Recognizing Your Hand and That of Your Romantic Partner.

Although the hand is an important organ in interpersonal interactions, focusing on this body part explicitly is less common in daily life compared with the face. We investigated (i) whether a person's recognition of their own hand is different from their recognition of another person's hand (i.e.

[Derogating victims and dehumanizing perpetrators: functions of two types of beliefs in a just world].

This study defined Belief in Just World (BJW) multidimensionally and investigated the effects of Belief in Immanent Justice (BIJ) and Belief in Ultimate Justice (BUJ) on victim derogation and draconian punishment of perpetrators. Study 1 tested the validity of the multidimensional structure of BJW and demonstrated relationships between BJW and other psychological variables. In Study 2, we measured the reactions to the victim and perpetrator in an injury case reported in a news.

Effect of decision confidence on the evaluation of conflicting decisions in a social context.

Conflicts with others about decisions are reflected in the medial frontal negativity (MFN), which is a component of the event-related brain potential (ERP). The present study examined how decision confidence in a perceptual decision task modulated the ERP components elicited by decision conflicts with others. In a motion discrimination task, participants were randomly assigned to an easy or a difficult group that differed in coherence levels of the moving dots.

Seeking gene candidates responsible for developmental origins of health and disease.

Human epidemiological evidence has led scientists to theorize that undernutrition during gestation is an important early origin of adult diseases. Animal models have successfully demonstrated that maternal diet could contribute to some adult diseases. Undernutrition is perceived harmful in pregnant women, whereas calorie restriction is a strategy proven to extend healthy and maximum lifespan in adult.

Distribution of the longevity gene product, SIRT1, in developing mouse organs.

A longevity gene product, Sir2 (silent information regulator 2) is a NAD-dependent histone deacetylase involved in longevity in yeasts, worms and flies. The mammalian homolog of Sir2, SIRT1(sirtuin 1), has been shown to play important roles related to anti-aging effects (regulating apoptosis, stress tolerance, insulin resistance, and fat metabolism). Recently, SIRT1 expression has been demonstrated to occur at as early as embryonic day 10.