Laughing is contagious. A study explains how the brain responds to someone else laughing. When someone else laughs areas light up in the brain of those listening that correspond to the areas that are activated when they are laughing. If we hear someone laughing, we instinctively copy. This is a mirror response that strengthens social...
When a substance with no pharmacological properties has a beneficial therapeutic effect, it is called a placebo. It was thought that for a placebo to have effects it was necessary to trick the patient into believing he/she was taking something with well-known pharmacological effects. A study has revealed that in alleviating physical pain there is...
We are used to reading advertisements about fitness products that guarantee a six-pack abdomen, sculpted arms, solid buttocks. We hear of drinks that improve concentration, memory improving minerals, and diets to re-discover oneself, reduce nervous tension, become beautiful, calm and handsome. A product and an activity that are not publicized very much and that are...
Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and that of Piedmont is the lowest in Italy. Kids are becoming a rarity and parents who are confronted by these strange beings are becoming hyper protective. A mother asked me if she should do something about some nuts that fell into her pool...
Parents of teenage children sometimes ask me: “How could my son/daughter do such a stupid thing? Where is his/her head?” Psychologists, neurologists and pediatricians are starting to explain the basis underlying the sometimes weird and inexplicable behavior of some adolescent-age youngsters. The idea is that two interacting neurological systems are responsible for the passage from...
Which single factor more than all others conditions how our personality forms. Some say the parents, (particularly mothers), some believe it is our genes, or maybe our friends or maybe birth order. Ever more researchers think that the dark matter behind how we become are our siblings. Husbands and wives arrive relatively late and parents...
Learning usually implies that one studies, opens a few books, goes to lessons to receive info on some still unknown topic. Researchers would like to know why a large part of our conversations is dedicated to explaining something to someone. We explain why things are bad or good, why we are happy or unhappy, why...
There is a relationship between positive emotions such as happiness and living a healthy life. A large international study confirms this correlation for western world countries but not for eastern countries. For comparable age, gender, social economic and health conditions American and European adults, considered to be happy and satisfied with their life on the...
A study shows that when people are part of a group they don’t behave as honestly as when alone, particularly as concerns money matters. Over 250 candidates were observed alone and in groups of three. When alone each candidate had to throw a dice in the air ten times and each time write the number...
Messi, Ronaldo and Federer have exceptional bodies as well as discipline, will power and stamina. But, do they also have something else that could be copied to ‘produce’ other champions? Volunteers were asked to draw on a sheet of paper some symbols in four different scenarios. In the first they copied a symbol that they...
