Science of the SpiritS


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How the brain memorizes places and routes

Andy Fell
University of California, Davis
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 19:03 UTC
Arne Ekstrom
© University of California, DavisNeuroscientist Arne Ekstrom uses virtual mazes to explore how we learn to find our way around.
Technology may not have caught up to the teleportation devices of science fiction, but now we have some idea of how the brain handles "beaming up" from one location to another, thanks to research by neuroscientists at the University of California, Davis, involving some specially wired volunteers.

The work is published online Feb. 25 in the journal Neuron.

Arne Ekstrom, associate professor at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, wants to know how we memorize places and routes, and learn to find our way around. It's long been known that as a rat navigates a maze, its brain gives off a rhythmic oscillation, Ekstrom said.

This also happens when humans travel around a virtual landscape on a computer screen. Most models of brain function assume that the oscillations, emanating from the hippocampus deep inside the brain, are at least partly driven by external inputs.

"There is this rhythmic firing in the brain during navigation and while remembering things, but we don't know if it is triggered by sensory input or by the learning process," Ekstrom said.
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Rose

Getting off the fast track: Decelerate and improve your quality of life

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
slowing down, wind blowing seeds
No one would argue the fact that the pace of life has rarely been more frenzied than it is today. It's not just that we're busy. Time seems to be constantly of the essence. As Carl Honoré, author of the book "In Praise of Slowness," quipped, "These days, even instant gratification takes too long."

That's clever, but not too many are smiling because, unfortunately, it's true. You can't spend more than a few minutes on social media without encountering a meme lamenting the fact, such as Mahatma Gandhi's quote, "There is more to life than increasing its speed.".

Why is it that whenever there's a so-called "idle" moment, we often feel a need to "redeem the time?" How many of us, while making our coffee in the morning, look for something useful to do to in the meantime?

Honoré asserts, "As we hurry through life, cramming more into every hour, we are stretching ourselves to the breaking point." Besides causing stress, he even suggests that our compulsion to do more in less time may have become an addiction, an idolatry of sorts.

Comment:

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People

Movement awareness: How listening to our bodies can change our lives

Steve Sisgold
Psychology Today
Thu, 03 Mar 2016 11:38 UTC
body cosmos
Right now, whether you are aware of it or not, your body is adjusting to meet the demands of the moment, like shifting positions in your seat to get more comfortable, while reading this blog. Yet, most of the time we have no idea of what our body is doing or what micro messages it is communicating to us and to others. What's miraculous about us as human beings however is that we have the ability to catch and influence these movements and either adapt, ignore, resist, or even move against them.

By being aware of your body movements you can increase your intelligence, alter your mood on demand, and improve your communications to others.

1. Movement awareness can help you think more clearly and turn up the dial on your smart meter.

Research shows that the brain can take cues from body movements to understand and solve complex problems. In 2009, University of Illinois psychology professor Alejandro Lleras, along with Laura Thomas of Vanderbilt University, conducted a study on problem solving and body movement. They set out to test if a person's ability to solve a complex problem could be influenced by how he or she moves. They tested fifty-two University of Illinois students. The results showed that body motion affects higher order thought and complex problem solving. Lleras and Thomas reported, "People tend to think that their mind lives in their brain, dealing in conceptual abstractions, very much disconnected from the body. This emerging research is fascinating because it is demonstrating how your body is a part of your mind in a powerful way. The way you think is affected by your body and, in fact, we can use our bodies to help us think."

Comment: Further reading:

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Hourglass

Pema Chödrön: 5 Reasons to meditate

Pema Chödrön
lionsroar.com
Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:32 UTC
meditation
© Photo by Liza Matthews
Yes, it's a strange thing to do — just sit there and do basically nothing. Yet the simple act of stopping, says Pema Chödrön, is the best way to cultivate our good qualities. Here are five ways it makes us better people.

The mind is very wild. The human experience is full of unpredictability and paradox, joys and sorrows, successes and failures. We can't escape any of these experiences in the vast terrain of our existence. It is part of what makes life grand—and it is also why our minds take us on such a crazy ride. If we can train ourselves through meditation to be more open and more accepting toward the wild arc of our experience, if we can lean into the difficulties of life and the ride of our minds, we can become more settled and relaxed amid whatever life brings us.'

Comment: Learn more about Meditation and Its Benefits: The Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program is an form of breathing and meditation techniques designed to be informative, effective and life changing! Interested in learning more about the numerous benefits of a breathing and meditation program like Éiriú Eolas? Check out the program here and try it today!

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Question

Why did humans develop the ability to feel shame?


Science Beta
Mon, 29 Feb 2016 17:06 UTC
shame
© r n o/Flickr
Feelings of shame are universal in all cultures, and new research could explain why. Studies in the US, India, and Israel suggest that shame, like pain, evolved as a defense.

Says Daniel Sznycer, lead author of the paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:
"The function of pain is to prevent us from damaging our own tissue. The function of shame is to prevent us from damaging our social relationships, or to motivate us to repair them."
Adds John Tooby, a professor of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and a coauthor of the paper:
"Our ancestors lived in small, cooperative social groups that lived by hunting and gathering. In this world, your life depended on others valuing you enough to give you and your children food, protection, and care.
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Light Saber

Legendary locks: Can hair act as a sixth sense and protect us from danger?

Liz Leafloor
Ancient Origins
Sun, 06 Dec 2015 13:56 UTC
Hairstyles
© Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0Hairstyles as depicted on an ancient sculpture of women in the Louvre, France.
Humans have ever styled their hair in a multitude of creative and symbolic ways, and the various cuts, colors and presentations reflected across the ages are nearly unlimited. But does hair serve us in more ways than providing simple warmth and good looks? There are some who believe that hair is directly associated with sensory power and it serves as an extension of our nervous system.

Depending upon the time and place on earth in which one lives, the hair on one's head (or the lack thereof) has had intense significance. Belief systems and folklore have long dictated how hair was to be handled and worn: tied up, covered up, grown long, cut short, shaved off, crimped, colored and curled, decorated, twisted, braided, and more. But for many societies, the longer the hair, the better.
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Family

It's what you do that counts: Study suggests most people stay true to their intrinsic moral colors


Science Daily
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
kindness, giving
Kindness and generosity elevates all our morals
When judging the character of a friend, co-worker or potential romantic partner, pay attention to little acts of kindness or cruelty because these are likely part of a consistent behavioral pattern.

U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been criticized for their seeming willingness to cut corners on core principles when they consider it necessary to make some progress toward a laudable goal.

While philosophers and voters can debate the pros and cons of situational ethics, new research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that most people stay true to their intrinsic moral colors -- good or bad -- when dealing with day-to-day choices, regardless of extenuating circumstances or well-intended reform efforts.

"Our studies provide new and important evidence for the stability of moral character," said Kathryn Bollich, lead author of two recent studies exploring how evolving personality traits and competing ethical quandaries influence moral behavior.

"Using naturally observed, everyday behaviors and self-reports of moral decision-making, we demonstrate that one's morality is stable," Bollich said. "These findings suggest that efforts to modify moral character may not be so simple. For example, efforts to make a roommate or romantic partner more helpful and sympathetic, or less condescending and critical of others, may be met with slow and minimal success."
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Fire

Primal rage: 5 tips to make unproductive anger productive

Mark Sisson
Mark's Daily Apple
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
guy expressing rage
If you get to this point, you probably should have expressed your anger sooner...
If you ask the average person on the street to list "primal emotions," I'd venture that anger would be one of the first examples they offer. I think we automatically connect a primal state with anger because anger's power is more reminiscent of instinct than sentiment. It's an emotion that can instantaneously engulf our entire being—a red hot feeling that can send all rational thought and genuine self-interest down the toilet in a nanosecond. While other emotions have their physical hold, anger can grip us in a way few others can. Fear, the other primary instinctual emotion, generally lifts with a clear, even euphoric release (as long as its situational, not a product of neuroses). Anger, however, doesn't die so easily. Like the embers in a fire, it needs ample time to fade. The visceral energy of anger is remarkably durable. We kid ourselves if we think we're immune to its inherent human force. That said, how can we keep it reined in enough to not thwart our own well-being (not to mention anyone else's)? How can we control or manage it—even channel it? In short, how can we have and express anger without getting burned by it?

Comment: Anger is a powerful emotion and is often not handled well in modern society. People often repress their anger, which then builds up and explodes, or leaks out in other covert ways. Others may suppress their anger with alcohol or drugs, damaging their body instead of expressing their anger. Both of these are all the more prevalent today as people en masse are angry at their psychopathic leaders, whether they're aware of that and directing it properly, or not.

In Chinese medicine, the liver is the seat of anger, so a properly functioning liver is related to properly felt and expressed anger; likewise, a poorly functioning liver can result in anger that isn't expressed properly and timely--improving liver function can improve one's relationship to anger. Feeling and expressing healthy anger enforces one's boundaries and can improve relationships through emotional honesty. That isn't a license to explode and mistreat people when one is angry, but making others aware that you're angry and if they're crossing your boundaries or demanding too much, that they're doing so and it's not ok to do so. For more information:

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Cloud Precipitation

Parents who hide their true feelings from their children worsen the quality of their relationships

Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 00:00 UTC
parent child
© Shutterstock
Some parents always try to hide their negative emotions and amplify their positive emotions.

Parents who always try to put on a happy face for the sake of the children may be doing more harm than good, a new study finds.

Hiding negative emotions and exaggerating positive emotions can actually damage parents' well-being, the psychologists found.

Parents who tried to be 'perfect' for their children reported lower authenticity, worse relationship quality and were less responsive to their children.

Comment: Being afraid to show our true feelings sends a signal to our children that it is not appropriate to express their own emotions, setting the stage for a lifelong habit of squelching their feelings and perhaps causing untold negative effects on their health and well-being.

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People

Test: Are you a narcissist and if so, what kind?

Kate Scanlon
The Blaze
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 19:18 UTC
masque narcissisme
© Inconnu
In a new TED-Ed video, W. Keith Campbell explains different types of narcissism.

According to the video, narcissism is "a set of traits classified and studied by psychologists" in which an individual has an inflated sense of self-importance.

Narcissism as a personality trait can be classified as "vulnerable" or "grandiose." Grandiose narcissists are the most common type. They are often extroverted and seek to "pursue attention and power." Vulnerable narcissists are more introverted. They have a strong sense of entitlement and are easily threatened.
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