Mason Media Blog

When you think of people suffering from social anxiety, you probably characterize them as shy, inhibitive and submissive. However, new research from psychologists Todd Kashdan and Patrick McKnight at George Mason University suggests that there is a subset of socially anxious people who act out in aggressive, risky ways—and that their behavior patterns are often misunderstood.

In the new study, “The Darker Side of Social Anxiety: When Aggressive Impulsivity Prevails Over Shy Inhibition,” published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, Kashdan and McKnight found evidence that a subset of adults diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder were prone to behaviors such as violence, substance abuse, unprotected sex and other risk-prone actions. These actions caused positive experiences in the short-term, yet detracted from their quality of life in the longer-term.

“We often miss the underlying problems of people around us. Parents and teachers might think their kid is a bully, acts out and is a behavior problem because they have a conduct disorder or antisocial tendencies,” says Kashdan. “However, sometimes when we dive into the motive for their actions, we will find that they show extreme social anxiety and extreme fears of being judged. If social anxiety was the reason for their behavior, this would suggest an entirely different intervention.”

Kashdan and McKnight suggest that looking at the underlying cause of extreme behavior can help us understand the way people interact within society.

“In the adult world, the same can be said for managers, co-workers, romantic partners and friends. It is easy to misunderstand why people are behaving the way we do and far too often we assume that the aggressive, impulsive behaviors are the problem. What we are finding is that for a large minority of people, social anxiety underlies the problem,” says Kashdan.

The researchers suggest that further studies of this subset group can help psychologists better understand and treat the behaviors. “Recent laboratory experiments suggest that people can be trained to enhance their self-control capacities and thus better inhibit impulsive urges and regulate emotions and attention,” says McKnight. “Essentially, training people to be more self-disciplined—whether in physical workout routines or finances or eating habits—improves willpower when their self-control is tested.”

For a full copy of the study, or to interview Kashdan or McKnight, contact Tara Laskowski, Office of Media and Public Relations, at 703-993-8815 or tlaskows@gmu.edu.

What happens when you put a computer inside a human brain? That is a question Mason bioengineer Nathalia Peixoto is trying to answer.

Peixoto and her students are testing a voice-activated wheelchair. Creative Services photo

In a lab filled with equipment straight out of the space age, such as remote-control robots, a voice-activated wheelchair and a glove that interprets sign language, Peixoto is perfecting the art of mixing biology with engineering to help improve people’s lives.

Peixoto has dedicated her career to combining biological, physical and mathematical knowledge to solve problems in medicine. By implanting devices that send out electrical currents in the brain, Peixoto hopes to combat such devastating conditions as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

She also is working with prosthetic devices and assistive technology to improve the quality of life for those with disabilities. One such device is a voice-controlled wheelchair. The chair was donated by a company that makes custom wheelchairs and was modified by Peixoto’s students to interface with a computer.

“The basic idea is that you talk. You say ‘forward’ and ‘backward’, and the chair goes back and forth,” says Peixoto. To control the chair’s speed, they added an accelerometer that the user can control by humming, something almost everyone can do.

“We hope that once the chair is patented and on the market, it will help a lot of people,” says Peixoto.

To learn more, visit http://news.gmu.edu/articles/1999.

A T-shirt design for the researchers. Image courtesy of Ginny Espina

Can a drug that has been used to treat malaria for years possibly be used to treat breast cancer before it becomes invasive?

That’s what researchers at Mason’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) and Inova Breast Care Institute (IBCI) are trying to find out.

In January, the IBCI and CAPMM launched the PINC Trial, short for Preventing Invasive Breast Neoplasia with Chloroquine.

This three-year clinical trial will test the effectiveness of the anti-malarial drug chloroquine in treating 90 women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a type of breast cancer in which the cancer cells start in the milk ducts but have not yet become invasive and spread in the breast.

 To read more, visit http://news.gmu.edu/articles/1943.

George Mason University geologist Mark Uhen published a paper this week in Science that shows a strong link between the diversity of organisms at the bottom of the food chain and the diversity of mammals at the top.

Throughout the last 30 million years, changes in the diversity of whale species living at any given time period correlates with the evolution and diversification of diatoms, tiny, abundant algae that live in the ocean. In other words, the more kinds of diatoms living in a time period, the more kinds of whales there are.

What does it all mean? According to Uhen, “This study shows that if we look at the bottom of the food chain, it might tell you something about the top,” says Uhen. He believes that other similar links might be found in other animal groups, and hopes that future research can prove that.

Uhen is a term assistant professor in Mason’s Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences and is an expert in marine mammal fossils. In the future, he hopes to conduct research on how the body size of whales changes over time, and how whales became the largest living organisms in the world.

You can read the full press release here.

For a full copy of the study, or to interview Mark D. Uhen, please contact Tara Laskowski, Office of Media and Public Relations, at tlaskows@gmu.edu or 703-993-8815.

Amanuel Shitaye, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, measures carefully while working in Mason's Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine. Creative Services photo

Can a high school student get a patent? Believe it or not, some do. Temple Douglas, a 2009 high school participant in Mason’s Aspiring Scientists Progrm (ASSIP), submitted a patent for early diagnosis of Lyme disease and was recently named as a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search Competition.

ASSIP, which provides high school juniors, seniors and college undergraduates interested in exploring science and medicine the opportunity to work alongside the university’s faculty researchers, is currently accepting applications for its summer 2010 session. Participants spend eight 40-hour weeks at Mason’s Prince William and Fairfax campuses working on real-world science projects related to global challenges such as cancer, HIV, biodefense and climate change.

Since the program offers exposure to levels of science that many aspiring researchers will not see until they enter the workforce, those who participate will likely have long-term career benefits. Eleven students from previous sessions have had their work published in scientific journals or presented at professional conferences.
Founded in 2007 by cancer researchers Lance Liotta and Emanuel Petricoin III, co-directors of Mason’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, the program is now in its fourth year and has nearly doubled in size with slots for 45 participants.

To learn more, visit http://eagle.gmu.edu/newsroom/800/.

Recycling, using tote bags for groceries, carpooling, buying energy efficient appliances. You may agree that these are all actions we should be taking to reduce climate change, but are you actually doing any of them?

A new survey by Edward Maibach of the Center for Climate Change Communication (4C) at Mason shows that we are not.

While 88 percent of Americans say that it is important to recycle at home, only 51 percent “often” or “always” do; while 81 percent say it is important to use re-usable shopping bags, only 33 percent “often” or “always” do; and 76 percent of us say it is important to buy locally grown food, but only 26 percent “often” or “always” do.

This gap between attitude and action may have many reasons behind it, say the researchers. They suggest that continuing to make options such as public transportation more readily available and convenient to people may start to turn the statistics around.

The survey was conducted by 4C and the Yale Project on Climate Change. For more information, check out the press release and full report.

Do physicians provide more services to Medicare patients to make up for lower Medicare fees? With almost 42 million people enrolled in Medicare in the United States in 2008, it’s a question that could have a very costly answer.

Jack Hadley, Senior Health Services Researcher in George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services

Jack Hadley, professor and senior health services researcher in George Mason University’s College of Health and Human Services, along with co-authors James Reschovsky of the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), Catherine Corey of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and Stephen Zuckerman of The Urban Institute, analyzed thousands of physicians and their Medicare insurance claims to investigate volume-offset behavior, the belief that physicians respond to lower Medicare fees by increasing service volume to make up for potential lost revenue.

The results of the study, “Medicare Fees and the Volume of Physicians’ Services,” were published online Feb. 10 in the health-policy journal “Inquiry.”

“In recent years, Medicare fees have fallen after accounting for inflation, while overall physician costs and volume of physician services have grown. Although suggestive of volume-offset behavior, national trend data do not necessarily reflect how physicians respond to variations in specific Medicare fees. Our analysis isolated this relationship by controlling for other factors that also influence service volume,” Hadley said.

To learn more, visit http://news.gmu.edu/articles/1681.

Public concern about global warming has dropped sharply since the fall of 2008, according to the results of a national survey released today by researchers at Yale and George Mason universities. Only 50 percent of Americans now say they are “somewhat” or “very worried” about global warming, a 13-point decrease.

Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, and his colleague Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change, attribute several reasons for this decline.

“Over the past year the United States has experienced rising unemployment, public frustration with Washington and a divisive health care debate, largely pushing climate change out of the news. Meanwhile, a set of emails stolen from climate scientists and used by critics to allege scientific misconduct may have contributed to an erosion of public trust in climate science,” said Leiserowitz.

The survey also showed that people are now less likely to trust the media, weather reporters and scientists about climate change.

“The scientific evidence is clear that climate change is real, human-caused and a serious threat to communities across America,” said Maibach. “The erosion in both public concern and public trust about global warming should be a clarion call for people and organizations trying to educate the public about this important issue.”

The full press release can be read on the Mason press release site.

A copy of the report can be downloaded from: http://climatechange.gmu.edu.

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Emanuel Petricoin III and Lance Liotta have a discussion with researcher Virginia Espina in their lab. Photo by Evan Cantwell

Imagine if treatments for disease could be based not on patients’ diagnoses, but instead on the characteristics of their tissue. By identifying and decoding the cryptic messages hidden deep inside the human proteome, scientists and physicians who study personalized medicine are seeking more effective treatments and disease management for patients.

Lance Liotta and Emanuel Petricoin III, professors of life sciences and co-directors of Mason’s Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), are pioneers in the field of patient-tailored research and personalized medicine. The two study biomarkers (indicators of disease in tissue and bodily fluids) related to cancer, heart disease, liver disease and obesity.

They recently launched a unique clinical trial in partnership with oncologists and co-principal investigators Kirstin Edmiston, medical director of cancer services at Inova Health System, and Alexander I. Spira, director of Fairfax Northern Virginia Hematology Oncology Research Program, to treat patients with late-stage colorectal cancer, a fatal cancer that starts in either the colon or the rectum.

Striking more than 150,000 American men and women each year, colorectal cancer is the nation’s third most commonly diagnosed cancer and third leading cause of cancer death, according to the American Cancer Society.

The three-year trial will accommodate up to 50 men and women who have late-stage colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver.

“Traditionally, all colon cancers have been lumped together and given similar treatments. The novelty about this is that we can, in a very minimally invasive way, start to treat the metastatic tumor based on its unique protein makeup,” says Edmiston.

“If we’re going to be successful in treating the metastatic disease, which is what kills people, then we need to focus on using therapies targeted toward the individuality of a patient’s disease state. This clinical trial is the first step toward doing that.”

 To read more, visit http://news.gmu.edu/articles/1477.

Merav Opher

Merav Opher, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Mason, just had a paper published in the Dec. 24 edition of the journal Science that solves an interstellar mystery about the outer edges of the solar system.

According to a NASA press release, our solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist.

“Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system,” says Opher, lead author, in the NASA article. “This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all.”

A story on the discovery appeared on the USA Today web site, and news of the magnetic field was also covered by other national news outlets.

In 2008,  Opher won a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER grant and was awarded the distinguished and highly competitive Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She was presented with that award at a special White House ceremony hosted by President George W. Bush.

Opher is one of the only women in her field — and by far one of the youngest scientists —working to calculate the flow of particles and magnetic fields of the area just outside our solar system. Her journal articles have been published in numerous places, and her work was one of National Geographic’s Top 10 stories of the year for 2007.