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UMD Study Shows Exercise May Protect Against Future Emotional Stress

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 2012Healthacute exercise, aging, alzheimer's disease, anxiety, anxiety level, brain function, carson smith, emotion research, emotional exposure, fmri, functional, iaps database, imaging, kinesiology researcher, magnetic, maryland, mental health, moderate exercise, physical activity, resonance, stress, symptom, university

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Moderate exercise may help people cope with anxiety and stress for an extended period of time post-workout, according to a study by kinesiology researchers in the University of Maryland School of Public Health published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise.

“While it is well-known that exercise improves mood, among other benefits, not as much is known about the potency of exercise’s impact on emotional state and whether these positive effects endure when we’re faced with everyday stressors once we leave the gym,” explains J. Carson Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology. “We found that exercise helps to buffer the effects of emotional exposure. If you exercise, you’ll not only reduce your anxiety, but you’ll be better able to maintain that reduced anxiety when confronted with emotional events.” (more…)

Which Ads Are Winners? Your Brain Knows Better Than You Do

By Guest PostApril 26, 2012Scienceadvertisement, advertiser, advertising dollar, ann arbor, anti smoking, behavior, brain, brain activity, brain data, brain scan, campaign, catalyst, elliot berkman, emily falk, eyebrows, fmri, john wanamaker, matthew lieberman, medial prefrontal cortex, neural focus group, psychology, public health, quit now, television commercial, university of michigan, wisdom

Study on smokers’ brains may mark dawn of a new age in advertising

Advertisers and public health officials may be able to access hidden wisdom in the brain to more effectively sell their products and promote health and safety, UCLA neuroscientists report in the first study to use brain data to predict how large populations will respond to advertisements.

Thirty smokers who were trying to quit watched television commercials from three advertising campaigns, which all ended by showing the phone number of the National Cancer Institute’s smoking-cessation hotline. They were asked which commercials they thought would be most effective; they responded that advertising campaigns “A” and “B” would be the best and “C” would be the worst. (more…)

Study Shows How The Brain Responds To Deceptive Advertising

By Guest PostMarch 5, 2012Science, Technologyadam craig, advertisement, brain, brain response, conscious attention, deceptive advertising, fmri, fmri images, highly deceptive, jennifer vendemia, north carolina state university, precuneus, stacy wood, sts, superior temporal sulcus, temporoparietal junction, theory of mind, tom, tpj, variable, yuliya loureiro

Several specific regions of our brains are activated in a two-part process when we are exposed to deceptive advertising, according to new research conducted by a North Carolina State University professor. The work opens the door to further research that could help us understand how brain injury and aging may affect our susceptibility to fraud or misleading marketing.

The study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to capture images of the brain while study participants were shown a series of print advertisements. The fMRI images allowed researchers to determine how consumers’ brains respond to potentially deceptive advertising. “We did not instruct participants to evaluate the ads. We wanted to mimic the passive exposure to advertising that we all experience every day,” says Dr. Stacy Wood, Langdon Distinguished Professor of Marketing at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. (more…)

University of Maryland Researcher Asks – What Does Love Look Like?

By Guest PostFebruary 11, 2012Scienceblood flow, brain area, brainwave pattern, cognition, eeg, electroencephalography, emotion, experience, fmri, functional magnetic resonance imaging, knowledge, look, love, luiz pessoa, motivated attention, Netherlands, neurocognition, p3, physiological traits, psychiatric disorder, romantic love, roses, sandra langeslag, thought

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – What does love look like? A dozen roses delivered on an ordinary weekday? Breakfast in bed? Or just a knowing glance between lovers?

While outward displays of love are fairly easy to discern, a researcher in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences is taking a decidedly “inward” approach to documenting this most complex of human emotions. (more…)

‘Tis Better to Give Than to Receive?

By Guest PostNovember 13, 2011Culture, Scienceactivity in the amygdale, amygdale, behavior, boyfriends in pain, brain scans, chocolate, fmri, functional magnetic resonance imaging, good relationships, Health, heterosexual couples, jacob k javits fellowships, likelihood of survival, naomi eisenberger, neural activity, painful electric shocks, septal area, sex and money, social support is good, squeeze ball, stuart wolpert, tristen inagaki, ventral striatum

*UCLA life scientists find that giving support offers health benefits — to the giver*

Providing support to a loved one offers benefits to the giver, not just the recipient, a new brain-imaging study by UCLA life scientists reveals. (more…)

Resolved to Quit Smoking? Brain Scans Predict Likely Success

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 2011Health, Sciencebrain activity, brain scans, carbon monoxide, cigarette, co, danielle whalen, elliot berkman, emily falk, fmri, functional magnetic resonance imaging, heavy smokers, matthew lieberman, medial prefrontal cortex, neural reactions, particular brain region, predict, predict behavior change, quit smoking, resolution, smokers, television ads

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Brain scans showing neural reactions to pro-health messages can predict if you’ll keep that resolution to quit smoking more accurately than you yourself can. That’s according to a new study forthcoming in Health Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal.

“We targeted smokers who were already taking action to quit,” said Emily Falk, the lead author of the study and director of the Communication Neuroscience Laboratory at the U-M Institute for Social Research and Department of Communication Studies. “And we found that neural activity can predict behavior change, above and beyond people’s own assessment of how likely they are to succeed. (more…)

Does Sex Matter? It May When Evaluating Mental Status

By Guest PostNovember 20, 20101 commentHealth, Scienceadrianna mendrek, alzheimer, brain abnormalities, brain function, estrogen, fmri, magnetic resonance imaging, mental disorder, schizophrenia, schizophrenics, sex, sex differences, sex hormones, symptomatology, testosterone

Adrianna Mendrek. Image credit : University of Montreal

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that differs between the sexes in terms of age at onset, symptomatology, response to medication, and structural brain abnormalities. Now, a new study from the Université de Montréal shows that there is gender difference between men and women’s mental ability – with women performing better than men. These findings, published recently in, Schizophrenia Research, have implications for the more than 300 000 affected Canadians.

“We are the first to report sex differences in brain function of schizophrenics,” says Université de Montréal professor, Adrianna Mendrek a researcher at the Centre de Recherche Fernand-Seguin, Hospital Louis-H Lafontaine. “We chose to study a task involving mental rotation of a three dimensional image because in healthy men and women, this consistently elicits differences in terms of reaction time and performance accuracy.” (more…)

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