Studies and Analyses

Let go, kids will do better in school

What can parents do to help children who are doing poorly in school? To investigate this question, we conducted two studies examining interactions between mothers and their elementary school-aged children over simulated schoolwork and after real-life failures.

In the first study, we evaluated 110 mothers’ use of control and their support of autonomy as they assisted their children with a simulated homework task. When the mothers assisted

Regimen enhances caffeine’s ability to target key sleep system

Caffeine is the world’s most widely-used stimulant yet, scientists still do not know exactly how it staves off sleep. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and other institutions have now discovered that caffeine works by thwarting one of two interacting physiological systems that govern the human sleep-wake cycle. The researchers, who report their findings in the May issue of t

A team of researchers has reported that chronic wasting disease (CWD) can be transmitted through environments contaminated by whole carcasses or excrement of animals infected with the pathogen that causes CWD. The research confirms long-held theories that CWD can be indirectly spread through environmental sources, in addition to direct interactions between infected and healthy mule deer. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health, the study

If it seems that there have been quite a few rationales for going to war in Iraq, that’s because there have been quite a few – 27, in fact, all floated between Sept. 12, 2001, and Oct. 11, 2002, according to a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. All but four of the rationales originated with the administration of President George W. Bush.

The study also finds that the Bush administration switched its focus from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein early on – only fiv

Many sexual partners, history of gonorrhea seen as risks for prostate cancer

Men who have had gonorrhea are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, new research from the University of Michigan Health System finds.

Having more than 25 lifetime sexual partners also increases odds of prostate cancer, by more than 2.5 times that of men with five or fewer sexual partners, the study found.

The conclusions are part of the Flint Men’s Health Study, a populat

Researchers, using a new combination of techniques, have discovered that dopamine levels in our brains vary the most in situations where we are unsure if we are going to be rewarded, such as when we are gambling or playing the lottery.

The research results, “Dopamine Transmission in the Human Striatum during Monetary Reward Tasks,” were published online April 28 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Dopamine has long been known to play an important role in how we experience rewards from