Telling yourself I can do better, can really make you do better at a given task, a study published in Frontiers in Psychology has found.

Over 44,000 people took part in an experiment to discover what motivational techniques really worked. In conjunction with BBC Lab UK, Professor Andrew Lane and his colleagues tested which physiological skills would help people improve their scores in an online game.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) is made up of exons and introns, that is, portions of genetic information that are "switched on" and "switched off", respectively. In order to reach maturation and be sent to the cellular "machine" that deals with protein synthesis, the non-coding fragments contained in the mRNA, the introns, need to be removed, whereas the coding sequences, the exons, have to be linked together. In humans, this "snipping and stitching" process, known as splicing, is governed by a huge machinery consisting of proteins and RNA, the spliceosome.

It's difficult to convince yourself to go out to that party when you won't know anybody there and your couch is so comfortable and your Xbox is sitting right there, begging to be played.

And while it's easy to justify taking the easy way out of an uncomfortable social situation and spending a night in playing *insert violent video game here*, a new study suggests that avoiding one party to play violent video games will make it even less likely that you'll go to the next.

The study, published this month in Developmental Psychology, found that individuals who use problematic media (think violent video games, gambling, pornography) become more withdrawn over the course of a year.

Women in the United States increasingly groom their pubic hair, especially those who are younger, white and have partners who prefer it, according to an article published online by JAMA Dermatology.

Previous research has suggested that most women report engaging in pubic hair grooming and pubic hair removal. Knowledge of grooming behaviors is important for health care professionals because these behaviors reflect cultural norms and can be a source of patient morbidity.

Tami S. Rowen, M.D., M.S., of the University of California, San Francisco, and coauthors surveyed women to examine demographic characteristics and motivations associated with pubic hair grooming habits. The study analysis included 3,316 women who answered a question on grooming.

Researchers from KU Leuven (Belgium) and the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (Germany) have managed to erase unpleasant memories in mice using a 'genetic switch'. Their findings were published in Biological Psychiatry.

Dementia, accidents, or traumatic events can make us lose the memories formed before the injury or the onset of the disease. Researchers from KU Leuven and the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology have now shown that some memories can also be erased when one particular gene is switched off.

ANN ARBOR--Free radicals cause cell damage and death, aging and disease, and scientists have sought new ways to repel them for years.

Now, a new University of Michigan study outlines the discovery of a protein that acts as a powerful protectant against free radicals. Ironically, the protein is activated by excessive free radicals. Human mutations of the gene for this protein are previously known to cause a rare, neurodegenerative disease.

Lysosomes, which comprise the cell's recycling center, are crucial for cleaning up injured and dying parts of the cells, said lead researcher Haoxing Xu, U-M associate professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology.