Virtual Herd Mentality

An ASU prof is developing a 3-D computer model that
will predict and simulate the behavior of
crowds under all different sorts of circumstances
(evacuations, sports victories, etc.)

Older Moms Are Happier Than Younger Moms

Women who have children later in life are happier once they hit mid-life than those who have children at a young age, a new study found.


People with high testosterone levels memorized a task better when they saw an image of an angry face flash on a screen after the task was presented, than when they saw a neutral face or no face, suggesting the angry face acted as a reward, a study found.


Anxious people might have a different anatomy in a small area of the brain, a Spanish study found.

Night Owls: They Might Be Mutants

Night owls might have a genetic mutation (I prefer the word “variation”, thank you) that extends their circadian rhythm to 27 hours instead of 24, Science reports.

Never Multi-Task Before Noon

The hardest time to multitask is in the morning, the Association of Psychological Science reports.

Breastfeeding can help new moms stave off depression, a new study says.

Women with recurrent depression may be able to prevent future depressive episodes by going to therapy once a month, an American Journal of Psychiatry study says.

Teens who watch a lot of T.V. may have a higher risk for attention and learning problems, and may be less likely to go to college, a new study says.

Help others and be happy

The happiest workers are those who have jobs that involve helping others, a University of Chicago study found. Happiest are clergy, firefighters and physical therapists; least happy are roofers and waiters.


It’s easier to make big-picture realizations, and to draw connections between bits of seemingly disparate new information, if one sleeps a bit first, new research suggests.


After reviewing a bunch of studies, the FDA decided that the risk of suicide among people aged 18-24 in the first couple months of starting an antidepressant is high enough that all drug manufacturers should put suicide warnings on their label.

Smoke pot? Go nuts.

Smoking pot can bring on hallucinations, paranoid delusions and other temporary psychotic symptoms, according to a new study reported by AP. The drug also worsens the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenics.


Cognitive therapy works just as well as anti-depressants, at least on patients for whom an initial round of medication failed, a new study found.

The sexiest body part

You might think that men would be more likely to ogle the genitals, and women the faces, of people in sex photos. But the opposite is true, an Emory University study found.

Serotonin T-Shirts

PsychBot is back, and in the process of buying this fantastic t-shirt that sings the praises of serotonin. The t-shirt maker is a fellow depressive, and pledges to commit an anonymous act of kindness for each sale he makes.

On Hiatus

PsychBot will be traveling and offline until May 1. Stay sane, y'all.

Eating Handfuls of Dirt Between Sessions

• A bacteria found in soil may stimulate the brain’s production of serotonin, the “happy chemical” that staves off depression, a mice study found. Soon drug companies will be selling us vials of dirt for $10/pop.

• Up to nine months of continuous psychotherapy works much better than bursts of short-term therapy in helping depressed bipolar patients who are on medication, a study found. Insurance companies responded with a shrug: "Just spread your 15 sessions a year out over nine months-- what's the big deal?"

Born To Be Mild

• Genes, and not just upbringing, play a role in determining altruistic behavior and religiousness, according to a Journal of Personality study.

Prison Video Games Played By Depressed :-( Moms

• Where you live affects how you read people, a new study found. In Japan, where emotional control is valued, focus is placed on the eyes to interpret emotion, while in the U.S., where emotion is expressed more openly, the focus is on the mouth. That may be why the U.S. emoticons for happy : - ) and sad : - ( are different in Japan: (^_^) and (;_;)

• Depressed moms are more likely to give birth prematurely, because they have higher levels of a stress hormone that initiates birth, a UK study found.

• Violent video games do indeed make kids more aggressive and hostile, according to Iowa State researchers who did three studies and wrote a book on the subject.

• The NY Times has an interview with Philip Zombardo, the guy who designed the Stanford Prison Experiment, showing just how nasty people can get when put in bad situations.

Sliding Scales and Brain Drain

• Nearly a quarter of people diagnosed with major depression may instead be dealing normally with a difficult event, like job loss, divorce or a natural disaster, for which current diagnostic tests don't account, a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry says.

• Spain’s University of the Basque Country plans to create a “bank” of brains donated by psychiatric patients so it can study the origin of mental disorders and develop treatments, a Basque news agency reports.

Bipolar, Croc-sportin' Moms-to-be

• Women who have a rough time quitting smoking when pregnant are more likely to have mental disorders, especially depression and panic disorder, an NIH study finds.

• Fashion trends, baby names and dog breeds gain and lose favor at a predictable, steady rate, and become popular thanks to a small minority of innovators—often celebrities-- whom everybody else copies, a study from the UK’s Durham University finds.

• Bipolar folks on meds get well faster and stay well if they get intensive psychotherapy, the NIH says. Family-focused, cognitive-behavioral, and interpersonal and social rhythm therapies all work equally well.