Can video games make you smarter? Well, if you’re a surgeon they can.
Researchers presenting at this weekend’s American Psychological Association annual convention here in Boston demonstrated that surgeons who specialize in minimally-invasive surgery and played video games worked more quickly and performed with less errors than those who didn’t play video games:

In one study of […]

Hundreds of online psychology experiments are going on at any given time, many cool and amusing to take part in. They’re great for researchers due to the ease and low cost of finding subjects, and because of that, more data. There are drawbacks, though. The University of Essex’s Department of Psychology points out: “… factors […]

After evaluating over 150 studies which examine a potential link between abortion and mental health problems, the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion concluded in a draft report released Tuesday that “…there is no credible evidence that a single elective abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in and of itself causes […]

Do less attractive people think the people they date (who also tend to be less attractive) delude themselves into thinking their dates are more physically attractive? According to new research, the answer is “no.”
You remember that website that used to be popular, HOTorNOT.com, which allows visitors to rate the attractiveness of random, anonymous photographs, right? […]

Although we harp on this at least once every few months, it bears repeating:
Psychotherapy with medication is usually the best possible treatment option for depression (acute or chronic) for nearly everyone. If you’re only doing one or the other, you’re likely not going to get well as quickly, it’s that simple. We have decades’ worth […]

There has been considerable debate ever since PLoS Medicine published a study in February suggesting that antidepressants are largely no better than a placebo (sugar pill) for the treatment of depression. The only condition where the researchers found a significant difference was in severe depression, and this was only because the placebo response […]

The more we learn, the less we know.
This past week, conventional wisdom was once again turned on its head with the publication of a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison psychology professor Janet Hyde and her colleagues showing that girls are just as good as boys in math. But, as you’ll read on, you’ll learn researchers […]

The New York Times today had a great grounded piece on the state of our knowledge into schizophrenia, a relatively uncommon mental disorder (that gets a lot of attention more because of its severity, not because of its prevalence). The reality is that after hundreds of research studies into the biology and genetics of schizophrenia, […]

It’s an intriguing question, and one that entrepreneurs and researchers continually look at as progress is made with artificial intelligence and the increasing accessibility of the Internet — can an online computer program be used as effectively with a family doctor as with a psychologist?
The fact is, most people with a mental health disorder don’t […]

Some researchers have way too much time on their hands. Case in point:
A group of Belgian researchers believe that research has already demonstrated a link between vaginal orgasm and better mental health (although I’d argue such a link is nebulous at best). They wondered if one could determine whether a woman experienced vaginal orgasms just […]

One of the ironies in this modern world is that for every ailment, there seems to be a medication to help cure it. And for every side effect of that medication, there’s another medication you can take. It’s no wonder that so many people can end up on a half dozen medications before they know […]

Epidemiologist David Michaels describes the problem with industry-funded research in today’s Washington Post. His point is one that needs emphasis — it’s not that companies interfere directly with the research they fund, it’s that they ensure the questions the research answers are biased in their favor:

At first, it was widely assumed that the misleading results […]