wire - news in brief

The way in which the phase-out of nuclear power plants in Germany is currently planned could negatively influence the safety of the facilities.

Around a third of all employees find their work stressful. Interventions for stress and burnout are available, but often not accessible for many employees. A self-help book based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has the potential to reduce burnout, stress and symptoms of depression - without any therapist contact.

After experiencing social exclusion, a minimum of attention suffices to reduce individuals' negative emotions. Even rejection or unkind comments are better for well-being than being ignored by other people. This finding has important implications for the treatment of applicants during selection processes, report psychologists from the University of Basel and Purdue University in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Anxiety in social situations is not a rare problem: Around one in ten people are affected by social anxiety disorder during their lifetime. Social anxiety disorder is diagnosed if fears and anxiety in social situations significantly impair everyday life and cause intense suffering. Talking in front of a larger group can be one typical feared situation.

Scientists in the group of Andreas Lüthi have identified two neuronal circuits that mediate the association of contextual information with emotional memories. In their publication in Cell, they describe networks of neurons that are active in the hippocampus and the amygdala, when we associate for example an unpleasant situation with a certain place.

This year's Swiss Human Relations Barometer focuses on the topic "loyalty and cynicism" - specifically, the tension between how employees experience and demonstrate both loyalty and cynicism, the latter being a negative, even derisive, attitude that employees develop toward their employers.

Studies by the University of Basel have shown that whether and how risk-taking propensity varies over a person's life span depends in part on how risk taking is measured. When subjects are asked how they assess their risk propensity, a clear reduction with age is the result. However, this reduction is not necessarily observed for specific risk-taking tasks.

Maternal stress and depression during pregnancy may activate certain protective mechanisms in babies. Psychologists from the University of Basel together with international colleagues report that certain epigenetic adaptations in newborns suggest this conclusion. Their In their study, the researchers observed that increased concentrations of maternal stress hormones, depressive symptoms and general adversities during pregnancy were accompanied by epigenetic changes in the child.

Disaster films and science-fiction stories can go one step beyond entertaining us: they can also help shape our values. By Susanne Leuenberger (From "Horizons" no. March 2016) The Antarctic wasteland stretches out endlessly before us on the movie screen. For several minutes, the aerial photography explores the sublime beauty and the terrors of this icy world.

One in four young people have experienced chronic pain and a mental disorder. According to a new report in the Journal of Pain, the onset of pain is often preceded by mental disorders: an above-average rate of incidence of depression, anxiety disorders, and behavioral disorders occurs before the onset of headaches, back pain and neck pain.

From stimulus to emotion: A role for cortex in emotional learning A team of neurobiologists around Andreas Lüthi at the Friedrich Miescher Institute of Biomedical Research has shown for the first time that cortex, the largest area of the brain that is typically associated with higher functions such as perception and cognition, is also a prominent site of emotional learning.

Eye, I, aye: investigating embodiment, identity and sociality and the Internet a talk from Elizabeth Churchill, on December 16th, at 10h15, in room BC 410 Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the increasingly broad remit of human computer interaction (HCI) as a discipline.