Image: iStockphoto
Fall is creeping in, its getting colder, soon we’ll be turning the clocks back. With darker evenings people leave the house less and participate less in outdoor exercise.
More than half who took part in a recent survey said they feel “more depressed’ in winter.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is most commonly associated with the winter blues, and it afflicts 5% of Americans.
Studies released today explore the neurological component of dietary disorders, uncovering
evidence that the brain’s biological mechanisms may contribute to significant public health challenges — obesity,
diabetes, binge eating, and the allure of the high-calorie meal. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2012,
the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain
science and health.
Scientists are ultimately searching for new ways to treat diet-related disorders while raising awareness that diet and
obesity affect mental as well as physical health.
• Being obese appears to affect cognitive function, requiring more effort to complete a complex decisionmaking task (Timothy Verstynen, PhD, abstract 802.20, see attached summary).
• Brain images suggest that when people skip breakfast, the pleasure-seeking part of the brain is activated by
pictures of high-calorie food. Skipping breakfast also appears to increase food consumption at lunch,
possibly casting doubt on the use of fasting as an approach to diet control (Tony Goldstone, MD, PhD,
abstract 798.02, see attached summary).
• A study in rats suggests they may be able to curb binge-eating behavior with medication used to keep
substance abusers clean and sober (Angelo Blasio, PhD, abstract 283.03, see attached summary).
Other recent findings discussed show that:
• Amidst growing concern that diet-related metabolic disorders such as diabetes impair brain function, an
animal study reports that a high-sugar diet may affect insulin receptors in the brain and dull spatial
learning and memory skills. But omega-3 supplements may at least partially offset this effect (Rahul
Agrawal, PhD, see attached summary).
• Evidence from a rat study suggests that a new compound under development to treat compulsive eating
disorders and obesity may be effective at blocking a specific receptor in the brain that triggers food
cravings and eating when activated by “food related cues,” such as pictures or smells, irrespective of the
body’s energy needs (Chiara Giuliano, PhD, see attached summary).
“These are fascinating studies because they show the brain is an often overlooked yet significant organ in an array
of dietary disorders,” said press conference moderator Paul Kenny, PhD, of The Scripps Research Institute in
Florida, an expert on addiction and obesity. “Many of these findings have the potential to lead to new interventions
that can help reduce the ranks of the obese, helping those who struggle daily with dietary decisions reassert control
over what they eat.”
This research was supported by national funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, as well as
private and philanthropic organ
A new study from Lancaster University has found that sleeping on a problem really can help people to find a solution.
The study, published online this week in the journal Memory & Cognition, tested whether sleep or time spent awake worked best in helping people find the solutions to a range of problem solving tasks.
Participants in the study – 27 men and 34 women – were asked to attempt easy and difficult verbal insight problems and, following a period of sleep, time spent wake, or no delay at all, the three groups of participants reattempted previously unsolved problems.
The sleep group solved a greater number of difficult problems than did the other groups, but no difference was found for easy
problems.
The authors of the study – Ut Na Sio, Padraic Monaghan and Tom Ormerod all from the Centre for Research in Human Development and Learning at Lancaster’s Department of Psychology – concluded that sleep facilitates problem solving but this has its primary effect for harder problems.
Professor Padraic Monaghan said: “We’ve known for years that sleep has a profound effect on our ability to be creative and find new solutions to problems. Our study shows that this sleep effect is greatest when the problems facing us are difficult. Sleep appears to help us solve problems by accessing information that is remote to the initial problem, that may not be initially brought to mind. Sleep has been proposed to ‘spread activation’ to the solution that is initially distant from our first attempts at the problem. The advice stemming from this and related research is to leave a problem aside if you’re stuck, and get some sleep if it’s a really difficult problem.”
Source:Lancaster University
To read the study go to
http://www.springerlink.com/content/7802xn5815616nwl/?MUD=MP
Imge: istockphoto
Psychological research, especially the work of social psychologist Gregory Herek, has concluded that active sharing by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people of what their lives are like with people they know — whether in their families, communities or workplaces and schools — is very likely to reduce others’ prejudice against LGBT people and increase their support for social and political equality.
National Coming Out Day and Tell 3 are grassroots efforts to encourage and facilitate the sort of intergroup contact between LGBT people and non-LGBT people that will reduce the latter’s prejudice and promote their active opposition to discrimination.
The disclosure of sexual orientation and gender identity is stressful for a number of reasons. One, people “coming out” do not know how others will react. Two, helping others to overcome their lack of knowledge, reduce their discomfort and increase their empathy is not easy, and this may stir up negative feelings in the person who is coming out because of earlier prejudice or discrimination they have experienced.
The Know Us Project (KUP) uses mental health providers to provide facilitation and support to LGBT people who want to engage in the kind of intergroup contact that reduces prejudice. In the KUP workshops, participants learn to evaluate whether they are ready to act in this way, how to identify people to speak with, and how to reduce the listener’s anxiety in a personal conversation about LGBT issues and use words and body language that will make a conversation more effective. They also learn to address negative feelings they may experience during and after their intergroup contact and learn to cope with those feelings through self-care, stress management and professional help, if needed.
ᔥAmerican Psychological Association
