Articles on the Web

Articles on the Web

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The new field of translational neuroscience uses brain science to inform applications that improve health and well-being. This means using (or improving) our understanding of the brain in order to develop new strategies for intervention. Until recently, translational neuroscience has supported medical interventions that are clinic-based, as in pharmacological, surgical, or behavioral treatments for neural and neuropsychiatric disorders. New on the horizon, however, is the use of neuroscience perspectives to inform social and behavioral interventions that are ecologically-based and can be delivered in the home or school setting. The target of these interventions has expanded to include developmental health outcomes, school readiness, and health promotion, in addition to brain-based disorders. This new approach takes translational neuroscience out of the clinic and puts it to work in our communities.

This series of short articles by Barbara Ganzel, Research Scientist in the Department of Human Development, will present some of the possibilities inherent in this new perspective on translational neuroscience. We invite you to join us in exploring the promise of this approach. Read the full story.

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Charles Brainerd, professor and chair of human development, discusses the unreliability of witness testimony after New Jersey moved to instruct jurors about the limits of human memory.

“Eyewitness identification evidence is seen by jurors as being trustworthy and reliable,” said psychologist Charles Brainerd of Cornell University, who specializes in memory. “The science shows exactly the opposite.”

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Gary Evans, the Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor in the Departments of Human Development and of Design and Environmental Analysis, explains his findings on poverty, stress, and obesity in this short interview with WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

New research is shedding light on why – like most other health problems – obesity is not randomly distributed in the population.  For instance, poor and underprivileged people are more likely to become overweight, and we’re finding that stress is one of several reasons for this.

In many ways, poor people have a lot more daily stress in their lives, and research suggests this stress can increase one’s appetite for fat and sugar.  Stress also erodes self-control – something essential to maintaining a healthy diet.  Animal models have even shown damage to a part of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, that is centrally involved in our ability to regulate our behavior.

Listen to or read the full story

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July marked the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Land Grant Act, the legislation that created the U.S. land-grant college system. "The Morrill Act is the basis for one of Cornell's most enduring qualities as a land-grant institution - a deep commitment to developing knowledge that benefits communities around the world," says Cornell President David Skorton.

Read the related stories

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Scientists in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research are studying every facet of 4-H, the largest youth development organization program in New York, to maximize its positive impact on youth. The article quotes Stephen Hamilton, professor of human development and associate director for youth development at the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.

Read the full story on page 4, Human Ecology Magazine, 40:1.

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At the height of wedding season, professor Karl Pillemer shared the best advice elders he surveyed have to offer on a lasting union.

In our surveys of the life wisdom of the oldest Americans, I was particularly interested in their advice about finding a life partner and staying married. Many of the elders we talked with in the Legacy Project had been married for 30, 40, 50 or more years. Others had experienced disastrous marriages - but offered advice for how younger people can avoid the same fiascoes.

Read about their three top (and somewhat surprising) lessons

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Karl Pillemer, the Hazel E. Reed Professor in the Department of Human Development, speaks to Ohio seniors about his research on the wisdom of our elders.

"America is an exploding aging society," said Karl Pillemer, professor of gerontology and human development at the Ivy League institution. "People over the age of 60 outnumber people under the age of 18 and one of the most important things we can do is to prepare for this."

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Ceci-Williams
Cornell psychologists Stephen Ceci and Wendy Williams with two of their three daughters

A new paper by two developmental psychologists on the dearth of women in academic science argues that the cause of the gender imbalance is much easier to identify than most researchers have posited. The solution is also more obvious, they say, although that doesn't mean it will be easy to implement (see sidebar). Not surprisingly, their provocative assertions, in a paper titled “When Scientists Choose Motherhood,” have stirred the pot in an already contentious field.

Writing in the March/April issue of American Scientist, Wendy Williams and Stephen Ceci of Cornell University argue that the traditional view of female underrepresentation as a complex mixture of discrimination, differential abilities, and career preferences misses the mark. Instead, say the husband-and-wife team, the evidence from studies stretching back more than a decade points overwhelmingly to the primacy of “the dynamics of family formation in Western society,” or, in a word, motherhood. Read the full story

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It is a new book called “30 Lessons for Living” (Hudson Street Press) that offers practical advice from more than 1,000 older Americans from different economic, educational and occupational strata who were interviewed as part of the ongoing Cornell Legacy Project.

Its author, Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development at the College of Human Ecology at Cornell and a gerontologist at the Weill Cornell Medical College, calls his subjects “the experts,” and their advice is based on what they did right and wrong in their long lives. Read the full story

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By Susan Kelly
Reprinted from Cornell Chronicle, April 24, 2012

Cornell's Institute for the Social Sciences (ISS) has announced the recipients of its biannual small-grant award for interdisciplinary research and conference support. The grants support a wide range of topics, from "Platonic Friendship and Social Olfactory Cues in Human Body Odor" (Vivian Zayas, psychology), to "Elections, Accountability and Democratic Governance in Africa" (Muna Ndulo, law and African development).

The ISS small grant program is designed to assist Cornell's tenure-track and tenured faculty working within the social sciences. It also provides funding for research led by junior faculty members, projects that will subsequently seek external funding, and/or activities that will lead to ISS theme project proposals.

The spring 2012 recipients and their projects are:

  • Shorna Allred, natural resources, "Civic Engagement, Civil Society Organizations and Urban Environmental Governance: Implications for the New Environmental Politics of Urban Development";
  • Christopher Barrett, applied economics and management, "Targeting and Impacts of India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme";
  • Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue, development sociology; William Block, Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER); and Sarah Giroux, development sociology, "Cyber-Boosting African Social Science: Exporting the CISER Experience";
  • Ziad Fahmy, Near Eastern studies, "Listening to the Nation: Mass Culture and Identities in Interwar Egypt";
  • Eli Friedman, international and comparative labor, "Education Work in China: A Comparative Study of Beijing's Separate School Systems";
  • Don Kenkel, policy analysis and management, "Health Insurance Choice and Utilization";
  • Stacey Langwick, anthropology, "Toward Sustainable Health: Modernizing Traditional Medicine in Tanzania";
  • Aija Leiponen, applied economics and management, "Innovating the Smart Grid: Organization of R&D, Standards and the Electricity Industry";
  • Jordan Matsudaira, policy analysis and management, "Modeling College Choice: The Role of Preferences and Constraints in Producing Disparities in College Attendance Outcomes";
  • Andrew Mertha, government, "Policymaking under the Shadow of Death: the Policymaking Process under the Khmer Rouge in Democratic Kampuchea";
  • Muna Ndulo, law and African development, "Elections, Accountability and Democratic Governance in Africa";
  • Valerie Reyna, human development, "Fuzzy-Trace Theory and the Law: Testing a Theoretical Model of Juror Damage Awards";
  • Andrey Ukhov, hotel administration, "Time-Varying Risk Preferences and Asset Prices: Evidence from Lottery Bonds"; and
  • Vivian Zayas, psychology, "Platonic Friendship and Social Olfactory Cues in Human Body Odor."

More information on these projects is available online.