When do we first learn to express empathy? That's a question psychologists have been probing for some time by, among other things, examining when we learn to imitate yawns. Dogs, too, have been found in some studies to yawn when their owners yawn, but does it mean they're feeling empathy for the ones who care for them?

Scientists first came to the conclusion that "yawn contagion" -- as they call it -- was related to human empathy when they found that toddlers didn't have it. Research suggests kids learn to yawn in response to others beginning at age four; that's also when a number of cognitive abilities, such as reading emotional cues from facial expressions, begin to manifest themselves.

Is it possible that puppies also have to learn that yawns are contagious? A new study published in the journal Animal Cognition suggests yes. Swedish researchers selected 35 ordinary house dogs of various breeds between 4 and 14 months of age and sat them in front of their owners to see whether they would respond to fake yawns -- a gaping mouth with no sounds such as inhaling and exhaling of air -- and to realistic yawns that seemed convincing.

Cyberbullying - the use of the Internet, phones or other technologies to repeatedly harass or mistreat peers - is often linked with teen suicide in media reports. However, new research presented on Saturday, Oct. 20, at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans, shows that the reality is more complex. Most teen suicide victims are bullied both online and in school, and many suicide victims also suffer from depression.

For the abstract, "Cyberbullying and Suicide: A Retrospective Analysis of 41 Cases," researchers searched the Internet for reports of youth suicides where cyberbullying was a reported factor. Information about demographics and the event itself were then collected through searches of online news media and social networks. Finally, descriptive statistics were used to assess the rate of pre-existing mental illness, the co-occurrence of other forms of bullying, and the characteristics of the electronic media associated with each suicide case.

The study identified 41 suicide cases (24 female, 17 male, ages 13 to 18) from the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. In the study, 24 percent of teens were the victims of homophobic bullying, including the 12 percent of teens identified as homosexual and another 12 percent of teens who were identified as heterosexual or of unknown sexual preference.

Wouldn't it be amazing if our bodies prepared us for future events that could be very important to us, even if there's no clue about what those events will be?

Presentiment without any external clues may, in fact, exist, according to new Northwestern University research that analyzes the results of 26 studies published between 1978 and 2010.

Researchers already know that our subconscious minds sometimes know more than our conscious minds. Physiological measures of subconscious arousal, for instance, tend to show up before conscious awareness that a deck of cards is stacked against us.

"What hasn't been clear is whether humans have the ability to predict future important events even without any clues as to what might happen," said Julia Mossbridge, lead author of the study and research associate in the Visual Perception, Cognition and Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern.

A person playing a video game at work while wearing headphones, for example, can't hear when his or her boss is coming around the corner.

Some people may actually see sounds, say researchers who found this odd ability is possible when the parts of the brain devoted to vision are small.

These findings points to a clever strategy the brain might use when vision is unreliable, investigators added.

Scientists took a closer look at the sound-induced flash illusion. When a single flash is followed by two bleeps, people sometimes also see two illusory consecutive flashes.

Past experiments revealed there are strong differences between individuals when it comes to how prone they are to this illusion. "Some would experience it almost every time a flash was accompanied by two bleeps, others would almost never see the second flash," said researcher Benjamin de Haas, a neuroscientist at University College London.

These differences suggested to de Haas and his colleagues that maybe variations in brain anatomy were behind who saw the illusion and who did not. To find out, the researchers analyzed the brains of 29 volunteers with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and tested them with flashes and bleeps.

New neuroscience research is confirming an old adage about the power of a handshake: strangers do form a better impression of those who proffer their hand in greeting. The study was led by Beckman Institute researcher Florin Dolcos and Department of Psychology postdoctoral research associate Sanda Dolcos.

New neuroscience research is confirming an old adage about the power of a handshake: strangers do form a better impression of those who proffer their hand in greeting.

A firm, friendly handshake has long been recommended in the business world as a way to make a good first impression, and the greeting is thought to date to ancient times as a way of showing a stranger you had no weapons. Now, a paper published online and for the December print issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on a study of the neural correlates of a handshake is giving insight into just how important the practice is to the evaluations we make of subsequent social interactions.

The study was led by Beckman Institute researcher Florin Dolcos and Department of Psychology postdoctoral research associate Sanda Dolcos. They found, as they wrote, that "a handshake preceding social interaction enhanced the positive impact of approach and diminished the negative impact of avoidance behavior on the evaluation of social interaction."

Their results, for the first time, give a scientific underpinning to long-held beliefs about the important role a handshake plays in social or business interactions. Sanda Dolcos said their findings have obvious implications for those who want to make a good impression.

Are left-handed people smarter, more artistic or just plain clumsier?

About 10 per cent of the population is left handed and many more of us switch between our hands for various tasks. Yet left-handers have been discriminated against since ancient times and many myths surround this difference.

In fact, most of the popular beliefs about left-handers rarely stand up to close scrutiny, none more so than the belief that they tend to be a little clumsy.

It may appear so, but that's only because most of the world's tools, sporting equipment and musical instruments are designed by right handers for use by right-handers.

An awkward world

Everything from the angle of scissor blades to the turn of corkscrews and the placement of camera buttons favours the right-handed.

So do buttons - at least for men. Ever wondered why women's buttons do up on the left side? It's a relic from the time when right-handed maids helped their mistresses to dress.

More seriously, many power tools and heavy machines can be dangerous because left-handers find it difficult to reach the on/off switch and hold equipment steady.

The upside of this is that many left-handers learn to quickly adapt to items designed for right-handers and this sometimes leads to a heightened manual dexterity in approaching new tasks.

Living in a right-handed world can sometimes be a boon for the left-handed.

According to the Victorian government's Better Health Channel, "The sporting advantage includes taking the right-handed opponent by surprise. Right-handed athletes aren't used to playing against left-handed opponents."

Writing has traditionally been more difficult for left-handers due to smudging. But the modern world favours lefties, who have an advantage with QWERTY computer keyboards.

Some 56 per cent of keystrokes are made with the left hand and 3,000 words in English can be typed entirely with the left hand. Only 300 words are entirely right-handed.

In Michelangelo's Expulsion from Paradise, a fresco panel on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the fallen-from-grace Adam wards off a sword-wielding angel, his eyes averted from the blade and his wrist bent back defensively. It is a gesture both wretched and beautiful. But what is it that triggers the viewer's aesthetic response - the sense that we're right there with him, fending off blows?

Recently, neuroscientists and an art historian asked ten subjects to examine the wrist detail from the painting, and - using a technique called trans­cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) - monitored what happened in their brains. The researchers found that the image excited areas in the primary motor cortex that controlled the observers' own wrists.

"Just the sight of the raised wrist causes an activation of the muscle," reports David Freedberg, the Columbia University art history professor involved in the study. This connection explains why, for instance, viewers of Degas' ballerinas sometimes report that they experience the sensation of dancing - the brain mirrors actions depicted on the canvas.

One of the many mind-bending lessons that neuroscience has taught us in recent years is that our brains often 'fudge' the picture of reality that they present us with. For a very simple at-home example, stand in front of a mirror and alternate back and forth between looking at your left eye, then your right eye. No matter how hard you try, you won't be able to see your eyes actually moving.

And it gets even weirder: Not only can you not see your eyes move, but there doesn't appear to be any gap in your perception during the time it takes for your eyes to change their focus from point A (your left eye) to point B (your right eye). One second you're staring at your left eye and the next moment at your left, and that half second in between seems to simply vanish.

What has essentially happened is that your brain has taken a rather complex little scene and 'edited' it in order to present you with a more simplified picture of reality. In essence, your brain is not presenting you with the 'whole truth' but rather with a version of it that is somehow more useful or easier to manage. And modern neuroscience and psychology continue to expose more and more of the human brain's little white lies.

In the results of a recent study published in the journal Current Biology, two psychologists have shown that a sense of fear and impending danger can actually change our spatial perception of an approaching object.

Creativity is often part of a mental illness, with writers particularly susceptible, according to a study of more than a million people.

Writers had a higher risk of anxiety and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, unipolar depression, and substance abuse, the Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute found.

They were almost twice as likely as the general population to kill themselves.

The dancers and photographers were also more likely to have bipolar disorder.

As a group, those in the creative professions were no more likely to suffer from psychiatric disorders than other people.

But they were more likely to have a close relative with a disorder, including anorexia and, to some extent, autism, the Journal of Psychiatric Research reports.

We all know that regular, moderate exercise is good for us. But imagine what it would be like if all you did was exercise: if you ran, walked, jumped, or lifted 24 hours a day. After only a very short while, exercise actually wouldn't be that good for you because without rest, exercise becomes counterproductive and even risky...and so it is with your mind. We spend all day (and sometimes all night, too!) in a whirlwind of thought. When there isn't something particular to think about (what to eat for breakfast, the tasks of the day, or what you're going to say in an upcoming meeting), we search restlessly for something to fill the gap-worries, hopes, television, and so on. We never allow our minds to rest. And without this precious self-healing time, our minds become exhausted and thoughts less trustworthy. Just as we need to stop moving our bodies every once in a while, we also need to stop moving our minds. But how? The idea can actually seem terrifying, not to mention impossible.

But it is quite possible. The practice of self-healing meditation is just this: resting the mind in silence and space, allowing it time to recover and rejuvenate. Meditation does not mean sitting in a perfect state of peace while having no thoughts. Big misconception! Instead, meditation is about establishing a different relationship with your thoughts, just for a little while. Instead of attention being drawn off by whatever thought happens to present itself, in meditation, you watch your thoughts from a different, more stabilized perspective. You're training yourself to place your attention where and when you want. This is very powerful. It gives you the ability to direct your thoughts (and mood) in more productive and peaceful directions. And, as has been demonstrated in the last few years, this ability has profound self-healing implications for physical and mental health.