News

Sex differences and cognition

woman thinking during sunsetIn a paper recently published in the journal e-Neuro, Neuroscience and Behavior doctoral recipient Matthew LaClair, his advisor Agnès Lacreuse, and former postdoc Nicole Gervais examined whether biological sex influences some aspects of cognitive performance as well as neural connectivity measures in nonhuman primates.

Studying the Role of Inhibition and Neuro-estrogens in Bird Song

zebra finch singing

Neurobiologist Luke Remage-Healey, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences, recently received a five-year, $1.7 million grant, the renewal of a prior period of funding from the National Institutes of Health. He and colleagues plan to investigate fundamental mechanisms of how the brain learns and processes complex stimuli like birdsong.

Sarah Winokur awarded the fourth annual Keith Rayner Memorial Graduate Student Research Award

Sarah WinokurSarah Winokur, a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Neuroscience and Behavior Program working with Dr. Mariana Pereira, was awarded the fourth annual Keith Rayner Memorial Graduate Student Research Award. Sarah’s research utilizes animal models of depression to identify the neurobiological mechanisms of postpartum depression that most impact parenting. Sarah’s project, Evaluating Estradiol Fluctuations Across Pregnancy in a Rat Model of Postpartum Depression, will offer insights into the role of reproductive hormones in postpartum depression and associated deficits in parenting abilities.

Adaptation to diversity: Individual and societal processes

view of earth continents with city lights

In her latest article, Linda Tropp examines the adaptation of people in diverse environments. "With the historic rise in global migration in recent decades and the dispersion of diverse groups into new communities worldwide, greater levels of contact are occurring between social groups than ever before."

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Preparing the next generation of adoption researchers

cohort of summer institute in front of life science laboratories

National, international and within-country adoptions are changing significantly

The Rudd Adoption Research Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst hosted a research institute on campus May 19-24 for 20 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who were accepted from eight countries to study methods in adoption research.

Professor Harold Grotevant, director of the Rudd program, says it is the most comprehensive program in adoption psychology in the country. The visiting researchers gained experience in how to appropriately consider race, sexual orientation, culture and ethnicity in adoption study design as well as approaches to intensive data analysis.

How Can Diverse Classrooms Improve A Child's Learning?

diverse group of kids raise hands in classroom

Christina Rucinski, who recently received her doctorate from Fordham University and will begin a postdoctoral position in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, writes about results from her dissertation research studying classroom diversity in elementary schools. She found that a higher exposure to classroom diversity in kindergarten, first grade and second grade classrooms was associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety and problematic interactions with peers for these children when they got to third grade. She also says that evidence shows that exposure to same-race peers and teachers may have a positive impact on development, especially for children of color. Psychology Today

Preschoolers Who Watch TV Sleep Less

child watches tv

UMass Amherst scientist’s ongoing sleep research looks into the impacts of TV on young children

Preschoolers who watch TV sleep significantly less than those who don’t, according to new research by University of Massachusetts Amherst neuroscientist Rebecca Spencer and developmental science graduate student Abigail Helm. 

More surprising to Spencer, known for her groundbreaking research into the role of naps in children’s memory and learning, 36 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds had TVs in their bedroom, and a third of those kids fell asleep with the TV on, often watching stimulating or violent adult programming.

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