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Life as a Nonviolent Psychopath - Judith Ohikuare

Life as a Nonviolent Psychopath - Judith Ohikuare
In 2005, James Fallon's life started to resemble the plot of a well-honed joke or big-screen thriller: A neuroscientist is working in his laboratory one day when he thinks he has stumbled upon a big mistake. He is researching Alzheimer's and using his healthy family members' brain scans as a control, while simultaneously reviewing the fMRIs of murderous psychopaths for a side project. It appears, though, that one of the killers' scans has been shuffled into the wrong batch. The scans are anonymously labeled, so the researcher has a technician break the code to identify the individual in his family, and place his or her scan in its proper place. When he sees the results, however, Fallon immediately orders the technician to double check the code. After discovering that he had the brain of a psychopath, Fallon delved into his family tree and spoke with experts, colleagues, relatives, and friends to see if his behavior matched up with the imaging in front of him. What has that involved?

This Is Anxiety - James Hamblin "If you can't do something perfectly, why do it at all?" Stories from Atlantic readers on how to think about anxiety, what is helpful, and what isn't. "Here’s what’s worked: nothing." Scott Stossel writes with resignation in the cover article for the current issue of The Atlantic, "Surviving Anxiety." The Atlantic editors invited readers to send in stories of their own experiences with anxiety. We got so many interesting submissions, and there was even more that I wanted to share than is here. I'd like these to mostly speak for themselves, but I will call out a couple recurring points. Unlike Stossel, many people have found that certain treatments, behaviors, and ways of thinking about their anxiety can be helpful. It started when I was eight after my great aunt had passed; seeing her in the open casket freaked me out. My heart was beating so fast and I was breaking out in a cold sweat. David McCann Akron, Ohio It is reassurance that I'm still alive. J.W. Catie Toronto 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What Happens When You Trust Too Much - Tolly Moseley For people who are pathologically innocent, as is often the case in Williams Syndrome, how do you hold down a job? "It would scare me to death to have him work there." Terry Monkaba is talking about her son Ben, and the prospect of him finding a job at a Las Vegas casino. Once called "cocktail personality syndrome," Williams Syndrome—particularly as it affects children—has captivated science writers for the past decade. Strangers were also the topic of Alix Spiegel's 2010 NPR series on Williams Syndrome, where she told the story of a nine year-old girl named Isabelle. "Hello little girl, do you want to see my puppy?" "No way," recites Isabelle obediently. "But my puppy's so cute! "Yes," says Isabelle. "Come over here, I've got some candy too!" [Sound of internal struggle from Isabelle] "C'mon, come into my car and I'll show you," her mom tempts. And with that, after holding out against puppies and candy, it's the offer of companionship that finally breaks Isabelle down. And behaviorally?

Mark Rubinstein: New Psychiatric Disorders and Their Social Side Effects The American Psychiatric Association has just published the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition). Added to the psychiatric disorders previously named (minus a few), the manual lists 15 new disorders ranging from caffeine withdrawal syndrome to restless legs syndrome along, with hoarding disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Controversies surround the new manual. The new manual incorporates Asperger's Disorder into autism spectrum disorder. Some mental health professionals have expressed concern the new manual has spun out of control, and is now diagnosing people who formerly would have been viewed as "the worried well." Those defending the new manual point out that some diagnoses have been eliminated or combined, while others have been added, thereby resulting in no real increase in the number of psychiatric conditions. The DSM manual is so important because mental health professionals use it as the "bible" of the diagnostic lexicon.

11 Signs Someone Is Lying To You | Business Insider New research by Dr. Leanne ten Brinke, a forensic psychologist at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and her collaborators, suggests that our instincts for judging liars are actually fairly strong — but our conscious minds sometimes fail us. Luckily, there are signs we can look for when trying to detect a lie. Dr. Lillian Glass, a behavioral analyst and body language expert who has worked with the FBI on unmasking signals of deception, says when trying to figure out if someone is lying, you first need to understand how the person normally acts. Then you’ll want to pay careful attention to their facial expressions, body language, and speech patterns, she writes in her book ”The Body Language of Liars.” 1. If you see someone suddenly make a head movement when you ask them a direct question, they may be lying to you about something. “The head will be retracted or jerked back, bowed down, or cocked or tilted to the side,” writes Glass. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Suicidal behaviour is a disease, psychiatrists argue - health - 17 May 2013 Read full article Continue reading page | 1 | 2 As suicide rates climb steeply in the US a growing number of psychiatrists are arguing that suicidal behaviour should be considered as a disease in its own right, rather than as a behaviour resulting from a mood disorder. They base their argument on mounting evidence showing that the brains of people who have committed suicide have striking similarities, quite distinct from what is seen in the brains of people who have similar mood disorders but who died of natural causes. Suicide also tends to be more common in some families, suggesting there may be genetic and other biological factors in play. The idea of classifying suicidal tendencies as a disease is being taken seriously. Another argument for linking suicidal people together under a single diagnosis is that it could spur research into the neurological and genetic factors they have in common. Signs in the brain In the genes? There is also growing evidence that genetics plays a role.

Study: Firstborn Children Dream Bigger, Achieve More - Julie Beck Oldest siblings aspire to higher levels of formal education—and they're more likely to stick with it. The stereotype of the oldest sibling is that of a Type-A overachiever, high-strung and highly successful. The effect of birth order on personality and achievement is something that seems like common knowledge, and there is research to suggest that firstborns have the advantage. But it’s less set in stone than it seems, partly because many studies compared siblings from many families. “Birth order is clearly a within-family phenomenon,” points out a study published by Feifei Bu of the University of Essex as part of the Institute for Social and Economic Research’s Working Paper Series. Her study takes data on 3,552 people organized into 1,503 clusters of siblings from the British Household Panel Survey (and its successor, the UK Household Longitudinal Study) and looks at how birth order relates to educational aspiration and achievement, both across and within families.

Psychiatry divided as mental health 'bible' denounced - health - 03 May 2013 Guest editorial: "One manual shouldn't dictate US mental health research" by Allen Frances The world's biggest mental health research institute is abandoning the new version of psychiatry's "bible" – the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, questioning its validity and stating that "patients with mental disorders deserve better". This bombshell comes just weeks before the publication of the fifth revision of the manual, called DSM-5. On 29 April, Thomas Insel, director of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), advocated a major shift away from categorising diseases such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia according to a person's symptoms. Instead, Insel wants mental disorders to be diagnosed more objectively using genetics, brain scans that show abnormal patterns of activity and cognitive testing. This would mean abandoning the manual published by the American Psychiatric Association that has been the mainstay of psychiatric research for 60 years.

Will Global Warming Produce More Tornadoes? In the wake of a devastating series of twister strikes, here's what the latest science has to say. —Chris Mooney on Mon. April 28, 2014 11:56 AM PDT An automobile dealer surveys the tornado damage to one of his trucks in Mayflower, Arkansas, on Sunday.Danny Johnston/AP Photo After a remarkably quiet start, the US tornado season exploded into action over the weekend, as a battery of tornadoes in Arkansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma killed 16 people. It all amounts to quite the burst of weather whiplash. Until pretty recently, scientists really felt that they couldn't say much about that question. Conditions favorable to tornadoes may increase with global warming, says one new study. In recent months, though, this consensus—that we really don't know what's happening with global warming and tornadoes—has been challenged by some interesting new research. The environments in which tornadoes form are changing, according to the latest research.

Suicide Now Kills More Americans Than Car Wrecks Suicide has surpassed car accidents as the No. 1 cause of injury-related death in the United States, according to new research. From 2000 to 2009, the death rate for suicide ticked up 15 percent while it decreased 25 percent for car wrecks, the study found. Improved traffic safety measures might be responsible for the decline in car-crash deaths. As such, the researchers said similar attention and resources are needed to prevent suicide and other injury-related mortality. Death by unintentional poisoning, which includes drug overdoses, came in third behind car wrecks and suicide after increasing 128 percent from 2000 to 2009. "While I am going well beyond our data, my speculation is that the immediate driving force is prescription opioid overdoses," said Rockett, who is a professor at West Virginia University's School of Public Health. The research was based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Raising a Moral Child Photo What does it take to be a good parent? We know some of the tricks for teaching kids to become high achievers. For example, research suggests that when parents praise effort rather than ability, children develop a stronger work ethic and become more motivated. Yet although some parents live vicariously through their children’s accomplishments, success is not the No. 1 priority for most parents. We’re much more concerned about our children becoming kind, compassionate and helpful. Despite the significance that it holds in our lives, teaching children to care about others is no simple task. Are some children simply good-natured — or not? Genetic twin studies suggest that anywhere from a quarter to more than half of our propensity to be giving and caring is inherited. By age 2, children experience some moral emotions — feelings triggered by right and wrong. But is that the right approach? The researchers randomly assigned the children to receive different types of praise.

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