Health

Emergency department visits for self-harm have spiked since the pandemic. Experts explain the psychology behind the behavior and how to overcome it. Vibh Forsythe Cox, clinical associate professor of psychology and director of the Marsha M. Linehan DBT Clinic at the UW, is quoted.

Across the animal kingdom, models have vastly underestimated the energy costs of reproduction. Lauren Buckley, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

New research from the University of Washington investigated responses to sweetened beverage taxes using the purchasing behavior of approximately 400 households in Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and Philadelphia. Researchers found that after the tax was introduced, lower-income households decreased their purchases of sweetened beverages by nearly 50%, while higher-income households reduced purchases by 18%.

Fear of flying affects more than 25 million Americans. If you are among them, these tools and expert tips could help make your next plane ride easier. Jonathan Bricker, affiliate professor of psychology at the UW, is quoted.

A new study comparing the brains of children before and after COVID-19 found that adolescent girls’ brains had aged faster than expected during the social isolation and lockdowns brought on by the pandemic. Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences at the UW and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, is quoted.

New research found that teens’ brains “aged” during the COVID-19 lockdowns due to the loss of social interaction. Girls were the most impacted. Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences at the UW and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, is quoted.

COVID lockdowns, such as school closures, canceled sports activities and stay-at-home orders, prematurely aged teen brains by as much as four years, researchers from the UW found. Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences at the UW and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, is quoted.

Neuroimaging found girls experienced cortical thinning far faster than boys did during the first year of COVID lockdowns. The UW's Neva Corrigan, research scientist at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, and Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, are quoted.

Spraying pesticides can have unintended impacts on important pollinator species. Jeff Riffell, professor of biology at the UW, is quoted.

An international team led by researchers at the University of Washington has uncovered surprising details about mosquito mating, which could lead to improved malaria control techniques and even help develop precision drone flight. In a paper published Aug. 30 in the journal Current Biology, the team revealed that when a male Anopheles coluzzii mosquito hears the sound of female-specific wingbeats, his eyes âactivateâ and he visually scans the immediate vicinity for a potential mate.

Nick Riley's chemistry research aims to understand cellular processes involving sugars, which could one day lead to advances in treating a range of diseases.

"In the face of shrinking populations, many of the world’s major economies are trying to engineer higher birth rates," co-writes Win Brown, an affiliate researcher at the Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology at the UW.

"Elon Musk recently pronounced that the next Neuralink project will be a “Blindsight” cortical implant to restore vision...Unfortunately, this claim rests on the fallacy that neurons in the brain are like pixels on a screen. It’s not surprising that engineers often assume that “more pixels equals better vision.” After all, that is how monitors and phone screens work," write Ione Fine and Geoffrey Boynton, professors of psychology at the UW.

If Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain-implant venture succeeds in its effort to create next-generation brain implants for artificial vision, the devices could bring about a breakthrough for the visually impaired — but probably wouldn’t match Musk’s claim that they could provide “better than normal vision,” UW researchers report. Ione Fine and Geoffrey Boynton, professors of psychology at the UW, are quoted.

Elon Musk's ambitious eye implants that "ultimately may exceed normal human vision" are unlikely to reach this lofty benchmark, according to scientists who have used "virtual patients" to expose the limitations of this innovative technology. Even the greatest engineering is no match for human neurophysiology in restoring sight. Ione Fine, professor of psychology at the UW, is quoted.