News by Subject Social & Behavior

A special issue of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)'s Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making explores the competing perspectives on evidence-based medicine, best practices, and the quality movement in healthcare.

A study led by the University of Washington is the first large-scale trial of hundreds of PTSD patients, including veterans and survivors of sexual assault, to measure whether patient preference in the course of treatment impacts the effectiveness of a type of cognitive behavioral therapy and use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a type of antidepressant often prescribed for PTSD.

A UCR psychology researcher says the bar is too low for 'functional independence' in older adults, and should be aligned with skills younger adults must conquer.

'Exercise is a low-cost, non-invasive modality,' noted Dr. John DeLuca, 'so we are very interested in learning more about how activity results in these improvements. Rethinking how we view exercise in the long-term management of MS and other neurological conditions is our first step. We anticipate that the PRIMERS framework will accelerate advances in treatment by integrating the contributions from neuroscience, neurophysiology, and neurorehabilitation."

Adolescent THC exposure reduces the branching of prefrontal cortical neurons and the number of spines, which are critical for cellular communication. This adolescent exposure is also associated with a reorganization of the gene expression of specific genes that are predominantly related to neuron development, synaptic plasticity and chromatin organization (epigenetic mechanisms).

A simple test taken within a week of a stroke may help predict how well people will have recovered up to three years later, according to a study published in the Oct. 17, 2018, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

'Recent advances in neuroimaging have greatly improved our understanding of the involvement of the hippocampus in MS,' said John DeLuca, PhD, at Kessler Foundation. 'Now we are aware of subregions with different levels of susceptibility to damage, for example, and the potential for hippocampal plasticity and neurogenesis. The challenge is to correlate these findings with clinical manifestations and renew our efforts toward improving outcomes for the population with MS.'

A new British Journal of Psychology study has looked at the details behind how cognitive performance may improve during aerobic exercise.