Science of the SpiritS


People 2

Research finds people with brown eyes are more likely to be depressed in the winter

eye color
Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD) is a form of depression. People with brown eyes are more likely to get depressed with the seasons, mostly in the winter, new research finds.

Women with brown eyes are particularly at risk as women are 40% more likely to experience the condition than men.

Those with blue eyes, though, seem to be have a level of protection against what is known as Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD).

People with SAD - a form of depression - generally start to feel down from around fall and the symptoms continue through the winter months.

2 + 2 = 4

Meditation in the classroom - can it increase students' levels of physical, mental and emotional awareness?

meditation
© ShutterstockMeditation doesn’t just help kids feel relaxed; neuroscience suggests that it changes the structure and function of the brain.
The fast pace of the business world - where competition is the rule and return on investment decides everything - can be challenging for business students.

They are expected to know the rules of business inside out but they also need to learn to master their emotions, to enable efficient and ethical decision making.

A traditional business education provides few opportunities for students to cultivate emotional resilience, empathy and ethical decision-making. Incorporating meditation into the curriculum could be a contribution to rectifying this.

Preliminary findings from a study conducted with business students at Simon Fraser University show that even 10 minutes of classroom meditation can gradually increase students' levels of physical, mental and emotional awareness.

Can meditation help all students - from elementary to university - to become more peaceful, calm and better decision makers?

Comment: More research about meditation practices being taught in the classroom:


Heart - Black

Social media, rage and hysteria: Why are we living in an age of anger?

anger cartoon
© Ben Boothman at Agency Rush‘Unprocessed anger pollutes the social sphere. Every outburst legitimises the next.’
A neighbour objected to a young couple from Newcastle being naked in their own home. "We are sick of seeing big bums, big boobs and little willy," was the core message of the note, crescendoing to: "We will report you both for indecent exposure." It is such a small thing, banal, without consequence. It connects to no wider narrative and conveys nothing but the bubbling discomfort of human beings living near each other. Yet when Karin Stone (one of the nakeds) posted the note on Facebook, 15,000 people pored over it. An Australian radio show interviewed her. I have got to be honest, I am heavily emotionally invested in the story myself and I do not regret a second of the time I have spent reading about it.

There is a through-line to these spurts of emotion we get from spectatorship: the subject matter is not important. It could be human rights abuse or a party-wall dispute; it does not matter, so long as it delivers a shot of righteous anger. Bile connects each issue. I look at that note, the prurience and prissiness, the mashup of capital and lower-case letters, the unlikeliness that its author has a smaller bum or a bigger willy, and I feel sure they voted for Brexit. The neighbours are delighted by their disgust for these vigorous, lusty newlyweds, I am delighted by my disgust for the neighbours, radio listeners in Australia are delighted. We see rage and we meet it with our own, always wanting more.

There was the mean note left on the car of a disabled woman ("I witnessed you and your young able-bodied daughter ... walk towards the precinct with no sign of disability"); the crazed dyspepsia of the woman whose driveway was blocked briefly by paramedics while they tried to save someone's life. Last week, Highways England felt moved to launch a campaign against road rage, spurred by 3,446 recorded instances in a year of motorists driving straight through roadworks. Violent crime has not gone up - well, it has, but this is thought mainly to reflect better reporting practices - but violent fantasies are ablaze. Political discourse is drenched in rage. The things people want to do to Diane Abbott and Luciana Berger make my eyes pop out of my head.

Comment: The question remains: why are people so angry to begin with? Yes, social hysteria and social media amplify it, but what makes people vulnerable now, in this time? What causes the hysteria? Probably the deepest explanation is meaninglessness. On some level, people know that their lives are utterly meaningless, and that makes them angry. It makes them angry because on some deeper level, they know that their lives can and should be meaningful, and they are utter failures at life. Not willing to see themselves objectively, they project their anger out on the world, wishing it would change to accommodate them, rather than change themselves.

But there's more to it than that. See:


Family

Ten characteristics of irresistible people

likeable people, people drinking coffee
Too many people succumb to the mistaken belief that being likeable comes from natural, unteachable traits that belong only to a lucky few - the good looking, the fiercely social, and the incredibly talented. It's easy to fall prey to this misconception.

Some people, regardless of what they lack - money, looks, or social connections - always radiate with energy and confidence. Even the most skeptical individuals find themselves enamored with these charming individuals.

These people are the life of every party. They're the ones you turn to for help, advice, and companionship.

You just can't get enough of them, and they leave you asking yourself, "What do they have that I don't? What makes them so irresistible?"

The difference? Their sense of self-worth comes from within.

Irresistible people aren't constantly searching for validation, because they're confident enough to find it in themselves. There are certain habits they pursue every day to maintain this healthy perspective.

Comment: Related:


Family

Parental conflict leads to emotional problems in children

shy kid
Children who experience everyday conflict between their parents have problems processing emotions, new research shows.

These problems can cause anxiety and over-vigilance, leading them to see conflict even when an interaction is neutral.

Shy children are particularly vulnerable, the study also found.

Maltreatment and neglect have been shown to alter how children process emotions.

But this study shows a lower level of adversity can have a negative effect.

Brain

Science says noise hurts and silence heals

silence
© Katie Scott
The value of silence is felt by everyone at some point in their life. Silence is comforting, nourishing and cosy. It opens us up to inspiration, and nurtures the mind, body and soul. Meanwhile, the madness of the noisy world is drowning out our creativity, our inner connection and hampering our resilience. Science is now showing that silence may be just what we need to regenerate our exhausted brains and bodies.

Studies show that noise has a powerful physical effect on our brains, causing elevated levels of stress hormones. Sound travels to the brain as electrical signals via the ear. Even when we are sleeping these sound waves cause the body to react and activate the amygdala, the part of the brain associated with memory and emotion, leading to the release of stress hormones. So, living in a consistently noisy environment will cause you to experience extremely high levels of these harmful hormones.

Interestingly, the word noise is said to come from the Latin word nausia, (disgust or nausea) or the Latin word noxia, meaning hurt, damage or injury. Noise has been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, tinnitus and loss of sleep. We've all experienced the detrimental effects of noise pollution. Excessive noise can be a major affront to the physical senses and today, more and more people are identifying as highly sensitive and unable to function in chaotic and noisy environments. But now science has the proof not only that noise hurts, but also that silence heals.

Comment: Silence is much more important to our brains than we think


People 2

Self-awareness: A clear sign that you will NOT develop dementia

self awareness, dementia
Patients unaware of their memory problems turned out to be in worse shape neurologically: they had metabolic dysfunction in their brains and more amyloid proteins.
Risk of developing dementia is one-third lower.

Memory often worsens with age - it is a normal part of the aging process.

But, when do mild memory problems signal the onset of Alzheimer's?

Ironically, people who realise their memory is getting worse are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, new research finds.

Self-awareness, then, is a healthy sign.

Doctors have long suspected that people who seem unaware of their memory problems are at higher risk of dementia, but this is one of the first studies to demonstrate it.

Comment: For more information on Alzheimer's disease and its prevention:


Eye 1

The brain may perceive objects outside of our view - Eyes in the back of the head

Implicit Learning
© Tohoku UniversityExperimental setup to investigate implicit learning of surroundings.
Spatial representations of surroundings, including those outside the visual field, are crucial for guiding movement in a three-dimensional world. The visual system appears to provide sufficient information for movement despite our visual field being limited to the frontal region. However, this theory had not been scientifically tested until now.

A group led by Professor Satoshi Shioiri from the Research Institute of Electrical Communication at Tohoku University in Japan, used a visual search experiment to demonstrate that the human visual system indeed has the ability to perceive things beyond the limits of the visual field. The team designed a 6-panel-display which covered a 360 degree area surrounding the viewer. On each panel display, six letters appeared at the same time.

Cloud Lightning

Stress: it's not in your head - it's in your nervous system

Traumatic Memory and How to Heal it
Traumatic Memory and How to Heal it
Have you ever been told when you're stressed to stop worrying and just relax? That it's all in your head? It would be nice if it were that simple. But it's not.

Physiology research shows that the stress response memory lives in your nervous system. Take for example exposure to a stressful event. One in which you felt helpless, hopeless, and lacked control. In this case your autonomic nervous system (ANS) is engaged. This is the part of the nervous system responsible for controlling unconscious bodily actions like breathing. To be more specific, it was the sympathetic branch (fight or flight) of the ANS that kicked in while you were strained. In addition, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis of the midbrain began firing. In which a signal from your hypothalamus sends a hormonal message to your pituitary gland that stimulates to your adrenal glands.

Comment: Waking the Tiger: An interview with Peter Levine


Chalkboard

Artistic college majors linked to serious mental illness

painting paint
People studying artistic subjects like painting, music or drama are 90% more likely to be hospitalised for schizophrenia later in life, new research reveals.

The epidemiological study adds weight to the argument that creativity is linked to madness.

Among almost 4.5 million Swedish people, those studying creative subjects were also 62% more likely to be hospitalised for bipolar disorder.

Similarly, they were 39% more likely to be hospitalised for depression.

Hospitalisations were most likely to occur when the person reached their 30s.


Comment: Yes, but these numbers are meaningless unless we understand what the actual numbers are. How many people NOT studying creative subjects were hospitalized for bipolar disorder - this number makes the results more relevant. If the number were for example 10 in 4.5 million and there is a 62% increased chance of the same if studying creative subjects then the change is insignificant. Context is everything when looking at results from epidemiological studies.