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  • September 9, 2010
  • 06:30 AM
  • 15 views

An Emotional Timeline of 9/11

by John M Grohol PsyD in World of Psychology - Psych Central


As we approach the ninth anniversary of 9/11, researchers writing in Psychological Science this week analyzed 85,000 text pages sent through pagers during the 2 hours before and 18 hours after 9/11 took place. (You do remember what a pager is, don’t you?) WikiLeaks, the website in the news lately for other reasons, has made the 573,000 lines consisting of 6.4 million words freely available on its website for the past year.
What would these 85,000 pages tell us about the human emotion tha........ Read more »

Back MD, Küfner AC, & Egloff B. (2010) The Emotional Timeline of September 11, 2001. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS. PMID: 20805373  

  • September 8, 2010
  • 08:23 AM
  • 27 views

Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Preschoolers: Pathologizing childhood or a sign of trouble to come?

by Nestor Lopez-Duran PhD in Child-Psych

The New York Times recently released two interesting reports about mental health issues in young children. The first examined the concept of preschool depression (see also here for one of our previous reviews about depression in young children). The second examined the practice of prescribing antipsychotic medications in young children. Both articles touched on an [...]... Read more »

Keenan, K., Boeldt, D., Chen, D., Coyne, C., Donald, R., Duax, J., Hart, K., Perrott, J., Strickland, J., Danis, B.... (2010) Predictive validity of DSM-IV oppositional defiant and conduct disorders in clinically referred preschoolers. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02290.x  

  • September 5, 2010
  • 09:50 AM
  • 64 views

2 legs good, 4 legs better: Uner Tan Syndrome, part 2

by gregdowney in Neuroanthropology


Beginning in 2005, reports by Prof. Üner Tan of Cukurova University in Turkey alerted the world to a number of families in which some members walked quadrupedally. This is the second part of a (so far) two-part post on Uner Tan Syndrome. Although you’re welcome to read the first part, I’ll give you the one sentence summary if you just want to push on and a piece of video clip on the cases. I should warn you though, before you read the first part, that the whole thing is sort of like the........ Read more »

Dietz Volker. (2002) Do human bipeds use quadrupedal coordination?. Trends in neurosciences, 25(9), 462-7. PMID: 12183207  

Dietz V, & Michel J. (2009) Human bipeds use quadrupedal coordination during locomotion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 97-103. PMID: 19645886  

Herz J, Boycott KM, & Parboosingh JS. (2008) "Devolution" of bipedality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(21). PMID: 18487453  

Humphrey, Nicholas, Stefan Mundlos, & Seval Türkmen. (2008) Genes and quadrupedal locomotion in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science , 105(21). DOI: 10.1073 pnas.0802839105  

Susanne M. Morton,, & Amy J. Bastian. (2007) Mechanisms of cerebellar gait ataxia. The Cerebellum, 6(1), 79-86. DOI: 10.1080/14734220601187741  

Tayfun Ozcelik, Nurten Akarsu, Elif Uz, Safak Caglayan, Suleyman Gulsuner, Onur Emre Onat, Meliha Tan, & Uner Tan. (2008) Mutations in the very low-density lipoprotein receptor VLDLR cause cerebellar hypoplasia and quadrupedal locomotion in humans. . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(11), 4232-4236. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0710010105  

Ozcelik, Tayfun,, Nurten Akarsu,, Elif Uz,, Safak Caglayan,, Suleyman Gulsuner,, Onur Emre Onat,, Meliha Tan,, & Uner Tan. (2008) Reply to Herz et al. and Humphrey et al.: Genetic heterogeneity of cerebellar hypoplasia with quadrupedal locomotion. . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(23). DOI: 10.1073 pnas.0804078105  

Thelen, E.,, & Ulrich, B. D. (1991) Hidden skills: A dynamic systems analysis of treadmill stepping during the first year. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 56(1), 1-98. DOI: 10.2307/1166099  

  • September 3, 2010
  • 10:44 AM
  • 90 views

Human, quadruped: Uner Tan Syndrome, part 1

by gregdowney in Neuroanthropology


The photos that accompanied news releases about quadrupedal people living in Turkey, members of a family that allegedly could not walk except on hands and feet, looked staged when I first saw them. Three women and one man scrambling across rocky ground, the women in brightly coloured clothing, the sky radiant blue behind them, their eyes forward and backsides high in the air – like children engaged in some sort of awkward race at a field day or sporting carnival.
Members of a Turkish family ........ Read more »

Herz J, Boycott KM, & Parboosingh JS. (2008) "Devolution" of bipedality. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(21). PMID: 18487453  

Humphrey, Nicholas, Stefan Mundlos, & Seval Türkmen. (2008) Genes and quadrupedal locomotion in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science , 105(21). DOI: 10.1073 pnas.0802839105  

Susanne M. Morton,, & Amy J. Bastian. (2007) Mechanisms of cerebellar gait ataxia. The Cerebellum, 6(1), 79-86. DOI: 10.1080/14734220601187741  

Tayfun Ozcelik, Nurten Akarsu, Elif Uz, Safak Caglayan, Suleyman Gulsuner, Onur Emre Onat, Meliha Tan, & Uner Tan. (2008) Mutations in the very low-density lipoprotein receptor VLDLR cause cerebellar hypoplasia and quadrupedal locomotion in humans. . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(11), 4232-4236. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0710010105  

Ozcelik, Tayfun,, Nurten Akarsu,, Elif Uz,, Safak Caglayan,, Suleyman Gulsuner,, Onur Emre Onat,, Meliha Tan,, & Uner Tan. (2008) Reply to Herz et al. and Humphrey et al.: Genetic heterogeneity of cerebellar hypoplasia with quadrupedal locomotion. . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(23). DOI: 10.1073 pnas.0804078105  

Thelen, E.,, & Ulrich, B. D. (1991) Hidden skills: A dynamic systems analysis of treadmill stepping during the first year. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 56(1), 1-98. DOI: 10.2307/1166099  

  • August 30, 2010
  • 08:50 AM
  • 49 views

Narcissistic College Students Spend More Time on Facebook

by John M Grohol PsyD in World of Psychology - Psych Central


It probably comes as little surprise to anyone, but a small exploratory study done on 100 college students from a single university suggests that students who score higher on a test of narcissism also spent more time checking and updating their Facebook profile.
Facebook is currently the world’s largest social network, with over 500 million users. More than 50% of Facebook’s active users log on to Facebook in any given day, while the average user has 130 social connections (what Fac........ Read more »

Mehdizadeh S. (2010) Self-presentation 2.0: narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking_id, 13(4), 357-64.

  • August 25, 2010
  • 04:40 AM
  • 63 views

What clients think CBT will be like and how it really is

by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest

People expect cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to be more prescriptive than it is, and therapists to be more controlling than they really are. That's according to a series of interviews with 18 clients who undertook 8 sessions (14 hours) of CBT to help with their diagnosis of generalised anxiety disorder.

Henny Westra and colleagues selected for interview nine clients whose therapy had ended positively and nine whose therapy had ended poorly. Four of the clients were male. There were four CB........ Read more »

  • August 24, 2010
  • 02:11 AM
  • 76 views

Narcissism on Facebook

by Dr Shock in Dr Shock MD PhD


In normal every day life with face to face contact the physical characteristics and knowledge about social background form the identity of your contact. It’s stable and three dimensional. You know that person, it’s therefor very difficult for the other to claim another identity or create impressions inconsistent with how you know him or her. [...]


Related posts:The Dangers of Facebook or Let’s Be Careful Out There
Facebook Privacy Concerns in Young Adults
The Dangers of Face........ Read more »

Mehdizadeh, S. (2010) Self-Presentation 2.0: Narcissism and Self-Esteem on Facebook. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 13(4), 357-364. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2009.0257  

  • August 21, 2010
  • 11:00 AM
  • 79 views

The five dimensions of an autistic brain

by sandygautam in The Mouse Trap

Image via Wikipedia Autism is a spectrum disorder , better referred to as ASD, It has been known for some time that differences like autism are, multi-dimensional and not readily reducible to a single set of mechanisms or genetic causes. In the past we have discussed how the disorder may be related to structural differencesRating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)... Read more »

  • August 15, 2010
  • 11:25 PM
  • 59 views

trouble with biomarkers and press releases

by Tal Yarkoni in citation needed

The latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience contains an interesting article by Ecker et al in which the authors attempted to classify people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and health controls based on their brain anatomy, and report achieving “a sensitivity and specificity of up to 90% and 80%, respectively.” Before unpacking what that [...]... Read more »

Ecker C, Marquand A, Mourão-Miranda J, Johnston P, Daly EM, Brammer MJ, Maltezos S, Murphy CM, Robertson D, Williams SC.... (2010) Describing the brain in autism in five dimensions--magnetic resonance imaging-assisted diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder using a multiparameter classification approach. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 30(32), 10612-23. PMID: 20702694  

  • August 9, 2010
  • 05:25 PM
  • 90 views

Why psychotic patients with religious delusions are harder to cure.

by Tom Rees in Epiphenom

We all hold beliefs that are not provable, and defining when these beliefs cross the line and become psychotic delusions is not easy. It's clear that such a line does exist, however: every town has its share of people whose religious beliefs fall sufficiently far outside the conventional that they are declared psychotic.

In popular imagination, at least, psychotic delusions often have a religious component. In reality, many psychotic delusions are not religious. However, many delusions involve ........ Read more »

  • August 4, 2010
  • 04:56 AM
  • 60 views

Floral arrangement as a cognitive training tool for schizophrenia

by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest

It's the hallucinations and delusions associated with schizophrenia that typically attract discussion and research. However, patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia also exhibit deficits in memory and perception and, importantly, the severity of these is predictive of quality of life, social functioning and autonomy. How can these cognitive deficits be helped? Researchers have found some success with computer-based training but patient motivation can be problem. Now a team of researchers led ........ Read more »

  • July 26, 2010
  • 04:33 AM
  • 80 views

What's the link between left-handedness and drinking behaviour?

by Christian Jarrett in BPS Research Digest

Back in the 70's, psychologist Paul Bakan published a short research report in which he noted that among 47 inpatients on an alcoholism ward, 7 were left-handed - more than you'd expect based on the approximate 10-per cent prevalence of left-handedness in the general population. Bakan described his observation as 'incidental' but according to Kevin Denny, the idea of an alcoholism-handedness link has proven sticky, with some commentators suggesting the stress of being left-handed in a right-hand........ Read more »

Denny, K. (2010) Handedness and drinking behaviour. British Journal of Health Psychology. DOI: 10.1348/135910710X515705  

  • July 25, 2010
  • 07:16 PM
  • 96 views

Is there a Biochemical Marker for Suicide?

by Darcy Cowan in Skepticon

Suicide is a sensitive subject, by it’s very nature it seems we are obliged to treat it with kid gloves. In public it is virtually taboo to even mention suicide, in news media euphemisms are employed in order to avoid explicit use of the “S” word. Attitudes are beginning to change, with more vocal discussion [...]... Read more »

Falcone T, Fazio V, Lee C, Simon B, Franco K, Marchi N, & Janigro D. (2010) Serum S100B: a potential biomarker for suicidality in adolescents?. PloS one, 5(6). PMID: 20559426  

  • July 22, 2010
  • 04:49 PM
  • 123 views

When Parents Kill: Filicide Usually Accompanied by mental illness

by KWombles in Countering...Age of Autism, Misinformation, and Woo

There are some commonalities that almost everyone in the autism community can get solidly behind and that is the issue of filicide. Too many children in this country are killed by their parents. One such murder alone is too many. Of course, our attention is brought to bear when we hear autism in conjunction with a child murder.A Dallas woman murdered her two young children because, according to her 911 call, they were autistic. While our attention is focused on this case, as parents in the onlin........ Read more »

Farooque R, & Ernst FA. (2003) Filicide: a review of eight years of clinical experience. Journal of the National Medical Association, 95(1), 90-4. PMID: 12656455  

Hatters Friedman S, Hrouda DR, Holden CE, Noffsinger SG, & Resnick PJ. (2005) Filicide-suicide: common factors in parents who kill their children and themselves. The journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 33(4), 496-504. PMID: 16394226  

  • July 20, 2010
  • 02:42 PM
  • 99 views

Why is the world vivid in mania, but bleak in depression?

by sandygautam in The Mouse Trap

Image by ParanoidMonk via Flickr No, I am not speaking metaphorically. Quite literally,there has been accumulating evidence that sense are sharpened and have great acuity in mania while they are dulled in depression and the effects can be seen within the same individual over time as he/she suffers from manic/depressive episodes. The latest study to More >Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)


Related posts:Depression not only has bland taste but bland sense of smell too In one of my earlier post on........ Read more »

  • July 20, 2010
  • 10:49 AM
  • 99 views

Cognitive control: when less is more!

by sandygautam in The Mouse Trap

Yesterday I wrote a post about ADHD and creativity and how the frontal lobes hypo-function and dopamine may be the mediating factors involved.  Today I serendipitously came across this article by Thomson-Schill et al in which they posit that frontal cortex hypofunction during childhood is beneficial, on average, as it enables convention learning and thus More >Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)


Related posts:Autism:a cognitive style and not a deficit Continuing with the theme of my last post, ........ Read more »

Thompson-Schill, S., Ramscar, M., & Chrysikou, E. (2009) Cognition Without Control: When a Little Frontal Lobe Goes a Long Way. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(5), 259-263. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01648.x  

  • July 18, 2010
  • 03:25 PM
  • 84 views

ADHD and creativity

by sandygautam in The Mouse Trap

Image via Wikipedia ADHD has traditionally been conceptualized in terms of deficits- that of attention , impulse control or motor restraint; but the new neurodiversity paradigm forces us to take a more balanced look and acknowledge the strengths that the ADHD kid may have- divergent thinking, spontaneity and high energy and vitality. That brings me More >Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)


Related posts:Autism and ADHD as opposites based on fly models? Image via Wikipedia Regular readers of this........ Read more »

Cramond, B. (1995) The Coincidence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Creativity. University of Connecticut, The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. info:other/ED388016

  • July 7, 2010
  • 04:07 PM
  • 170 views

Body Image Distortion: as nature intended?

by agoldstein in Beyond the Bench

According to research by Matthew Longo and other neuroscientists at the University College London, you might not be as fat as your brain thinks you are.... Read more »

  • July 1, 2010
  • 07:10 PM
  • 163 views

Is there Something Fishy about Psychosis?

by Darcy Cowan in Skepticon

Psychosis is a scary word, conjuring images of people who have so lost touch with reality that they are unable to integrate with society. As with most everything else this condition exists on a continuum, mild symptoms may pose no problem for the sufferer1 nor be outwardly visible. Previous studies have seen correlations between the [...]... Read more »

  • June 30, 2010
  • 09:39 PM
  • 160 views

Mythbusting booze: Hair of the dog – hangover cure or excuse for alcoholism?

by Michael Slezak in Good, Bad, and Bogus


This is the second part in a series about the myths and realities of alcohol consumption.
I pray thee let me and my fellow have
A hair of the dog that bit us last night—
And bitten were we both to the brain aright
-  John Heywood
The idea that alcohol may itself be a cure for alcohol hangovers is [...]... Read more »

Jeffrey G. Wiese, MD; Michael G. Shlipak, MD, MPH; and Warren S. Browner, MD, MPH. (2000) The Alcohol Hangover. Annals of Internal Medicine, 152(12), 897-902. info:/

Wiese JG, Shlipak MG, & Browner WS. (2000) The alcohol hangover. Annals of internal medicine, 132(11), 897-902. PMID: 10836917  

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