Monday, January 07, 2008
brain doping vs. steroids
as zack lynch correctly points out, brain doping will only become more prevalent. it's one of the first things i noticed about my fellow graduate students. i was shocked to get texts during midterms asking, "one more paper... anyone have adderall?" students were very open about their adderall use - and most people are open about their use of caffeine as a cognitive booster. dilbert's gary larson said "that one key ingredient [for idea generation] is caffeine." mathematician paul erdos once said, "a mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems."
the only distinctions between caffeine and adderall, so far as i can tell, are duration and effectiveness. the intentions and outcomes are similar: altertness, focus. and steroids are not a muscular equivalent to these cogniceuticals simply because the effects of steroids last longer, for multiple games. so, perhaps the only reason why we're against some performance-enhancing drugs is because, quite simply, they work better than others? is that a rational exclusion criterion?
Labels: drugs, neuroscience
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Thursday, August 09, 2007
cleaning out my drafts box
up first (as it's the oldest): a great lay explanation of how memory works for those interested from the always-interesting sci. am. mind magazine. an excerpt:
The moment-to-moment memories necessary for operating in the present are handled well by transient adjustments in the strength of individual synapses. But when an event is important enough or is repeated enough, synapses fire to make the neuron in turn fire neural impulses repeatedly and strongly, declaring "this is an event that should be recorded." The relevant genes turn on, and the synapses that are holding the short-term memory when the synapse-strengthening proteins find them, become, in effect, tattooed.
Labels: neuroscience
You should check out "An Introduction to Natural Computation" by some dude named Ballard.
By 
chris, at
Sat Aug 11, 08:21:00 AM
I read "great lay" and got side-tracked.
What were you saying?
By Mungowitz, at
Wed Aug 15, 06:53:00 AM
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Thursday, February 01, 2007
insular cortex and addiction
a million questions follow from this. what is it about the insula? does this work with all additions? would it work for non-drug addictions such as shopping (a personal question)? will surgery or new drugs targeting the insula replace nicorette and hypnotism? does this poke holes in or confirm the disease theory of addiction?
individual differences in insular activity, linked to genetics, may also help us understand more about the addictive personality.
reference: Nasir H. Naqvi, David Rudrauf, Hanna Damasio, Antoine Bechara. Damage to the Insula Disrupts Addiction to Cigarette Smoking. Science. 2007 Jan 26; 315(5811):531-534.
Labels: drugs, neuroscience
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Tuesday, January 02, 2007
can we bury the past and still think of the future?
apparently, there aren't many anymore. these "corrective labor camps" which murdered over one million for crimes against the soviet state, are now simply things such as "just a village for miners," according to one girl. even those who lived through such horrors don't speak of it.
if freud is to be believed, some "forgetting" is natural and healthy. however, as thoughts of the future are inexorably linked to those of the past, i.e. our memories, in our brains, i wonder how this rewrite of the past is changing survivors' abilities to think about the future.
read more about the gulags here or here and, for the bookish, here.
Labels: misc. psych, neuroscience, political
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Wednesday, October 11, 2006
neurotheology
the rockefeller chapel here has a cool art exhibit by neurologist audrius plioplys on neurotheology. those interested in this blog may want to check it out - it raises important questions of the soul, reductionism, etc.
Because his works represent the human brain's ability to think philosophically, he sees them as spiritual. "It's from these neurological networks that the human spirit comes from," said Plioplys.
Labels: neuroscience, social
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Monday, October 09, 2006
don't stress, just trust.
taiki takahashi of hokkaido university induced socially stressful situations using the trier stress test. cortisol (a stress hormone) levels, memory, and trust-related personality traits were also measured.
takahashi found that social stress hampers memory (as opposed to emotional stress, which enhances it). perhaps more interestingly, individuals with high levels of trust were correlated with reduced stress (cortisol) levels. this makes sense in some ways; more trusting individuals probably does make interactions with them less stressful.
therefore, takahashi concludes that "interpersonal trust may modulate economic behaviors via stress hormone's action on social cognition-related brain regions."
Labels: economics, neuroscience
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Sunday, August 20, 2006
averse to loss?
check out the links, too - esp. the self-affirmation one.
Labels: economics, neuroscience
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
hippocampal bully and the importance of intuition
Labels: economics, neuroscience
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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
are we more afraid of terrorism than we were of communism?
So why is the post 9/11 era more frightening than the post 1945 era? After all, the world actually almost ended during the Cuban Missile Crisis. While exploding airplanes and dirty subway bombs are destructive and tragic, they aren't Armageddon. We were closer to the Rapture in 1962 than we are in 2006.the answer proposed? terrorists are more unpredictable, and so activate the amygdala. the soviets were part of an institution engaged in stable relations whose actions, though dangerous, were typically conducted via established memes and diplomatic veins, therefore partially predictable.
interesting theory!
for more on psychology and attitude towards terrorism, see cass sunsein's post on mortality salience and support for the war/bush.
Labels: neuroscience, political
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Saturday, August 05, 2006
mapping happiness
it may be interesting to compare this to the economic freedom map:
(blue=most free)
but i'm confused. does anyone know how this world happiness stuff matters at all if one's default-state affect is largely genetic? psychologists need to make up their minds.
check out some other maps, too.
Labels: neuroscience, well being
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Monday, July 24, 2006
some news i wish i could say more about now
would fall under "not surprising": people "gesture" with their voices.
first neurons in the cerebral cortex (responsible for most conscious thought) are discovered. they're there 31 days after fertilization, which may be used by the pro-life camp despite the fact that they're probably involved only in determining future growth of the brain and not in cognition itself.
Labels: links, neuroscience
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Thursday, July 20, 2006
how do we know what actions are worth taking?
Labels: economics, neuroscience
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Wednesday, July 19, 2006
neuroeconomics
Labels: economics, neuroscience
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Thursday, July 13, 2006
neuroawesome
What's a neuroword? One of the contest entries defines it: "neurologism: a word created by prefixing "neuro" to almost any normal word"yes. my new word is neuroawesome, although unfortunately it's too late to submit it for the contest. the submissions have a few good neurologisms, such neuronerd (someone who is "neuropsyched"), and neurolicious. but in all seriousness, my favorite, although i may have defined it a bit differently:
Neurocompetitive advantage: Competitive advantage derived from leveraging neurotechnology.
Labels: neuroscience
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Monday, June 19, 2006
what "bugs" me about obesity
researchers varied the composition of the microbiota in mouse digestive systems and subsequently fed them the same diet. it turns out that one particular combination increases calorie intake: m. smithii and b. thetaiotaomicron. without these species, carbohydrate digestion would slow significantly.
the new issue of the journal also has an interesting study on obesity, suggesting that there is an enzyme that predisposes towards lower body weight, yet increases susceptibility to diet-induced obesity. this provides further evidence for my theory that life just isn't fair!!
Labels: neuroscience
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Friday, June 09, 2006
happiness on the left
the prefrontal cortex (PFC) has long been implicated in emotion modulation. activation patterns in the right PFC seem most activated under situations of threat, anxiety, and stress.
so what does this mean - can we just figure out how to quiet the right brain to find happiness? no, causation goes the other way. this just tells us which areas of the brain are being used to handle unpleasant states such as stress and anxiety. what it may do, however, is help avoid some of the survey biases that occur when simply asking someone what they feel. one crux of survey analyses is that few tell the truth, and it would be much simpler just to see it on a brain scan.
but some, unlike our lady peace, think that eating fish may be a link to happiness. a recent study correlate fish consumption to happiness, citing omega-3 fatty acids as the likely culprit. others say that boredom (and its oft-associated depressed affect) is a cleverly devised evolutionary tool, so perhaps happiness isn't the goal anyway. but as this north carolina government site says, it's all about the attitude - whatever that means (yes, tax dollars created that!). and we all know that uncle sam knows best.
Labels: neuroscience, well being
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Sunday, June 04, 2006
brain scans and ice cream
so does this mean some of us are doomed to give in to cravings? not necessarily. answer: brain plasticity! although our original make-up or behaviors that have been hard-wired through years of social influence are strong, we can significantly effect the functioning of our brains. case in point is the arrowsmith school, which my friend debi pointed out to me a few weeks ago. a PhD student who herself was learning-disabled constructed brain "exercises" to work the deficient areas. according to reports, this has been a dramatic success. her technique is being adopted in other canadian schools as well. what i would love, love, love to see is a fMRI study comparing students before and after the school's lessons.
so, in summary, you're not stuck with what you've got. you've just got to really want what to change and figure out how to do it. perhaps someday we'll have brain exercises for self-control.
Labels: neuroscience, well being
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Monday, May 29, 2006
brains communicate with computers, and note on private funding
this is old news, though... from my archive of "draft but never published" posts:Honda Says Brain Waves Control Robot
Australian research shows mobile phones affect brain function
some odd stuff is going on in a basement at princeton:
Using random event generators -- computers that spew random output -- they have participants focus their intent on controlling the machines' output. Out of several million trials, they've detected small but "statistically significant" signs that minds may be able to interact with machines.far out. but how does this operation stay solvent without funds from the university or public grants? private donations, namely from mcdonnell douglas aircraft, a rockefeller, and a wealthy businessman sustain their abstract project.
private sources fund many surprising - i.e., seemingly pointless or extraneous - research projects. one prominent example is the institute for advanced study which funded einstein and godel in their later years.
the history of the institute, which i read in the very excellent book incompleteness, illustrates the power of private funds in academic research. IAS was funded initially by a wealthy brother and sister because of their belief that at times seemingly "useless" not rewarded in the academic arena is actually of great value scientifically.
Labels: neuroscience
If that's the most productive research money can buy... well hell, power to em! I'm glad to see private funding gowing to the somewhat fringe fields as well as traditional investment.
By 
, at
Thu Jun 01, 12:44:00 AM
Another private organization, The Hanso Foundation, has also funded some great work. Check it out at www.hansofoundation.org.
But, that said, think of all the awesome things people could do with government funding too.
I joke around a lot about being for smoking bans etc., but this time I'm serious: I'm all about government funding of science and research, as long as I get to choose what's funded:
1. Flying cars
2. Invisibility
3. Life Extension/Immortality
4. Time Travel
5. Genetic Enhancement
6. Diseases and stuff.
mmm flying cars. i'd be fine with that too. and among some of the crazy gov't research projects that actually sounds semi-reasonable. in fact, NASA is working on it from what i hear.
my position on gov't funding of research is not surprising, but i can't talk really, because next week i'm re-writing an NIH grant proposal...
By ns, at
Sat Jun 03, 01:42:00 PM
Seriously though. Don't you think government can do some real good in this area? I don't think the traditional critiques apply here, because there's not a disincentive to fail. If a scientist can discover a cure for AIDS, he can pitch another proposal and the chances of it being funded increase. So there's an incentive for success in science, unlike, say, environmental protection.
By Greg, at
Sat Jun 03, 10:49:00 PM
gov’t research funding is certainly one of the least harmful programs, and i think libertarians might do better to worry about other areas first. going after NIH is probably counterproductive. and i think you’re right in part; reputation gives an incentive to succeed rather than fail.
yet there are some significant problems with government-funded research. often politically favorable outcomes only get renewed grants, which can be very dangerous because it spins research. politically fashionable outcomes get credibility, even if they are in the minority on that subject. this actually happened to my aunt, a researcher at wash. u.’s medical school. she was studying the effects of pollution, but this can also be the case for illegal drug research. another problem is that citizens are forced to pay for research they are morally opposed to (e.g. HIV studies on orphaned infants, studies on sexual practices, etc.). there are a host of other problems – NIH has recently come under fire for conflicts of interest in grant approval.
vernon smith may be a libertarian but does take NIH and other government money. he says it is better that he take it. maybe that’s just a rationalization, but he does have a point.
By ns, at
Sun Jun 04, 02:01:00 PM
I guess there is the possibility that researrch can be tailored to suit political ends, but I think the desire to be right and to make great discoveries would trump those incentives in the long run.
As far as the moral problems go, I don't care. Just because some religious lunatic doesn't want to pay for AIDS vaccines because it's "God's revenge" on homosexuals doesn't mean it isn't a good idea to do it, and moral to boot.
I guess you'll always have political problems with political solutions, but given the awesome amount of good that can come from gov't. funding, I'm all for it. And I agree that it's nonsense for libertarians to attack this one first.
By Greg, at
Mon Jun 05, 04:17:00 PM
although professional reputation makes people work towards what they think is right, i agree, i’m taking about the other side of the coin - a perverse process of unnatural selection goes on in which only politically favorable grants survive therefore distorting the entire research field. so you have 100 studies saying pollution is harmless and two saying it is bad, and those two get funded, therefore creating support for bad policy. the people selecting the renewals are reacting in part to political pressures, and the NSF also doesn't have as much of an incentive to be "right" because it’s a bureaucracy without reputational factors. but this may be an unavoidable problem when relying on grants and donations - it could very well be the case in an all-private scenario as well so this is not necessarily an attach on all government funding.
i kind of agree that some moral positions are so wrong we shouldn't factor them in, but shouldn’t there be some moral rules on what’s funded, and who determines what “non-lunatic” morals are enforced? personally, i don't like the idea of funding projects to experiment with dangerous HIV drugs on parentless infants and children, but others say that the sacrifice is worth it for the greater good of curing AIDS. i don’t know, but these are the problems that arise when it becomes a collective issue.
By ns, at
Mon Jun 05, 04:51:00 PM
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Sunday, February 12, 2006
cooperate? why, it's my pleasure.
brain scans conducted during a prisoner's dilemma game with women indicates that pleasure centers are activated during cooperation. as the game progressed, the women continued to cooperate with other cooperators, likely because of the reinforcing nature of this pleasure circuit. this makes sense evolutionarily - those who continued to cooperate with other honest, cooperating individuals our groups would likely prosper.
interestingly, this process is partly human-specific. when playing with a computer, much less of the reinforcing "pleasure brain" was utilized.
article on the article
more on neural studies in economic games (PDF)
ref: James Rilling, David A. Gutman , Thorsten R. Zeh , Giuseppe Pagnoni , Gregory S. Berns and Clinton D. Kilts. "A Neural Basis for Social Cooperation" Neuron vol. 35 issue 2
Labels: economics, neuroscience
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Friday, February 10, 2006
depression, birth defects, and the FDA
In all, 43% of the women they followed relapsed into depression during pregnancy, but the rate of relapse was much higher for women who discontinued their medication (68%) than for those who stayed on it (26%).the major concern with taking any drug while pregnant, as we all know, is that it is consumed by the fetus, risking birth defects. it is known that many psychiatric drugs cross over, but new research released last month notes that drugs are also present in the amniotic fluid, which is absorbed by the fetus in a number of ways including "respiration" into the lungs and transcutaneous absorption.
so it appears that pregnant women and their unborn are faced with an unpleasant catch-22: ride out pregnancy sans drugs and risk suicide, or take drugs and risk permanent birth defects. however, along with new and old evidence (albeit disputed) that therapy is just as - or more - effective and less prone to relapse than pharmaceuticals, perhaps women should flush that prozac and try therapy.
as a side note, i wonder if brain implants, recently rejected by the FDA, would transfer to the fetus at the same rate? perhaps not, because they may not enter the blood stream at high concentration. and if not, is the FDA banning one of the only methods many women have to prevent depression/suicide without risking their babies?
Labels: drugs, neuroscience, political
Nikki, since you are both a good libertarian and a good psychology student, I was curious your stance on suicide. I think it likely you would argue that the individual has ownership over their body/life, so if they freely choose to end it, that is their right. But I also read your commentary regarding depression/suicide, and I wonder if you consider mental illness to be a deprivation of one's ability to "freely choose"? Do you buy the "chemical imbalance" contention? And if so, don't hard drugs (which we might argue ought to be legalized) count as "imbalancing" chemicals in the brain?
By , at
Fri Feb 10, 11:54:00 AM
-GROAN- that’s a very difficult question that i struggle with, my friend. to me, government issues are clear; the body is one’s property, is not owned or owed to anyone/thing else. although i think all should be treated as such from a governmental perspective, in certain cases people don’t physically have the same ability to make certain ethical calls that others do. this goes for both children and those with some neurological maladies. so what to do? this is a dilemma for me. can someone who has the moral-reasoning areas of their brain removed, for example, be held accountable for her actions? what about a child whose brain is not fully developed? perhaps for utility reasons it makes sense to hold them accountable (for others’ protection in the former case, and for eventual moral development in the latter). however, as far as person-ownership issues are concerned, it’s not clear to me. can someone who has had parts of her brain destroyed – in critical judgement/reasoning/decision-making areas - be allowed to commit suicide? i’m inclined towards “yes” – perhaps for more utilitarian reasons, again - but again it’s not a clear case to me. so, i don’t know. it’s something i think about, and i know this my response is not clear, because the answer is not.
By ns, at
Fri Feb 10, 02:37:00 PM
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Saturday, January 28, 2006
excellent post i missed last week
If, as a psychologist, I can help change a patient's thoughts, I've also (by definition) helped change his brain. Changing behavior changes the brain. Changing feelings changes the brain.well said!
In a nutshell: experience changes the brain.
Why is this important? Because when it comes to mental illness, so many people automatically assume, "Oh, well the doctor said I probably have a 'chemical imbalance' or something wrong with my brain, so that means I have to take drugs to fix it." But if we understand that experience changes the brain - that the mind and brain are flip sides of the same underlying reality - we won't make this logical error.
related news: meditation makes your brain bigger in areas of attention and sensory input.
Labels: misc. psych, neuroscience
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Tuesday, January 24, 2006
the female brain diets
i thought it was absolutely hilarious that amazon was kind enough to suggest i buy the south beach diet along with it.
Labels: neuroscience
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Wednesday, January 04, 2006
while i was out...
hot and exciting studies in the psychology realm:
- there's a neurological differences between liking and craving sweets. this may hold interesting application to those with drug or eating abnormalities (i.e., liking cocaine may be governed by different neurons than craving it). however, recent evidence also suggests that overeating is often encouraged by social cues rather than cravings. does that mean the rise in compulsive eating support groups is bad? maybe not - it's better to be overweight anyway.
- neural substrates behind the brave lover dueling for his lady's honor: it's all about oxytocin. oxytocin is a hormone thought to be involved with trust, love, breastfeeding, and now with a reduced sense of fear. so, perhaps all we need is a little love to combat those pernicious ad campaigns. (see a previous post on oxytocin and risky decision making)
- the coeval nature of happiness and success exists (PDF). here's an article about the article if you don't have adobe or journal access. will also posted on it.
- self-help books will ruin your life (rather, rewarding poor performance in kids, and creating an unrealistically positive self-image and outlook for you, will):
You cannot have a life plan predicated on the belief that everything is equally achievable to you — especially if that same message has been sold indiscriminately to all comers. In the grand scheme of things, knowing one's limitations may be even more important than knowing one's talents. - could romantic love prevent stroke damage? in separate studies, an increase in nerve growth factor (NGF) has been linked to both the onset of romantic love and reduced damage for stroke victims. thanks to debi for the love/NGF link.
- neural correlates of monogamous relationships found, at least in prairie mice. patterns get "worn" into the brain, and after a while other females don't produce the same neural responses in male brains - i.e., in a monogamous relationship, other females become less something, perhaps we can term it "attractive."
other items:
- deforestation --> cannibalism
update: just fixing a ^$&% link.
Labels: links, neuroscience, well being
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Wednesday, October 12, 2005
addiction’s neural insult, the catch-22
well, that’s not quite fair. we know it has something to do with change in a neuron’s dendritic branches, the arms that grab on to neurotransmitters, allowing messages to pass from one neuron to the next. this theory is young. it seems to hold water, though, so we’re running with it.
so what does this have to do with addiction, pray tell? well, a few years ago researchers found that stimulants in cocaine, speed, and even cigarettes do quite a bit of this dendritic modification. that seemed evident, even innocuous, until researchers hit us with another theory: the capacity for this change in neurons (i.e., structural plasticity) may be finite. there is only so much a neuron can adapt, and stimulants are using up some of that precious capacity.
a recent study published in behavioral neuroscience partially confirms this fear. the study, done on rats using nicotine, notes that although we attribute the ill effects of addiction to brain damage,
at least some of the psychological effects associated with stimulant use may be related to subsequent limits on structural plasticity rather than frank damage.in sum, drugs may diminish the ability to adapt to new circumstances and experiences. unfortunately, that ability is the one thing a recovering addict needs most.
source: hamilton, d. a. and kolb, b. differential effects of nicotine and complex housing on subsequent experience-dependent structural plasticity in the nucleus accumbens. behavioral neuroscience vol 119, no. 2
Labels: neuroscience
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Friday, July 15, 2005
which brain prefers the french fries?
The findings support the possibility that dopamine binding might be inversely related to weight and eating with anorexia on one end, and obesity on the other end of the spectrum.in addition to the benefits of clearer diagnosis, this indicates that we can tell who is prone to either malady early on. brain scans may be able to aid preventative counseling and help parents on the look-out for warning signs. scans could also help individuals become more aware of their proclivities and be proactive themselves.
there are benefits, to be sure, but in what ways could this impact individual responsibility? to the extent that these scans can be made accurate, knowing one's brain biology may alleviate any guilt felt by either stripe, and make each feel helpless and less inclined to improve. why fight biology, after all?
for those without the disorder, i wonder to what extent knowing one is prone to anorexia or obesity will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Labels: neuroscience
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Monday, July 11, 2005
no blue brains here
this project is ultracool and i want to like it. however, computational analysis, no matter how fast, does not accurately simulate the brain's processing capabilities. even if technology could mimic over one million parallel neural columns, the computational structure is entirely different. it will not give is the "correct answers," just as the fastest and most sophisticated telephone switchboard, another old brain analogy, would not have.
coincidentally, yesterday i came across not only an article on blue brain (thanks dr. greider), but also an article stating that "human brain is no computer":
Upsetting a long-held theory, Cornell University scientists say the mind works in a continuous, dynamic process, not in a series of distinct stages like a computer.the point of blue brain is to, within three years, be able to use it as an animal-free medical model to test psychopharm drugs. peta would be proud, but i worry about basing any judgments on an inherently flawed model. blue brain may be able to display some of the outputs of a brain, like deep blue did to beat kasparov, but the inner workings are completely different.
may a next-generation synthetic processor someday be able to do this? maybe, but i won't hold my breath. we should instead spend our time and money working with the best processor there is - the actual brain.
Labels: neuroscience
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Thursday, June 16, 2005
investment, brain lesions, and risk games
the task at hand was a positive-expected-value investment game, which means that benefits outweigh the costs of playing. even though rationally it made more sense to bet, normal and control patients became more conservative with each round. in contrast, lesioned participants bet at approximately the same risk level throughout. as the risk of loosing was low, "risky" decisions paid off, and lesioned participants made off with more winnings.
because most dilemmas are not positive-expected-value, and have more ambiguous elements, this study lacks immediate practical application. emotions can play a valuable role in many decision-making processes, particularly where ambiguity is involved. however, it is important to note when emotion is a good, or bad, guide for decisions - something this study helps to do.
source: baba shiv et al."investment behavior and the negative side of emotion." psychological science june 2005.
Labels: decision making, neuroscience
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Wednesday, June 01, 2005
oxytocin & trade
after using the spray, subjects were more willing to invest money with a high risk (i.e., with no guarantee of profit) - but only when trading with a human. scientists believe the hormone jolt encouraged players to trust their partner more than they typically would have.
researchers see the spray as having the potential to help people with social phobias and autism, and i assume probably for postpartum depression as well (women who don't breastfeed don't get the oxytocin payoff, and could benefit). i see lots of other non-pathological applications, esp. as regards the military - how useful it would be to implicitly trust your fellow soldiers despite what your brain would rationally tell you.
however in some instances wouldn't distrust, rather than trust, benefit? i wonder the danger of extra oxytocin overriding good judgment?
read more.
Labels: neuroscience
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Tuesday, May 31, 2005
you will read this post...
according to a new study, consumers exposed to subliminal smiles poured and drank more of a beverage, with the reverse happening for frowns. those primed with happy faces also were willing to pay as much as triple what others were. most frightening, subjects were not aware of a change in their preferences.
in other recent news, researchers found a neurological mechanism for subliminal messages:
the visual cortex, the area of the brain tested in his experiments, has long been considered unchangeable in humans past 6 months of age. Watanabe found it could be "changed" and that the changes could last for a considerable period; individuals were tested again six months after the initial trials and show little or no deterioration....scary, eh? but what is to be done? restricting subliminal advertising may be both prohibitively expensive and nearly impossible to determine and enforce, but subliminal tactics hardly seem ethical.
i guess the moral of the story is that eternal vigilance is the price of the free market, too, on more than one front. reducing access to advertising (via tv or magazines) and shopping with a list with prices and quantities are ways we can proactively reduce the influence of subliminal advertising. in addition, watchdogs can expose subliminal techniques to the press therefore making them less effective, and perhaps shame companies from using them.
Labels: neuroscience
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Monday, May 16, 2005
empathy and mirror neurons
this really cool research may answer some questions about altruistic behavior.
yesterday, while walking around georgetown, i saw a cab driver motioning a competitor towards a fare he couldn't get the get himself (he was going the opposite direction, and we know it's impossible to turn around in georgetown). i wondered at first why the cab driver would give his competition an edge, and there are a host of possible reasons. perhaps and wanted to promote the image that georgetown is a good place to get cabs, therefore increasing the likelihood that people would go to georgetown for cabs. another likely possibility is that the driver was a friend, and we usually want to help out our friends because we like them to do well and so that they'll return the favor someday.
another possibility, though, is these mirror neurons. he saw the driver wandering sans fare and his brain literally felt his rival's pain, prompting him to point out a fare to him.
a good research question would be to see if nervous states - such as activation of the sympathetic nervous system ("fight or flight") - dampen the activity of mirror neurons, thereby promoting our survival instinct. it wouldn't be very helpful to feel empathy for the guy who's trying to fight us, would it?
Labels: neuroscience
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Thursday, April 28, 2005
ice cream: my anti-drug
The results showed that eating the ice cream had an immediate effect on parts of the brain that previous research has shown are activated when someone is really enjoying themselves.the “pleasure centers” this brief article mentions are in the dopaminergic centers involved in motivation and reward that are, interestingly enough, also activated by most controlled substances.
although we enjoy being high on ice cream (or IC, as it's known on the street), the health consequences of long-term abuse include obesity and high cholesterol, as well as greater risk of disorders such as type 2 diabetes. in addition, ice cream is expensive. a ben & jerry’s pint is around $4. consuming one or two of those puppies a day can really add up and siphon money away from more beneficial uses. when resources are tight and an IC craving strikes, things can get messy. case in point, me craving ice cream when i can't have it. witnesses can testify.
and in all seriousness, addiction is also a risk. overindulgence on any substance that overstimulates reward centers can induce the main feature of addiction, motivational toxicity*, when the effectiveness of rewards normally effective in governing behavior (namely, rewards promoting survival) are diminished. you could argue that ice cream counts as a normal reward, but that seems like stretching it to me.
interestingly enough the above seem to parallel justifications for the drug war.
physiologically, activation of reward centers is identical no matter the trigger substance. so, ice cream induces the same reaction in one’s brain in areas relevant to future behavior as that of controlled substances such as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, or heroin. the only difference would be, i assume, the level of activity in the center which probably varies by drug type and potency. ice cream would, of course, be at the far bottom of the spectrum.
* motivational toxicity’s neurological substrates have not (yet) been identified. it’s commonly thought to be a decrease in dopaminergic function due to chronic use.
more about: different legal status, same physiology
Labels: neuroscience, well being
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Thursday, April 21, 2005
trust & reputation building
With the development of trusting feelings, increased blood flow occurred in the caudate nucleus, an area in the rear portion of the brain that is involved in processing rewards. Over time, this increased blood flow appeared earlier as an expectation of trustworthiness was established.the study was pretty cool. two participants were wired for fMRI and began a trading game that's pretty standard in experimental economics. the “investor” could give her partner money, which would then triple. the partner could then give some of that money back, a method that would create trust in the investor to continue to send money.
with the recognition that social interactions are rarely single-shot, and that trust cannot develop without prior experience, 10 rounds were played. at first, the caudate nucleus lit up when participants knew how much the other was giving them. towards the end - after seven or eight rounds - its neurons began popping even before participants knew whether or not their partner was giving them money at all, indicating that participants are building a model of the investor's next move. that was indeed the case, an additional experiment revealed, when the partner was able to guess more and more accurately what the investor would do over time. this is, essentially, the neuroscience of reputation building.
the caudate nucleus, whose disorder is implicated in such disorders as ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, parkinson's, and huntington's disease, is part of the striatum, which is one of the basal ganglia, situated kind of in the middle of the brain between the two hemispheres. in this experiment researchers concluded that it handles information regarding the "fairness" of the investor's decision as well as the decision to repay that fairness with trust.
reference: getting to know you: reputation and trust in a two-person economic exchange
brooks king-casas, damon tomlin, cedric anen, colin f. camerer, steven r. quartz, and p. read montague science 1 april 2005; 308: 78-83 [DOI:10.1126/science.1108062]
Labels: decision making, neuroscience
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Friday, March 18, 2005
neurons give mixed signals, too
when researchers at the University of Pittsburgh discovered that immature rat brain cells could fire a simultaneous three-punch salvo - three neurotransmitters bursting out of a single cell -- it was a finding they knew would excite more than just neurons.this discovery may not seem like a big deal to some, but it alters the traditional conception of neuronal communication. previously, the communication rule was: one signal, one neurotransmitter, one message. although this was simplistic, it made sense - how can one neuron communicate multiple messages at once based on an all-or-nothing signal from it's partner?
Just as surprising, they report in the lead article of this month's Nature Neuroscience, is that by definition these three neurotransmitters are seemingly at odds with each other. One, glutamate, is a textbook excitatory neurotransmitter; while the other two, GABA and glycine, are quintessential inhibitory neurotransmitters.
with this we understand that one signal can release both excitatory and inhibitory signals, potentially all activating the same receptor (NMDA). as this sheds light on how inhibitory signals work in the brain, researchers naturally hope it will aid understanding of disorders of those signals, such as epilepsy.
reference: deda c gillespie, gunsoo kim, and karl kandler. inhibitory synapses in the developing auditory system are glutamatergic. nature neuroscience 8, 332 - 338 (2005) published online: 30 January 2005; doi:10.1038/nn1397
Labels: neuroscience
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Wednesday, March 02, 2005
marijuana and memory
reasearchers have discovered that marijuana's active component thc, a cannabinoid, may help prevent alzheimer's disease:
"The findings showed that cannabinoids work both to prevent inflammation and to protect the brain, says researcher Maria de Ceballos in a news release. That may set the stage for [cannabinoids'] use as a therapeutic approach for [Alzheimer's disease]."alzheimer's rats given cannabinoids not only were able to learn where the control alzheimer's rats could not, but they also saw none of the precursors to inflammation, which causes much of the degeneration in alzheimer's. it's a shame that marijuana also makes us feel good, or else it might be considered a viable component of preventative care.
more on: alzheimer's, memory, marijuana, drugs that could help us if they didn't make us happy too
reference: ramírez, b et. al, prevention of alzheimer's disease pathology by cannabinoids: neuroprotection mediated by blockade of microglial activation. journal of neuroscience, 23 feb.
Labels: drugs, neuroscience
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Friday, January 28, 2005
forcast
as brain imaging spreads to nonmedical uses, will commerce overtake ethics?
Labels: neuroscience
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Sunday, January 23, 2005
different but equal
new research suggests that women and men derive their intelligence from disparate areas and types of brain matter. men derive their intelligence from information-processing gray matter throughout the left hemisphere, whereas women's brainpower hails primarily from the connective white matter in the frontal lobe.
this could be a key to understanding sex differences in performance tasks that utilize less connectivity, such as physics, and more, such as language. i'd like to see results from women in non-traditional fields requiring this "male" type of processing and vice versa. were they born with aberrant brains? and are male and female brains distinct from infancy, or could society have a hand in shaping these differences?
equally interesting, however, the results suggest
that there is no singular underlying neuroanatomical structure to general intelligence and that different types of brain designs may manifest equivalent intellectual performance. (quoted from the abstract)this comes out of further study of data gained this summer when the same folks reported that the more of gray matter present, the better, as far as intelligence went, and that intelligence is dispersed throughout the brain.
reference: haier, rj, jung, re, yeo, ra, head, k, and alkire, mt. the neuroanatomy of general intelligence: sex matters. neuroimage, in press.
Labels: neuroscience
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antibody hope for alzheimer's
although plaque is a symptom, not the cause, of the debilitating neurological disorder, it could fend off debilitating effects of the disease for years.
Labels: neuroscience
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Thursday, January 20, 2005
our dualist brains
These results suggest that the TPJ is a crucial structure for the conscious experience of the normal self, mediating spatial unity of self and body, and also suggest that impaired processing at the TPJ may lead to pathological selves such as OBEs.this study indicates that a brain center is required for unity of mind and body, and that the tpj is it.
sorry descartes, it wasn't the pineal gland after all!
Labels: neuroscience
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dispersed memory
this my help explain inconsistent memory loss in alzheimer's disease. as neural circuits are destroyed by plaque it may become more difficult, yet still possible, to retrieve memories. could this model also explain how difficult it is to change someone's mind? it seems logical that the more places a piece of data is stored, the harder it would be to uproot.
routtenberg and rekart challenge the commonly accepted theory of memory formation, arguing that instead of synthesizing new proteins to store memories the brain simply modifies existing ones. the theory following from this is elegant:
To maintain some residue of this modification, Routtenberg proposes that the "spontaneous activity" of the brain actually acts to "cryptically rehearse" past events. So, long-term memory storage relies on a positive-feedback rehearsal system that continually updates or fine-tunes post-translational modification of previously modified synaptic proteins. It is in this manner that this model allows for the continual modifications of memories.basically, memories are continually modified. scary, no?
side note: routtenberg seems the model of the humble approach to science i opined about yesterday:
We would assert that there is enough substance both in the concerns raised and in [this model] to energize the search for yet more plausible models of long-term memory storage, and to redirect and reinvigorate the quest to understand the brain substrates of information storage.
Labels: neuroscience
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license to drink
...women who had the equivalent of one drink a day had a 23% lower risk of becoming mentally impaired during the two-year period, compared with non-drinkers.sweet. now alcohol is not only good for the heart, but also the brain.
other vices have not faired so well in recently published research. don't, whatever you do, eat red meat (unless you're a pessimist ).
Labels: neuroscience
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Friday, January 07, 2005
pinker preaches it
At the level of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, critics have pointed to the apparent homogeneity of the cerebral cortex and of the seeming interchangeability of cortical tissue in experiments in which patches of cortex are rewired or transplanted in animals. I believe that the homogeneity is an illusion, owing to the fact that the brain is a system for information processing. Just as all books look the same to someone who does not understand the language in which they are written (since they are all composed of different arrangements of the same alphanumeric characters), and the DVD's of all movies look the same under a microscope, the cortex may look homogeneous to the eye but nonetheless contain different patterns of connectivity and synaptic biases that allow it to compute very different functions.few truer works have been spoken about neuroscience in quite a while, in my humble opinion. it's food for thought- neuroscientists should be humbled by how little they really know. i think pinker gets it right here that it's not necessarily the parts, but the connectivity between parts, that is key to the emergent properties of the mind. his answer points to network theory.
but this seems a redundant question - asking scientists what they cannot prove. i'd argue that most of the people on this list fill books and papers full of things they believe but cannot prove. we all have faith in what we hope for, and certainty in what we do not see. such is the nature of the scientific method, is it not?
thanks to jacob and marginal revolution for the link to the world quesiton center.
Labels: neuroscience
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Thursday, January 06, 2005
news flash: all networks are networks!
scientists have a penchant for comparing the brain's function to the most advanced form of technology available. we're getting closer to understanding the brain, but i'd wager that we're still a long ways off.
Labels: neuroscience
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Tuesday, January 04, 2005
for happiness, practice makes perfect
the results of this study make a lot of sense. just like any other part of one’s body, if you train and use it regularly, it will perform in a different manner. until now, no one knew exactly what aspects of the brain monks were training.
chronically depressed individuals have lower activation in the lpc. in children, it’s silence has been implicated in attention deficit disorder – in fact, adderall stimulates the lpc, among other areas. its absence has even been implicated in turning a patient’s bipolar disorder into schizophrenia. this finding is a breakthrough - by practicing one may be able to increase its activity and possibly, therefore, reduce the above abnormalities naturally.
but perhaps i'm getting ahead of myself. a cautionary note comes from the researcher's own work. in a recent study (pdf), richard davison found no change in lpc activity when he trained students to meditate, which he attributes to the short duration and/or intensity of meditation. students did, however, show less anxiety and more blood antibodies.
thanks to john for the link!
Labels: neuroscience, well being
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004
alcoholism allele
alcohol promotes release of endogenous opioids, which activate mu opioid receptors in the brain. this opioid system in turn affects the mesolimbic dopamine system involved in craving, reinforcement, and motivation. the mu opioid receptors are encoded by a specific gene, oprm 1, and they come in two varieties: the g and a version.
Results indicate that individuals with the G allele had higher subjective feelings of intoxication, stimulation, sedation, and happiness across trials as compared to participants with the A allele.which sounds great for those with the g allele. but there's a major drawback to this higher level of enjoyment - it creates more stimulation of those dopamine receptors involved in reinforcement and motivation, leading to higher probability of addiction. it seems to follow that this pattern may be the same for other drugs that stimulate the opioid system such as heroin, opium, and cocaine (cocaine indirectly, because as with alcohol it is not an opiate derivative).
this is an incredible finding with heath and policy implications. it is important to be aware of a genetic predisposition for any disorder, so one may modify his/her behavior. just one may watch his/her eating and exercise habits if predisposed to diabetes or heart disease, one with a g allele should be careful of alcohol consumption.
as g allele folks get "higher subjective feelings of intoxication, stimulation, sedation" and etc. with lower blood alcohol levels than the a types. should a and g allele folks be subject to the same blood alcohol levels in drunk-driving tests, then? (actually, a different test would be better still)
in addition, i wonder if those with a alleles are subject to comparatively heavier binge drinking and therefore health problems than one with a g allele (for those who do not develop chronic alcoholism). since a types must drink more to become intoxicated, and to many the goal of drinking is intoxication, it seems logical that they would drink more on a particular night. just imagine if you needed 1,000 more calories per day to feel full than someone else the same size. you'd definitely feel the physical effects of that.
reference: Hutchison, K. E. and Ray, L. A. "A polymorphism of the gamma-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) and sensitivity to the effects of alcohol in humans." Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 28, 12
Labels: neuroscience, well being
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Sunday, December 12, 2004
and the blind man sees
the man suffered stroke damage to his visual cortex, rendering him blind. because his optic nerve and retinal cells are still intact, they are presumably still sending signals to the brain, and clearly those signals don't go just to the visual cortex, but also to the amygdala. this indicates that we have an automatic recognition system for certain perceptual cues such as displayed emotion.
update: just realized that some folks might not know what the amygdala does. it is thought to be one of the brain's primary (and more primitive) emotion centers.
Labels: neuroscience
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Saturday, December 11, 2004
clever hans and the supernatural
although the research was thorough and widely cited, swedish researchers are now unable to replicate the results of this study using double-blind procedures (i.e., neither subject nor scientist knew who was in the control group, or what the hypothesis was). the researchers debunked the 80's study, saying:
Without such a [double blind] safeguard, "people in the experimental group who are highly suggestible would pick up on cues from the experimenter and they would be more likely to have these types of experiences," says Pehr Granqvist of Uppsalasubtle cues are powerful in experiments and in life - recall clever hans? humans and animals can give and pick up surprisingly subtle ideomotor cues unconsciously. what surprised me was the large percentage of participants indicating a "strong spiritual experience." two-thirds of the control and half of the experimental group indicated such. perhaps this is the power of suggestion on the survey forms at work.
University, who led the research team.
Labels: neuroscience
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Friday, December 10, 2004
gender-targeted pain relief
pain research and gender differences is very important, as millions in the us suffer daily with chronic pain. transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (shortened to “tens” for obvious reasons) is one method used by scientists to both increase pain threshold and inhibit pain processing. new research (pdf) indicates that tens helps women increase their pain threshold, but has little effect on men, likely because of interaction of hormones and opioid receptors:
The present results show that the subjects in this study responded to high frequency TENS in a gender-related manner at the electrical pain threshold level. Women's thresholds were systematically increased whereas the men's were unaffected on the group level. On an individual basis some men reported an increase in thresholds. However, others did not, and some even reported a decrease. To our knowledge, other studies on TENS-induced effects on pain thresholds have not reported on gender-related differences. Taken together, a plausible interpretation is that women may benefit from high frequency TENS whereas the response from men varies.this seems like a breakthrough in pain research to me. article is in-press and will be forthcoming from neuroscience letters.
update: neither the doi link or the fulltext article link are working for some reason. i'll try to find better ones.
reference: Iréne Lund, "Gender differences in electrical pain threshold responses to transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)," Neuroscience Letters, In press. doi cite: doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2004.10.068
Labels: neuroscience
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Thursday, December 02, 2004
breeding the pot out of us
Everyone grows a form of the drug, regardless of their political leanings or recreational proclivities. That is because the brain makes its own marijuana, natural compounds called endocannabinoids.john p. walters himself produces thc-like substances, which likely is a source of great internal conflict and self-loathing. perhaps this invalidates the theory of cognitive dissonance. if scientists created an endocannabinoid pill, would it be illegal?
it's no surprise, however, that endocannabinoids exist. the mere fact that pot created psychotropic effects, illustrating that there were pot-receptors were in the brain, indicated that there was an endogenous chemical that acted on those receptors. however, marijuana studies did actually caused a major shift in how we think about neuron communication, which is summarized in the article. basically, before this landmark research, communication between neurons was believed to be one-way: from pre- to postsynaptic cell, carrying the signal on down the line. however, endocannabinoids proved that communication -inhibition, in this case- can actually occur in the opposite direction, having the effect of a neuron basically saying "do not disturb" to a cell trying to send it a signal.
one of the most fascinating parts of this history was, however, a study that bred mice lacking the endocannabinoid receptor. this means that the mice, among other things, are physically incapable of getting high. if getting high is so dangerous, why not throw money into learning how to breed all humans without the receptor? speaking of czar walters, perhaps i should fax the article to him as an fyi.
also, speaking of good ol’ j.w., check out his fascinating marijuana myths if you want some more “facts” about this dangerous schedule one drug.
Labels: drugs, neuroscience
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Wednesday, December 01, 2004
lying and the brain
researchers should investigate truth vs. lying in situations where the truth would be painful to oneself and/or others. for example, if your friend really does look fat in that dress, it might be easier to just say "no, of course not" instead of making an effort at tact while explaining that yes, thanksgiving did hit a little harder than usual this year. this study also only investigated an actual event - a studying on thoughts, beliefs, and feelings would turn up interesting results too - is it more difficult to lie about those things?
these reports are interesting for a number of other reasons. traditional lie detector tests are fairly easy to fake if you practice long enough, since they measure things you can train yourself to control, such as skin temperature and heart rate. you cannot, however, train your brain to utilize a different region - or at least we haven't found out how (unless one area is damaged, then a different area may be able to take over, but that's a different story). i wonder the impact of this kind of thing on false memories - what region would they "light up"?
Labels: neuroscience
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Tuesday, November 23, 2004
breathing also linked to cell loss
pain is also linked to cell loss in recent studies, although the article doesn't make clear whether researchers controlled for possible painkiller effects. what's clear is that loss occurs in areas with less activity, giving credence to the phrase "use it or lose it." either way, scientists say loss may be permanent too, and in the grey matter (which is a big deal). (thanks to alina for the pain link)
new research may be of help.
Labels: neuroscience
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Friday, November 19, 2004
the true you
in implicit studies, where participants must react before they are able to control their innate responses, we’re all supposedly racist and sexist. however, in a new study when participants were able to look at faces for 500 miliseconds longer than in other studies, no such implicit reaction occurred, and the brain response is even different, utilizing newer and more cognitively complex brain areas (frontal cortex as opposed to amygdala). since in life, we rarely have to make 30 millisecond decisions, i’m not sure it matters that these responses do occur. and who’s to say those 30 millisecond responses are really more “us” than the frontal cortex and anterior cingulate responses?
Prof. Cunningham demurs: “It’s silly to say that these automatic reactions are the true you.” or that they are any more “you” than thoughtful reactions that reflect consciousness and beliefs”of note, i recall that when one's frontal cortex is damaged, the person becomes "soulless," losing his/her personality altogether... so perhaps the frontal cortex is more "you" than those more primitive areas.
look for cunningham's article in the upcoming issue of psychological science. i've begun the in-press article and must say it's fascinating.
as an aside, earlier i tested my own implicit reactions, and they do exist. somehow i'm not too worried.
reference: "Racism Studies Find Rational Part of Brain Can Override Prejudice" by Sharon Begley, WSJ, 11/19/2004, B1
Labels: decision making, neuroscience
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Thursday, November 04, 2004
the next revolution in brain therapy
scientists are still working hard on these issues (there've been some bumps in the road), but a big problem is that this is great for preventing damage, but just don’t do much for those who already have incurred severe brain damage in the distant past. it seems that now scientists have discovered a new phenomenon that could produce the same kind of shift in thinking about the brain as those studies. researchers have discovered how to create stem cells inside a rat’s brain. these multipotent cells could of course then develop into anything their neighboring cells told them to – e.g., neurons.
if only growing neurons were a better spectator sport, it’d make a great x-prize.
Labels: neuroscience
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Saturday, October 30, 2004
dems more empathetic
[S]ome differences appeared between the brain activity of Democrats and Republicans. Take empathy: One Democrat's brain lit up at an image of Kerry "with a profound sense of connection, like a beautiful sunset," Freedman said. Brain activity in a Republican shown an image of Bush was "more interpersonal, such as if you smiled at someone and they smiled back."
And when voters were shown a Bush ad that included images of the Sept. 11 attacks, the amygdala region of the brain — which lights up for most of us when we see snakes — illuminated more for Democrats than Republicans. The researchers' conclusion: At a subconscious level, Republicans were apparently not as bothered by what Democrats found alarming.
that doesn't seem quite fair. democrats may be more empathetic, but that republicans' amygdalas, the center for emotional fear, didn't react when watching clips about 9/11 as dems did doesn't imply that they aren't upset by what they see. republicans may feel more disgust or anger, not thought to be found in the amygdala.
Labels: ideology, neuroscience, political
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Monday, October 18, 2004
discounting the future: neural correlates, and emotion (again!)
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University and Princeton University found two areas of the brain that appear to compete for control over behavior when a person attempts to balance near-term rewards with long-term goals. The research involved imaging people’s brains as they made choices between small but immediate rewards or larger rewards that they would receive later.
after reading further, this once again becomes a struggle between emotion and rationality:
"Our emotional brain has a hard time imagining the future, even though our logical brain clearly sees the future consequences of our current actions," Laibson said. "Our emotional brain wants to max out the credit card, order dessert and smoke a cigarette. Our logical brain knows we should save for retirement, go for a jog and quit smoking. To understand why we feel internally conflicted, it will help to know how myopic and forward-looking brain systems value rewards and how these systems talk to one another."
first, discounting the future can be seen as quite rational, and really makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. back in the day, we were trained to take every opportunity as it presented itself. the future is uncertain, and nature holds no promise of $11 tomorrow instead of $10 today. in addition, in a modern sense discounting the future is rational again because we still don't know what that future will bring. if i choose one scoop of ice cream today instead of two tomorrow, it makes sense. not only am i not sure if tomorrow will provide an even better opportunity - maybe i'll get three scoops for some reason tomorrow, but i am also not sure if i'll even be around to take that opportunity. i could have a massive coronary (unrelated to my massive ice cream consumption, of course) and die, therefore not not ever enjoying any ice cream at all.
scientifically speaking:
The study showed that decisions involving the possibility of immediate reward activated parts of the brain influenced heavily by brain systems that are associated with emotion. In contrast, all the decisions the students made — whether short- or long-term — activated brain systems that are associated with abstract reasoning.
those choosing the delayed reward showed stronger activation in their abstract reasoning systems. i'm assuming they're speaking of the insular cortex, which has been implicated in that role before. i've also noted before that the insular cortex is related to more than just emotion.
Labels: decision making, neuroscience
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Sunday, October 03, 2004
neuroscience cool, and a note on brain imaging
i’ll add my own cautionary note. i must insert my typical skepticism about brain imaging. there are still serious flaws with the technology and even the theory behind its use that make me quite hesitant to accept many arguments based solely on scan results. however, the scientific community has seemed to forget all their hesitations and are plowing forward full-force. it’s just so exciting to see a brain area “lit up.” it’s so clear, so unquestionable. certainly some of the results are interesting, but i just wish folks were more cautious. i’m not going to go so far as to call brain imaging “the new phrenology,” but nonetheless while reading these reports it’s important to keep in mind their inherent flaws and take the results with not a grain, but perhaps a large chunk, of salt.
Labels: neuroscience
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Friday, August 27, 2004
rational revenge
"The new study chips 'yet another sliver from the rational model of economic man,' said Stanford University psychologist Brian Knutson, who reviewed the Swiss research. 'Instead of cold, calculated reason, it is passion that may plant the seeds of revenge,' he said.feeling good is not irrational, even from a practical standpoint. i've proposed before that our brains might unconsciously weigh the costs and benefits of our actions, even where emotions are involved, factoring emotional costs and benefits into the equation as well. the "high" we get from revenge may outweigh any harm we anticipate from the event, although whether we foresee that correctly is another story. the study's findings suggest this as well:
People often are eager to punish wrongdoers even if the revenge brings them no personal gain or actually costs them something. From a practical standpoint, that may seem irrational. "
When the retaliation cost them money, a second brain region that helps weigh costs and benefits got involved, too, but the striatum remained key. The level of activity actually predicted which players would spend more money to get revenge.
the striatum is involved in enjoyment and satisfaction, and the article states that it's activation indicates "satisfaction from anticipating it [revenge]". so the more you predict that you'll be emotionally satisfied by revenge, the more likely you are to actually seek it. seems rational to me.
read the whole journal article: Quervain, D, Fischbacher, U, Treyer, V, Schellhammer, N, Schnyder, U, Buck, A, Fehr, E. The Neural Basis of Altruistic Punishment, Science, Vol 305, Issue 5688, 1254-1258 , 27 August 2004.
hat-tip: "magic" amanda brand
Labels: decision making, neuroscience
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Thursday, August 26, 2004
zoloft and the power of suggestion
a fascinating tidbit in psychology today this month: placebos are nearly as effective as pharmaceuticals in many cases, particularly among children and those with mild depression. some of the data is shocking:
- in a zoloft trial, 59% of children improved on placebo, compared to 69% on zoloft.
- the response to placebos seems to be increasing 7% per decade.
theories as to why placebos are so effective abound. in young people and those with mild depression, it could be that the circuits aren’t as severely disrupted or ingrained and are therefore easier to correct, possibly simply by a trick of mind. the conundrum of why placebos are increasingly effective over the decades, however, is another question altogether. an interesting theory is that drug ads are convincing us that drugs are more effective, creating a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.
besides an interesting bit of trivia, you may be asking, what’s the point? well. the fda requires drug companies to prove that their drugs have statistically significant effects compared to placebos. if companies can’t prove this, their drug will not be approved for sale in the us. with this phenomenon on the rise, with such startling results as those cited above, perhaps the fda will have to rethink what it calls an effective drug.
in addition, i wonder if drug marketing is actually improving the effectiveness of the drug, therefore providing a kind of public good?
Labels: drugs, misc. psych, neuroscience, social
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Saturday, August 21, 2004
white is so 2003
i wonder the impact of this study, if results are replicated and confirmed. finding such a direct link seems like it obviates the need for IQ tests in a way - MENSA can now recruit based on soma count. exclusive schools and competitive companies may someday make decisions in part based on your brain scan.
now we need to answer why some people have more gray matter and others have less, and if there's any way to increase that.
another fascinating outcome: it's related to gray matter levels all over the brain, not just in one particular "smart spot." so... intelligence is distributed, making it harder to damage, which is good news.
Labels: decision making, neuroscience
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Friday, August 20, 2004
the white elephant of emotion and rationality
the new zeland news reports on neuroscientific studies trying to explain why humans, despite what economists say, behave irrationally sometimes (or, more than sometimes, as i've observed). the article states that economics is based on the fallacy that people behave rationally when making economic decisions. economists and behavioral scientists have been bickering about this for a while, but neuroscience may have something interesting to say about it.
first let me say in defense of economics: saying that economics is based on individual rational behavior is untrue - from my admittedly limited study of the subject it seems it's really the study of aggregate behavior, which does usually tend towards the rational laws economists espouse. individual behaviors are a different story. it's true that we all make decisions based on what we see as the costs and benefits of the outcome, but how accurately we can gauge that outcome in objective standards is another question entirely and should be the subject of it’s own post.
the nz reports on the classic study where person a gets $10 and has the option of giving some to person b. person b can accept or reject the gift. typically if person a offers only a dollar or two, person b rejects the gift, presumably because s/he’s offended. however that’s not usually how it happens – person a typically offers nearly half of what s/he’s given, and person b usually accepts it.
in the experiment, both person a and b have a clear understanding that what position they’re in is a result wholly of the turn of the die. that “a” has $10 and “b” none has nothing to do with hard work, only randomization on the part of the experimenter. i wonder how the results would change if there were a pre-game that distributed the money more meritocratically. or if person b was told that the $10 came straight out of person a’s pocket, and not the lab’s. this would give us a clearer picture of how these situations work in the “real world.”
i’d argue that perhaps taking that one dollar as opposed to rejecting the offer is not always the most rational choice anyway. there are things that people value more than one dollar, including pride. perhaps person “b” is in reality paying one dollar for the ability to hurt person “a”’s feelings like a did to him/her.
now about the neuroscience: when person b is offered only a few bucks, the insular cortex "lights up." ignoring my extreme skepticism about MRIs, this is not surprising. we think the insular cortex has to do with happiness/sadness (and a bunch of other things like memory and language). according to this study, the prefrontal “competes” with the insular cortex, and is the source of the rational impulse to take the low offer. the more “activated” the insular, the more likely to reject the offer, and the more “activated” the prefrontal, the more likely to accept.
does this mean that the insular cortex is related to emotional (and therefore objectively unwise) reactions and the prefrontal to more rational deliberation? maybe. it’s true the prefrontal cortex is thought to be involved in coordinating thoughts and actions in a goal-directed way. it’s also, interestingly enough, thought to be involved in impulse control and “forward thinking.” perhaps it’s the mature part of the brain.
more on this later i'm sure. it's a constant theme of economics and behavioral science.
Labels: decision making, neuroscience, well being
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Thursday, August 12, 2004
choosing mood control for yourself
as for the device itself. fda-approved or no, utilizing an implant to control one's mood seems a drastic measure. i don't mean to be a luddite but it seems that this technology takes away critical choice for the individual, in that a mood is a kind of choice. of course thomas szaz or peter breggin would claim so. (i won't go into breggin's entire argument, but you can read it here.) it may be different for pharmaceuticals - although a pill controls mood during the time the drug is in the brain, that time span is much shorter. the individual has the choice to be drugged more frequently.
even if one surrenders to this line of reasoning (permanently drugged=bad), which is a stretch in itself, having free will to choose this is significant. can one opt to be a slave to a drug? certainly, esp. if the other choice is a life of despair or worse, suicide - good therapy is not an option either for philosophical or monetary reasons for some. the fda is withholding a possible - and possibly life-saving - remedy for a debilitating disorder. depression wrecks many people's lives, many people who for various reasons - including unstable lives and incomes - cannot take a pill every day.
is the fda being overly cautious? is it harming more than helping in this case, or would it be safer to wait and do more tests, risking the happiness and, not to be overly dramatic, lives of those who could benefit? to me it seems that the government should allow patients to make that cost-benefit analysis with a physician.
for more info on psychiatric drugs vs personal sovereignty, check out the group MindFreedom. i'm not associated with them in any tangible way, but they're interesting...
Labels: drugs, neuroscience, well being
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I think it's because there's no such thing as "caffeine rage," and because coffee requires a mug, and steroids require needles, which are way more f-ed up than coffee mugs.
In short, steroids are scarier. But I would love to use them.
By
Greg Newburn, at
Wed Jan 09, 04:44:00 PM
There are oral steroids.
Check out this fine article on the subject (mental steroids, not oral steroids):
http://www.slate.com/id/2118315/
By
chris, at
Tue Jan 22, 08:51:00 AM
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