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Posts

May 20, 2013

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4:00 PM | Becoming an individual twin
Sci is at SciAm Blogs today, talking about a study showing development of individuality in genetically identical mice. It's not the genetics, and it's not the environment. Rather, it's how you experience your environment that makes an individual difference. Head over and check it out! (Source)
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2:18 PM | Body Image Booster: Quick Reminders
{via etsy by ColorMeLucky} Every Monday features a tip, activity, inspiring quote or some other tidbit that helps boost your body image, whether directly or indirectly — and hopefully kick-starts your week on a positive note! Got a tip for improving body image? Email me at mtartakovsky at gmail dot com, and I’ll be happy [...]
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1:38 PM | How to Pick a Winner: A Psychological Trick to Improve the Odds
Does thinking too specifically about a bet make you more likely to lose? Making Habits, Breaking Habits In his new book, Jeremy Dean--psychologist and author of PsyBlog--looks at how habits work, why they are so hard to change, and how to break bad old cycles and develop new healthy, creative, happy habits. → "Making Habits, Breaking Habits", is available now on Amazon. Reviews The Bookseller, “Editor’s Pick,” 10/12/12 “Sensible and very readable…By far the most useful of this […]
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1:00 PM | What to Do When Someone Hurts Us
Often in my college programs I share the story of how my best friend from kindergarten started out our 6th grade year by telling me I was too fat to be her friend. She told me it was because she wanted to be popular in middle school and I was too fat to be seen [...]
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1:00 PM | Can you detect psychopathy in snot?
"I'm a sociopath" "Are you scamming me?"Read more →
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12:46 PM | Genetics and the Aging Brain
We all hope to stay physically and mentally active as we grow older but the reality is often very different. Research has demonstrated that certain cognitive abilities tend to decease as we grow older, including perceptual speed and episodic memory,...
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12:00 PM | Why Feeling Anxious About a Vaccine Makes It More Effective (And Other Benefits of Short-Term Stress)
SAN FRANCISCO—Standing at a podium in front of an audience of psychiatrists, clinicians and scientists, Firdaus Dhabhar brings up a video of his infant son on a large projector screen and presses play. Smiling and wriggling, Dhabhar’s son rests on his back in a doctor’s office—perfectly content. “Watch for the immediate reaction,” Dhabhar tells the [...]
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10:07 AM | Perception, Reaction & Mindfulness
I am frequently asked “What is mindfulness?” I start by saying something poignant like “It’s being aware and in the present moment” or “It’s about allowing each experience to wash over us like a cool spring rain, without attachment or judgments.” I love these answers and they generally tend to spawn a lively conversation about [...]
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8:10 AM | Stand by me: Close friendships appear to counteract genetic vulnerability to depression in girls, but not boys
Publication of US psychiatry's updated diagnostic code has provoked renewed debate in recent weeks over the extent to which mental illness ought to be framed as a psychosocial or a biological problem. The answer of course is that it is both. A new Canadian study captures this interplay, showing how close friendships appear to mitigate the risk for girls whose genes mean they are more vulnerable than average to depression. Mara Brendgen and her colleagues studied 294 pairs of twins aged ten […]

Brendgen, M., Vitaro, F., Bukowski, W., Dionne, G., Tremblay, R. & Boivin, M. (2013). Can friends protect genetically vulnerable children from depression?, Development and Psychopathology, 25 (02) 277-289. DOI:

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7:59 AM | Autism, plasma cytokines and siblings
I'm gonna try and be fairly brief in this post on the paper by Valerio Napolioni and colleagues* (open-access) looking at plasma cytokine profiles in cases of autism and their asymptomatic siblings. Brief because (a) the paper is open-access and (b) the participant groups (autism: n=25; sibling controls n=25) were relatively small so one has to be quite careful in extrapolating the findings with any large degree of confidence.Siblings by Paul Klee @ WikiPaintings  Just in case you are […]

Napolioni V, Ober-Reynolds B, Szelinger S, Corneveaux JJ, Pawlowski T, Ober-Reynolds S, Kirwan J, Persico AM, Melmed RD, Craig DW & Smith CJ (2013). Plasma cytokine profiling in sibling pairs discordant for autism spectrum disorder., Journal of neuroinflammation, 10 38. PMID:

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4:47 AM | Kristin Selby Gonzalez Mental Health Hero #MentalHealthMonth
Kristin Selby Gonzalez 2013 Mental Health Hero Cartoon-A-Thon Drawing by Chato Stewart Kristin Selby Gonzalez received a grim fate on Oct. 15, 2004. She was told her son, Jaxson had Autism and that he would never look, talk, have any friends and would be in a group home by the time he was 8 years [...]
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4:18 AM | Bobby Durham Mental Health Hero #MentalHealthMonth
Bobby Durham 2013 Mental Health Hero Cartoon-A-Thon Drawing by Chato Stewart I was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. 10th of eleven children. I have two beautiful grown daughters and a grandson, age 5. I remarried in 1999 and have been since. I was diagnosed manic depressive in 1999 but knew prior to that that [...]
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4:01 AM | Underdogs: They’re Hot
People often think that successful people are attractive. But what about their less successful counterparts? Are they destined to be seen as less attractive? In a study involving hypothetical job applicants, those candidates described as being “underdogs” -- i.e., they were unlikely to get a particular job due to unfair circumstances beyond their control (e.g., their application had been misplaced by a secretary) -- were rated as especially physically attractive and desirable to […]
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3:57 AM | Victoria Cannon Mental Health Hero #MentalHealthMonth
Victoria Cannon 2013 Mental Health Hero Cartoon-A-Thon Drawing by Chato Stewart ” I’m a cheerleader, cheering others on for better mental health!” I have had depression and anxiety since childhood, but I refused to get treatment because even at a young age I knew the shame of seeing a “shrink”. In 1993 I was living [...]
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1:18 AM | Shady California state park: light and shadow
Redwood sorrel
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12:36 AM | NIMH’s Thomas Insel on a New Understanding of the Brain
NIMH Director Thomas Insel on working toward a new understanding of the brain.
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12:30 AM | What To Do When You’re Not Living Up To Your Potential
To reach your full potential: follow your passion, set goals, structure your day, develop good habits, and seek feedback. You'll be amazed by what you achieve.What To Do When You’re Not Living Up To Your Potential is a post from the positive psychology blog, Soon I Will Be Successful. The post What To Do When You’re Not Living Up To Your Potential appeared first on Soon I Will Be Successful.

May 19, 2013

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11:48 PM | Mike Webster & the NFL Lawsuit over Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
Any Pittsburgh Steeler fan over the age of 36 could tell you about Mike Webster.  He was our All-Pro center who, alongside Terry Bradshaw, Jack Lambert, Franco Harris, Mean Joe Greene and so many notorious others, carried the team to four Super Bowl wins in the 1970s.  Mike was bigger than Mean Joe but known [...]
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9:28 PM | Psicología básica para todos: Neuropsicología. Infecciones del sistema nervioso central
¡Hola, amigos del psiconeuroblog! Para hoy, en nuestra serie "Psicología básica para todos", tenemos una sencilla y corta presentación acerca de algunas posibles infecciones del sistema nervioso central (SNC). Sin duda, con tantos procesos maravillosos que realiza el cerebro, en numerosos campos y dimensiones, a veces olvidamos que es materia biológica. Las infecciones son un aspecto que se
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4:38 PM | When 2 of Your Values Are in Conflict
I spend a lot of time thinking about questions such as, “How do we change?” “Why is it so hard to make ourselves do things that we want to do?” For instance, Why is it so hard to make myself go to bed? and “How can we stick to our resolutions? I realize now that [...]
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3:35 PM | Body Image Boosters From The Blogosphere 5.19.13
A positive body image goes beyond liking your looks. It encompasses taking good care of yourself and leading a fulfilling life. In this weekly series, I share some of my favorite posts from some of my favorite bloggers on this topic. Sometimes I also share relevant pieces that I’ve written on the Web. Hope you [...]
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1:06 PM | What is to be done?
A thoughtful commentator sent me this email: I was reading through the sublinks [in Andy Revkin's "The Other Science Gap" column] with interest tonight, but also growing frustration-- as in I can understand and agree with you and others focusing on the role partisanship and social cognitive barriers play, but I am a guy who lives in the trenches and wants to know--are there any solutions? I urged my climate law students this month to be advocates and not give up despite all the pessimistic […]
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12:00 PM | The Immortality Experiments (Part 2)
Continued from Part 1 In March 1926, the Soviet government granted Alexander Bogdanov a large building in downtown Moscow, not far from the Kremlin itself. It was an impressive looking structure; a former mansion built by a prosperous merchant in...
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10:17 AM | 6 Ways Pets Relieve Depression
The day I returned from inpatient therapy, my Lab-Chow mix cuddled up to me on the bed as I cried. She looked into my defeated gaze and licked my tears. I was astounded that this creature was capable of the empathy that I so craved in my closest friends and relatives. It was like she [...]
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12:42 AM | Bright afternoon with sculptures at Crissy Field
Click first image to view as slide show.Sculpture at Crissy Field. More on this Mark Di Suvero exhibit here.Hello.Cairns at Crissy. Catching a wave at Ft. Point.Under the bridge.

May 18, 2013

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10:49 PM | Century Plant
No summary available for this post.
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9:59 PM | Job Layoffs: The Aftermath of Redundancy
In a previous post, I mentioned there was a rumor of redundancy for some friends of mine. Some people were in fact let go, though none of my friends were among the unfortunate ones. Redundancy — losing your job in a layoff — is difficult for most people. I’ve worked with many people who have [...]
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7:01 PM | Marry Young? That's What This Young Bride Suggests
Like Julia Shaw, the twentysomething author of a Slate article published in April, I married young -- a lot younger than my peers. I was 19 years old and a new college graduate when I married Jeff, my college boyfriend, who was one month shy of 22. It seems so young today. In truth, it seemed young even then. And now we're about to celebrate our 40th anniversary.read more
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6:45 PM | More conversation -- & an announcment of my commitment to the same
There are a lot of interesting conversations going in the comments section following my post on the new study on the extent of scientific consensus on climate change. Indeed, it's all much more interesting than anything I "said" in the post, which I think was deficient (particularly in the material before the "update" field) in the quantity of reasoned reflection, and the quality of constructive engagement, that usually are necessary to get a worthwhile exchange of views going. So thanks to the […]
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3:56 PM | DSM-5 Released: The Big Changes
The DSM-5 was officially released today. We will be covering it in the weeks to come here on the blog and over at Psych Central Professional in a series of upcoming articles detailing the major changes. In the meantime, here is an overview of the big changes. We sat in on a conference call that [...]
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