Medicine & Healthcare Psychology

The International Symposium on Triglyceride/Neutral Lipid and Rare Diseases will be held at the Kyoto International Conference Center on October 21 and 22, 2023. The symposium is organized by the International Symposium on Triglyceride/Neutral Lipid and Rare Diseases Conference Committee, which is led by Dr. Ken-ichi Hirano (Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University) and the Japan Intractable Diseases (Nanbyo) Research Foundation.

The researchers from Osaka University showed how two psychological factors, belief in just deserts (BJD) and human rights restrictions (HRR), differ across countries. BJD tended to be higher in Japan and lower in the UK, whereas HRR was higher in China and lower in Japan. Public health messages for high-HRR individuals could potentially be used effectively to reduce disease-related discrimination and prejudice.

The Nobel prize winning physicist Niels Bohr once said, “An expert is a (person) that has made all the mistakes that can be made in a narrow field.” This idea that to master a skill we must learn from our mistakes and avoid making them in future has long been recognized; however, the brain mechanisms and pathways that control this ability have been poorly understood. We revealed a specific brain pathway that allows us to identify and learn from our mistakes to guide better decision-making in future. Our work is an important step towards understanding how the brain controls our daily choices and behavior. The identification of these cells as ‘mistake signalers’ may also help to guide new treatments for mental health conditions associated with impaired decision-making ability.

Team studies discrimination, mental distress, and work impairment in COVID-19 survivors.

Researchers from Osaka University found that the “belief in just deserts”, which is the idea that infected individual deserves to be infected, was associated with attitudes about government restrictions during public health emergencies in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic. This information could lead to new strategies for combating discrimination, prejudice, and stigma against COVID-19 patients.

World's first research into relationship between rich-in-biodiversity garden greenery and health/well-being launched by University of Tokyo and Sekisui House Ltd.

Dr. Kazuhiro Ohtani is a certified public psychologist and a lecturer at Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Education. His main research interest is the academic motivations of Japanese students, especially adolescents. He believes that children in the age range of puberty are more prone to depression, which often leads to the loss of academic motivation.

COVID-19 has led to psychological distress among one in three adults, large-scale meta-analysis by researchers at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, reveals.

Researchers at Nagoya University reveal that eating in front of a mirror—or even with a picture of yourself eating—makes food more appealing.