• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Psych Roundup

Psych Roundup

June 16, 2006
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/060616_sciup_psych.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):
How Ritalin calms kids down. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Ritalin is the drug most prescribed to help hyperactive children, and paradoxically, it’s a stimulant. Doctors have long wondered how a type of speed helps kids slow down, and now researchers working with rats have an answer. They found that Ritalin boosted the activity of brain cells that process primary nerve signals coming from the rats’ whiskers, and it dampened the transmission of non-primary signals. In other words, Ritalin does increase brain activity, but the activity is focused and freed from distractions.

In other psychology news, Princeton researchers have found that people investing in the stock market tend to choose companies with names that are easy to pronounce. They even pick stocks with pronouncable three-letter ticker codes, like BAL, over ticker codes like BCL, which can’t be pronounced.

I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily ShowTag: Medicine & Health, Physics
Previous Post:Pregnancy Stress
Next Post:Invisibility Cloak

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos