The neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks provided a window into a mystifying parallel world of mental dysfunction in his book, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”. The descriptions of his neurological patients inspired myriad plays, films and other artworks, and probably untold numbers of young neurologists and psychologists – including me. The profile in this weekend’s Guardian tells the story of his science-obsessed family and his remarkable life.
→ From The Guardian Review
Category: Psychology
Brit Smile More Genuine Than American
The British smile is judged more genuine than the American in a new study from the Univeristy of California. There is impressive evidence to back up the difference. The psychology professor who authored the study correctly identified the nationality of 14 out of 15 people, just from their smiles.
‘Restrained but dignified’ is how the study describes the British smile. It tends to show the lower teeth and create a crinkle around the eyes, whereas a typical American shows more teeth and doesn’t reach the eyes. Perhaps Americans are just more proud of their dental work than us Brits – something they’ve been telling us for years…
Panic Attacks and the Rise of CBT
A panic attack is a frightening experience – your heart begins to race and you feel as if you are about to die. The sufferer does not usually have a real reason to panic, the dangers are ‘all in the mind’, but the experience is very real. Research in the US has found that, of the patients arriving at A&E thinking they are having a heart attack, one in four is actually having a panic attack.
In treating panic attacks, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has proven extremely effective. The treatment consists of two parts. The cognitive part addresses the question of why the patient feels they are about to die. For example I may be convinced that if I go outside I will die. At a rational level I may well realise that this will not happen. At another level, the causality might seem very real to me. The therapists job is point out the inconsistencies in my thought processes.
The behavioural part of the therapy is all about training the body to relax, rather than allowing the sensations of panic to spiral out of control. Think of this as akin to Pavlov teaching his dog to salivate when he rang a bell.
Researchers are still not quite sure whether it is the behavioural part or the cognitive part of the therapy that is most effective. Either way, when combined, the therapy has been shown to be extremely effective in treating panic attacks.
Leaving a Bitter Taste in the Mouth
You know that old philosophical question: How do I know we both see the same colour when we look up at a blue sky? Some research just published asks the same type of question, but of our sense of taste.
The study shows that our tongues respond quite differently to a particular bitter taste synthesised in the laboratory. In fact, some people are a 1,000 times more sensitive to this chemical than others. This seems to be a direct result of genetic differences between us.
It’s this kind of research that underlines the fact that our most basic senses can differ in fundamental ways.
→ A summary of the research and the full heavyweight report
I’ll Be There in About Ten Minutes
How much money will you have next week? How much time will you have next week? Chances are you are thinking much more time than money according to a study published this week. And if you’re unemployed then you’re probably right. Otherwise you’re probably wrong. To the human mind, time really doesn’t equal money – we treat the two quantities in quite different ways.
→ From The New York Times (Free registration required)
Tall Babies Earn More Later in Life
The link between height and earnings is well established. Studies in the US have shown that people earn an extra £500 a year for each additional inch in height. Now, here’s the same research, but this time for babies.
You can see this principle informally on any urban underground line as it travels rapidly between areas of differing affluence. As the train moves into the more affluent areas, the passengers boarding the train get significantly taller.
A note of caution: This type of research only shows an association, it doesn’t mean that one thing causes the other. So don’t put your children on the rack – unless they’re really annoying you.
→ From BBC News
Important Eurovision research
“Dr Bruine de Bruin, a researcher in social and division sciences, analysed results from the…Eurovision Song Contests between 1957 and 2003.”
“…on average, the last competitor to appear in the Eurovision Song Contest was more than twice as likely to win as the one who went on first. The first candidate had only a six per cent chance of winning, compared with a 13 per cent chance for the final contestant.”
No. I’m not going to give you any links to the Eurovision site or make any comment about Jordan. That would only encourage you.
→ From The Telegraph
Hocus pocus: x-ray eyes and spoon-bending
Did you know they’ve taken the word ‘gullible’ out of the dictionary? This one went around endlessly at school and I almost fell for it the first time, but never again. Why would I?
And so I segue mysteriously (yet relevantly) into the Channel 4 ‘Bodyshocks‘ series of documentaries. This week’s programme focussed on ‘the girl with the x-ray eyes’. Natasha, a seventeen-year-old from Russia claims to literally see inside people in order to diagnose their medical conditions. Having submitted to the sceptic’s tests, she was debunked, but not entirely satisfactorily.
And now my final, and not so mysterious segue, is into Professor Richard Wiseman’s research into spoon-bending. He had two sets of undergrads witness the trick. In half, the wannabe Yuri suggested that the spoon continued to bend after he put it down. Sure enough 40% reported the spoon continuing to bend – as if by magic.
→ Read on about why the debunking might not have been satisfactory.
Are you ‘Information Literate’?
It’s much easier to make a credible looking website than it is to make a credible looking book. So when you’re on the web, how do you evaluate the credibility of the information you’ve found? On average, it seems, not very well!
Research carried out a couple of years ago found that people use only superficial cues when making judgements about a site. In other words, if it looks professional, then it is. People are generally ‘cognitive misers’, tending not to check the credentials of the author or their motivation in making the information available. The new buzz phrase for this type of skill is ‘information literacy’.
One immediate practical implication is that every organisation needs a professional looking website or visitors won’t take it seriously.
→ From the New York Times (Free registration required)
Spray your way to orgasm
A note of caution has been sounded for two drugs that claim to help female sexual dysfunction. Petra Boynton, the sex and relationship psychologist, denounces the media’s uncritical presentation of the ‘Intrinsia’ hormone patch and Acrux’s ‘orgasm in a spray’, saying:
“We’re being conned into thinking all our sexual problems are hormonally based and require medical treatment. We need to ask in whose interest is it for us to think that?”
And more worryingly:
“What these drug companies don’t tell women is if their sexual problems aren’t linked to testosterone deficiency, and they start taking testosterone, they could experience side effects including increased growth of facial hair, losing head hair, deepening voice, and acne.”
→ From Dr Petra Boynton’s Blog
