Science of the SpiritS


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Effects of childhood bullying last at least 40 years

Dr. Jeremy Dean
Psyblog
Tue, 13 May 2014 10:56 UTC
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© Twentyfour StudentsFirst ever study of long-term effects of childhood bullying.
The first ever long-term study of the mental scars that bullying leaves finds its effects are still detectable 40 years later.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, come from the British National Child Development Study which includes 7,771 children who were born during one week in 1958 (Takizawa et al., 2014). When they were 7 and 11-years-old, their parents were asked whether they were being bullied. Of the children in the study, 28% were bullied occasionally and 15% were bullied frequently. The children were then followed up until they were 50-years-old. The study's lead authors, Dr Ryu Takizawa, explained the findings:
"Our study shows that the effects of bullying are still visible nearly four decades later. The impact of bullying is persistent and pervasive, with health, social and economic consequences lasting well into adulthood."
The effects of being bullied were seen across a wide range of psychological measures, including:
  • A higher risk of depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
  • Poorer cognitive functioning.
  • Lower quality of life.
  • Lower life satisfaction.
  • Less likely to be in a relationship.
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Hourglass

New brain cells erase old memories

Helen Shen
Nature News
Thu, 08 May 2014 10:28 UTC
Neurogenesis interferes with past learning in infant and adult mice.
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© Jason SnyderNewly-generated neurons (white) that integrated into the hippocampus, shown in this false-colour micrograph, had seemingly counterintuitive effects on memory.
For anyone fighting to save old memories, a fresh crop of brain cells may be the last thing they need. Research published today in Science suggests that newly formed neurons in the hippocampus - an area of the brain involved in memory formation - could dislodge previously learned information1. The work may provide clues as to why childhood memories are so difficult to recall.

"The finding was very surprising to us initially. Most people think new neurons mean better memory," says Sheena Josselyn, a neuroscientist who led the study together with her husband Paul Frankland at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.

Humans, mice and several other mammals grow new neurons in the hippocampus throughout their lives - rapidly at first, but more and more slowly with age. Researchers have previously shown that boosting neural proliferation before learning can enhance memory formation in adult mice2, 3. But the latest study shows that after information is learned, neuron growth can degrade those memories.
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Info

People missing brain wiring form unique neural connections

Tanya Lewis
Live Science
Mon, 12 May 2014 15:43 UTC
Brain
© Image courtesy of Ivanei Bramati (D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro 22281-032, Brazil)People born without a corpus callosum can still communicate between brain hemispheres. In yellow, the aberrant midbrain bundle that connects the right (in blue) and left (in red) brain hemispheres.
Severing the main connection between a person's brain hemispheres usually makes communication from one side to the other impossible, yet people who are born without this neural bridge have found a way around the problem, a new study suggests.

People who are born without a corpus callosum - the bundle of white matter that connects the left and right sides of the brain - develop alternate connections, the research shows. These connections may be what allow these individuals to perform tasks requiring both hemispheres, scientists say.

The findings reveal how plastic the brain really is, said Fernanda Moll, a researcher at the D'Or Institute for Research and Education in Brazil and co-author of the study published today (May 12) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is something that has been unexplained - how people born without a corpus callosum can maintain a lot of communication that requires both hemispheres," Moll told Live Science.
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Clipboard

Having a sense of purpose may add years to your life


ScienceDaily
Mon, 12 May 2014 14:14 UTC
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© Vitaly Krivosheev / FotoliaFeeling that you have a sense of purpose in life may help you live longer, no matter what your age.
Feeling that you have a sense of purpose in life may help you live longer, no matter what your age, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The research has clear implications for promoting positive aging and adult development, says lead researcher Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada:

"Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose," says Hill. "So the earlier someone comes to a direction for life, the earlier these protective effects may be able to occur."

Previous studies have suggested that finding a purpose in life lowers risk of mortality above and beyond other factors that are known to predict longevity.
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Music

The language of music in tree rings

Josh Richardson
PreventDisease.com
Sun, 11 May 2014 17:50 UTC
Artist Bartholomaus Traubeck has custom-built a record player that is able to "play" cross-sectional slices of tree trunks. The result is his artpiece "Years," an audio recording of tree rings being read by a computer and turned into music, much like a record player's needle reads the grooves on an LP. It gives us not only a sense of nature's message, but a perspective on a unique arrangement of sounds that would be impossible to interpret through any other medium.

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People 2

Why we finish other people's sentences

Sheila M. Eldred
Discovery News
Tue, 29 Apr 2014 17:00 UTC
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© iStock
If you complete your partner's sentences, or answer your BFF's questions before she asks them, you're not alone. In fact, new research shows that our brains are almost constantly predicting what other people are going to say.

And, when someone successfully anticipates someone else's words, their brains seem to be in sync, the researchers note in their study published today in the Journal of Neuroscience.

When you think you know what someone is going to say, your brain may signal the auditory cortex to expect certain sound patterns. What's more surprising, though, is that the speaker's brain is going through a similar function: If the speaker knows what she is saying is predictable, her brain activity lines up with the listener's.
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Books

Reducing test anxiety may help prevent more severe problems


Springer
Thu, 08 May 2014 13:05 UTC
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Reducing test anxiety has fewer stigmas, leads to potential prevention benefits.

Showing students how to cope with test anxiety might also help them to handle their built-up angst and fretfulness about other issues. The results of a new study by Carl Weems of the University of New Orleans show that anxiety intervention programs that focus on academic matters fit well into the demands of the school routine, and do not carry the same stigma among youth as general anxiety programs do. The research group was among the first to study the effects of Hurricane Katrina on community mental health and anxiety among youths, and the paper appears in Prevention Science, the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research, published by Springer.

Weems says that anxiety problems are among the most common emotional difficulties youths experience, and are often linked to exposure to disasters. If not addressed these feelings could lead to academic difficulties, the increased risk of developing depressive or anxiety disorders, and substance use problems in adulthood. It is, however, an issue that often falls under the radar in school settings. Therefore Weems and his team turned their attention to teaching students how to handle test anxiety, as such nervousness is one way in which anxieties commonly manifest among school-aged youth.
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Info

Brain zaps can trigger lucid dreams

Bahar Gholipour
Live Science
Sun, 11 May 2014 12:00 UTC
Lucid Dream
© Bruce Rolff/ShutterstockIn lucid dreams, people are aware of the fact that they are dreaming, and can control their dream plot.
Lucid dreams, in which people are aware of and can control their dreams, are rare. But now scientists have found they can induce this weird state of mind in people by zapping their brains with a specific frequency of electricity.

"I never thought this would work," said study researcher Dr. John Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher at Harvard University. "But it looks like it does."

The results showed that when the inexperienced dreamers were zapped with a current of 40 Hertz, 77 percent of the time these participants reported having what were described as lucid dreams.

"They were really excited," said study researcher Ursula Voss, of J.W. Goethe-University Frankfurt, who designed the experiments.

"The dream reports were short, but long enough for them to report, 'Wow, all of the sudden I knew this was a dream, while I was dreaming.'
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Laptop

Lower rates of depression found in older people who use the internet

Benjamin Plackett
The Connectivist
Thu, 08 May 2014 12:44 UTC
computer use
© unknown
A new study shows that Internet use among older adults correlates with lower depression rates.

It's a gloomy thing to say, but the older we get, the more likely we are to be unhappy.

So called "late-life depression" affects as many as 10 million Americans in their middle age and beyond. While it makes good old common sense that when the fun of a reckless youth is a mere memory, we might be more likely to be depressed, this hasn't stopped scientists in great numbers from studying the higher rate of clinical depression among the elderly. And that's a good thing, because every now and then one these studies points not just to the confirmation of the trend, but to potential means of keeping the blues at bay
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Hearts

7 reasons meditation isn't a waste of time


Times of India
Sun, 11 May 2014 10:30 UTC
Meditation
© Unknown
Think meditation is a waste of time? Here are seven reasons why you are wrong.

Reduces the pain: Certain studies suggest that the pain you experience in your body is suppressed rage. Meditation helps you cool down. Also, though your back or other body areas may be feeling the ache, part of that pain may actually be in your head. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggested just 80 minutes of meditation training could cut pain perception nearly in half. In the study, volunteers were given a pain test before and after the meditation training; brain scans using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of pain-reception regions revealed significant changes before and after meditation, too.

Comment: Learn more about Meditation and Its Benefits:

Meditation can help unclutter the mind
10 remarkable ways meditation helps your mind
Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
Meditation Reduces the Emotional Impact of Pain
Meditative breathing may help manage chronic pain
Finding Right Meditation Technique Key to User Satisfaction
Meditation Improves the Immune System, Research Shows
The fascinating ways meditation transforms your brain - and why it makes you feel better

The Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program is an form of breathing and meditation techniques designed to be both 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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