Postcards from the Id

A Few Links of Interest

1) A review of Dawn of Discovery, a real-time video game that sounds similar in design to borad games such as Settlers of Catan, in that it is primarily economics-based.  Nice to see the niche German-style games becoming increasingly mainstream.  I posted about Settlers of Catan, and German-style games previously, here.

2) I played Saga with my oldest boy over the weekend.  For those unfamiliar with microgames (which, I'd estimate, is 99.999999% of you), you can learn more here.  Saga was a TSR microgame, an effort by the big boys to try and cash in on microgames' popularity in the late 70s and early 80s.  Here is a list of many of the most popular microgames of yesteryear (a post I'd like to write more extensively someday).

3) ScienceDaily has an article discussing why we learn more from successes rather than failures, including the neuroscience behind this observation.  The article talks about this in terms of its application to learning disorders, but I'd note this information applies to most therapeutic efforts, from goal identifiaction, homework assignments, the focus of the content of therapy sessions, etc.  Good stuff.

4) Addiction to acronyms is ravaging the mental health profession!

5) Budgetary issues force agencies, such as schools, to make hard decisions.  However, Cogitive Daily reviews research suggesting there is no need to cut Music from a curriculum out of fear students do not have enough time to learn required material.  My general sense is that, all things being equal, a rising tide raises all ships: a student who is active and involved in multiple healthy activities tends to do better overall.  Obviously, the individual's needs must be considered (e.g. the student who requires extra work, the student specializing in a particular area), but in general I would think exposure to multiple creative/intellectual/active endeavors is a good thing.

6) Researchers think that they may be able to study trauma (and associated memory issues) through an examination of memory patterns of people running marathons. (HT: Mind Hacks).  The main issue, as pointed out in the comments, is that the trauma experience is not simply defined by one's physiology during a traumatic event, but the cognitive response to it (i.e. perceived helplessness, hopelessness, etc.), as well as the sense (or lack thereof) of control.  This is why women who give birth, no doubt a physiologically intense experience, nevertheless do not typically have PTSD in the aftermath, unless the birth is problematic.

Quick Round-Up - Psychology Links

Here's a few links to psychology posts I've read in the last few days...

1) Mind Hacks has an interesting review of some research about men who fantasize about self-castration.  Just goes to show, no matter how long you work in a field, you learn something new every day...

2) All About Forensic Psychology has a post addressing the top seven serial killer myths. 

3) Furious Seasons has a post about the abuse of Seroquel (antipsychotic med) and Wellbutrin (antidepressant) by inmates in prison.  At my facility, Seroquel is a non-formulary medication (which means it is generally not available), and Wellbutrin is rarely prescribed, relative to other antidepressants.  These concerns are among the reasons why.

4) Neurological Correlates has an interesting post concerning the theoretical underpinnings of psychopathy; is it a type of dementia?

Enjoy the posts, as I did.  It's really quite amazing how much interesting, well-written stuff there is out there in all sorts of fields, including psychology.  It's probably a good thing I don't have access to any of these sites at work (including my own!), or else I'd never get any work done!  The downside is I don't get a chance to read these blogs as often as I'd like.  In any event, I play catch-up when I can, and then get to pass along some of the more interesting links I come across...

Catching Up with Psychology Posts Around the Web

As I've slowly started getting back to regular posting, I am now checking in on a few of my favorite psychology-related web pages.  Here are a few posts from various blogs I think you might enjoy Admittedly, some of these go back a ways) :

1) Over at In the News, Karen Franklin has a fantastic post about how a gruesome murder in Poland was solved, in part, through the killer's use of his crime in a novel he wrote.

2) Mind Hacks, as usual, has some great posts up, including a brief review of Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning (a must read for everyone, imho), andthis post on the use of brain-enhancing drugs by professionals.  Also, check our their review of research into the neuroscience of jazz.

3) An awesome post on the neuropsychological mechanisms of hate, including brain scans, over at Neurological Correlates.

4) Psyblog has a post on the seven reasons leaders fail - really good stuff.

Check them out, and look around a bit at each site - there's interesting and informative posts all over their sites!

Geriatric Health and Psychology Round-Up

Here is a round-up of some recent articles involving various geriatric issues I have been either too busy, or to lazy, to write up, depending on your perspective:

1) This article reviews recent research that provides more evidence an active lifestyle wards off aging.  Not only does exercise help decrease the prevalence of medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, heart problems, etc., it also positively impacts the aging process itself. 

2) More news regarding long, healthy living.  Here you can find a review of two articles regarding longevity, including longevity without disability.  The first article reviewed examined almost 2,400 men aged 72 in the early 1908s, and tracked their progress, as well as various health factors.  The researchers found that:

970 men lived to be 90 or more (41 per cent).

Several "modifiable" factors about their biology and behaviour were linked with survival for this group.

Smoking, diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure appeared significantly to reduce the odds of living to 90 or more.

On the other hand, vigorous exercise, "substantially improved it".

Also, men who lived to 90 and beyond had better physical function, mental wellbeing and rated themselves as healthier in late life than the men who died younger.

Smoking, obesity and having a sedentary lifestyle were also significantly linked to poorer functional status in elderly years.

It was also found that "a 70 year old man who did not smoke, was of normal weight, had no diabetes, exercised two to four times a week, and had normal blood pressure had a 54 per cent chance of living to be 90 years old." On the other hand, the following factors reduced that chance:

• Sedentary lifestyle reduced the chances of living to 90 from 54 to 44 per cent.
• High blood pressure reduced it to 36 per cent.
• Obesity, 26 per cent.
• Smoking, 22 per cent.
• Three factors together, such as sedentary lifestyle, obesity and diabetes, 14 per cent.
• Five factors, 4 per cent.

The second article reviews the idea that many of the elderly who are living to 100 are doing so not by avoiding certain diseasing and medical problems, but by learning to cope with them in such as way as to maintain much of their functioning.  The study also examined gender differences in this group, noting that while more women than men reach the age of 100, the men who do make it that far are even higher functioning than the women.

3) Here is an article that suggests men who have employment that requires physical activity are less susceptible to prostate cancer.  Money quote:

"The message from this study for today is that if you're more active, you may be able to prevent this cancer from happening," said Beate Ritz, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher, an associate professor of epidemiology in the UCLA School of Public Health and the study's senior author. "If you have a desk job, do something physically active to counterbalance it."

4) Good news for coffee drinkers! It appears that one cup of coffee a day can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's.  Research suggests that a breakdown in the "Blood Brain Barrier" (BBB) can lead to memory deficits, and Alzheimer's is just one of the suspected culprits in causing this breakdown.  From the article:

"Caffeine appears to block several of the disruptive effects of cholesterol that make the blood-brain barrier leaky," says Jonathan Geiger, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. "High levels of cholesterol are a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, perhaps by compromising the protective nature of the blood-brain barrier. For the first time we have shown that chronic ingestion of caffeine protects the BBB from cholesterol-induced leakage."

Unfortunately, the article did not discuss the impact of drinking five cups of coffee per day.  However, the researchers did note that this finding was consistent with previous research that credits caffeine with positively impacting memory.

5) On the Alzheimer's treatment front, this article discusses how a new vaccine has demonstrated an ability to clear out the plaque build up in the brain (which is implicated in Alzheimer's Disease), but that, by itself, does not lead to a recovery of cognitive functioning.  The authors suggest that this treatment may need to be used in conjunction with other interventions to not only address the disease, but also facilitate recovery of lost functioning.

That seems to be the implication, by the way, of this article in Scientific American Mind (subscription required for the whole article).  The article reviews recent efforts to use stem-cell treatment in recovery of brain functioning related to memory.  The article suggests that the use of stem-cell therapy (which was tested on rats in the reviewed research) does not facilitate cognitive recovery through replacing dead neurons.  Rather, it appears the stem cells facilitate an increase in the number of synaptic connections between the living cells, than in the control group. 

6) Speaking of Alzheimer's and Scientific American Mind, last months issue also had an article (sorry, you again need a subscription to read the whole thing) on efforts to not only more effectively assess Alzheimer's, but to actually be able to predict it.  The article reviews research that uses positron emission tomography (PET scans) to assess plaque build up, which is associated with later onset of Alzheimer's.  The researchers are hopeful that they will not only eventually be able to predict whether a person will develop the disease, but how soon.  This will give families more time to plan, and will allow for preventive measures to be administered as they are developed.

A New Round-Up...

..of good stuff from around the Web:

1) Here is a summary of a pending study about to begin at the University of North Carolina that will examine the effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), by providing the treatment to both the person with OCD, as well as their partner.  The idea behind the study is that a partner who is well versed in what the client is attempting to accomplish through the use of CBT can help their partner use the skills they learn in therapy more effectively.  Many courses of treatment will eventually involve the presence of the client's partner, but obviously that is informal, rather than part of a structured plan.  It'll be interesting to see the results...

2) This is an article that discusses the importance of parental guidance and supervision when it comes to kids on the playground.  The researchers recognize the need for kids to fail, but within reason, which generally requires limits to be set by adults.  The article also discusses innovations in the types of play being promoted by modern playground designs.  This stuff always brings a smile to my face, having grown up as a young child in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, NY.  In my day, you didn't just worry about the risks associated with the types of activities on the playground ("Mommy, I'll be playing over on the chainsaw slide"), but also by the assortment of various fluids, garbage, etc., that could be found strewn about on almost any part of the park, left there by the "Evening Denizens."  Fun times!!!

3) From the "It took them five years to discover what I could have told them in five seconds" Department: Researchers have discovered that elusive link between the cold and the ear infection.  Do any of these people have kids???

4) Terry Pratchett, a very popular fantasy and science-fiction author, recently donated 500,000 pounds to Alzheimer's research in the UK.  He was recently diagnosed with early onset dementia himself, and the article notes his public support and discussion of his illness is bringing the condition out from behind a veil of secrecy.

5) PsyBlog has a great post on why psychology is much more than just common sense - definitely worth a read!

I've got some more stuff to link to, which I will do with some more round-ups over the next few days.  In the meantime, I need to get some sleep!