news 2022

A large-scale gene study identifies series of DNA variants linked to dyslexia An international team of scientists, including researchers at the University of Edinburgh and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen (Netherlands), has for the first time pinpointed a large number of genes that are reliably associated with dyslexia.

Study investigates the influence of birdsong on mood, paranoia, and cognition When you next hear cheerful twittering of birds, you should stop and listen. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf have shown that birdsong reduces anxiety and irrational thoughts.

Study examines influence of birdsong on mood, paranoia and cognition If you hear chirpy birdsong coming soon, you should stop and listen. Because birdsong has been shown to alleviate anxiety and irrational thoughts. This is what researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf have discovered.

Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed program to increase performance and well-being Am I over the hill? This question comes up regularly among workers over 50. A common prejudice is that older people's efficiency and stress-tolerance are continuously decreasing. But mental performance, self-confidence, psychological resilience and well-being can be improved in the 50-plus generation.

Does eye-contact always attract attention? Not in every case, as a research team at the University of Würzburg's Institute of Psychology has recently shown. Why not? Because context matters. It's a phenomenon that we have probably all experienced. You're in a packed place surrounded by a swirling mass of people, and someone looks you in the eye.

A study analyzes differences in brain asymmetry among different individuals Although the brain is divided into two halves, it is not exactly a mirror image. Some functions are processed more on the left side, others more on the right - and each person's processing is a little different. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Forschungszentrum Juelich, together with an international team of neuroscientists, have now discovered heritable underpinnings of brain asymmetry - and - how much we share with monkeys.

People who help others do not necessarily want to receive a reward for doing so. However, a reward can encourage people with a low degree of empathy to help. This is shown by a new study . It is a classic of social psychological research: people donate less blood when they are paid for it. Without payment, i.e., solely out of the desire to help their fellow human beings, they have significantly more blood drawn.

Although visual perception might seem as easy as just opening our eyes and reporting what is out there, the underlying computations are surprisingly complex. One of the more revealing ways to study these computations is by using inputs that are ambiguous or even impossible under normal circumstances (for instance with radically different pictures seen by the two eyes).

Our personality as adults is not determined by whether we grow up with sisters or brothers. This is the finding of an international study by researchers from Leipzig University, the University of Zurich and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The results have now been published in the renowned journal -Psychological Science-.

New study published on changes in the brain's reward system Major depressive disorders are characterized by a significant health burden, including changes in appetite and body weight. Identifying biomarkers such as changes in brain function to treat depression is difficult due to the varying symptomatology of affected individuals.

People's self-control can be seen in the stability of their neuronal processes People who have a "calmer mind" - that is, their neuronal processes take longer on average and whirl around less than others - have greater self-control. This was the finding of Dr. Tobias Kleinert, Markus Heinrichs and Dr. Bastian Schiller from the Department of Psychology at the University of Freiburg, together with Kyle Nash and Dr. Josh Leota from the University of Alberta/Canada, and Thomas König from the University Hospital of Bern/Switzerland.

Study shows that children find their own solutions thanks to broad focus Children have a hard time with concentration tasks, but are often good at discovering hidden "tricks" to make the task easier. Spontaneous strategy changes help them to do this, according to a study on learning behavior in children by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin.

Researchers at Leipzig University have partnered with Syrian refugees and an agency for e-mental health services to develop and scientifically test an app to help users deal with post-traumatic stress and related mental strain. The app - Sanadak - has now been published in Arabic and German and can be downloaded free of charge.

Changes in the brain caused by early childhood experiences are not entirely irreversible. This is the conclusion reached in a recent study by researchers at Universität Hamburg, led by the psychologist and neuroscientist Brigitte Röder. Earlier neuroscientific studies have revealed that unfavorable experiences in the first few months and years of life, for example blindness or poverty, can adversely affect the structural development of the human brain.

Differences among people are less pronounced online than offline / users particularly tend to idealize their psychological characteristics / publication in 'Current Psychology' Researchers in social and media psychology at the University of Cologne have explored digital environments in which people tend to portray themselves in an idealized way.

Active suppression weakens unwanted memories A natural disaster, a dented car, an injured person - memories of traumatic experiences can be controlled by deliberately suppressing the images that arise. Until now, however, it was unclear what happens to the memory in the process and how the process is reflected in the brain.

The CovSocial Project Analyzes the Mental Health and Social Cohesion of the Citizens of Berlin during the COVID-19 Pandemic In the CovSocial project, scholars and scientists led by Tania Singer from the Social Neuroscience Research Group of the Max Planck Society are investigating how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the mental health and social cohesion of Berlin citizens during the pandemic years 2020 to 2022.

Heidelberg study shows that the speed of cognitive information processing remains largely stable over decades Mental speed - the speed at which we can deal with issues requiring rapid decision-making - does not change substantially over decades. Psychologists at Heidelberg University have come to this conclusion.

Human intelligence is closely associated with functional brain networks: The better these networks are developed, the easier it is for the brain to adapt to different tasks, this is shown by a new study of the University of Würzburg. You are just enjoying a nap on the sofa when your son suddenly turns up and asks you to help him with his math homework.

Nearly every country in the world has been affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. In response, governments around the world have initiated far-reaching measures that have required-and continue to require-profound collective changes in citizen behavior. Especially in the first year of the pandemic, when vaccines were not yet available, it was parti­cularly important that people followed instructions, such as limiting physical contact, refraining from travel, and wearing masks.