Research News Stories

Moffitt pictured in blue frames, although she rotates approximately four frames at any given time, photo by Chen Duke Psychology and Neuroscience Professor Terrie Moffitt was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine, a leading organization providing advice on health, science and technology. P&N held a reception in her honor on Friday, 10/26. A Colorful Mind The interior of the Grey Building, where the Moffitt Lab resides, is anything but grey. Duke Psychology and Neuroscience Professor… read more about P&N Person of the Week: Terrie Moffitt »

What makes it so difficult to change our minds about moral issues, despite new information that contradicts our beliefs? P&N Grad Student Matthew Stanley and team recently published a paper that gives us some clues. The work was highlighted recently by the American Psychological Association's PEEPS, or "Particularly Exciting Experiments in Psychology." http://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/peeps/issue-110.aspx Stanley is a PhD student in Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University who entered through the Cognitive… read more about Moral Reasoning: Why it's hard to change beliefs »

 Professor John Curry has recorded a DVD, Cognitive Behavior Therapy For Adolescent Depression,  as part of the American Psychological Association's video series.   The cognitive-behavioral approach demonstrated in this program by Dr. Curry is based in developmental psychopathology and social cognitive learning theory, and typically includes behavioral activation, problem-solving, and cognitive restructuring. In the therapy demonstration, Dr. Curry applies his… read more about Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Adolescent Depression »

This week P&N kicked off their summer Vertical Integration program (VIP). VIP is the annual summer research program for Psychology majors, the intent of which is to give participants a head start on work that may culminate in a senior thesis.  VIP students conduct research with both a graduate student and faculty mentor, attend a semi-weekly seminar series, attend a biweekly statistics workshop, and finally present their work to their peers, mentors, and (via poster session) the wider University community. … read more about 2018 Summer Vertical Integration Program, May 15-July 12 »

Duke Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience Jennifer Groh and a team of researchers have found that simply moving the eyes triggers the eardrums to move too. In a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers found that keeping the head still but shifting the eyes to one side or the other sparks vibrations in the eardrums, even in the absence of any sounds. "This was really a team effort, instigated by a very determined Kurtis Gruters who received his PhD for this work, and… read more about The Eardrums Move When the Eyes Move »

  A new study by lead author Elika Bergelson is being reported in a number of media outlets, including The Atlantic;  Reuters;  The Guardian;  International Business Times; Science News; and Duke Today.   Bergelson's lab used eye tracking data to show that babies understand that the meanings of some groups of words, such as "juice and milk," are more alike than other groups, such as "juice and car."   The research  paper combines two approaches: measuring what infants know in the… read more about Babies Understand When Words are Related »

Sooner or later, almost everyone has an experience that could be diagnosed as a mental disorder. That’s the take-home message from a new feature article P&N graduate students Aaron Reuben and Jonathan Schaefer recently wrote  for Scientific American. Their article, based on Schaefer’s research in the Moffitt and Caspi Lab, makes a strong argument against the stigma of mental illness, suggesting that psychological disorders are a very routine part of the human experience. Reuben and Schaefer are both clinical… read more about Erasing the Stigma of Mental Illness »

The ability to engage in joint actions is a critical step toward becoming a cooperative human being. In particular, forming a commitment with a partner to achieve a goal that one cannot achieve alone is important for functioning in society. Previous research has shown that children begin collaborating with others between ages 2 and 3 years. However, it's less clear whether they understand the concept of joint commitments with binding obligations. A new study looked at this phenomenon and suggests that children as young as 3… read more about Children understand cooperative concepts earlier than thought »

P&N Clinical Graduate Student Jonathan Schaefer recently wrote a blog post giving an evidence-based argument against stigma in mental Health. It was recently published on the APA Society of Clinical Psychology's website: http://www.div12.org/is-abnormal-psychology-really-all-that-abnormal/ Research from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, Jon writes, "suggests that the 'typical' human experience is one characterized by at least one brush with a diagnosable disorder, and that… read more about Is "Abnormal Psychology" Really all that Abnormal? »

For P&N doctoral students, the Major Area Paper (MAP) is the first major milestone in the student's PhD program. For clinical doctoral student Kate MacDuffie, her MAP turned into a published article, with co-author Tim Strauman, and was recently cited in an APA blog post. "This work was motivated by my involvement in public outreach efforts like Brain Awareness Week at Duke, MacDuffie says. "Through these community experiences, I became interested in the impact of learning about one’s own biology, and was surprised to… read more about Do Beliefs about Biology Matter for Mental Health? »

New research from the Tobias Egner Lab reveals how the brain learns to link external cues to a focused mindset. Read the full story in Duke Today: https://today.duke.edu/CaudateNucleus The study was also covered in other international publications: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4157880/Celebrity-spotting-test-super-focuses-brain.html https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170125145753.htm read more about P&N researchers pinpoint brain structure that links environmental cues to enhanced focus »

Congratulations to P&N's Makeba Wilbourn, who has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). This is the highest honor bestowed by the United States Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research. She was one of 102 scientists and researchers to receive the award. President Obama made the announcement on Friday, January 9th, according to a press release from whitehouse.gov. "I congratulate these outstanding scientists and engineers on… read more about Makeba Wilbourn honored by President Obama, receives Presidential Early Career Award »

Congratulations to P&N Professor Mike Tomasello and his colleagues, whose study on mind reading in great apes has been chosen as one of the top 10 breakthroughs of 2016 by Science Magazine. The Breakthrough of the Year is widely recognized as one of the highest distinctions in science. The mind-reading skill, known as theory of mind, was previously thought to be present only in humans. The study challenges that assumption, using a man dressed in a King Kong outfit who pretends to be misinformed about… read more about Tomasello Study a Top Breakthrough of 2016 »

Data from a recent P&N brain imaging study found that subjects who had a relatively greater activity in the prefrontal cortex while completing math problems from memory also reported having better emotion regulation skills compared to their peers. “Our work provides the first direct evidence that the ability to regulate emotions like fear and anger reflects the brain’s ability to make numerical calculations in real time,” said Matthew Scult, a 5th-year P&N Graduate Student in the lab of the study’s senior… read more about Matt Scult: Emotion Regulation, Mathmatical Skills Linked »

Work by P&N's Kevin LaBar and colleagues is featured as lead story today on CNN Health. LaBar and his team have mapped the distinct patterns of brain activity that correspond to seven different emotional states while subjects are resting without external stimulation in an MRI scanner.. “It’s getting to be a bit like mind-reading,” said  LaBar.  “Earlier studies have shown that functional MRI can identify whether a person is thinking about a face or a house. Our study is the first to show that specific… read more about Mapping Emotions in the Brain »

P&N's Samantha Deffler, Cassidy Fox, Christin Ogle, and David Rubin of the Noetics Lab explored why familiar individuals may call each other by the wrong name. For example, why does your mom call you your sister's name? They found that people tended to misname members of the same group - family members using the (wrong) name of other family members, and friends misnaming a friend with another friends name. They even found evidence that dogs are considered a part of the family... people called their family members by the… read more about Science explains why your mom calls you by your brother's name »

In 2015,  members of the P&N community made news headlines on a weekly basis, including everything from groundbreaking research studies, news editorials, and numerous awards and honors. Here is a month-by-month glance at 2015. January Courtnea Rainey on goal-setting on the Graduate School's professional development blog February Kevin LaBar quoted in USA Today on Brian Williams's false memories Huffington Post: Ahmad Hariri's lab uses amygdala function to predict later… read more about 2015 P&N Year in Review »

  Psychology & Neuroscience PhD graduate Kaitlin Toner, professor Mark Leary,  undergraduate student Michael Asher, and doctoral candidate Katrina Jongman-Sereno, are featured in Duke Today for their research on people's feelings of superiority about their political beliefs. The Duke P&N team found that people who have more extreme political attitudes, in both liberal and conservative directions, tend to also think that their beliefs are superior to everyone else's. … read more about 'Belief Superiority' is Bipartisan »

Psychology & Neuroscience professor Kathy Sikkema and  doctoral student Sarah Wilson, along with Dr. Melissa Watt at Duke Global Health Institute are featured in this month's Duke Research Blog for their upcoming study on psychological interventions for women with obstetric fistula in Tanzania.  Women with obstetric fistula have been found to have higher levels of depression, anxiety, and PTSD due to the social stigmatization associated with the disease. See Duke's research blog for the full article:http://… read more about P & N collaboration on global mental health in Tanzania »

P&N's Makeba Wilbourn is featured in  Duke Today for her work  at Durham's C.C. Spaulding Elementary.  Dr. Wilbourn's research-in-practice hopes to close the achievement gap with students by pairing gestures and body movements with vocabulary instruction and memory tests.  Full text of the article:http://today.duke.edu/2012/12/spaulding read more about Closing the achievement gap »

Duke researchers found that pre-teen girls may not be any better at friendships than boys. In a Duke University study out Tuesday, researchers found that pre-teen girls may not be any better at friendships than boys, despite previous research suggesting otherwise. The findings suggest that when more serious violations of a friendship occur, girls struggle just as much and, in some ways, even more than boys. The girls in this study were just as likely as boys to report that they would seek revenge against an offending… read more about Girls Feel More Anger When Friends Offend »