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April 18th, 2012
09:27 AM ET
Are mean people born that way?Let's face it - everyone isn't nice. In fact, being nice is more difficult for some people than others. But is it possible that "niceness" is predetermined by our genes? A new study in the journal Psychological Science suggests this: If you think the world is full of threatening people, you're not going feel compelled to be generous by doing things like volunteering and donating to charity. But if you have certain gene variants, you're more likely to be nice anyway. Now hold on a minute - this doesn't give your mean neighbor an excuse to blame his DNA for not letting kids on the block play on his lawn. It's a little more complicated than that. 
April 4th, 2012
05:02 PM ET
Do soccer players show enhanced thinking abilities?Hey soccer fans, here's something to think about at the next game: The best players may be quicker thinkers than you. A study led by Swedish researchers suggests that elite soccer players outperform players in lower divisions in tests of certain cognitive abilities, and both groups bested the general public. The results were published recently in the journal PLoS ONE. Specifically, the study focused on executive function, which is involved in working memory. Whenever you bring forth a memory that you need to solve a task, such as make a phone call or tie your shoe, that's working memory in action. Executive function is also involved in creativity, multi-tasking and inhibition. 
February 27th, 2012
06:30 PM ET
Why some patients take out their own eyesRemember the myth of Oedipus, where the king of Ancient Thebes stabbed his own eyes after he realized he'd killed his own father and married his mother? As gory as it sounds, intentionally blinding oneself isn't entirely mythical. Although rare, there have been cases of people seriously injuring their own eyes, and sometimes completely removing them. There's even a technical term, self-enucleation, for the behavior of taking out your eyeballs. 
February 6th, 2012
11:56 AM ET
A 'visual diary' of depressionWhen Marvi Lacar¹s father died in 2008, she experienced feelings she wasn¹t aware existed. Her conflicting emotions – those of resentment, guilt, love, yearning to forgive and yearning to not forgive - spiraled her into acute clinical depression. Today, the CNN Photo Blog features her photographs of depression. 
January 23rd, 2012
03:30 PM ET
Magic mushrooms may be therapeuticRave-goers and visitors to Amsterdam before December 2008 may be intimately familiar with magic mushrooms, but there's little scientific knowledge on what happens to the brain while tripping. Now it appears that more research is warranted. A growing number of studies suggested that perhaps the mushrooms' key ingredient could work magic for certain mental disorders. 
January 18th, 2012
12:27 PM ET
Gossip may have social purpose, study says"Did you hear what she did?" "Guess what I just found out about our new co-worker!" These could be the starts of nasty rumors, but a new study suggests the act of gossiping can also serve important purposes in maintaining social order. Researchers report their findings in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "Gossip gets a bad rap," said Robb Willer, social psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley. "Much of what we call gossip is driven by a sincere desire to help others." 
December 16th, 2011
07:15 AM ET
Weil: Mild depression treatable with simple lifestyle changesAndrew Weil is the director of the of the integrative medicine program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and Professor of Medicine and Public Health, author of "8 Weeks to Optimum Health, Healthy Aging," and the forthcoming "Spontaneous Happiness."
"The pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it. . . . the grey drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain. ..it is natural that the victim begins to think ceaselessly of oblivion." I’m thankful that, unlike Styron, I have never had a major depressive episode. At times in my life, however, I have experienced a depressed mood for most of the day, more days than not, over weeks and even months.  Stanley Milgram, right, talks with a study participant during his shock experiment in the 1960s.
December 9th, 2011
12:10 PM ET
My summer with Stanley MilgramEditor's note: Alan Elms was the research assistant of social psychologist Stanley Milgram during Milgram's famous shock experiment in the 1960s, which tested participant's obedience to authority.
I transcribed Milgram’s dictations and drafts of research procedures into neatly typed pages. I began to keep files of research volunteers: Their age, educational background, occupation, address and phone number. I helped Milgram audition amateur actors for the important role of “experimenter” and the nearly-as-important role of “learner,” the research confederate whom we started to call the “victim.” The real volunteers would be playing the role of “teacher” in what appeared to be an experiment where electric shocks were used to speed the learning of simple word pairs. As you probably know by now, 50 years later, the victim only pretended to be shocked and the experiment really measured obedience to authority. 
December 2nd, 2011
06:00 PM ET
Similar friends may spread healthy behaviorsWho you know influences how you behave, a growing body of research is showing. Networks of people who know each other can spread the good (happiness) and the bad (obesity, STDs and loneliness). But it's not just any social network that propagates behaviors and diseases. New research published in the journal Science suggests that having social network contacts of similar gender, weight and body-mass index could help people pick up on healthy behaviors. 
November 21st, 2011
06:05 PM ET
How meditating may help your brainWhen you're under pressure from work and family and the emails don't stop coming, it's hard to stop your mind from jumping all over the place. But scientists are finding that it may be worth it to train your brain to focus on something as simple as your breath, which is part of mindfulness meditation. A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the latest in a hot emerging field of research examining how meditation relates to the brain. It shows that people who are experienced meditators show less activity in the brain's default mode network, when the brain is not engaged in focused thought. |
  About this blog
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love. Recent Comments
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Depression has many forms. Worst among them is the kind characterized by deep, soul-crushing despair, so eloquently described in novelist William Styron's 1992 book, “Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness.”
During my first several weeks as Stanley Milgram’s research assistant, I did the sorts of things that research assistants often do.
