Science of the SpiritS


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Is consciousness needed for emotions?

Professor Michele Farisco
Science Nordic
Thu, 24 May 2018 08:25 UTC
Patient
© ShutterstockAn increasing amount of evidence suggests that consciousness is not a requirement for feeling emotions. This opens up a minefield of questions for how best to treat unconscious people.
A young woman, let's call her Jane, survives a car accident. Her injuries are so severe that she is diagnosed as being "in a vegetative state," or what medics call unresponsive wakefulness syndrome.

Yet scans show that her brain responds to the sound of someone else's voice.

So is Jane conscious or unconscious?

The answer is that consciousness and the unconscious might be much more similar than we think.

Recent developments in cognitive science provides empirical evidence that the unconscious brain is able to perform almost all the activities that we (wrongly) think are exclusive to conscious beings.

This means that unconscious beings are not only cognitively active, but might also experience emotions-both positive and negative.

The very idea that consciousness is not a requirement for feeling emotions opens up a minefield of questions for how best to treat unconscious people, like Jane, who despite their unconscious state might still feel pleasure and pain.

Clearly, we need to examine the ethical implications of this new picture of human consciousness and what it means for our identity as humans.
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SOTT Focus: The Health & Wellness Show: Dunning-Kruger Effect: Stupid is as Stupid Does


Sott.net
Fri, 25 May 2018 15:00 UTC
Dunning Kruger
What makes people think that they are better-than-average? Why do some people have an unwavering tendency to overinflate their skills? Having a realistic view of the world and oneself is considered to be the foundation of good psychological health. However, many of us tend to move through life with a sense of unconditional, positive self-regard -- despite all evidence to the contrary -- and downplay or ignore our faults to the detriment of ourselves, our families and society at large. Researchers have discovered that unrealistic positivity is a fundamental feature of human nature.

We've all seen it; the blowhard who can't stop spouting off about topics of which they know very little, the highly sensitive co-worker who doubles down in the face of constructive criticism, the 'expert' who misleads with false claims. On this episode of The Health and Wellness Show we discuss the Dunning-Kruger effect, the illusion of competence and the pitfalls of failing to recognize the extent of one's own -- and other's -- limitations and lack of knowledge.

And stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment, where she explores the age old question: Do animals think?

Running Time: 01:07:06

Download: MP3

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Toys

Child development research shows siblings play a role in the development of empathy

Sheri Madigan, Jennifer Jenkins & Marc Jambon
The Conversation
Tue, 20 Feb 2018 19:43 UTC
siblings
© (Unsplash/Aman Shrivastava)
For decades, researchers have demonstrated the numerous ways in which parents can positively influence their children's development. This includes how confident they are, how well they do in school and how they interact with their friends

Far less attention has focused on the impact of children's relationships with their brothers and sisters, despite the fact that most people grow up with at least one sibling and they tend to spend more time with one another than with parents or friends.

Our research at the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto shows that siblings, like parents, can have a dramatic impact on one another's development. We've found, for example, that warmth and support from an older sibling can help boost the younger sibling's language development and their understanding of others' minds and points of view.

Comment: Sibling rivalry: Study reveals if eldest children are more intelligent - and if it matters

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Magnify

Practicing situational awareness can save your life

Amy Irwin and Oliver Hamlet
The Conversation
Tue, 22 May 2018 11:34 UTC
airplane cockpit

In December 1972, three days before New Year, Eastern Airlines flight 401 from New York crashed on approach to Miami when the pilot and crew, all focusing on a malfunctioning landing light, failed to register the plane was losing altitude. In 2007 a truck and train collided on a rail crossing in Kerang, Australia, when the truck driver failed to notice the approaching train. In 2010 the crew of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico seemed unaware of the scale of the problem until the rig exploded.

Although each case is unique, the same phrases appear: "Failed to notice", "unaware of", "lack of awareness". These all point to a lapse in "situation awareness" - an important factor in the run up to each incident. But what exactly is situation awareness, what can lead to a lapse and how can you improve and develop your own sense of it?


Comment: More on the benefits of practicing situational awareness:

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Brain

Study finds transgender children's brains more similar to those of their preferred gender


RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 14:59 UTC
mri lab
© Jean-Paul Pelissier / Reuters
A new study using MRI scans of the brains of transgender children reveals similarities between brains of their preferred gender, suggesting trans people are born with their differences.

The study reveals the brains of transgender individuals who identify as women are more similar to the brains of women than men, and the same goes for transgender people who are born in a woman's body but identify as males - their brains are more like males than females.

The study, carried out by the University of Liege in Belgium, examined 160 children with gender dysphoria (when someone feels their emotional and psychological identity is different to their biological sex) and a number without the condition. It used an MRI scan to study the subjects' brains. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a type of scan that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed images of the body.

'Brain structure and function in gender dysphoria' revealed the brains of those with gender dysphoria have both structural and neurological patterns that match the brains of those of their preferred genders.

Comment: In other words: gender is not a social construct - it's biological. And a male with a more female brain feels more like a female. That makes sense, and it's a whole lot different than saying they simply "choose" to be the other gender, or that the traditional gender characteristics they identify with are social constructs.

Now, it would be interesting to have a long-term study following a cohort of transgender children in order to see if their brain structures change over time. The fact that most children with gender dysphoria grow out of it would suggest this might be the case.

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Brain

Scientists identify physical source of anxiety in the brain and they can control it with light

Peter Dockrill
Science Alert
Sun, 13 May 2018 00:01 UTC
anxiety illustration
© Illustration Forest/Shutterstock
We're not wired to feel safe all the time, but maybe one day we could be.

A recent study investigating the neurological basis of anxiety in the brain has identified 'anxiety cells' located in the hippocampus - which not only regulate anxious behaviour but can be controlled by a beam of light.

The findings, so far demonstrated in experiments with lab mice, could offer a ray of hope for the millions of people worldwide who experience anxiety disorders (including almost one in five adults in the US), by leading to new drugs that silence these anxiety-controlling neurons.

Comment: While shutting down anxiety completely would not be beneficial (we feel anxiety for a reason, after all) learning more about how anxiety works at the brain level, and how it can begin to work badly in anxiety disorders, is a promising step in the treatment of anxiety conditions. And the fact that the cells are sensitive to light is interesting in relation to circadian rhythms and functioning of the brain.

See also:

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Family

Rejection by father can cause long-lasting damage to personality


PsyBlog
Mon, 31 Oct 2016 10:29 UTC
father son
Both parents affect your personality, but rejection by one parent could be more critical for long-term development.

Being rejected by your father can do greater, long-lasting emotional damage than being rejected by your mother, research finds.

While rejection by either parent is traumatising for children, fathers often have higher prestige and/or power.

Therefore, children can take their father's rejection harder.

Professor Ronald Rohner, co-author of the study, said:
"In our half-century of international research, we've not found any other class of experience that has as strong and consistent effect on personality and personality development as does the experience of rejection, especially by parents in childhood.

Children and adults everywhere - regardless of differences in race, culture, and gender - tend to respond in exactly the same way when they perceived themselves to be rejected by their caregivers and other attachment figures."

Comment: See also:

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Binoculars

After my breakdown, wild birds helped me to heal

Joe Harkness
I News
Tue, 22 May 2018 20:47 UTC
A silhouetted Fieldfare
© Joe HarknessA silhouetted Fieldfare
In 2013, I suffered a breakdown, and it nearly broke me. Looking back, I believe there was probably something wrong with my mental health from my mid-teens, but it took until my mid-twenties for it to fully surface. I'd masked it, abusing alcohol and Class A drugs in order to create a full-frontal façade of disgusting arrogance. The reality was that inside, I was screaming out to be able to shrink away and be who I really was - but I had to break in order to rebuild.

I needed more than counselling

After the breakdown, I embarked on a therapeutic journey. The NHS support was less than inspiring. The waiting list for funded counselling was months, and the stress workshops I was offered were flatly delivered. Antidepressant medication was the filler for my cracked mind - lifting my mood and suppressing my negative cyclic thoughts, albeit artificially.

Comment: See also: Mother nature is a valuable resource for human health & wellbeing

Spending time in nature calms and re-grounds us providing a sense of renewal

More than just folk wisdom: Immersing yourself in nature has a healing effect

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People

Do you have charisma?

Dr. Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog
Mon, 21 May 2018 20:56 UTC
charisma can
It takes as little as five minutes to feel someone's charisma bursting through.

People who are charismatic have a magic combination of being courteous and approachable as well as being able to influence others.

That is why we associate charisma with leadership and with making people feel comfortable.

New research finds there are six signs of a charismatic person:
  1. Makes people feel comfortable.
  2. Smiles at people often.
  3. Can get along with anyone.
  4. Has a presence in a room.
  5. Has the ability to influence people.
  6. Knows how to lead a group.
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Caesar

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: 'Men Have Forgotten God'

Chris Banescu
The Voice Crying In The Wilderness
Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
As a survivor of the Communist Holocaust I am horrified to witness how my beloved America, my adopted country, is gradually being transformed into a secularist and atheistic utopia, where communist ideals are glorified and promoted, while Judeo-Christian values and morality are ridiculed and increasingly eradicated from the public and social consciousness of our nation. Under the decades-long assault and militant radicalism of many so-called "liberal" and "progressive" elites, God has been progressively erased from our public and educational institutions, to be replaced with all manner of delusion, perversion, corruption, violence, decadence, and insanity.

It is no coincidence that as Marxist ideologies and secularist principles engulf the culture and pervert mainstream thinking, individual freedoms and liberties are rapidly disappearing. As a consequence, Americans feel increasingly more powerless and subjugated by some of the most radical and hypocritical, least democratic, and characterless individuals our society has ever produced.

Comment: It is a testament to Solzhenitsyn's deep insights into humanity that he could see the West - as it is is right at this present time - from as far back as 1983.

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