Humanities & Society

So you think you know what your parents want? A psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis is conducting research that shows two adult siblings may have radically different views on what their parents would want. In fact, he says that a random stranger might have the same chance at guessing parental wishes as some children would.

Advice for holiday toy shopping.Visions of sugarplums? Forget about it! The only visions most children are having as the holidays approach are of toys, toys and more toys. But how do parents choose the right ones for their young children to provide the most amount of fun but also some educational benefit as well? Two education experts at Washington University in St. Louis offer tips on good toy choices for children.

Josh Smith in the Libyan desert.They’re back! Joshua Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, and D. Tab Rasmussen, Ph.D., professor of anthropology, both in Arts & Sciences, are stateside, teaching at Washington University after returning from what is thought to be the first-ever collaborative paleontological expedition between American and Libyan scientists. Smith and Rasmussen were in Libya for just three weeks in August of 2005. They were in the field for only 10 days, and they and their colleagues visited 13 new places that have produced Cretaceous-aged vertebrate fossils. They found fossils of sharks, bony fish, crocodiles and turtles.

WUSM researchers have developed a diagnostic tool for identifying pathological gambling disorder.More than 80 percent of the U.S. population gambles at some time in their lives. It might be the lottery, bingo or poker. Most never need treatment for problem gambling, but others lose control and lose their houses or cars and damage family relationships as a result of compulsive gambling. Little is known about why people gamble and how to predict who is likely to become a pathological gambler, but Washington University researchers have developed a diagnostic tool for identifying pathological gambling disorder, and they’re beginning to learn who is at risk.

Structure of the fatty acid receptor CD36As you stand at buffet tables during holiday parties this year, it might cheer you up to know most people don’t gain as much weight over the holidays as once was thought. Instead of five or 10 pounds, most of us actually gain only a pound or two. But it might depress you to know that weight gain happens one pound at a time, and in the long run, it may be hard to avoid — especially for some of us, because some of the taste buds in our tongues are programmed to make us crave fatty food — and fat is everywhere in our diets. French researchers recently reported that mice have a receptor in their tongues that can sense fat, and the presence of that receptor seems to drive the mice to crave fat in their diets. The research was based on work from scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, where investigators previously had identified a protein receptor for fat and documented its function in recognizing and using fatty food.

Mania can be confused with ADHD.Child psychiatry researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a small group of preschoolers who appear to suffer from bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness. In findings presented this fall to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the researchers reported they had identified key symptoms that distinguish bipolar disorder from other problems in very young children. Diagnosing bipolar disorder in childhood can be difficult because the manic phase of the illness can be confused with the more common attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The confusion arises because mania and ADHD both involve hyperactivity, irritability and distractibility.

Photo courtesy of HerPlanet Inc.Avoid a holiday-shopping nightmare.Whether it’s a last-minute rush to the mall or a year-long obsession, the quest for the “perfect gift” has the potential to turn holiday shopping into an annual nightmare. A psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis who is an expert on helping people gain control of personal habits, such as smoking and overeating, says many of the same techniques can be used to get a grip on holiday shopping.

The Story Link program lets prisoners talk to their children via cassette tapes.Thousands of Missouri inmates have been given a chance to reconnect with their children thanks to a volunteer program led by WUSM’s Dana and Jane Abendschein. The Story Link program allows inmates to record messages and children’s stories onto a cassette, which is then mailed to their families. For many inmates, it’s the only form of communication they have with their children.

At the Center for Social Development (CSD) in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Michael Sherraden, Ph.D., and his faculty colleagues, staff, and graduate students are dedicating themselves to addressing the root causes of poverty and finding solutions. To this end, CSD has found a partner in the Ford Foundation, a philanthropic organization whose goals include asset building to create better societies.

The School of Medicine will receive $5.9 million over the course of five years to begin an ambitious and potentially decades-long search for the earliest signs that a seemingly normal person may someday develop Alzheimer’s disease.