Scientists have made the surprising discovery that our ability to recognize and remember faces peaks at age 30 to 34, about a decade later than most of our other mental abilities. Researchers Laura T. Germine and Ken Nakayama of Harvard University and Bradley Duchaine of Dartmouth College will present their work in a forthcoming issue of the journal Cognition. ...

Specially designed probiotics can modulate the physiology of host fat cells say scientists writing in Microbiology. The findings could lead to specialised probiotics that have a role in the prevention or treatment of conditions such as obesity. The publisher has made this paper available online for free for an unknown length of time. Check the end of this report for a link to download the original, full-tex ...

As the New Year approaches, it is a time when many individuals reflect and examine ways in which they can lead a healthier lifestyle. Quitting smoking is a popular resolution, and an appropriate one given World Health Organization estimates that smoking contributes to five million deaths each year. For smokers who are considering quitting as part of a new year’s resolution, pre-planning is an important step ...

People living in the "stroke belt" states eat more fried fish than people living in the rest of the country, which may contribute to the high rate of death from stroke in those states, according to a study published in the December 22, 2010, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The so-called stroke belt includes the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Ge ...

For most of us, the “placebo effect” is synonymous with the power of positive thinking; it works because you believe you are taking a real drug. But a new study rattles this assumption. Researchers at Harvard Medical School’s Osher Research Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have found that placebos work even when administered without the seemingly requisite deception. The study is publ ...

Is quality in the eye of the beholder? Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital have found wide disparities among four common measures of hospital-wide mortality rates, with competing methods yielding both higher- and lower-than-expected rates for the same Massachusetts hospitals during the same year. ...

Ambassador to Germany, Dr. Peter Boehm, and the Canadian High Commissioner to Dusseldorf, Leslie Reissner, paid a visit to the Thought Technology Ltd. booth at Medica, where 137,000 visited for 4 days. Included in this announcement is a video interview with Olivier Jean (short track speed skating gold medalist) and Dr. Pierre Beauchamp (sports psychologist) who discuss the use of biofeedback in the 2010 Van ...

This current article is a commentary (with an additional call for compromise) on recent articles by the Texas Psychological Association (TPA), "Texas Psychologists Under Attack" and National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), "NASP Argues Proposed Rule Change Does Not 'Attack' Psychologists". I originally intended to post these thoughts in the comment sections of one or both of the referenced artic ...

A psychology professor has found that the way people perceive the Silhouette Illusion, a popular illusion that went viral and has received substantial online attention, has little to do with the viewers' personality, or whether they are left- or right-brained, despite the fact that the illusion is often used to test these attributes in popular e-quizzes. Included in this report is a link to download this op ...

Pregnancy among women veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan appears to increase their risk for mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to a study published in Journal of Women’s Health, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available free online. Check the end of this report for a download link. ...