On the record

"What really stands out in this work is the union of social psychology, neuroimaging and psychiatry. Social psychologists have been heading toward the study of emotions and group perception, and the imagers have been heading toward mapping emotion. And now we've met."

--Allen J. Hart, a social psychologist at Amherst College, who worked on one of two projects that had recently combined the talents of neuroscientists and psychologists to study how the amygdala becomes more active when people look at members of a different race, New York Times, Sept. 5.

"We believe that these varied patterns provide distinctive 'perceptual landscaspes' of [a person's] internal state and that the differences among those landscapes constitute the critical reason why each emotion feels different."

--Antonio R. Damasio, and neurology colleagues of the University of Iowa, whose recent research found that reliving an emotion caused substantial activity changes in limbic as well as somatosensory sections of the brain, Washington Post, Sept. 20.

"We've...got to make it easier for people to come here from other states. We need a reciprocity system that standardizes licenses."

--Robert Smith, president of the Georgia Association of School Psychologists, on the impending shortage of school psychologists in the state due to a large wave of retiring veterans, Savannah Morning News on the Web, Aug. 3.

Parents who choose divorce "should know what their children need and how to put them first, and what they're going to need two, five and 15 years down the line. It's the long haul that shapes their experience."

--Judith Wallerstein, who co-wrote "The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: A 25-year Landmark Study" with Julia Lewis and Sandra Blakeslee. The book found that divorce has implications that last long into adulthood, instead of having the strongest impact on children at the time of the break-up. San Francisco Examiner, Sept. 8.

"We know [fibromyalgia] is an illness for which we don't have very good answers right now...We're hopeful this is a successful intervention."

--John Astin, psychologist and assistant professor in the University of Maryland complementary medicine program, on a current study of treatment including Qi Gong, Washington Post, July 25.

"Say to yourself, 'If I wanted to make a different impression, what would that be, and what would those behaviors be that I would want to have?'"

--Neil Stroul, psychologist and career coach on what new workers should do if they think they may have left a negative impression on co-workers or supervisors, Washington Post, July 31.