http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Using brain scans of children and adults watching Sesame Street, cognitive scientists are learning how children's brains change as they develop intellectual abilities like reading and math. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-brain-big-bird-sesame-street.html Neuroscience Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:00:05 EST news276434099 (Medical Xpress)—Coming soon to a bookstore near you—a handbook on the science of reliance. Trust me. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-focuses-psychology.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:09:01 EST news276361736 Continued high use of marijuana by the nation's eighth, 10th and 12th graders combined with a drop in perceptions of its potential harms was revealed in this year's Monitoring the Future survey, an annual survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan. The survey was carried out in classrooms around the country earlier this year, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-regular-marijuana-teens.html Addiction Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:19:48 EST news275152762 After conducting the largest online intelligence study on record, a Western University-led research team has concluded that the notion of measuring one's intelligence quotient or IQ by a singular, standardized test is highly misleading. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-debunk-iq-myth.html Neuroscience Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:00:05 EST news275136671 In a study published today in Pediatrics, scientists at Umeå University in Sweden conclude that giving iron supplements to low birth weight infants reduces the risk of behavior problems like ADHD later in life. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-iron-supplements-adhd-birth-weight.html Attention deficit disorders Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:56:51 EST news274352161 Relatively small levels of exposure to alcohol while in the womb can influence a child's IQ, according to a new study led by researchers from the universities of Bristol and Oxford using data from over 4,000 mothers and their children in the Children of the 90s study (ALSPAC) and published today in PLOS ONE. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-moderate-pregnancy-affect-child-iq.html Health Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:10:22 EST news272130198 (Medical Xpress)—High-risk children adopted from foster care do equally well when placed with gay, lesbian or heterosexual parents, UCLA psychologists report in the first multi-year study of children adopted by these three groups of parents. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-foster-kids-equally-gay-lesbian.html Health Fri, 19 Oct 2012 07:23:36 EST news269850191 (Medical Xpress)—Children at risk for eating disorders on average have a higher IQ and better working memory but have poorer attentional control, according to researchers at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH). The study, published in the journal Psychological Medicine, looked at what characteristics might make some children more likely to develop an eating disorder later in life. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-children-disorders-higher-iq-memory.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 16 Oct 2012 07:52:18 EST news269592610 (Medical Xpress)—You can thank your parents for your smarts—or at least some of them. Psychologists have long known that intelligence, like most other traits, is partly genetic. But a new study led by psychological scientist Christopher Chabris reveals the surprising fact that most of the specific genes long thought to be linked to intelligence probably have no bearing on one's IQ. And it may be some time before researchers can identify intelligence's specific genetic roots. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-intelligence-genes.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 02 Oct 2012 05:12:46 EST news268373556 (Medical Xpress)—Targeted health support is necessary for people with lower IQs according to new research which shows that they are unhappier and more likely to have poorer health than people with higher IQs.  http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-health-iqs.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:38:11 EST news267953880 New research published Online First in The Lancet suggests that a high proportion of severe intellectual disability results from genetic causes that are not inherited. These findings are good news for parents, indicating a low risk of passing on the disorder to further children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-large-proportion-intellectual-disability-genetically.html Genetics Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:30:01 EST news267895320 The persistent, dependent use of marijuana before age 18 has been shown to cause lasting harm to a person's intelligence, attention and memory, according to an international research team. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-adolescent-pot-mental-deficits.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:00:02 EST news265288632 (Medical Xpress) -- Psychologist James Flynn, who resides in New Zealand and is considered one of the foremost experts on intelligence testing, has aroused people’s attention around the world by proclaiming that women are now smarter than men, at least according to a standardized IQ test. He’s been making the rounds, speaking to various reporters in hopes of spurring sales of a new book he’s written. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-authority-women-higher-iq-men.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:04:16 EST news261821034 The hormone oxytocin - often referred to as the "trust" hormone or "love hormone" for its role in stimulating emotional responses - plays an important role in Williams syndrome (WS), according to a study published June 12, 2012, in PLoS One. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-hormone-oxytocin-heart-rare-genetic.html Neuroscience Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:05:41 EST news259596331 A Duke University-led study of North Carolina toddlers suggests that exposure to potentially toxic flame-retardant chemicals may be higher in nonwhite toddlers than in white toddlers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-socioeconomics-affect-toddlers-exposure-flame.html Health Wed, 23 May 2012 04:27:00 EST news256966012 (AP) -- For the first time in 20 years, U.S. health officials have lowered the threshold for lead poisoning in young children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-lowers-cutoff-poisoning-young-kids.html Health Wed, 16 May 2012 13:34:39 EST news256394070 New research by scientists at the University of Cambridge suggests that chronic cocaine abuse accelerates the process of brain ageing. The study, published today 25 April in Molecular Psychiatry, found that age-related loss of grey matter in the brain is greater in people who are dependent on cocaine than in the healthy population. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-chronic-cocaine-aging-brain.html Addiction Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:32:49 EST news254471547 (HealthDay) -- Children with probable developmental coordination disorder (DCD) at age 7 have a significantly increased risk of depression and mental health difficulties at age 10, according to a study published online March 26 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-child-disorder-ups-mental-health.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 27 Mar 2012 05:30:01 EST news252041405 (Medical Xpress) -- A new study involving Oxford researchers suggests that babies who are breast-fed or bottle-fed to a schedule do not perform academically as well at school as their demand-fed peers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-baby-demand-contribute-higher-iq.html Health Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:04:38 EST news251449454 Can a person's Facebook profile reveal what kind of employee he or she might be? The answer is yes, and with unnerving accuracy, according to a new paper published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-facebook-profile-iq-job.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:32:39 EST news249917550 Exposure to lead wreaks havoc in the brain, with consequences that include lower IQ and reduced potential for learning. But the precise mechanism by which lead alters nerve cells in the brain has largely remained unknown. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-ways-brain.html Medical research Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:53:19 EST news249735189 (HealthDay) -- For very low birth weight (VLBW) babies, there is good stability of cognitive development over time, with a strong correlation between assessments at 2 years of corrected age and at age 5, according to a study published online Feb. 27 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-cognitive-stable-birth-weight-infants.html Health Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:40:01 EST news249657583 (Medical Xpress) -- Are people drawn to a career in purchasing because of their skills or their aptitude? Which is the most important trait for a buyer: emotional intelligence or IQ? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-buyers-born.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:24:13 EST news249636222 Worried that your children aren't getting enough sleep? You're not alone. As one prominent educational psychologist put it, "Physicians and writers on school hygiene agree that children are likely to receive less sleep than is needful to them." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-kids-sleep-deprived-years.html Health Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:50:01 EST news248694545 Children of mothers screened and treated for reduced thyroid function during pregnancy show no signs of improved IQ compared to women who receive no treatment, new research has uncovered. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-antenatal-thyroid-screening-iq-year-olds.html Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:26:13 EST news247944353 An analysis of research on physical punishment of children over the past 20 years indicates that such punishment is potentially harmful to their long-term development, states an article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-physical-children-potentially-long-term.html Health Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:00:11 EST news247751956 A man with a low IQ confesses to a gruesome crime. Confession in hand, the police send his blood to a lab to confirm that his blood type matches the semen found at the scene. It does not. The forensic examiner testifies later that one blood type can change to another with disintegration. This is untrue. The newspaper reports the story, including the time the man says the murder took place. Two witnesses tell the police they saw the woman alive after that. The police send them home, saying they “must have seen a ghost.” After 16 years in prison, the falsely convicted man is exonerated by DNA evidence. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-false-errors-evidence.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:02:32 EST news240652935 Two new studies led by University of California, Berkeley, researchers spotlight the human health effects of exposure to smoke from open fires and dirty cookstoves, the primary source of cooking and heating for 43 percent, or some 3 billion members, of the world's population. Women and young children in poverty are particularly vulnerable. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-woodsmoke-cooking-linked-pneumonia-cognitive.html Health Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:30:05 EST news240154961 In a study conducted at 12 university-based research sites, there was wide variation in how best-estimate clinical diagnoses within the autism spectrum were assigned to individual children, according to a study being published Online First by the Archives of General Psychiatry. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-wide-variation-best-estimate-clinical-diagnosis.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:33:16 EST news239905986 IQ, the standard measure of intelligence, can increase or fall significantly during our teenage years, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust, and these changes are associated with changes to the structure of our brains. The findings may have implications for testing and streaming of children during their school years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-iq-fall-significantly-adolescence-brain.html Neuroscience Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:00:13 EST news238247580