NEWS & VIEWS

Homicide (26 Feb) - Sometimes we act like animals and sometimes we act like sophisticated animals. And sometimes, even the most sophisticated animals commit murder. It is the question of when, why, and under what conditions humans murder each other that informs the research of professors Margo Wilson and Martin Daly, world-renowned researchers and professors in the field of evolutionary psychology and homicide. [more]

Suicide (25 Feb) - The official number of military suicides in Iraq is set at 22; but some veteran advocacy groups charge that the number is much higher and doesn't include the soldiers who take their lives after returning home. Longer deployments and a controversial war they say, can lead to increased anxiety and depression. But can it also lead to suicide? That's what some families and veteran advocates want to know. [more]

Psychoanalysis (25 Feb) - Contemporary Anglophone philosophy often draws upon the resources of psychoanalysis. But is there a real connection between the two disciplines or are philosophers with an interest in psychoanalysis just trawling for ideas, critical openings, or catchy titles? [more]

Mental health (25 Feb) - Although mental health care for returning soldiers has vastly improved in the past 30 years, many within the government's medical community say they are barely able to treat veterans from previous conflicts. Funding for Veterans Affairs' mental health services has been slashed since the mid-1990s, and more cuts are looming. NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reports. [more]

Chimpanzees (25 Feb) - On the heels of the recent controversy over teaching evolution in Georgia schools, the Fernbank Museum is celebrating one of humankind's closest living relatives. [more]

Heroin (23 Feb) - Cheap and very pure heroin is creating a growing addiction crisis across America. Heroin -- much of it from Colombia -- is replacing crack cocaine as the drug of choice, particularly among the young. In Massachusetts, for example, more than 4 percent of high school boys report having used heroin. [more]

Adolescence (23 Feb) - Scientists had believed for years that the brain was almost structurally mature at about age 5. But several studies, using Magnetic Resonance Imaging, found that it continues to mature throughout adolescence into adulthood, especially in the frontal lobes. That's meaningful and important, says University of California, Los Angeles neuroscientist Elizabeth Sowell, because the frontal lobes are the executive seat of the brain, the area that is responsible for decision-making, problem solving, planning and other functions. It controls behavior, too, helping to inhibit inappropriate responses. It also is the area responsible for personality. [more]

---

Search Now:

---

Politics (24 Feb) - David Goodhart's essay challenging liberals to rethink their attitudes to diversity and the welfare state has provoked a bitter debate among progressive thinkers. [more]

Mindreading (22 Feb) - Because a talent for mindreading is something all humans share -- it's as much a part of our nature as is converting oxygen into carbon dioxide -- we don't bother to teach it in schools, or test for an aptitude in it. Yet it is a skill, and like all skills it is unevenly distributed through the general population. And neuroscience can help us understand, and perhaps improve it. [more]

Psychiatry (22 Feb) - There is almost certainly a spectrum from sanity to madness, and different kinds of madness are not discrete from each other. Overall, 60 per cent of people who meet the strict criteria for one mental illness also meet those for another. This hardly suggests a watertight schema. [more]

Brain scanning (17 Feb) - Human beings are the only animals that have asymmetrical brains, this is thought to be the result of us having the capacity for language. However some people do have symmetrical brains and new research suggests they are much more likely to suffer from psychoses like schizophrenia and manic depression. [more] [audio]

Left-handedness (13 Feb) - The fraction of left-handed people today is about the same as it was during the Ice Age, according to data from prehistoric handprints. They were found in caves painted during the Upper Palaeolithic period, between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago. [more]

Evolutionary psychology (12 Feb) - What's the real reason for the tiny audiences at concerts of contemporary music? Evolution - according to psychologists at Duke University in the United States. Their studies suggest the human brain is hard-wired to reject dissonant sounds. It favours harmonious tones because they are the stuff of the sounds of human speech - Homo sapiens most important evolutionary adaptation. [more] [audio]

Sleep - mental health (11 Feb) - A new study finds that the tendency for some children in their early adolescence to sleep less presents a danger to their mental health. The study, in the recent issue of the journal Child Development, says children who get less sleep may develop symptoms of depression and low self-esteem. NPR's Michelle Trudeau reports. [more]

Psychopaths (10 Feb) - Professor Robert Hare has researched psychopaths for more than 25 years. His latest work looks at psychopathic behaviour in the workplace and suggests that a psychopath's superficial charm and ability to manipulate other people, enables them to be successful in many walks of life. [more] [audio]

RESEARCH & COMMENTARY

Evolutionary psychology (1 Mar) - Perhaps music serves as a mating display or a means of coordinating social interactions. Maybe religiosity serves as a group-level adaptation, allowing some to persevere over others. Some researchers, known generally as evolutionary psychologists, seek rigorous ways to investigate such complex human traits. In so doing, they're pushing the boundaries of scientific explanation and addressing aspects of human behavior once believed to be off-limits for scientists. [more]

Neuroscience (27 Feb) - When a new mom gazes at her baby, it's not just her mood that lights up - it's also a brain region associated with emotion processing, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. [more]

Schizophrenia (26 Feb) - Detecting and treating schizophrenia rapidly, following the onset of a first psychotic episode, improves the patients' response to treatment, according to a study by a Yale researcher. Thomas McGlashan, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, said the length of time between the onset of psychosis and detection and treatment can stretch from several weeks to several years. This time span is a concern because the patient is sick and untreated and because there is some indication that the untreated psychotic state itself may increase the risk of a poor outcome. [more]

Digit ratio (24 Feb) - The next time you're nibbling your lover's fingers, or scoping hands for wedding bands, you might want to pay more attention to length. A McMaster University evolutionary psychologist has found the length ratio of a woman's ring to index finger points to her sexual behaviour -- from fantasies to the number of partners she might have. [more]

Rivalry (22 Feb) - Changes in hormone levels cause many women to be more critical of other women, according to a recent study, believed to be the first of its kind. The study, published in the current Royal Society Biology Letters, supports the theory that evolution drives women to compete with each other for resources. In this case, the resource is desirable, eligible men. Participants in the study included 57 college aged women and 47 men, all of whom were heterosexual. Women were divided into groups based on what stage they were at in their menstrual cycle. [more] and [more]

Taste (22 Feb) - People on diets should be forgiven for moaning that chocolate tastes better when you're hungry. Just missing breakfast makes you more sensitive to sweet and salty tastes, according to research published in BMC Neuroscience. Hunger could increase your ability to taste, by increasing the sensitivity of the taste receptors on your tongue, or by changing the way you perceive the same taste stimuli, the author suggests. [more]

Pain - empathy (20 Feb) - The ability to appreciate other people's agony is achieved by the same parts of the brain that we use to experience pain for ourselves. Nature Science Update, EurekAlert.

Schizophrenia (19 Feb) -  People with a history of the digestive disorder celiac disease are three times more likely to develop schizophrenia than those without the disease, according to a report by Danish researchers and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The report is published in the February 21, 2004, edition of the British Medical Journal. [more]

Brain evolution (17 Feb) - The human brain may have started evolving its unique characteristics much earlier than has previously been supposed, according to new research. Hominid brains were being reorganised before the growth in brain size thought to have established a gulf between human and ape abilities, it is claimed. The conclusions come from analysis of a small-brained fossil hominid - or human-like primate - from South Africa. The authors report their findings in the journal Comptes Rendus Palevol. [more]

Pointing (17 Feb) - New research suggests that pointing enhances understanding In some cultures, pointing is a faux pas, sometimes even insulting. New research is turning this social don't on its head, showing that hand gestures, such as pointing, can enhance the understanding of messages. [more]

Language (15 Feb) - The ability to develop a form of communication that becomes an actual language is apparently innate, new University of Chicago research on the use of gestures among deaf children and experiments with adults shows. [more]

Love (13 Feb) - A new study of young mothers by researchers at University College London (UCL) has shown that romantic and maternal love activate many of the same specific regions of the brain, and lead to a suppression of neural activity associated with critical social assessment of other people and negative emotions. The findings suggest that once one is closely familiar with a person, the need to assess the character and personality of that person is reduced, and bring us closer to explaining why, in neurological terms, 'love makes blind.' [more]

Language and theory of mind (13 Feb) - Psychologists, linguists, cognitive scientists and philosophers discuss about the coevolution of these two uniquely human capacities, their co-dependence and interaction. The conference is organized by the Institut des Sciences Cognitives CNRS, Lyon. Starting from February 2004, a new paper will be put on line and open to discussion every two weeks. [more]

Autism (12 Feb) - Scientists trying to understand and treat autism have discovered that the brains of people with autism function differently than those of normal people when they view pictures of unfamiliar people. However, when people with autism look at a picture of a very familiar face, such as their mother's, their brain activity is similar to that of control subjects. [more]

Brain - Health and Science writer Carl Zimmer's new book is Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain-and How it Changed the World. It's about Thomas Willis, the scientist whose research on the workings of the brain during the 17th century became the basis of modern neurology. [review]

Friends - Alex Clark reviews Urban Tribes: Are Friends the New Family? by Ethan Watters. [review]

Sibling rivalry - Jonathan Yardley reviews The Pecking Order: Which Siblings Succeed and Why by Dalton Conley. [review]

Brain - Steven Johnson is author of the new book, Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life. He writes the monthly "Emerging Technology" column for Discover and is contributing editor at Wired. [interview]

Animal language - Clive D. L. Wynne reviews Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language by Tim Friend. [review]

Intelligence - Nathan J. Emery reviews Intelligence of Apes and Other Rational Beings by Duane M. Rumbaugh and David A. Washburn. [review]

Probability theory - Tommaso Toffoli reviews Probability Theory: The Logic of Science by E. T. Jaynes. [review]

Memory - Joseph E. LeDoux reviews Memory and Emotion: The Making of Lasting Memories by James L. McGaugh. [review]

Poverty - Eric Stover reviews Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor by Paul Farmer. [review]

Psychiatry - Matt Lee reviews Narratives in Psychiatry edited by Maurice Greenberg, Suhkwinder Singh Shergill, George Szmukler and Digby Tantam. [review]

Freedom - Daniel Cohen reviews A Theory of Freedom: From the Psychology to the Politics of Agency by Philip Pettit. [review]

Intellectual history - Denis Dutton reviews Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 by Charles Murray. [review]

Philosophy - Neil Levy reviews Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change by Joseph LaPorte. [review]