Word: functional
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...groups of words. The powerful group got words that implied high power, like "authority" or "dominate." The powerless group were given words such as "subordinate" and "obey." The control group got power-neutral words. After completing the word tasks, participants were tested for what Galinsky refers to as "executive function" - the ability to pay attention to relevant information while ignoring irrelevant information, and completing tasks based on the relevant information...
Researchers employed several different tests of executive function, the best-known among them being the Stroop test, a measure of cognitive attention developed in the 1930s: participants are shown color words, such as "red," "blue" or "yellow," printed in colors that are different from the color that the word actually names. So, the word "blue" might be written in green lettering, "red" would appear in blue, and so forth. The participant's goal is to name the color of the font he or she sees - an exercise of mental effort, called "directed attention," that requires people to override the immediate...
...person of Kennedy's age who suffers a seizure, says Blumenthal, "we can't rule out anything cardiovascular or cerebrovascular." That means that tests of the electrical activity of Kennedy's heart will be useful in isolating any potential abnormalities in his heart function, such as a slow heart rate or an irregular heartbeat, that could have contributed to the seizure. CAT scans and MRIs of the brain will also be needed to ensure that Kennedy's episode wasn't caused by a tumor or infection in the brain...
...started drinking when I was ten. There's a scene in the book where I talk about discovering the booze in the cupboard underneath the stove... It, too, functioned very briefly as a mood stabilizer... It elevated my mood, and just made me feel like I was flying. Instead of feeling like I was going up and down and up and down, there were no more crashes. For a few hours at a time, I wasn't terrified, I wasn't anxious - I was just high as a kite. Of course, like any other alcoholic, the reasons...
...year, according to findings published in this month's American Journal of Psychiatry. Surveying data from nearly 5,000 participants, researchers determined that people suffering from a SMI - defined as a range of mood and anxiety disorders, including suicidal tendencies, that significantly impaired a person's ability to function for at least 30 days over the past year - earned at least 40% less than people in good mental health. "The results of this study confirm the belief that mental disorders contribute to enormous losses of human productivity," says Ronald Kessler, a Harvard professor of health care policy and lead author...