Frequent smoking of high potency “skunk-like” cannabis can damage a crucial part of the brain responsible for communication between the two brain hemispheres, according to a new study.Researchers have known for some time that long-term cannabis use can increase the risk of psychosis, and recent evidence suggests that alterations in brain function and structure may be responsible for this greater vulnerability.The new study, published in Psychological Medicine, is the first to examine the effect of cannabis potency on brain structure, according to researchers at King’s College London and >>>

(MENAFN Press) (EMAILWIRE.COM, November 29, 2015 ) Philadelphia Pa. -- New Sports Performance Assessment for Basketball Players was designed to help players of all performance levels from Middle School to NBA determine what advantages there are in using the services of a qualified Sports Performance Psychology Expert to further improve their performance. When a person's athletic performance begins to decline and/or is less than what is required to move forward with plans for the future, Todd Stofka - Philly Hypnosis Performance 877-557-7409 Todd Stofka Combining Basketball NBA with Sports >>>

Does losing make you a loser? The 76ers' Jahlil Okafor tangled with a heckler in a Boston street, apparently to prove he was not the L word. Stuck in a three-game skid, the Eagles need a close self-examination, from owner Jeffrey Lurie on down, to make sure losing does not become the organization's permanent direction under coach/GM Chip Kelly. We will start with the Okafor incident, since we can all remember something similar occurring on the third-grade playground. Okafor, a 19-year-old rookie who's only the leading scorer (18.4 points) and second-leading rebounder (8.1) for the >>>

Can psychologists develop an accurate scale for measuring the development of wisdom? A new psychological measure of wisdom being developed might be able to tell whether you make good life choices.The University of Southern Queensland is working on developing a new measure that would enable researchers to "accurately and objectively" capture an individual's level of wisdom.Psychology Professor Bob Knight said the study would focus on how people made decisions about important life problems."We're working >>>

A recently released episode of PBS’s cutting-edge health program “Second Opinion” features an East Carolina University psychology professor. Sam Sears, director of ECU’s doctoral program in health psychology, appears in the episode “Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Young Athletes.” Sears, an expert on implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) — devices that deliver a life-saving shock when a heart arrhythmia is detected — will discuss one young athlete’s case. In the episode, star basketball player Mike Papale shares his story of survival after an incident of cardiac arrest. >>>

FRISCO, Texas – It wasn’t necessarily a statistic the Portland Timbers were proud of. For much of the season, a center back – Nat Borchers – was among the team’s leading scorers, a sore subject considering Portland’s goalscoring struggles through most of the year. Now, with the goals problem figured out heading into the second leg of their Western Conference Championship matchup with FC Dallas on Sunday at Toyota Stadium (5 pm ET; ESPN | WatchESPN | ESPN Deportes | TSN2 in Canada | MLS LIVE), the Timbers are more than willing to brag about that set-piece prowess. They used it to >>>

Many people will tell you that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, but a recent study calls this assertion into question. According to a report from Medical News Today, a recent study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that smoking high-potency marijuana is linked to a significant change in a key brain structure. The study, led by senior researcher Dr. Paola Dazzan from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology Neuroscience at King’s College in London, showed that heavy users of cannabis with a high concentration of THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, were >>>

This question has long interested psychologists, especially follow­ing Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb’s original discovery that rats who lived in enriched environments were markedly superior intellectual beings than laboratory rats living in more Spartan sur­roundings. Hebb’s enriched rats could solve more complicated maze problems in shorter times than their less-fortunate lab mates. Later work carried out by the University of California–Berkeley’s Mark Rosenzweig showed that such enriched rats were not only superior performers, but that they also had a thicker neocortex with more >>>

University students who suffer FoMO are more likely to feel bad after a boozy night out, feel they said embarrassing things, or acted impulsively to later regret their actions.University experts said the condition refers to a sense of uneasiness and anxiety that everyone is having fun without you, and you're losing out on something rewarding.In their study published in the Annals of Neuroscience and Psychology, researchers said psychologists already know that people with FOMO are more likely to overuse social media, to the extent the first thing they do when waking up is check Facebook.The research, >>>

So how’s it been for you? Black Friday, I mean. Any actual injuries, inflicted or received? Any fatigue as a result of getting up in the wee hours so as to be at Peter Jones in time for the extra early Black Friday opening? Or perhaps just a general sense of diminishment as a result of really losing it with another shopper over a nice bit of cashmere in Marks Spencer, 30 per cent off!  I find personally that if you catch yourself committing acts of violence out shopping, then it’s a trigger for going home and having a nice cup of tea. It’s nuts: we all know it. A friend who works >>>