A new University of Colorado at Boulder study shows people have the ability to suppress emotional memories with practice, which has implications for those suffering from conditions ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression.
1050 pregnant women are being recruited for the most extensive trial of its kind to establish the effect of using nicotine patches during pregnancy. The ?1.3m clinical trial ? Smoking, Nicotine and Pregnancy (SNAP) trial ? will investigate whether nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is safe, effective and cost-effective for mums-to-be who want to give up smoking. It will also study the effect on the behaviour and development of the child.
Among older persons without manifest cognitive impairment, difficulty in identifying odors such as lemon, banana, soap and cinnamon predicts subsequent development of Mild Cognitive Impairment MCI which is often a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.
Older adults who have difficulty identifying common odors may have a greater risk of developing problems with thinking, learning and memory, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Psychologists from the University of Exeter have identified an “early warning signal” in the brain that helps us avoid repeating previous mistakes. Published in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, their research identifies, for the first time, a mechanism in the brain that reacts in just 0.1 seconds to things that have resulted in us making errors in the past.
After six to nine months of abstinence from alcohol, recovering alcoholics who were also chronic smokers showed a significantly lower rate of improvement in tests of memory, reasoning, judgment, and visual/spatial coordination than non-smoking recovering alcoholics in a study conducted by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC).
Society?s perception of older drivers tends to be negative, write Professor Desmond O?Neill and colleagues. Yet surveys of drivers aged more than 80 consistently show prudent driving behaviours. Furthermore, stopping driving can limit access to family, friends, and services and is an independent risk factor for entry into a nursing home.
In the new book Blind Spots: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things (Prometheus Books, $18), psychologist Dr. Madeleine Van Hecke investigates many humorous anecdotes that gently nudge the reader into a deeper understanding of human fallibilities. Dr. Van Hecke explains why we mess up and shows how our minds only work for us 80 to 90 percent of the time. She combines humor, pragmatism, and theory to help the reader understand what gets in the way of good thinking.
People suffering from anxiety disorders can help themselves using approaches based on cognitive behavioral therapies, according to a new book by a University of Manchester psychologist.
How often old people read a newspaper, play chess, or engage in other mentally stimulating activities is related to risk of developing Alzheimer?s disease, according to a study published June 27, 2007, in the online edition of Neurology?, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.