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Thinking ourselves into eating more, reinforcing female math stereotypes, and more

From how we think ourselves into eating more to how male dominant behavior affects woman's math performance, check out new research in our journals this month.

Thinking ourselves into eating more

"Think before you act" is sage advice for dieters, especially when considering grabbing that holiday cookie, right? A new analysis of 50 studies finds that thinking before you eat can actually undermine your dieting goals. When we think, we often simply come up with reasons why we deserve that extra piece of pumpkin pie.

New publication studies urban environments of Manchester from a qualitative perspective

Dr Alexander Bridger, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Huddersfield, has published a new paper that explores ways to qualitatively study the urban environments of Manchester.

The paper outlines how mobile methods and documentary strategies (diaries, cameras and maps) can be used to document and reflect on the research process and to consider the political implications of urbanism and gentrification.

Captive breeding for thousands of years has impaired olfactory functions in silkmoths

Silk: A natural product for 5000 years

The silkmoth Bombyx mori, originally native to China, was domesticated about 5000 years ago. Its larvae, silkworms, enclose themselves in a cocoon when they enter the pupa phase. They spin their cocoon from one single silk thread, which is several hundred meters long. For silk production, the cocoon − together with the pupa inside − is boiled and the silk filament is then unraveled. Special breeding moths are kept for silk farming. After mating female moths lay several hundred eggs from which the new silkworms hatch.

UT Dallas study: Initial success for new tinnitus treatment

UT Dallas researchers have demonstrated that treating tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, using vagus nerve stimulation-tone therapy is safe and brought significant improvement to some of the participants in a small clinical trial.

Drs. Sven Vanneste and Michael Kilgard of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences used a new method pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with auditory tones to alleviate the symptoms of chronic tinnitus. Their results were published on Nov. 20 in the journal Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface.

Attractants prevent nerve cell migration

A vision is to implant nerve precursor cells in the diseased brains of patients with Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, whereby these cells are to assume the function of the cells that have died off. However, the implanted nerve cells frequently do not migrate as hoped, rather they hardly move from the site. Scientists at the Institute for Reconstructive Neurobiology at Bonn University have now discovered an important cause of this: Attractants secreted by the precursor cells prevent the maturing nerve cells from migrating into the brain.

Playing computer games makes brains feel and think alike

It's well known that people who communicate face-to-face will start to imitate each other. People adopt each other's poses and gestures, much like infectious yawning. What is less known is that the very physiology of interacting people shows a type of mimicry – which we call synchrony or linkage, explains Michiel Sovijärvi-Spapé.

HIV and parenting needs to be discussed, new study finds

A team from Royal Holloway University and St. Mary's Hospital, London, interviewed young people aged 18-23 who had transmitted HIV from their mothers – known as 'perinatally acquired HIV' (PAH). Previously most of these children would have died in childhood, but medication in the UK, means they are surviving into early adulthood.

Different types of teacher-child interactions support children's development in different areas

Teachers' daily interactions with children are crucial to making sure they're ready for school. Many state early childhood systems and the federal Office of Head Start consider teacher-child interactions when they measure programs' quality. But research hasn't always been clear about which aspects of interactions are most important to how children do academically and socially. A new study that used a novel approach to analyzing data in this area has identified which types of teacher-child interactions support children's learning and development in which areas.

Large dishes increase how much cereal kids request, eat, and waste

Smaller bowl sizes may be the next weapon in the battle against childhood obesity, says a new Cornell study published this week in the Journal of Pediatrics which found children not only ask for more food to fill larger bowls, but they also eat 52 percent more.

Brain still injured from concussion after symptoms fade

MINNEAPOLIS – After a mild concussion, special brain scans show evidence of brain abnormalities four months later, when symptoms from the concussion have mostly dissipated, according to research published in the November 20, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Mount Sinai finds brain abnormalities linked to impaired self-awareness in cocaine addiction

New research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reveals long-term cocaine abuse may be associated with deficits in parts of the brain involved in monitoring and overseeing one's own behavior. The findings call into question the long-held clinical assumption that addicted individuals continue their compulsive drug use because of oppositional denial or lying, or because of careless minimization of their problems. The findings are published online Nov. 20 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

PTSD raises risk for obesity in women

Women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) gain weight more rapidly and are more likely to be overweight or obese than women without the disorder, find researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Harvard School of Public Health. It is the first study to look at the relationship between PTSD and obesity over time. Results appear online in JAMA Psychiatry.

Connections in the brains of young children strengthen during sleep, CU-Boulder study finds

While young children sleep, connections between the left and the right hemispheres of their brain strengthen, which may help brain functions mature, according to a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder.

The research team—led by Salome Kurth, a postdoctoral researcher, and Monique LeBourgeois, assistant professor in integrative physiology—used electroencephalograms, or EEGs, to measure the brain activity of eight sleeping children multiple times at the ages of 2, 3 and 5 years.

Study reveals how variant forms of APOE protein impact risk of Alzheimer's disease

Carrying a particular version of the gene for apolipoprotein E (APOE) is the major known genetic risk factor for the sporadic, late-onset form of Alzheimer's disease, but exactly how that variant confers increased risk has been controversial among researchers.

Neurons in brain's 'face recognition center' respond differently in patients with autism

LOS ANGELES (STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL NOON EST ON NOV. 20, 2013) – In what are believed to be the first studies of their kind, Cedars-Sinai researchers recording the real-time firing of individual nerve cells in the brain found that a specific type of neuron in a structure called the amygdala performed differently in people who suffer from autism spectrum disorder than in those who do not.

Autism spectrum disorder and autism are general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development that affect social interactions, communication skills and behaviors.