Psychology

(Newser) - If you ended your holiday visit home with frayed nerves, blame your brain, not your brother's snoring, Discovery reports. Family members prompt activity in a different part of the brain from friends and strangers, a new study shows. Researchers used MRIs to look at subjects' brains while they viewed photos of biological relatives and people who liked like the subjects, as well as photos of friends and strangers who weren't lookalikes. More »

(Newser) - At least there's one market that's booming in New York—the market for pills for your sleeplessness, anxiety, and depression, Crain’s New York Business reports. The meltdown in the financial industry has caused a surge in prescriptions: In September, as Lehman Brothers was collapsing, and AIG and Merrill Lynch were being rescued, sleep-aid prescriptions jumped 11% and anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drug prescriptions climbed 9% compared to a year before. More »

(Newser) - Healthy adults should be able to take brain-boosting drugs for a competitive advantage at work or on an exam, researchers say in a provocative paper. Seven authors say ethical questions about cognitive-enhancement pills are both warranted and imminent, and that such medicinal aid is no less moral than caffeine consumption, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. More »

(Newser) - Bullies appear to enjoy seeing other people in pain, Reuters reports. Researchers in Chicago took brain scans of two sample groups of teens while showing them videos of one person hurting another. When showed violence, one group of teens, who were diagnosed with aggressive-conduct disorder and had recently attacked schoolmates, had consistent activity in the brain’s reward centers. More »

(Newser) - The key to a longer life could lie in an individual's personality, the Los Angeles Times reports. University of California researchers analyzed 20 studies and discovered that conscientious people—disciplined, hardworking, and responsible folks—tend to live an average of 2 to 4 years longer than their more slapdash counterparts.  More »

(Newser) - Areas of the brain involved in hatred are also activated by love, a study suggests. Researchers took images of brain activity when subjects looked at a photo of someone they despised, ABC News reports. While not identical, the pattern of brain activation those images triggered involved some of the same areas as a previous study using a photo of a loved one. More »

(Newser) - People with major depression that doesn't respond to medication may get relief from a therapy that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate the cortex, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a clinical trial, transcranial magnetic stimulation worked in about a quarter of patients—about twice the success rate of patients on a placebo. More »

(Newser) - From Larry David to John McCain, we’re all getting a little touchy these days, writes Emily Yoffe in Slate: “People are like tuning forks, ready to vibrate with indignation.” While economists argue humans are rational, “it seems we live in a culture devoted to retribution on behalf of the thin-skinned,” writes Yoffe, who delves into the science behind our over-active tempers. More »

(Newser) - The advent of color TV may have injected color into generations of dreams, the Daily Telegraph reports. A study finds that people who grew up watching black-and-white TV often dream in monochrome—as people are believed to have done before the dawn of television—while those who grew up with color images very rarely dream in black-and-white. More »