Psychology

  1. Health & Medicine

    300 milliseconds from hand to head

    New work shows that the “rubber hand illusion” only works when a hand feels a sensation no more than 300 milliseconds before the eyes see it

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  2. Health & Medicine

    You Are Who You Are by Default

    A neural network active when the brain is at rest may prove critical to zoning out, a sense of self and envisioning the future.

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  3. Psychology

    2-year-olds possess grammatical insights

    Toddlers discern basic rules for using nouns and verbs at least one year before speaking in complete sentences, French brain researchers report.

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  4. Humans

    Autism care takes biological toll on mothers

    Caring for teens and young adults with autism not only creates intense psychological pressure on mothers but may promote sharply decreased production of a crucial stress hormone, a long-term study suggests.

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  5. Psychology

    School-age lead exposures most harmful to IQ

    New studies find lead exposure has greater potency in school-age children than in infants and toddlers, including effects on brain volume.

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  6. Psychology

    Males, females swap sex-role stereotypes

    Analysis finds that mating strategies are not universal

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  7. Humans

    Rapid emotional swings could precede violence

    A tool from physics helps link the patterns of psychiatric patients’ symptoms and the likelihood they will commit violent acts.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    Autism immerses 2-year-olds in a synchronized world

    By age 2, kids with autism focus on synchronized physical events, such as a person’s moving lips accompanied by sounds, rather than on eye movements and other social cues, a new study suggests.

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  9. Health & Medicine

    Gestures speak volumes in the brain

    A new brain-imaging study suggests that an understanding of spoken language relies on changing sets of brain networks that exploit acoustic and visual cues.

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  10. Psychology

    Feelings, universal musical feelings

    Africans who spurn all things Western provide evidence that people everywhere recognize expressions of happiness, sadness and fear in music. Listen to some of the audio samples the study used.

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  11. Humans

    Radio relief for Rwandans’ social conflicts

    Rwandans who listened to a yearlong radio soap opera developed increased tolerance for dissent, a greater sense of cooperation and more acceptance of marriage across ethnic lines.

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  12. Humans

    Playing for real in a virtual world

    Preteen boys and girls interacting in a virtual world display the same contrasting play styles that have been observed in real-world settings.

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