What would the world look like to someone with a bionic eye?

August 3, 2015

What would the world look like to someone with a bionic eye?

Various sight recovery therapies are being developed by companies around the world, offering new hope for people who are blind. But little is known about what the world will look like to patients who undergo those procedures. A new University of Washington study seeks to answer that question and offers visual simulations of what someone with restored vision might see. The study concludes that while important advancements have been made in the field, the vision provided by sight recovery technologies…

June 2, 2015

UW psychology professor Yuichi Shoda honored for famous long-term study on delayed gratification

Yuichi Shoda, UW professor of psychology and recipient of 2015 Golden Goose Award from AUP.

University of Washington psychology professor Yuichi Shoda has been honored for his ongoing participation in a well-known — and perhaps slightly misunderstood — long-term study about delayed gratification.

April 20, 2015

Study shows early environment has a lasting impact on stress response systems

New University of Washington research finds that children’s early environments have a lasting impact on their responses to stress later in life, and that the negative effects of deprived early environments can be mitigated — but only if that happens before age 2. Published April 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research is believed to be the first to identify a sensitive period during early life when children’s stress response systems are particularly likely to…

April 15, 2015

Man with restored sight provides new insight into how vision develops

California man Mike May made international headlines in 2000 when his sight was restored by a pioneering stem cell procedure after 40 years of blindness. But a study published three years after the operation found that the then-49-year-old could see colors, motion and some simple two-dimensional shapes, but was incapable of more complex visual processing. Hoping May might eventually regain those visual skills, University of Washington researchers and colleagues retested him a decade later. But in a paper now available…

November 5, 2014

UW study shows direct brain interface between humans

An example of how the brain to brain interface demonstration would look.

University of Washington researchers have successfully replicated a direct brain-to-brain connection between pairs of people as part of a scientific study following the team’s initial demonstration a year ago.

October 14, 2014

Orphanage care linked to thinner brain tissue in regions related to ADHD

Psychological studies of children who began life in Romanian orphanages shows that institutionalization is linked to physical changes in brain structure. The thinning of the cortex leaves a lasting legacy that can explain impulsivity and inattention years later.

September 23, 2014

Dying brain cells cue new brain cells to grow in songbird

Using a songbird as a model, scientists have described a brain pathway that replaces cells that have been lost naturally and not because of injury.

July 15, 2014

Brain responses to emotional images predict PTSD symptoms after Boston Marathon bombing

brain scan showing activation of the amygdala in the left hemisphere

By using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans from before the attack and survey data from after, the researchers found that heightened amygdala reaction to negative emotional stimuli was a risk factor for later developing symptoms of PTSD.

July 14, 2014

Months before their first words, babies’ brains rehearse speech mechanics

A year-old baby sits in a brain scanner, called magnetoencephalography -- a noninvasive approach to measuring brain activity. The baby listens to speech sounds like "da" and "ta" played over headphones while researchers record her brain responses.

Research from UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences shows that in 7- and 11-month-old infants speech sounds stimulate areas of the brain that coordinate and plan motor movements for speech.

May 28, 2014

PTSD treatment cost-effective when patients given choice

A cost-analysis of post-traumatic stress disorder treatments shows that letting patients choose their course of treatment – either psychotherapy or medication – is less expensive than assigning a treatment and provides a higher quality of life for patients.

February 5, 2014

Public lecture series will explore the science of decision making

The ninth annual Allen L. Edwards Psychology Lecture Series will delve into “The Science of Decision Making,” to explain how the brain and an individual’s expectations influence decisions made in uncertain conditions.

December 3, 2013

Signalers vs. strong silent types: Sparrows exude personalities during fights

Like humans, some song sparrows are more effusive than others, at least when it comes to defending their territories. New UW findings show that consistent individual differences exist not only for how aggressive individual song sparrows are but also for how much they use their signals to communicate their aggressive intentions.

November 21, 2013

David Barash explores science, religion and meaning of life in ‘Buddhist Biology’

David Barash, a UW psychology professor, is an evolutionary biologist, unapologetic atheist, and self-described Jewbu. In his latest book, “Buddhist Biology: Ancient Eastern Wisdom Meets Modern Western Science,” Barash examines the overlap between Buddhism and biology.

February 12, 2013

Get off my lawn: Song sparrows escalate territorial threats – with video

UW researchers have discovered a hierarchical warning scheme in which territorial song sparrows use increasingly threatening signals to ward off trespassing rivals.