July 15, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
The research team (Damisch et al. (2010) had the idea that having a lucky mascot might actually improve confidence, and therefore performance. So they ran some experiments including one where participants could bring their lucky mascot or charm with them do do a test. Before the test the items* were taken away to be photographed. One group then had their mascots returned, the other group were told the mascots would be returned after the task. The former group did better in the memory task and further tests showed this was linked to an increase in self-confidence. This link would seem to apply also to self-esteem, attribution of success and self-belief.
So maybe if you do have your own lucky mascot it could be a good idea to keep it by you when you are competing or doing exams.
Good luck!
* from old stuffed animals, and stones to wedding rings
July 14, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
It seems our expectation about what we eat directly affects how hungry or satisfied we feel afterwards. In one study, when participants ate soup, not knowing that there was a hidden pump connected to their soup bowl which could surreptitiously alter the amount of soup available once eating started, their reported satiety related to how much soup they perceived they had consumed and not the actual amount.
That experiment was adapted from one using fruit smoothies where participants were shown either a small or a large portion of fruit ‘used’ to make their smoothie. Their perception of satiety was directly linked to their perception of the quantity of fruit seen.
These findings, if reliable and valid, have real implications. When we consume a diet drink or food, or a reduced calorie or reduced sugar/fat food, does this affect how we feel afterwaards? Do we feel hungry again much sooner because of our perception? If this is so, then using different descriptions might have a beneficial effect on those people who are trying to lose weight. One famous firm has for some time been marketing ‘hearty’ soups – this may have been a very smart move!
July 7, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
So many people love eating chocolate, and believe it is a mood-influencing food giving pleasure plus a lift in mood – a happyfood!
Now research suggests that many depressed people really do eat more chocolate. These findings came from both men and women who scored high on a psychometric depression scale but who were not receiving medication. There were no reported increases in other antioxident-rich foods, or other sources of caffeine, fat or sugar, between these depressed adults and non-depressed adults, just the increased chocolate consumption. What is not known is why the chocolate intake increased.
The evolutionary hypothesis explains our liking of chocolate as a combination of pleasures – the sweetness, the creamy texture in the mouth perhaps in some way reminiscent of breast milk – with the high energy-denseness of this food. But there is a complete lack of evidence that breast milk, even in mothers who do eat a lot of chocolate, has any chocolate flavour! So this does not explain why consumption of chocolate rather than any other sweet and creamy food increased in depressed people. Is it the pleasure which is the key factor? Or is it the cultural perception of chocolate as a reward food? Or is there another reason?
June 21, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
Whilst it’s been known for years that lithium drugs help many bipolar patients to manage their disorder, it hasn’t been known how lithium acts. But now there is a clue! Laboratory studies show a link between lithium and an enzyme known as PO*. This enzyme controls a group of genes which affect brain cells’ sensitivity to lithium. And one of those genes, ImpA2, is also associated with bipolar disorder in some sufferers. So possibly there is a functional connection between ImpA2 and bipolar disorder, which can be mediated by lithium. Understanding this link could lead the way to better treatments for bipolar depression.
*PO=prolyl oligopeptidase
June 19, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
We’ve known for ages that far more females than males suffer from depression and anxiety disorders, but it is frequently hypothesised that this is not the true state of things. This is because, in Western industrialised cultures, it is more acceptable to admit vulnerability especially psychological vulnerability if one is female, not male. The macho nature of these cultures is, if you like, a confounding variable. However, there could be more to this than social and cultural relativism.
A recent interesting finding in rats shows that females are definitely more sensitive to stress. Their brain cells respond far more strongly to the precursor to corticosteroid stress hormones, a neurochemical called corticotropin-releasing factor, CRF. Female rat neurons are activated by CRF, male rat neurons adapt to it and less stress hormones are produced.
But does this rat behaviour also happen in humans? Well, we don’t know; but we do know that CRF regulation gets disrupted in human stress-related psychological disorders, so there could be a similarity, although one needs always to be very careful in generalising between species.
June 7, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
Exergames are new video games based on using the Wii. They use physical activity not sight as input and have been developed for use in the fight against obesity. Now they have been adapted so that children with visual impairments can play them, important because these children as a result of sight problems do not find it easy to take healthy exercise and so are at a higher risk of obesity.
Research team leader Eelke Folmer says the modification that enables the games, such as tennis, to be played without visual feedback use audio and vibro-tactile feedback. Like standard Wii games these new ones can be played against other people or the computer. So far these games have been very successful in getting sight impaired people to exercise vigorously, though the sample sizes have been very small.
To play the VI Fit games, a user would need a Wii remote and a Windows PC with bluetooth support or a USB bluetooth dongle. The games can be downloaded using instructions at www.vifit.org. The games are not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo.
May 17, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
Three recent small studies (see here or here) looked at the effects of various 12-16 week exercise programmes on sufferers from schizophrenia. The types of exercise varied from more physically strenuous ones, such as strength training and jogging, to less energetic yoga.
There were small improvements in physical health but greater improvements were found in mental states. Improvements in anxiety and depression from exercise were greater than similar improvements in standard care without an exercise component.
These studies support the findings of two earlier studies, which suggests the importance of further research into the effects of exercise programmes in the treatment of schizophrenia plus initiatives looking into how to implement such programmes and engage sufferers in taking part.
May 6, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
Research in the USA is showing up a link between obese pregnant women and their babies’ body fat composition. This might not seem surprising, but the concern is that being born with a higher proportion of fat could lead to future adult health disorders for these newborn babies. And the proportion of obese adults, whether or not mothers, is increasing fast and is a real health issue.
Recently published sleep research suggests that
- adolescents who cut down on sleep risk an increase in body weight, and
- sleeping less than 6-8 hours a night leads to a 12% increase in the risk of dying early, and
- even short periods e.g. one night of very reduced sleep can lead to resistance to the hormone insulin and potentially to developing type 2 diabetes.
These studies’ conclusions do not, however, mean that a few nights of reduced sleep will make you fat, develop type 2 diabetes or die in the near future; the message seems to be that 6-8 hours sleep a night is not just the norm, but really, really good for us !
April 26, 2010 by Evie Bentley.
A study from Decode Genetics in Reykjavik, published in Nature Genetics, suggests that four genes have now been identified – two linked to nicotine dependence and another two linked with nicotine metabolism. These findings, if valid, could lead to better understanding of addiction to smoking and how to treat this addiction.
