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Psychology
28 Jul 2016
Music makes beer taste better
The music played in a bar can impact how much you enjoy your drink. by Samantha Bradey, Frontiersin.org Music can influence how much you like the taste of beer, according to a study published in Frontiers in Psychology. Their findings suggest that a range of multisensory information, such as sound, sensation, shape and color, can influence the way we perceive taste. The Brussels Beer Project collaborated with UK band The Editors to produce a porter-style beer that took inspiration from the musical and visual identity of the band. The ale had a medium body and used an Earl Grey infusion that produced citrus notes, contrasting with the malty, chocolate flavors from the mix of grains used in production. This taste profile was designed to broadly correspond to The Editors latest album, ‘In Dreams’. Then, a team of researchers led by Dr. Felipe Reinoso Cavalho, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and KU Leuven, designed an experiment to see if the influence of music and packaging design would result in a more positive tasting experience. They invited 231 drinkers to experience the beer in three different conditions. The first served as a control group and drank the beer along with a bottle […]
Psychology
25 Jul 2016
Pain of rejection makes us more likely to commit fraud
by Abigail Pattenden, Frontiersin.org People commit fraud because they are unhappy about being rejected, a new study in Frontiers in Psychology has found. Many of us might not be professional criminals, however when an insurance company rejects our claims, we are more likely to inflate the claims. Insurance companies take note: we are more likely to submit false insurance claims if our original submissions are rejected. Regardless of whether that rejection is fair or unfair, or if there is a financial reward at stake, being rejected makes us feel unhappy and we react by behaving dishonestly. In this study, which used a mock insurance claim scenario, people whose claims were initially rejected were quick to fudge their stories to get their claims settled. Whilst the odd small claim inflation in the real world may seem harmless enough to the perpetrator, insurance fraud is a very expensive crime. According to the FBI, insurance fraud amounts to around $40bn per year, or $400-$700 per family per year in the US. Dr Sophie Van Der Zee explained “Fraud is a widespread issue that is costing society and thereby each individual large sums of money. The problem with fraud is that it benefits a few […]
Frontiers news
19 Jul 2016
Call for editors for Frontiers in Physiology
Exciting News! Frontiers in Physiology is launching a number of new specialty sections, including: Aviation, Space and Environmental Physiology Avian Physiology Reproductive Physiology Embryology and Developmental Physiology Join the Frontiers in Physiology community of editors today by applying to join the board as: Specialty Chief Editor Associate Editor Review Editor In June 2016, Frontiers in Physiology, received the official Impact Factor of 4.031 — up from 3.534 in the previous report. Since its launch in 2010, it has become the #1 most cited and 2nd largest open-access journal in Physiology, and the #2 most cited amongst all journals in Physiology. Specialty Chief Editor applications will be reviewed by the Field Chief Editor of the journal. Associate and Review Editor applications will be reviewed by the Specialty Chief Editor of each section. HOW DO I APPLY? Step 1: Select the specialty section you would like to apply for. Step 2: Select the role you would like to apply for (please see below for each role’s requirements). Specialty Chief Editor: Frontiers Specialty Chief Editors are leading academics and active experts in their field, typically full professors from a recognized institution with a proven track record of publications in international, peer-reviewed journals and with editorial experience. Specialty Chief […]
Psychology
19 Jul 2016
Electric brain stimulation can improve mood and relieve stress
Feeling down? How about an electric pick-me-up for your brain? by K.E.D. Coan Electrical brain stimulation can improve the mood of healthy people as well as those suffering from depression, says study published in Frontiers in Psychology. More than 10% of American adults take antidepressants, according to the CDC’s last survey, but these drugs can come with a variety of unpleasant side effects. As an alternative, a team at Swansea University is developing an approach using electrical brain stimulation to alleviate stress and depression. Past studies have shown this method can relieve depression, but their most recent study presents the first evidence that it can also give healthy people a little boost when they’re feeling down. “We’ve shown that weak electric stimulation is effective to improve the mood of those who are not depressed, but are still affected by the consequences of a stressful, restless, and demanding lifestyle,” said Dr. Frederic Boy, Head of Translational and Consumer Neuroscience at Swansea. Although the idea of electric brain stimulation may give you pause for thought, researchers have safely used transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) for over a decade. Last year, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) also approved tDCS for the treatment […]
Life sciences
14 Jul 2016
Antiphonal singing in indris
By Michiel Dijkstra, Science Writer – published June 14, 2014 “How to get noticed as a singer?” isn’t only a concern for young people aspiring to a career in the music industry. Young indris, critically endangered lemurs from Madagascar, sing in antiphony with their choirmates to increase their chances of getting noticed by rival groups, according to a new study in Frontiers in Neuroscience. Indris (Indri indri) are one of the few species of primates that sing. They live only in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar, a habitat threatened by illegal logging. They live in small groups, which generally consist of a dominant female and male, their immature offspring, and one or more low-ranking young adults. Both females and males sing, and their songs play an important role in territorial defense and group formation. In the new study, researchers from Italy, Germany, and Madagascar recorded 496 indri songs and analyzed their timing, rhythm, and pitch. The research is part of a long-term study on the ecology of indris in the vicinity of Andasibe-Mantadia National Park and the Maromizaha Forest, eastern Madagascar. Group members carefully coordinate their singing, show the researchers. As soon as one indri starts to sing, all group […]
Psychology
14 Jul 2016
Opposites attract – unless you’re in a relationship
by Alice Rolandini Jensen, Frontiersin.org If we are in a relationship we are more likely to be attracted to faces resembling our own, but for single people, opposites attract. Relationship status affects who and what we find attractive, found a study published in Frontiers in Psychology. Dr Jitka Lindová of Charles University in the Czech Republic and her team showed a series of photographs of faces to university students and asked them to rate their attractiveness. The photographs were digitally manipulated so that the resemblance to the student was modified. Images were of an individual of the opposite sex, whose face had been manipulated to look either more or less similar to the student. They were also presented with images of a same-sex individual manipulated in the same way. “We found that single participants, those not in relationships, rate dissimilar faces as more attractive and sexy than self-resembling faces;” stated Lindová. This was observed when participants rated both same-sex and opposite-sex faces. “For the first time, we have observed how our partnership status affects who we find attractive;” she added. “Our interpretation is that attractiveness perception mechanisms that give us a preference for a genetically suitable partner may be suppressed […]
Frontiers news
13 Jul 2016
Frontiers’ Editors recognized in Japan Research Front Awards 2016
Two Frontiers’ Editors are part of the awardees in the Japan Research Front Awards, organized by the Intellectual Property & Science (IP & Science) business of Thomson Reuters. Dr. Kenji Watanabe and Professor Hiromu Tanimoto were recognized as being at the forefront of research in materials science and neuroscience. The awards were identified after the scientists’ research was analyzed using Research Front Methodology by IP & Science to assess their level of influence in specific scientific fields and the Web of Science Core Collection. Research Front Methodology looks at patterns of intense communication between scientists and such patterns can be used to create a picture of the state of a specific research area in terms of the papers that constitute its core of foundational work. Research Front Methodology is based on the top one percent of the most Highly Cited Papers in each of the 22 specific fields of research or disciplines in the Essential Science Indicators™ (ESI). The Frontiers’ Editors worked on two of the eight research fronts where Japanese scientists have had the greatest world-class influence: Material Science Dr. Kenji Watanabe is the Review Editor for Frontiers in Gastroenterology. He is the Chief Researcher, Electroceramics Group, […]
Frontiers news
12 Jul 2016
Announcing the launch of Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics
We are proud and delighted to announce the launch of the new specialty journal, Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics. This specialty journal will be led by Specialty Chief Editor Chaomei Chen, Professor at Drexel University. Research Metrics and Analytics aims to provide an open and stimulating forum for the study of the advancement, dissemination, and assessment of scholarly knowledge, from science, technology and medicine to humanities and social sciences. The scope of the specialty journal covers the development, applications, and evaluation of academic metrics, including but not limited to, bibliometric, scientometric, informatric, and altmetric studies, as well as fundamental research of scholarly knowledge and relevant analytic and evaluative techniques. Topics of interest include: Altmetrics Bibliometrics Case studies Citation analysis Informetrics Machine learning Methodologies Patent analysis Qualitative studies of scholarly knowledge Research assessment and evaluation Research policy Reviews and surveys of the state of the art Scholarly communication Scholarly discourse and metadiscourse Science and technology indicators Science mapping Science studies Scientometrics Technometrics Text Mining Visual Analytics Webometrics Regarding his vision for this Specialty Journal, Professor Chen commented: “Research Metrics and Analytics (RMA) is set to serve as an open forum and a synergizing platform for research communities across a broad […]
Environment
11 Jul 2016
Horizon Scan 2017: Emerging Issues in Marine Science – call for submissions
by Nina Hall, Journal Development Manager Frontiers in Marine Science is proud to launch the first edition of our annual Research Topic Horizon Scan 2017: Emerging Issues in Marine Science. This Research Topic is unique as it is the only topic that publishes invited review and synthesis articles, and awards the authors with a free publication to showcase the latest and most important research in the marine sciences at the beginning of every year. Each of the invited manuscripts is selected by the Specialty Chief Editors across all twenty-one specialty sections of the journal based on the quality and topicality of the research. If you would like to be considered for selection, please send the title and abstract of your review/synthesis manuscript to marinescience@frontiersin.org for evaluation by the Chief Editors. The submission deadline is October 1, 2016. The average review time from submission to publication for Frontiers in Marine Science is 89 days, which should allow for publication of the manuscript in January 2017 if accepted. Frontiers in Marine Science is the most comprehensive and largest open-access marine science journal with an editorial board of 2,257 editors and over 500 submitted manuscripts, 318 of which have already been published. To […]
Health
11 Jul 2016
Is the Agile Wallaby man’s new best friend?
Scientists name top five animals that are suitable to be kept as pets by Samantha Bradey, Frontiersin.org Looking for a new pet? If so, consider the Agile Wallaby or the Asian Palm Civet. Responding to the growing trend in keeping exotic animals as pets a team, led by Dr. Paul Koene, has developed a methodology to assess the suitability of mammals to be kept domestically in a new study published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science. The top five animals were: the Sika Deer, Agile Wallaby, Tamar Wallaby, Llama, and Asian Palm Civet, which were all judged to be suitable pets by the scientists from the Wageningen University and Research Centre, in the Netherlands. So, will the Sika Deer challenge the common canine for the title of man’s best friend? “The main influence of this work is methodological. In the Netherlands many mammal species are kept and for a long time the government wanted to guarantee the welfare of animals;” Dr. Koene explained; “Therefore the Dutch Animal Act was made stating that mammals should not be kept unless they are production animals, or are species that are suitable to be kept by anyone without special knowledge or skills.” In order to determine […]
Frontiers news
08 Jul 2016
Most viewed Psychology articles in June 2016
Anxiolytic Treatment Impairs Helping Behavior in Rats Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal, Haozhe Shan, Nora M. R. Molasky, Teresa M. Murray, Jasper Z. Williams, Jean Decety and Peggy Mason* The Dark Side of Top Level Sport: An Autobiographic Study of Depressive Experiences in Elite Sport Performers Hannah J. H. Newman, Karen L. Howells* and David Fletcher Shared and Unique Risk Factors Underlying Mathematical Disability and Reading and Spelling Disability Esther M. Slot*, Sietske van Viersen, Elise H. de Bree and Evelyn H. Kroesbergen Infants Prefer Female Body Phenotypes; Infant Girls Prefer They Have an Hourglass Shape Gerianne M. Alexander*, Laura B. Hawkins, Teresa Wilcox and Amy Hirshkowitz Music As a Sacred Cue? Effects of Religious Music on Moral Behavior Martin Lang*, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Radek Kundt, Aaron Nichols, Lenka Krajčíková and Dimitris Xygalatas When Lying Feels the Right Thing to Do Sophie Van Der Zee*, Ross Anderson and Ronald Poppe Action Video Game Training for Healthy Adults: A Meta-Analytic Study Ping Wang, Han-Hui Liu, Xing-Ting Zhu, Tian Meng, Hui-Jie Li* and Xi-Nian Zuo Studying Different Tasks of Implicit Learning across Multiple Test Sessions Conducted on the Web Werner Sævland* and Elisabeth Norman Tuned In Emotion Regulation Program Using Music Listening: Effectiveness for Adolescents in Educational Settings Genevieve A. Dingle*, Joseph Hodges, and Ashleigh Kunde Deficits […]
Frontiers news
08 Jul 2016
Most viewed Neurology articles in June 2016
The Effects of External Jugular Compression Applied during Head Impact Exposure on Longitudinal Changes in Brain Neuroanatomical and Neurophysiological Biomarkers: A Preliminary Investigation Gregory D. Myer*, Weihong Yuan, Kim D. Barber Foss, David Smith, Mekibib Altaye, Amit Reches, James Leach, Adam W. Kiefer, Jane C. Khoury, Michal Weiss, Staci Thomas, Chris Dicesare, Janet Adams, Paul J. Gubanich, Amir Geva, Joseph F. Clark, William P. Meehan, Jason P. Mihalik and Darcy Krueger The Epidemiology of Sports-Related Head Injury and Concussion in Water Polo Robert S. Blumenfeld, Jessica C. Winsell, James W. Hicks and Steven L. Small* A Pathway Proteomic Profile of Ischemic Stroke Survivors Reveals Innate Immune Dysfunction in Association with Mild Symptoms of Depression – A Pilot Study Vinh A. Nguyen, Leeanne M. Carey*, Loretta Giummarra, Pierre Faou, Ira Cooke, David W. Howells, Tamara Tse, S. Lance Macaulay, Henry Ma, Stephen M. Davis, Geoffrey A. Donnan and Sheila G. Crewther Degradation of Binocular Coordination during Sleep Deprivation Jianliang Tong, Jun Maruta*, Kristin J. Heaton, Alexis L. Maule, Umesh Rajashekar, Lisa A. Spielman and Jamshid Ghajar Sex Differences in Insular Cortex Gyri Responses to the Valsalva Maneuver Paul M. Macey*, Nicholas S. Rieken, Rajesh Kumar, Jennifer A. Ogren, Holly R. Middlekauff, Paula Wu, Mary A. […]
Health
07 Jul 2016
Mixing cannabis with tobacco increases dependence risk, suggests study
People who mix tobacco with cannabis are less motivated to seek help to quit Tobacco and cannabis are two of the world’s most popular drugs, used respectively by 1 billion and 182 million people worldwide (World Health Organization; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). The adverse health effects of tobacco are well known. Short-term effects of cannabis are transient impairments in motor function and working memory, planning, and decision-making, while possible long-term health effects of heavy cannabis use include physical and psychological dependence, permanent reductions in cognitive performance, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and some cancers (WHO). Many users mix cannabis with tobacco, not only to save money but also because tobacco can increase the efficiency of cannabis inhalation. But such mixing can increase the risk of dependence, suggests a new study in Frontiers in Psychiatry. “Cannabis dependence and tobacco dependence manifest in similar ways, so it is often difficult to separate these out in people who use both drugs,” says lead author Chandni Hindocha, a doctoral student at the Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit of University College London. “Cannabis is less addictive than tobacco, but we show here that mixing tobacco with cannabis lowers the motivation to quit using these drugs.” […]
Frontiers news
06 Jul 2016
Most viewed Oncology articles in June 2016
Radiation-Induced Reprogramming of Pre-Senescent Mammary Epithelial Cells Enriches Putative CD44+/CD24−/low Stem Cell Phenotype Xuefeng Gao*, Brock J. Sishc*, Christopher B. Nelson, Philip Hahnfeldt, Susan M. Bailey and Lynn Hlatky 13C MRS and LC–MS Flux Analysis of Tumor Intermediary Metabolism Alexander A. Shestov*, Seung-Cheol Lee, Kavindra Nath, Lili Guo, David S. Nelson, Jeffrey C. Roman, Dennis B. Leeper, Mariusz A. Wasik, Ian A. Blair and Jerry D. Glickson* Hypoxia on the Expression of Hepatoma Upregulated Protein in Prostate Cancer Cells Ingrid Espinoza, Marcelo J. Sakiyama, Tangeng Ma, Logan Fair, Xinchun Zhou, Mohamed Hassan, Jovanny Zabaleta and Christian R. Gomez* Opioid-Induced Constipation among a Convenience Sample of Patients with Cancer Pain Karin S. Coyne, Chris Sexton, Robert J. LoCasale*, Frederic R. King, Mary Kay Margolis and Sam H. Ahmedzai Short DNA Fragments Are a Hallmark of Heavy Charged-Particle Irradiation and May Underlie Their Greater Therapeutic Efficacy Dalong Pang*, Sergey Chasovskikh, James E. Rodgers and Anatoly Dritschilo Evaluation of Superconducting Magnet Shield Configurations for Long Duration Manned Space Missions Filippo Ambroglini, Roberto Battiston and William J. Burger* Age and Prostate-Specific Antigen Level Prior to Diagnosis Predict Risk of Death from Prostate Cancer F. Roy MacKintosh, Preston C. Sprenkle*, Louise C. Walter, Lori Rawson, R. Jeffrey Karnes, Christopher H. Morrell, […]
Frontiers news
05 Jul 2016
Most viewed Immunology articles in June 2016
Aerobic Exercise Reduces Asthma Phenotype by Modulation of the Leukotriene Pathway Ricardo Wesley Alberca-Custódio, Flávia Regina Greiffo, BreAnne MacKenzie, Manoel Carneiro Oliveira-Junior, Adilson Santos Andrade-Sousa, Gustavo Silveira Graudenz, Angela Batista Gomes Santos, Nilsa Regina Damaceno-Rodrigues, Hugo Caire Castro-Faria-Neto, Fernanda Magalhaes Arantes-Costa, Milton De Arruda Martins, Asghar Abbasi, Chin Jia Lin, Marco Idzko, Ana Paula Ligeiro Oliveira, Hinnak Northoff and Rodolfo Paula Vieira* Genetic Diagnosis Using Whole Exome Sequencing in Common Variable Immunodeficiency Patrick Maffucci, Charles A. Filion, Bertrand Boisson, Yuval Itan, Lei Shang, Jean-Laurent Casanova and Charlotte Cunningham-Rundles* Deficient Neutrophil Extracellular Trap Formation in Patients Undergoing Bone Marrow Transplantation Jared W. Glenn, Mark J. Cody, Meghann P. McManus, Michael A. Pulsipher, Joshua D. Schiffman and Christian Con Yost* Peptidylarginine Deiminase Inhibitor Suppresses Neutrophil Extracellular Trap Formation and MPO-ANCA Production Yoshihiro Kusunoki, Daigo Nakazawa, Haruki Shida, Fumihiko Hattanda, Arina Miyoshi, Sakiko Masuda, Saori Nishio, Utano Tomaru, Tatsuya Atsumi and Akihiro Ishizu* Complement Component C1q Programs a Pro-Efferocytic Phenotype while Limiting TNFα Production in Primary Mouse and Human Macrophages Holly J. Hulsebus, Sean D. O’Conner, Emily M. Smith, Chunfa Jie, and Suzanne S. Bohlson* Differential Expression of Immune Checkpoint Modulators on In Vitro Primed CD4+ and CD8+ T Cells Nina C. Sabins*, Benjamin C. Harman, Linda R. […]