Have you ever sat down to work on a crossword puzzle only to find that afterwards you haven't the energy to exercise? Or have you come home from a rough day at the office with no energy to go for a run?
A new study, published in Psychology and Health, reveals that if you use your willpower to do one task, it depletes you of the willpower to do an entirely different task.
"Cognitive tasks, as well as emotional tasks such as regulating your emotions, can deplete your self-regulatory capacity to exercise," says Kathleen Martin Ginis, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster University, and lead author of the study.
Martin Ginis and her colleague Steven Bray used a Stroop test to deplete the self-regulatory capacity of volunteers in the study. (A Stroop test consists of words associated with colours but printed in a different colour. For example, "red" is printed in blue ink.) Subjects were asked to say the colour on the screen, trying to resist the temptation to blurt out the printed word instead of the colour itself.
Health & Wellness
Preliminary research suggests the seasonal flu shot may put people at greater risk for getting swine flu, CBC News has learned.
"This is some evidence that has been floated. It hasn't been validated yet, it's very preliminary," cautioned Dr. Don Low, microbiologist-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
"This is obviously important data to help guide policy decisions. How can we best protect people against influenza?"
"This is some evidence that has been floated. It hasn't been validated yet, it's very preliminary," cautioned Dr. Don Low, microbiologist-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
"This is obviously important data to help guide policy decisions. How can we best protect people against influenza?"
A good spanking may leave a mark on a child that's worse than the red handprint. Spanking and other corporal punishments stunt children's intelligence, new research shows.
The IQs of 2- to 4-year-olds who received regular spankings from their parents dropped by more than 5 points over four years, compared with kids who were not spanked.
"The practical side of this is that paediatricians and child psychologists need to start doing what none of them do now, and say, 'Never spank under any circumstances,'" says Murray Straus, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, who led the new study along with Mallie Paschall at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, California.
No excuses
Theirs isn't the first evidence that spanking children comes with a cost: several previous studies have hinted at the association, and a recent brain-imaging study found that children who underwent severe corporal punishment had less brain grey matter - which includes neurons - compared with other children. Stress, anxiety and fear might explain why spanking slows cognitive development.
The IQs of 2- to 4-year-olds who received regular spankings from their parents dropped by more than 5 points over four years, compared with kids who were not spanked.
"The practical side of this is that paediatricians and child psychologists need to start doing what none of them do now, and say, 'Never spank under any circumstances,'" says Murray Straus, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, who led the new study along with Mallie Paschall at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, California.
No excuses
Theirs isn't the first evidence that spanking children comes with a cost: several previous studies have hinted at the association, and a recent brain-imaging study found that children who underwent severe corporal punishment had less brain grey matter - which includes neurons - compared with other children. Stress, anxiety and fear might explain why spanking slows cognitive development.
Children with blood lead levels well below those considered safe are still at risk for problems with intellectual and emotional development, British researchers report.
Currently, the maximum safe blood level of lead is 10 micrograms per deciliter (10 mcg/dl), which was set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1991. However, even this level appears to be too high, experts say.
"This study confirms what we have been seeing in recent studies, that the current CDC level of concern here in the United States of 10 [mcg/dl] is not adequately protective," said Kim Dietrich, a professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati.
Currently, the maximum safe blood level of lead is 10 micrograms per deciliter (10 mcg/dl), which was set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1991. However, even this level appears to be too high, experts say.
"This study confirms what we have been seeing in recent studies, that the current CDC level of concern here in the United States of 10 [mcg/dl] is not adequately protective," said Kim Dietrich, a professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati.
In fact, 24% of California adults drink at least one soda or other sweetened beverage each day, and an additional 36% imbibe occasionally, according to a report released today by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy.
That's nothing compared with kids. The report -- "Bubbling Over: Soda Consumption and Its Link to Obesity in California"-- says that 41% of children between ages 2 and 11 drink at least a soda a day, along with 62% of teens. An astounding 13% of 12-to-17-year-olds drink three or more sodas on a daily basis.
Losing sleep could lead to losing brain cells, a new study suggests.
Levels of a protein that forms the hallmark plaques of Alzheimer's disease increase in the brains of mice and in the spinal fluid of people during wakefulness and fall during sleep, researchers report online September 24 in Science. Mice that didn't get enough sleep for three weeks also had more plaques in their brains than well-rested mice, the team found.
Scientists already knew that having Alzheimer's disease was associated with poor sleep, but they had thought that Alzheimer's disease caused the sleep disruption.
Levels of a protein that forms the hallmark plaques of Alzheimer's disease increase in the brains of mice and in the spinal fluid of people during wakefulness and fall during sleep, researchers report online September 24 in Science. Mice that didn't get enough sleep for three weeks also had more plaques in their brains than well-rested mice, the team found.
Scientists already knew that having Alzheimer's disease was associated with poor sleep, but they had thought that Alzheimer's disease caused the sleep disruption.
If you find yourself more concerned about highly publicized dangers that grab your immediate attention such as terrorist attacks, while forgetting about the more mundane threats such as global warming, you're not alone.
And you can't help it because it's human nature, according to a new study led by University of Colorado at Boulder psychology Professor Leaf Van Boven. That's because people tend to view their immediate emotions, such as their perceptions of threats or risks, as more intense and important than their previous emotions.
In one part of the study focusing on terrorist threats, using materials adapted from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Van Boven and his research colleagues presented two scenarios to people in a college laboratory depicting warnings about traveling abroad to two countries.
Participants were then asked to report which country seemed to have greater terrorist threats. Many of them reported that the country they last read about was more dangerous.
And you can't help it because it's human nature, according to a new study led by University of Colorado at Boulder psychology Professor Leaf Van Boven. That's because people tend to view their immediate emotions, such as their perceptions of threats or risks, as more intense and important than their previous emotions.
In one part of the study focusing on terrorist threats, using materials adapted from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Van Boven and his research colleagues presented two scenarios to people in a college laboratory depicting warnings about traveling abroad to two countries.
Participants were then asked to report which country seemed to have greater terrorist threats. Many of them reported that the country they last read about was more dangerous.
Scientists now have a better understanding of a perplexing gene that is associated with susceptibility for a wide spectrum of severely debilitating mental illnesses. Two independent research studies published by Cell Press in the September 24th issue of the journal Neuron provide fascinating insight into the molecular mechanisms that link disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) with the proper development and migration of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain area involved in learning and memory and associated with the pathology of schizophrenia.
Previous work established a key role for DISC1 in the process of neurogenesis, which occurs constitutively throughout life in a part of the hippocampus called the dentate gyrus. However, the signaling mechanisms by which DISC1 regulates the complex events of neuronal development have remained elusive. "Despite the initial promise that the study of DISC1 function would reveal susceptibility mechanisms of major disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a comprehensive picture of its function is far from complete, in part because DISC1 seems to have multiple roles in brain cell physiology," explains Dr. Atsushi Enomoto from Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan.
Dr. Enomoto, along with Dr. Masahide Takahashi and other colleagues, found that DISC1 interacts with the actin-binding protein Girdin to regulate the development of nerve cell processes called axons. Girdin was previously identified as a substrate for AKT, another gene linked with schizophrenia, and is thought to be required for normal cellular structure. Cells from the dentate gyrus of neonatal mice lacking Girdin exhibited profound deficits in axon sprouting.
Previous work established a key role for DISC1 in the process of neurogenesis, which occurs constitutively throughout life in a part of the hippocampus called the dentate gyrus. However, the signaling mechanisms by which DISC1 regulates the complex events of neuronal development have remained elusive. "Despite the initial promise that the study of DISC1 function would reveal susceptibility mechanisms of major disorders, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a comprehensive picture of its function is far from complete, in part because DISC1 seems to have multiple roles in brain cell physiology," explains Dr. Atsushi Enomoto from Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan.
Dr. Enomoto, along with Dr. Masahide Takahashi and other colleagues, found that DISC1 interacts with the actin-binding protein Girdin to regulate the development of nerve cell processes called axons. Girdin was previously identified as a substrate for AKT, another gene linked with schizophrenia, and is thought to be required for normal cellular structure. Cells from the dentate gyrus of neonatal mice lacking Girdin exhibited profound deficits in axon sprouting.
© Unknown
Brainwave Monitoring Device
Brainwave Monitoring Device
In the study researchers used a customized version of quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) to study brainwave patterns.
Brain waves are measured by a few electrodes attached to a strap that is placed around a patient's forehead. The electrodes plugs into a device that digitizes and filters the EEG signals from the brain. The device is then plugged into a computer for analysis.
The device, which is developed by Aspect Medical Systems, does not require any long term specialized training. In only a few hours a doctor or assistant can begin using the device for patient analysis.
Unpublished Canadian data are raising concerns about whether it's a good idea to get a seasonal flu shot this fall and fuelling a drive by some public health officials in Canada to delay, reduce or scrap altogether campaigns to vaccinate against seasonal flu this year.
Drawn from a series of studies from British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, the data appear to suggest that people who got a seasonal flu shot last year are about twice as likely to catch swine flu as people who didn't.
A scientific paper has been submitted to a journal and the lead authors - Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and Dr. Gaston De Serres of Laval University - are consequently constrained about what they can say about the work. Journals bar would-be authors from discussing their results before they are published.
Drawn from a series of studies from British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario, the data appear to suggest that people who got a seasonal flu shot last year are about twice as likely to catch swine flu as people who didn't.
A scientific paper has been submitted to a journal and the lead authors - Dr. Danuta Skowronski of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and Dr. Gaston De Serres of Laval University - are consequently constrained about what they can say about the work. Journals bar would-be authors from discussing their results before they are published.
