(Medical Xpress) — While stimulants may improve unengaged workers performance, a new University of British Columbia study suggests that for others, caffeine and amphetamines can have the opposite effect, causing workers with higher motivation levels to slack off.
General
Treatments to reduce anesthesia-induced injury in children show promise in animal studies
Recent clinical studies have shown that general anesthesia can be harmful to infants, presenting a dilemma for both doctors and parents. But new research at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center may point the way to treatment options that protect very young children against the adverse effects of anesthesia.
Inside the brains of jurors: Neuroscientists reveal brain activity associated with mitigating criminal sentences
(Medical Xpress) — When jurors sentencing convicted criminals are instructed to weigh not only facts but also tricky emotional factors, they rely on parts of the brain associated with sympathy and making moral judgments, according to a new paper by a team of neuroscientists. Using brain-imaging techniques, the researchers, including Caltech’s Colin Camerer, found that the most lenient jurors show heightened levels of activity in the insula, a brain region associated with discomfort and pain and with imagining the pain that others feel.
Brain ‘talks over’ boring speech quotes
(Medical Xpress) — Storytelling is a skill not everyone can master, but even the most crashing bore gets help from their audiences brain which talks over their monotonous quotes, according to scientists.
The innate ability to learn language
All human languages contain two levels of structure, said Iris Berent, a psychology professor in Northeasterns College of Science. One is syntax, or the ordering of words in a sentence. The other is phonology, or the sound structure of individual words.