Voices in people's heads are far more varied and complex than previously thought, according to new research by Durham and Stanford universities, published in The Lancet Psychiatry today.
One of the largest and most detailed studies to date on the experience of auditory hallucinations, commonly referred to as voice hearing, found that the majority of voice-hearers hear multiple voices with distinct character-like qualities, with many also experiencing physical effects on their bodies.
Getting into trouble with drugs is one way to derail a promising future, and a lot more than traffickers in hard narcotics are engaging in risky behavior on university campuses. A recent literature review published by researchers at the University of South Carolina shows that one in six college students misuse common stimulant medications prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Each year, millions of people lose billions of dollars in NCAA March Madness basketball pools. Still, most return the following year for another pummeling.
But flipping a coin yields better results than carefully selecting brackets, says Dae Hee Kwak, assistant professor of sport management at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology.
As more animal shelters, primate centers and zoos start to play music for their charges, it's still not clear whether and how human music affects animals.
Now, a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that while cats ignore our music, they are highly responsive to "music" written especially for them. The study is online at Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
"We are not actually replicating cat sounds," says lead author Charles Snowdon, an emeritus professor of psychology. "We are trying to create music with a pitch and tempo that appeals to cats."
When it comes to buying things, our brains can't see the big, black-and-white forest for all the tiny, colorful trees, according to marketing scholars at The Ohio State University, who say that people who were shown product images in color were more likely to focus on small product details--even superfluous ones--instead of practical concerns such as cost and functionality.
Where is the line between advocating science and protecting corporate profits? It's usually only clear to people trying to show the other side is involved in wrongdoing. A paper in PLOS Medicine uses sugar industry documents to note how they influenced research priorities for the 1971 US National Caries Program (NCP).
"Free schools are having an important effect on collaboration and raising standards in nearby schools … We can see free schools are both popular but they’re also effective." - Nicky Morgan, secretary of state for education
In an analysis of about 2,600 hospitalizations for severe sepsis, readmissions within 90 days were common, and approximately 40 percent occurred for diagnoses that could potentially be prevented or treated early to avoid hospitalization, according to a study in the March 10 issue of JAMA.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has released the much anticipated Apple watch – his company’s first new product since the iPad. Cook said the new watch, in addition to telling the time, was a “comprehensive health and fitness companion”. But we’re unlikely to hear much about how people will actually use this new product for some time.
Would you want to know if you or your children had risk of hereditary cancer, a genetic risk for cardiovascular disease or carried the gene associated with developing Alzheimer's disease - even if they were risks that wouldn't be relevant for possibly decades or didn't have a cure?
Using a small amount of blood or saliva, a technology called whole genome sequencing makes that possible - and more than half of parents said they'd not only be interested in the technology for themselves but for their children too, a new nationally-representative University of Michigan study shows.
Although children can emerge from cold and neglectful family environments as adults with high self-esteem, a new University at Buffalo psychology paper suggests they may still be at a relative disadvantage in life, with a foggier sense of identity. Yet obviously adults with low self-esteem who grew up in the same type of negative environment have relatively high self-clarity, so what gives?
All week I’ve been intrigued and inspired by posters appearing in my department that depict truly great scientists, mathematicians and engineers. Few of them were known to me or my fellow students, yet their achievements include revolutionizing algebra, developing the first treatment for leukemia, and discovering fundamental processes in physics.
Walmart recently did something that will help its employees, which may very well benefit all lower- and middle-income workers in this country. The “something” is not the wage increase its lowest-paid workers will soon receive. Instead, the thing that Walmart did that should help lower-paid workers was to announce that it was doing anything at all.
Last summer, major US comics publisher Marvel reincarnated one of its most popular characters, Thor, as a woman. Predictably, this prompted an avalanche of opinion, both positive and negative.
The positive reaction celebrated that the new character would provide a lead female role in a predominantly male cast of superheroes within mainstream comics. Mainstream comics desperately needed a new role model for the growing number of young comics readers – many of who are female.
A new paper finds that peer review managers play an important role in identifying potential conflicts of interest (COI) in biomedical research grant peer reviews.