Science of the SpiritS


Brain

Researchers find stress can be contagious and alter the brains of your partner

Graeme Hamilton
National Post
Wed, 07 Feb 2018 21:28 UTC
stress
© Getty ImagesStress is contagious, and it can alter the brains of others.
Stress transmitted from others can actually change the brain, scientists at the University of Calgary have found.

In a new paper published in Nature Neuroscience, the authors report the results of research on mice that were exposed to brief electroshocks on their feet and then reunited with a sibling.

Jaideep Bains, professor of Physiology & Pharmacology at the University of Calgary and one of the study authors, said previous research has shown that stress changes the brain and that it can be, in a sense, contagious.

"We thought, if stress causes long-lasting changes in the brain of the person who was stressed, or the mouse, and stress can be transmitted, does the transmitted stress cause the same changes in the brain?" Bains said in an interview Wednesday.

Comment: More from Psyblog:
[...]

Dr Toni-Lee Sterley, who led the study, said:
"There has been other literature that shows stress can be transferred - and our study is actually showing the brain is changed by that transferred stress.

The neurons that control the brain's response to stress showed changes in unstressed partners that were identical to those we measured in the stressed mice."
The conclusion comes from a study on pairs of male and female mice.

One of the pair was exposed to a mild stress before being returned to its partner.

The results showed that both the stressed mouse and the one that was not directly stressed had the same changes in critical brain networks.

Professor Jaideep Bains, who led the research, said:
"What we can begin to think about is whether other people's experiences or stresses may be changing us in a way that we don't fully understand.

The study also demonstrates that traits we think of as uniquely human are evolutionary conserved biological traits."
Stress caused the mice to release a chemical signal in the form of a pheromone to alert its partner.

Social interactions helped the female mice bounce back from the stress: the affected neurons recovered by around 50%.

The social interaction did not not help the male mice.

Professor Bains said:
"If some of the effects of stress are erased through social interactions, but this benefit is limited to females, this may provide insights into how we design personalized approaches for the treatment of stress disorders in people."


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Dollar

Study suggests maximum income for optimal happiness is $75K per year

Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
money man
The maximum income for optimal happiness is between $60,000 and $75,000 per year, new research finds.

Any more than that is associated with falling levels of happiness - perhaps because, above this level, the sacrifices are not worth it.

The researchers also asked people about their satisfaction with life.

Comment: See also:

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Brain

The pineal gland doesn't produce enough DMT for psychedelic experiences, says researcher

Eric W. Dolan
PsyPost
Thu, 18 Jan 2018 19:01 UTC
pineal gland
© rob3000
Psychedelic researcher David E. Nichols is pushing back against the belief that the pineal gland in the brain produces mystical experiences because it creates a powerful psychoactive substance called N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

The pineal gland is a small structure inside the brain that influences the sleep cycle by secreting the hormone melatonin. But claims have spread that the pineal gland also can produce DMT, a claim that has been used as a biological explanation for dreams, UFO abductions, and other out of body experiences.

Trace amounts of DMT have been detected in the pineal gland and other parts of the human body. But Nichols, an adjunct professor of chemical biology and medicinal chemistry at the University of North Carolina, said in an article published the scientific journal Psychopharmacology that there is no good evidence to support the link between the pineal gland, DMT, and mystical experiences.
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People

Bullying, either as victim or perpetrator, found to triple the risk for psychotic disorders


PsyBlog
Thu, 15 Feb 2018 18:10 UTC
sad child on bed
© Olaf Heil / Global Look Press
Being involved in sibling bullying triples the risk of psychotic disorders in adulthood, new research finds.

The risk is tripled whether the person is the victim or the bully.

A child who is bullied at home and at school has four times the chance of developing a psychotic disorder later on.

Psychotic disorders, like schizophrenia, are those that involve becoming detached from reality.

This could include experiencing hallucinations, delusions or paranoid thoughts.

Comment: See also:

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Clipboard

Choose your pursuits carefully - Ten habits that will dramatically improve your life

Dr Travis Bradberry
Linkedin
Tue, 13 Feb 2018 09:47 UTC
happy, happiness
In Hans Christian Andersen's fable The Red Shoes, a young girl longs for a pair of pretty red shoes. She ultimately tricks the blind woman who cares for her into buying her a pair. Her love for the red shoes causes her to give them priority over the more important things in her life, and, as often happens in fables, karma is not on her side. The shoes become firmly stuck to her feet and force her to dance non-stop, to the point where she almost dies from exhaustion and starvation.

We can scoff at the little girl's foolishness, but, in real life, we often do the same thing - we chase after the things that we think will make us happy and don't realize that we're heading down a dangerous path.

One study found that the people who experience the greatest job satisfaction aren't the ones in the big, fancy offices; they're the ones who approach their work as a calling, even when that work involves menial labor.

Another study found that simply seeing fast-food logos makes people impatient. It's not that there's some intrinsic characteristic of fast food that makes people impatient; it's the habits we've come to associate with fast food, such as always being on the run, eating on the go, and never slowing down enough to enjoy a healthy meal, that bring out our impatience.

We have to be very careful in choosing our pursuits, because our habits make us. Cultivating the habits that follow will send you in the right direction. They'll help you to lead a more meaningful and fulfilling life, whereby you cultivate the best within yourself.

Comment: This might help too! 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

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People 2

Study finds people who are addicted to Facebook more likely to be narcissists


PsyBlog
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 16:43 UTC
facebook
© Jaap Arriens / Global Look Press
How to spot a narcissist from their online behaviour

People who are addicted to Facebook are more likely to be narcissists, new research finds. The study followed the Facebook use of 179 German students over a year.

All were asked about their personalities and other aspects of their psychological life, like levels of depression and anxiety. The results showed that people with narcissistic personalities were more likely to get addicted to Facebook.
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People

Study: Apologies from the powerful are perceived as insincere


newswise
Thu, 04 Jan 2018 13:05 UTC
Iam Sorry poster
© Unknown
A new international study found that people with high social status are perceived as insincere when they apologize for a transgression. "This perception applies to the world of business and work, and it's reasonable to assume it applies to politicians, too. The more senior they are, the less authentic their emotions are perceived as being," says one of the authors of the study.

Do we believe apologies by people who have committed a transgression? It depends on their power status. A new international study including the University of Haifa found that people with high social status are perceived as insincere when they apologize for a transgression, relative to people of lower status. "The high-status person is perceived as someone who can control their emotions more effectively and use them strategically, and accordingly they are perceived as less sincere. This perception applies to the world of business and work, and it's reasonable to assume it applies to politicians, too. The more senior they are, the less authentic their emotions are perceived as being," says Dr. Arik Cheshin of the University of Haifa, one of the authors of the study.

Comment: Western governments and corporations are ruled by psychopaths who quite often don't possess a conscience. It is reasonable for normal people to be suspicious of apologies from powerful people.

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Frog

A theory of homeostasis: The genius of our lizard brain

Antonio Damasio
Medium
Sun, 11 Feb 2018 17:51 UTC
cartoon lizard evolution
© Nick Vokey
Emotions don't get in the way of rational thought, says Antonio Damasio . They make it possible.

The age-old distinction between the heart and the head is completely wrong. That's one of the central ideas in The Strange Order of Things, a new book by Antonio Damasio, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California.

Emotions and feelings are often regarded as evolutionary relics handed down to us from an ancestral "reptilian brain" - mere physiological responses that cloud our ability to think rationally. According to Damasio, however, we underestimate the importance of feelings in our lives-and for civilization itself.

Damasio is a leading researcher on the nature of consciousness and first proposed a version of this idea, the "somatic marker" hypothesis, in 1994. He argued that the brain and the body work together to generate consciousness of the self within one's surroundings. Far from being vestigial responses, feelings influence higher-order thought processes such as decision-making. But in The Strange Order of Things, Damasio takes it much further, suggesting that feelings and emotions were the main driving forces behind human achievement.

Comment: More information on homeostasis as applied to society

Paradox of human behavior: The myth of radical change

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Music

Brain regeneration & healing with music

Ali Le Vere
Greenmedinfo.com
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 16:52 UTC
music
Music, which may be the most ancient human language, has the potential to improve neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders by creating new brain cells and neural connectivity. Not only that, but music restores hormonal and immunological balance in a way mirroring adaptogenic herbs.

The Evolution of Music

Music, the universal language, has been woven into the fabric of human culture since time immemorial. Rather than being a modern human invention, the creation of musical harmonies, using the voice as an instrument, and moving to rhythms may have long been crystallized as part of the human condition. A historical facet of the human condition, research implicates music in the cementing of social bonds, the establishment of monogamy, and as a primitive mode of communication (1). In fact, by forging social communion and engendering a sense of group identity, music may have been foundational to the emergence of large-scale pre-human civilizations (1).

Comment: Neuroplasticity may explain the healing powers of music

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Brain

Attention restoration theory: What happens to our brain when we experience complete silence and peace of mind?

Alana Kelter
Collective Evolution
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 16:01 UTC
Silence
Silence. How often do you truly get to experience this? Nowadays, silence is a very rare commodity indeed as we are constantly bombarded with noises from people, traffic, airplanes, music, advertisements, construction and the list goes on. I've been thinking a lot about silence and how much I would like some as I've been traveling and am constantly subjected to honking cars, screaming tourists, and clanking sounds all around me. Silence, is actually not something that is very easily obtainable - silence is golden. So how important is silence and is it a detriment to the well-being of our minds if we don't have it?

In 2011, the Finnish Tourist Board ran a campaign that actually used silence as a marketing product. Their campaign aimed to entice people to visit Finland to experience the beauty of the silent land. The campaign released a series of photos of single figures in nature along with the headline, "Silence, Please." Another tagline was added by Simon Ahnolt, an international country branding consultant that said, "No talking, but action."
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