psychology
The Psychopathic Brain Responds Differently to Distress in Others
Imaging scans show how the brains of psychopaths respond differently to others in distress.
What Winds the Body’s Clock?
You may not be familiar with the term “circadian rhythm,” but you’re probably familiar with the idea of the body’s internal clock. A variety of biological processes in the body are set to a 24-hour cycle. Circadian rhythms, as these daily patterns are known, appear in both animals and plants. They’re present in sleep patterns, […]
The Social Ladder’s Genetic Footprint
By Rob Mitchum From the teenage years through adulthood, people spend a lot of time worrying about their social status. Whether measured in wealth as economic class or by more abstract terms of leadership and popularity in the office or among friends, social standing can weigh heavily upon a person’s mind. But can an individual’s […]
Helping Your Fellow Rat
If you called someone a rat, they probably wouldn’t take it as a compliment. But in a clever new study published today in Science, a team of University of Chicago neurobiologists show that rodents could serve as role models for how humans should behave. Rats were given a difficult choice between heart and stomach: either […]
Lonely Hearts, Disrupted Sleep
Loneliness has had a tough run of late, with a growing body of research blaming it for everything from high blood pressure to heart disease to depression and cognitive decline. The research group of John Cacioppo, director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, has been among the leaders […]
Breast Cancer in Isolation
Loneliness can be deadly. In humans, there is a statistical relationship between social interaction and mortality – the more isolated you are, the lower your chances of living a long life. Rats kept in social isolation their entire life die at a younger age than littermates who lived in groups closer to their natural social […]
Linkage 7/15: Chest Scan Caution & Under the Influence of Flags
Cancer used to be a black box, a disease that physicians could only monitor through surgical biopsies and indirect measures. But for the last thirty years, the use of computed tomography imaging, better known as CT scans, has allowed oncologists and cancer researchers to keep close watch on the growth or shrinkage of a tumor […]
Linkage 7/1: How to Do Heart Surgery, A Visit from Delilah, & More
Popular Mechanics typically offers step-by-step guides for changing your oil or building a bookcase. But in a recent feature they seriously upped the instructional ante with an “Extreme How-To” – How to Perform Open Heart Surgery. The expert chosen to guide their readers through this don’t-try-this-at-home process was Medical Center cardiac and thoracic surgeons Jai […]
The Stressful Truth Hidden Inside a Reverse Disparity
Over the year-long discussion of health disparities in the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics seminar series, the health gaps presented between American whites and blacks have been predominantly a one-way street. On nearly every health measure – from infant mortality to diabetes to cardiovascular disease – higher rates are observed for African-Americans. But there’s […]
Linkage 4/15: TEDxUChicago, Chomsky Wrong?, Big Bangs
TED Comes to Campus This weekend, the students of the University of Chicago are putting together a local edition of the renowned TED conference called TEDxUChicago. The theme, “Reinventing the Life of the Mind,” nicely blends the goals of TED and the University, the idea-sharing mission of the conference sutured to the intellectual spirit of […]
