Activity improves creativity
People who exercise regularly are better at creative thinking. This is the outcome of research by leiden cognitive psychologist lorenza Colato. She published an article on this subject in the scientific magazineFrontiers in Human Neuroscience. We know that authors take a stroll before they sit down behind their writing desk. This helps them get new ideas and insights. Regular exercise may promote the two main ingredients of creativity: divergent thinking and convergent thinking. Similarly, on the remote associates task, people from the group of frequent exercisers appeared to outperform those who did not exercise regularly.
Kids with low self-esteem hate compliments
Parents and other adults heap the highest praise on children who are most likely to be hurt by the compliments, a new study finds. Researchers found that adults seem to naturally give more inflated praise to children with low self-esteem. But while children with high self-esteem seem to thrive with inflated praise, those with low self-esteem actually shrink from new challenges when adults go overboard on praising them. “Inflated praise can backfire with those kids who seem to need it the most — kids with low self-esteem. If you tell a child with low self-esteem that they did incredibly well, they may think they always need to do incredibly well. They may worry about meeting those high standards and decide not to take on any new challenges,” said Eddie Brummelman, lead author of the study.
Teens are not educated about sex
Doctors are missing a prime opportunity to share information about sex with their teenage patients by failing to broach the subject during checkups, according to researchers at Duke Medicine. The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that less than two thirds of doctors and teenage patients talk about sex, sexuality or dating during annual visits, and the conversations that occur last less than a minute on average. “It's hard for physicians to treat adolescents and help them make healthy choices about sex if they don't have these conversations,” said lead author Stewart Alexander. “For teens who are trying to understand sex and sexuality, not talking about sex could have huge implications.”
Sleep to protect your brain
A new study from Uppsala University, Sweden, shows that one night of sleep deprivation increases morning blood concentrations of NSE and S-100B in healthy young men. These molecules are typically found in the brain. Thus, their rise in blood after sleep loss may indicate that a lack of snoozing might be conducive to a loss of brain tissue. “Our results indicate that a lack of sleep may promote neurodegenerative processes,” says sleep researcher Christian Benedict at Uppsala University, who led the study.
Self-worth helps overcome poverty
For people in poverty, remembering better times — such as past success — improves brain functioning by several IQ points and increases their willingness to seek help from crucial aid services, a new study finds. The findings suggest that reconnecting the poor with feelings of self-worth reduces the powerful stigma and psychological barriers that make it harder for low-income individuals to make good decisions or access the very assistance services that can help them get back on their feet. “This study shows that surprisingly simple acts of self-affirmation can improve the cognitive function and behavioral outcomes of people in poverty,” says professor Jiaying Zhao from University of British Columbia.