase their chances of survival.

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  • Neurodegenerative diseases: Huntingtin interferes with energy production in brain cells
    2023

    Neurodegenerative diseases: Huntingtin interferes with energy production in brain cells

    Huntingtin Disrupts Brain Cell Energy Production Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have discovered a possible mechanism by which the protein huntingtin reduces energy production in brain cells in the hereditary disease Huntington's.

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  • Pharmacology: Obesity: Promising drug but ineffective
    2023

    Pharmacology: Obesity: Promising drug but ineffective

    Obesity: Promising drug but ineffective The drug MK-0557 was a beacon of hope in the fight against obesity. After ten years of working with the substance, however, a large-scale clinical study has now shown that it only has a minimal effect.

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  • Sensors: Hairy sense of touch for robots
    2023

    Sensors: Hairy sense of touch for robots

    Hairy touch for robots The role models are rats and seals. With their whiskers, the animals feel things that cannot be seen in the dark and currents that cannot be seen with the eyes even in the light. Skills that autonomous robots could also do something with.

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  • Business Psychology: Expensive Business: Overpaid CEOs
    2023

    Business Psychology: Expensive Business: Overpaid CEOs

    Expensive business: overpaid managers If managing directors earn too much, a company has to pay dearly for it. Because the entire executive floor benefits from this - the salaries are also higher in the following levels. However, according to James Wade from Rutgers University and his colleagues, the bonus also decreases significantly with the hierarchical level.

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  • Sleep research: Sleep makes flies smart
    2023

    Sleep research: Sleep makes flies smart

    Sleep makes flying smart If many fruit flies live in a small space or they have to solve complex tasks, they sleep more. Researchers at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego observed that these breaks appear to be important for processing the experience and forming memories.

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  • Behavioural Biology: My scent, your scent?
    2023

    Behavioural Biology: My scent, your scent?

    My scent, your scent? Blood is thicker than water, even fish sing a song about it. But how is a steel blue sunfish supposed to know who is closest to him in the crowd of his nestmates and in the face of highly promiscuous parents? Very simple:

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  • Pediatrics: test results for drugs for children are only rarely published
    2023

    Pediatrics: test results for drugs for children are only rarely published

    Test results on medication for children rarely published Results from studies in which the suitability of drugs for children is tested rarely make it into specialist magazines. Daniel Benjamin from Duke University and his colleagues report that those who are attested to have poorer or no efficacy or safety concerns are particularly neglected.

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  • Accident research: Motorists overtake bicycle helmet wearers closer
    2023

    Accident research: Motorists overtake bicycle helmet wearers closer

    Motorists overtake bike helmet carriers tighter In an extensive self-experiment, Ian Walker, a traffic psychologist at the University of Bath, found that wearing a cycle helmet increases the risk of a collision with a car, bus or lorry. As hidden recordings with a video camera and distance meter revealed in more than 2,500 overtaking manoeuvres, motorized road users moved an average of 8.

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