Mad in America (and the world)
View allAll Photos Tagged Brain_Imaging
Birds are certainly amazing creatures with unbelievable behaviors. Their brains are so much more developed than what was previously believed.
These red-bellied woodpeckers are all-season fixtures around our backyard and the woods beyond.
This one seems to be leaning in to eavesdrop on a distant conversation.
leaning in
to hear or to see better
not a bird brain
Image and haiku by John Henry Gremmer
I'm not feeling overly scary this Halloween, however I did watch a Halloween movie the other night. Was I scared? Naw, never mind that I curled up later in bed with the lights on, my baseball bat by my side, the dog at my feet, a flashlight in my hand listening intently for sounds inside and outside of the house. No way was I scared. Okay, maybe a little.
Location: the reptilian part of my brain.
Image imagined in MidJourney AI and finished in Lightroom Classic.
"Well, you don't know what we can find
Why don't you come with me, little girl
On a magic carpet ride"
I'm having a 60's fantasy--or is that a flashback? Remember the old saying, "if you can remember the 60's, you weren't there."
Location: somewhere in the One Thousand and One Nights corner of my brain.
Image imagined in MidJourney AI and finished with Topaz Studio 2.0 and Lightroom Classic.
"As we get older, the novelty of our reality slowly tapers off, leaving one with the sense that time is passing more rapidly."
A lone tree quietly awaits for a young seedling to mature. Friendship would be welcome after living so many years in a desolate landscape.
Location: somewhere in the gray matter of my brain.
Image imagined in MidJourney AI and finished with Topaz Studio 2.0 and Lightroom Classic.
I bought a point and shoot (Nikon P7000, but that's enough of tech-talk). With me all the time I am using for grabshots/snapshots, call them what you will.
Hopefully as I shoot each day with it I will see something worth exploring with my DSLR. Plus as I get more used to the spontenous shot, versus the more considered DSLR shot, I will hopefully see an improvement overall in my images. Who knows. Anyone even still reading? I bet you are surprised to know I consider my other shots considered :)
The process
1) Shoot everyday
2) Delete the truly awful on a Sunday
3) Take the rest and make into a Flickr-video
4) Add a great backing track so your visit was not a complete waste.
A brain/image dump! Much, to be honest, is just shapes and colours that piqued my interest in the week.
We're gearing up for a big trip soon, so I have landscapes on the brain.
Image made with my Nikon F100.
We're gearing up for a big trip soon, so I have landscapes on the brain.
Image made with my Nikon F100.
We're gearing up for a big trip soon, so I have landscapes on the brain.
Image made with my Innova 6x9 Pinhole.
Canon EOS 6D - f/16 - 1.6sec - 100mm - ISO 640
Why it is called the brain flower:
Waarom de naam hersenbloem is:
www.inspectorinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Brain...
- Celosia cristata = Cockscomb flowers are also known as Wool Flowers or Brain Celosia, suggestive of a highly colored brain. The flowers belong to the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Cockscomb blooms with a compacted crested head 2-5 inches across, on leafy stems that are 12-28 inches long. The flower's name is suggestive of a rooster's comb. The Cockscomb flower blooms from late summer through late fall.
The exact origins of Cockscomb in the wild are unknown, though some assign the geographical origins to the dry slopes of Africa and India as well as the dry rocky regions of both North and South America.
Celosia comes from the Greek word 'kelos', meaning burned; apparently referring to the look of the brightly colored flowers in some species.
In China the flower is called chi kuan, where it is extensively cultivated.
- Celosia cristata = hersenbloem. Eenjarige planten die vooral worden toegepast in potten en bloembakken op het terras.
De vaak fel gekleurde kam is een vergroeid deel van de stengel, de werkelijke bloemen zitten, vaak met honderden, aan de zijkanten van de kam. Er zijn twee Cristata typen: een met platte kammen en een hersen-type.
Ze brengen een exotische toets op het terras.
Bloeien vaak 2 maand aan een stuk : juli / aug
Blijft als snijbloem verschillende weken.
Leuk blog artikel over deze bloem hier:
mcmvdmeer.blogspot.nl/2014/09/als-je-de-hersens-niet-hebt...
the wing of the 787 that we flew the 12hrs home in, against a beautiful blue sky above Japan.
We left Osaka.
Now back jam-packed with super memories, experiences ALL SRTS, lots of photo's and so many 'brain-images'= I mean those that a camera could not capture but my eyes could, lol
Home sweet home, oh yes, lovely to go, great to be back!
THANK you and have a lovely w-e, M, (*_*)
For more of my work, visit here: www.indigo2photography.com
Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
We're gearing up for a big trip soon, so I have landscapes on the brain.
Image made with my Nikon F100.
Get Your Tin Foil Hats Ready! "I Can Read Your Mind" Becoming Reality - IMRAN™
Talk about mind-reading. Scientists have made an exciting discovery by mapping how our brains understand the meanings of words. This new map shows that our brains use similar categories to classify words, which helps us make sense of language.
The study, focused on English words, is a step towards understanding how our brains store language. By mapping brain cells’ responses to words, we can start building a “thesaurus of meaning.”
Published in Nature, the research highlights how the auditory cortex processes word sounds, while the prefrontal cortex deciphers their meanings. Previous studies used brain imaging to map word meanings, but a team of researchers recorded real-time neuron activity in epilepsy patients with implanted electrodes.
Participants listened to sentences, and the scientists tracked which neurons fired. They found that specific neurons responded to words in similar categories, like actions or people. Words with related meanings, such as “mouse” and “rat,” triggered similar neuronal patterns.
Interestingly, the prefrontal cortex neurons distinguished words by meaning, not sound. For example, “son” activated family-related neurons, but “Sun” did not, despite sounding the same. As someone who speaks English, Urdu, Punjabi, and is learning French, it would be fascinating to literally "see" how multi-lingual people's neurons operate.
These researchers could partially determine what participants heard by observing neuron activity, identifying general themes like animals, actions, and food. This detailed understanding of single-neuron activity is crucial for developing brain-computer interfaces to restore speech.
Of course, the great risk to our freedoms would come from Big Brother literally being able to read our minds and know our thoughts. Add in the great power of Artificial Intelligence overlaid on these bio-medical, medical-imaging, and bio-engineering breakthroughs and.... I know what you're thinking.
Just Kidding... Or, am I ? :-)
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02146-6
© 2024 IMRAN™
#IMRAN #news #medicine #languages #brain #intelligence #comprehension #learning #human
Photo Not Mine, see URL.
Canon EOS 6D - f/16 - 1.6sec - 100mm - ISO 640
sharp as a tack: very intelligent, bright brains
The structure of the Celosia cristata flower resembles that of the human brain. That's the reason it is called the 'brain flower'.
Even more: the complete flower that I did photograph does look like the complete human brains too.
see for the striking resemblace:
www.inspectorinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Brain...
On UC Berkeley campus. Weird lines in fence and roof. . . . "Brain Imaging Center". Volunteers are welcome!
HFF!
We're gearing up for a big trip soon, so I have landscapes on the brain.
Image made with my Hasselblad 500 C/M.
There's nothing better than reading a good book on a Saturday afternoon…
Did you know that…
"Brain imaging studies of blind people as they read words in Braille show activity in precisely the same part of the brain that lights up when sighted readers read." (from Science Daily)
"... reading plays a vital role in the lives of blind and partially sighted people, helping them to overcome daily challenges, boosting mental well-being, enabling them to develop learning and skills and providing opportunities for social contact through reading groups" (from The Reading Agency)
Description of the photo:
The photo shows a hand moving across the lines of Braille on a page in a book.
Keep the comments clean! No banners, awards or invitations, please!
Not far from home I spotted this classic Escort stopped by a country road with "ILFORD" across the windscreen. I had a Leica with me which I was in the process of running a test film through. A roll of ILFORD FP4 Plus black and white. Pulling over and getting a couple of images was a no-brainer.
IMAGE DETAILS:
Camera: Leica IIIg 35mm Rangefinder (1956).
Lens: Leitz 50mm Elmar f/2.8 collapsible (1956).
Film: Ilford FP4 Plus ISO 125 35mm black & white negative.
Development: ID-11 1 + 3 21m/20C.
Copyright 2018 Brett Rogers All Rights Reserved
Power can significantly change a person's personality. Maybe even transform it. To fight hubris syndrome, we must begin by fighting our tendency to admire power.Power has always inspired writers. Hubris syndrome "- when power drives an individual mad - would also have transfigured a large number of historical personalities.
Hubris (/ˈhjuːbrɪs/, also hybris, from ancient Greek ὕβρις) describes a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence.[1] In its ancient Greek context, it typically describes behavior that defies the norms of behavior or challenges the gods, and which in turn brings about the downfall, or nemesis, of the perpetrator of hubris.
The adjectival form of the noun hubris is "hubristic". Hubris is usually perceived as a characteristic of an individual rather than a group, although the group the offender belongs to may suffer collateral consequences from the wrongful act. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence, accomplishments or capabilities. Contrary to common expectations,[by whom?] hubris is not necessarily associated with high self-esteem but with highly fluctuating or variable self-esteem, and a gap between inflated self perception and a more modest reality. In ancient Greek, hubris referred to actions that shamed and humiliated the victim for the pleasure or gratification of the abuser. The term had a strong sexual connotation, and the shame reflected upon the perpetrator as well. Violations of the law against hubris included what might today be termed assault and battery; sexual crimes; or the theft of public or sacred property. Two well-known cases are found in the speeches of Demosthenes, a prominent statesman and orator in ancient Greece. These two examples occurred when first Midias punched Demosthenes in the face in the theatre (Against Midias), and second when (in Against Conon) a defendant allegedly assaulted a man and crowed over the victim. Yet another example of hubris appears in Aeschines' Against Timarchus, where the defendant, Timarchus, is accused of breaking the law of hubris by submitting himself to prostitution and anal intercourse. Aeschines brought this suit against Timarchus to bar him from the rights of political office and his case succeeded. In ancient Athens, hubris was defined as the use of violence to shame the victim (this sense of hubris could also characterize rape. Aristotle defined hubris as shaming the victim, not because of anything that happened to the committer or might happen to the committer, but merely for that committer's own gratification: to cause shame to the victim, not in order that anything may happen to you, nor because anything has happened to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the requital of past injuries; this is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its cause is this: naive men think that by ill-treating others they make their own superiority the greater. Crucial to this definition are the ancient Greek concepts of honour (τιμή, timē) and shame (αἰδώς, aidōs). The concept of honour included not only the exaltation of the one receiving honour, but also the shaming of the one overcome by the act of hubris. This concept of honour is akin to a zero-sum game. Rush Rehm simplifies this definition of hubris to the contemporary concept of "insolence, contempt, and excessive violence".In Greek mythology, when a figure's hubris offends the pagan gods of ancient Greece, it is usually punished; examples of such hubristic, sinful humans include Icarus, Phaethon, Arachne, Salmoneus, Niobe, Cassiopeia, and Tereus. The concept of hubris is not only derived from Greek philosophy - as it is found in Plato and Aristotle - but also from the theatre, where it allows us to tell the story of great epics, where success goes up to the head of the hero, who claims to rise to the rank of gods; it is then ruthlessly put in its place by Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance. The Greek hybris refers to the excesses and their disastrous consequences.
In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride combined with arrogance.[10] Hubris is often associated with a lack of humility. Sometimes a person's hubris is also associated with ignorance. The accusation of hubris often implies that suffering or punishment will follow, similar to the occasional pairing of hubris and nemesis in Greek mythology. The proverb "pride goeth (goes) before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (from the biblical Book of Proverbs, 16:18) is thought to sum up the modern use of hubris. Hubris is also referred to as "pride that blinds" because it often causes a committer of hubris to act in foolish ways that belie common sense.[11] In other words, the modern definition may be thought of as, "that pride that goes just before the fall."
Examples of hubris are often found in literature, most famously in John Milton's Paradise Lost, in which Lucifer attempts to compel the other angels to worship him, is cast into hell by God and the innocent angels, and proclaims: "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." Victor in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein manifests hubris in his attempt to become a great scientist by creating life through technological means, but comes to regret his project. Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus portrays the eponymous character as a scholar whose arrogance and pride compel him to sign a deal with the Devil, and retain his haughtiness until his death and damnation, despite the fact that he could easily have repented had he chosen to do so.
Charisma, charm, the ability to inspire, persuasiveness, breadth of vision, willingness to take risks, grandiose aspirations and bold self-confidence—these qualities are often associated with successful leadership. Yet there is another side to this profile, for these very same qualities can be marked by impetuosity, a refusal to listen to or take advice and a particular form of incompetence when impulsivity, recklessness and frequent inattention to detail predominate. This can result in disastrous leadership and cause damage on a large scale. The attendant loss of capacity to make rational decisions is perceived by the general public to be more than ‘just making a mistake’. While they may use discarded medical or colloquial terms, such as ‘madness’ or ‘he's lost it’, to describe such behaviour, they instinctively sense a change of behaviour although their words do not adequately capture its essence. A common thread tying these elements together is hubris, or exaggerated pride, overwhelming self-confidence and contempt for others (Owen, 2006). How may we usefully think about a leader who hubristically abuses power, damaging the lives of others? Some see it as nothing more than the extreme manifestation of normal behaviour along a spectrum of narcissism. Others simply dismiss hubris as an occupational hazard of powerful leaders, politicians or leaders in business, the military and academia; an unattractive but understandable aspect of those who crave power. But the matter can be formulated differently so that it becomes appropriate to think of hubris in medical terms. It then becomes necessary first to rule out conditions such as bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder, in which grandiosity may be a prominent feature. From the medical perspective, a number of questions other than the practicalities of treatment can be raised. For example can physicians and psychiatrists help in identifying features of hubris and contribute to designing legislation, codes of practice and democratic processes to constrain some of its features? Can neuroscientists go further and discover through brain imaging and other techniques more about the presentations of abnormal personality? (Goodman et al., 2007).
We see the relevance of hubris by virtue of it being a trait or a propensity towards certain attitudes and behaviours. A certain level of hubris can indicate a shift in the behavioural pattern of a leader who then becomes no longer fully functional in terms of the powerful office held. First, several characteristics of hubris are easily thought of as adaptive behaviours either in a modified context or when present with slightly less intensity. The most illustrative such example is impulsivity, which can be adaptive in certain contexts. More detailed study of powerful leaders is needed to see whether it is mere impulsivity that leads to haphazard decision making, or whether some become impulsive because they inhabit a more emotional grandiose and isolated culture of decision making.
We believe that extreme hubristic behaviour is a syndrome, constituting a cluster of features (‘symptoms’) evoked by a specific trigger (power), and usually remitting when power fades. ‘Hubris syndrome’ is seen as an acquired condition, and therefore different from most personality disorders which are traditionally seen as persistent throughout adulthood. The key concept is that hubris syndrome is a disorder of the possession of power, particularly power which has been associated with overwhelming success, held for a period of years and with minimal constraint on the leader.
The ability to make swift decisions, sometimes based on little evidence, is of particular importance—arguably necessary—in a leader. Similarly, a thin-skinned person will not be able to stand the process of public scrutiny, attacks by opponents and back-stabbings from within, without some form of self-exultation and grand belief about their own mission and importance. Powerful leaders are a highly selected sample and many criteria of any syndrome based on hubris are those behaviours by which they are probably selected—they make up the pores of the filter through which such individuals must pass to achieve high office.
Hubris is associated in Greek mythology with Nemesis. The syndrome, however, develops irrespective of whether the individual's leadership is judged a success or failure; and it is not dependent on bad outcomes. For the purpose of clarity, given that these are retrospective judgements, we have determined that the syndrome is best confined to those who have no history of a major depressive illness that could conceivably be a manifestation of bipolar disorder.
Hubris is acquired, therefore, over a period. The full blown hubris, associated with holding considerable power in high office, may or may not be transient. There is a moving scale of hubris and no absolute cut-off in definition or the distinction from fully functional leadership. External events can influence the variation both in intensity and time of onset.
Dictators are particularly prone to hubris because there are few, if any, constraints on their behaviour. Here, this complex area is not covered but one of us has considered the matter elsewhere (Owen, 2008). Hitler's biographer, Ian Kershaw (1998, 2000), entitled his first volume 1889–1936 Hubris and the second 1936–1945 Nemesis. Stalin's hubris was not as marked or as progressive as Hitler's. As for Mussolini and Mao both had hubris but probably each also had bipolar disorder. Khrushchev was diagnosed as having hypomania and there is some evidence that Saddam Hussein had bipolar disease (Owen, 2008).
Being elected to high office for a democratic leader is a significant event. Subsequent election victories appear to increase the likelihood of hubristic behaviour becoming hubris syndrome. Facing a crisis situation such as a looming or actual war or facing potential financial disaster may further increase hubris. But only the more developed cases of hubris deserve classification as a syndrome exposed as an occupational hazard in those made vulnerable by circumstance.
Hubris syndrome and its characteristics
Unlike most personality disorders, which appear by early adulthood, we view hubris syndrome as developing only after power has been held for a period of time, and therefore manifesting at any age. In this regard, it follows a tradition which acknowledges the existence of pathological personality change, such as the four types in ICD-10: enduring personality change after trauma, psychiatric illness, chronic pain or unspecified type (ICD-10, 1994)—although ICD-10 implies that these four diagnoses are unlikely to improve.
Initially 14 symptoms constituting the hubristic syndrome were proposed (Owen, 2006). Now, we have shortened and tabulated these descriptions and mapped their broad affinities with the DSM IV criteria for narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder. These three personality disorders also appear in ICD-10, although narcissistic personality disorder is presented in an appendix as a provisional condition, whose clinical or scientific status is regarded as uncertain. ICD-10 considers narcissistic personality disorder to be sufficiently important to warrant more study, but that it is not yet ready for international acceptance. In practice, the correlations are less precise than the table suggests and the syndrome better described by the broader patterns and descriptions that the individual criteria encapsulate.
Establishing the diagnostic features of hubris syndrome
The nosology of psychiatric illness depends on traditional criteria for placing diagnoses in a biomedical framework (Robins and Guze, 1970). There are, however, other underpinnings—psychological or sociological—that can be applied. Validity for a psychiatric illness involves assessing five phases: (i) clinical description; (ii) laboratory studies; (iii) defining boundaries vis-a-vis other disorders; (iv) follow-up study; and (v) family study. While these phases are worth analysing, it has to be recognized that there are severe limitations in rigidly applying such criteria to hubris syndrome given that so few people exercise real power in any society and the frequency amongst those ‘at-risk’ is low. The potential importance of the syndrome derives, however, from the extensive damage that can be done by the small number of people who are affected. As an investigative strategy, it may be that studies such as neuroimaging, family studies, or careful personality assessments in more accessible subjects with hubristic qualities or narcissistic personality disorder from other vulnerable groups might inform the validation process.
Proposed clinical features
Hubris syndrome was formulated as a pattern of behaviour in a person who: (i) sees the world as a place for self-glorification through the use of power; (ii) has a tendency to take action primarily to enhance personal image; (iii) shows disproportionate concern for image and presentation; (iv) exhibits messianic zeal and exaltation in speech; (v) conflates self with nation or organization; (vi) uses the royal ‘we’ in conversation; (vii) shows excessive self-confidence; (viii) manifestly has contempt for others; (ix) shows accountability only to a higher court (history or God); (x) displays unshakeable belief that they will be vindicated in that court; (xi) loses contact with reality; (xii) resorts to restlessness, recklessness and impulsive actions; (xiii) allows moral rectitude to obviate consideration of practicality, cost or outcome; and (xiv) displays incompetence with disregard for nuts and bolts of policy making.
In defining the clinical features of any disorder, more is required than simply listing the symptoms. In the case of hubris syndrome, a context of substantial power is necessary, as well as a certain period of time in power—although the length has not been specified, varying in the cases described from 1 to 9 years. The condition may have predisposing personality characteristics but it is acquired, that is its appearance post-dates the acquisition of power.
Establishment of the clinical features should include the demonstration of criterion reliability, exploration of a preferred threshold for the minimum number of features that must be present, and the measurement of symptoms (e.g. their presence or absence, and a severity scale). This endeavour may also include a decision as to whether the 14 criteria suggested might usefully be revised.
To determine whether hubris syndrome can be characterized biologically will be very difficult. It is the nature of leaders who have the syndrome that they are resistant to the very idea that they can be ill, for this is a sign of weakness. Rather, they tend to cover up illness and so would be most unlikely to submit voluntarily to any testing, e.g. the completion of scales measuring anxiety, neuroticism and impulsivity. Also the numbers of people with the syndrome is likely to be so small preventing the realistic application of statistical analyses. It also needs to be remembered that leaders are prone to using performance-enhancing drugs fashionable at the time. Two heads of government, Eden and Kennedy, were on amphetamines in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 21st century hubristic leaders are likely to be amongst the first to use the new category of so-called cognition enhancers. Many neuroscientists believe that such drugs properly used can be taken without harm. The problem is a leader who takes these without medical supervision and in combination with other substances or in dosages substantially above those that are recommended. In 2008, Nature carried out an informal survey of its mainly scientific readers and found that one in five of 1400 responders were taking stimulants and wake-promoting agents such as methylphenidate and modafinil, or β-blockers for non-medical reasons (Maher, 2008).
In defining the boundaries, one of the more important questions may be to understand whether hubris syndrome is essentially the same as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), a subtype of NPD or a separate entity. As shown in Table 1, 7 of the 14 possible defining symptoms are also among the criteria for NPD in DSM-IV, and two correspond to those for antisocial personality and histrionic personality disorders (APD and HPD, respectively) (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The five remaining symptoms are unique, in the sense they have not been classified elsewhere: (v) conflation of self with the nation or organization; (vi) use of the royal ‘we’; (x) an unshakable belief that a higher court (history or God) will provide vindication; (xii) restlessness, recklessness and impulsiveness; and (xiii) moral rectitude that overrides practicalities, cost and outcome.
academic.oup.com/brain/article/132/5/1396/354862/Hubris-s...
La Vie site cites the work of researcher Ian H. Robertson, who studied the effect of hubris on a fish species in Lake Tanganyka in Africa, on which the seizure of power triggers a hormonal reaction that changes their organism. The researcher explains that the situation is similar for humans, whose intelligence is multiplied tenfold by dopamine intake, but "too much dopamine will have harmful consequences. But absolute power floods the brain with dopamine. It also creates an addiction,"says the researcher. That is not all. Excessive self-confidence puts in place a mental mechanism that makes it impossible to assess oneself properly. The more you have a fair appreciation of your own qualities, the more modest you are. And you don't normally feel fit to become head of state,"explains Sebastian Dieguez, a neuroscience researcher at the University of Freiburg.
Autumn 2007, nested somewhere upstate NY.
My body aches just like Bob Dylan's song
"Everything is broken", my mind reflects on almost half of a century of existence, abuse, peace, sad moments and happy moments, as if a movie trailer of the best and worst moments of my life are projecting in front of my brain.
Images flashing in my personal "movie screen", where I'm the only actor, supporting actor and popcorn maker.
For the most part, it's a good movie, the shadows of the scenes points to a somewhat good ending...
But what about the aches and pains?
I ask myself.
And as just as many sunny days, I have to content with the memories of some great seasons.
Is life so rewarding that I have to be emotionally attached with the past, and
let the tears drops roll off my face when my world felt like an arctic Winter?
Or be glad that I didn't have to embrace such?
And I just retreat and calmly think of the abundant summer like light, that kindly warmed my path.....
After all, life has not been that bad.
Not a lot of things were broken...
Who do I thank?
Outono 2007, em algum lugar norte acima de NYC.
Meu corpo doi, como uma musica do Bob Dylan, "Everything is broken", minha mente reflete em quaze meio seculo de existencia, abusos, paz, tristes e alegres momentos, como que um trailer de melhores ou piores momentos de minha vida projetassem em frente do meu celebro.
Imagens "flashing" na minha tela pessoal, onde eu sou o unico ator, sou o coajuvante e tambem o pipoqueiro.
Na maioria do tempo, o filme parece bom, as sombras das cenas apontam a um quaze bom final.
Mas porque existem as cicatrizes e dores?
Eu me pergunto...
E como os muitos dias de sol em minha vida, eu tenho que me contentar com as memorias de algumas grandes estacoes...
Eh a vida e suas recompensas tao grandes que eu tenho que me sentir agarrado emocionalmente ao passado, deixando que as lagrimas rolem em meu rosto, por todos os tempos em que minha vida parecia com um inverno artico?
Ou ficar muito feliz por nao ter abracado tantos?
E eu me recluso calmamente, pensando nos veroes de raios solares abundantes
que gentilmente esquentaram meos caminhos...
Apesar de tudo, minha vida nao foi entao tao ruim assim.
Nao quebrei muitas coisas...
A quem entao eu devo agradecer?
A flashback, or involuntary recurrent memory, is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience or elements of a past experience. These experiences can be happy, sad, exciting, or any other emotion one can consider. The term is used particularly when the memory is recalled involuntarily, and/or when it is so intense that the person "relives" the experience, unable to fully recognize it as memory and not something that is happening in "real time" Flashbacks are the "personal experiences that pop into your awareness, without any conscious, premeditated attempt to search and retrieve this memory". These experiences occasionally have little to no relation to the situation at hand. Flashbacks to those suffering posttraumatic stress disorder can seriously disrupt everyday life.What is a flashback? A Viet Nam veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike near Newark Airport when a helicopter flew directly overhead. Suddenly, he slammed on the brakes, pulled his car to the side of the road, jumped out, and threw himself into a ditch. The unexpected sound of the helicopter had taken him back to Viet Nam and a time of being psychologically overwhelmed by incoming enemy fire. The flashback was intense. His experience was not of remembering an event, but of living the event. In an explicit flashback. the person is involuntarily transported back in time. To the person, it does not seem so. What they experience is being experienced as if it were happening in the present. An explicit flashback involves feelings and facts. Flashbacks from early childhood are different. They do not include factual information. Until about five years of age, factual - or explicit - memory is immature. But implicit memory, the memory of an emotional state, may go back to birth. When the memory of a strong emotional state is activated, the person is exposed to an involuntarily replay of what was felt at perhaps age one or two. Since facts are not replayed, the emotions seem to belong to what is going on in the present. Implicit flashbacks from early childhood can be powerful. They can overtake a person, and dominate his or her emotional state. Even so, the person may have no idea that what they are feeling is memory. How could they? If they cannot remember a past event that caused these feelings, the feelings naturally seem to belong to the present. When we have an implicit flashback, we mistakenly believe someone, or something, in the present is causing these feelings. Though something in the present triggered the feelings, the feelings do not fit the present situation. They are far more intense and far more persistent. Those two characteristics - intensity and persistence - are the clues we need to look for, clues that can tell us we are experiencing a flashback. Research at the University at Albany and the University of California Los Angeles has confirmed what therapists have long suspected, that PTSD can be caused by early childhood trauma in which emotions flashback but memory does not. In this research, very young rodents were exposed to one session of traumatic stress. Later, the animals were tested for both memory of the event and for fear response. Because the trauma took place early in their life, the rodents did not remember the environment in which the trauma took place. Yet, the rodents showed clear signs of PTSD: a persistent increase in anxiety when exposed to new situations, and drastic changes in levels of stress hormones. This research indicates that a trauma can cause a stress response even when no memory of the experience is present. It also suggests that therapists need to recognize that stress can be caused by unconscious processes - not just by thoughts. Commenting on the research, Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said "There may be a mismatch between what people think and how they feel." Where does early trauma come from? Violence and abuse are obvious causes. But seemingly benign practices may also cause trauma. Neurological researcher Allan Schore says the practice of putting a young child in bed, closing the door, and letting them "cry it out" is severely traumatizing. Parents, and so-called experts, have claimed that since the child will not remember this being done, it will have no impact. Schore says research shows that though a child may appear to be peacefully asleep after "crying it out," the child may not be asleep at all, but rather is in a frozen state of "dissociated terror." An article on "crying it out" can be found at this Psychology Today link. Schore writes "the infant's psychobiological response to trauma is comprised of two separate response patterns, hyperarousal and dissociation." Initially, the infant responds with increased heart rate, blood pressure and respiration. The infant's distress is expressed in crying, and then screaming. "A second later-forming, longer-lasting traumatic reaction is seen in dissociation. . . . If early trauma is experienced as 'psychic catastrophe' dissociation represents . . . 'escape where there is no escape'. Certainly no mother wants to intentionally traumatize a child. Helpful information on how to calm a crying baby and get some sleep is ovvered by Sarah Ockwell-Smith
Clients I have worked with to alleviate fear of flying expressed concern about having overwhelming, unbearable feelings on a flight and being unable to escape. They are unable to specify a time when they had such feelings. Yet, such feelings are too much of a threat for them to fly. Taking a flight is an emotional risk. They fear they may have an overwhelming experience, and unable to leave the plane, have no way to escape the experience. Whether they understand it or not, they fear they will have an implicit flashback. Since escape is seen as the answer to emotional overwhelm, escape from the original traumatic experience must have not been impossible.
What can a person do about implicit flashbacks? Three things: 1. Recognize that when an emotion is too intense and too persistent to fit the current situation, you may be experiencing the flashback of an experience from early childhood. 2. Face-to-face with an attuned and empathic therapist, put the emotions into words. Doing so links the therapist's presence to the emotions in the flashback, and neutralizes them; 3. Tell the therapist in detail what triggered the flashback; by linking the therapist's presence to the triggers, the triggers are neutralized. Memory is divided into voluntary (conscious) and involuntary (unconscious) processes that function independently of each other. Theories and research on memory dates back to Hermann Ebbinghaus, who began studying nonsense syllables.[1] Ebbinghaus classified three distinct classes of memory: sensory, short term, and long-term memory. Sensory memory is made up of a brief storage of information within a specific medium (the line you see after waving a sparkler in your field of vision is created by sensory memory). Short term memory is made up of the information currently in use to complete the task at hand. Long term memory is composed of the systems used to store memory over long periods. It enables one to remember what happened two days ago at noon, or who called last night.
Miller (1962–1974) declared that studying such fragile things as involuntary memories should not be done. This appears to have been followed since very little research has been done on flashbacks in the cognitive psychology discipline. Flashbacks have been studied within a clinical discipline however, and they have been identified as symptoms for many disorders, including post traumatic stress disorder.Flashbacks are psychological phenomena during which a person relives a past event or fragments of a past experience. They generally occur involuntarily, abruptly entering an individual’s awareness without the aid of premeditation or conscious attempts to recall the memory, and they may be intense. As flashbacks involve past events, they may have no relevance to what is happening at present.
While people often associate flashbacks solely with visual information, other senses such as smell, taste, touch, and hearing may also be actively involved in the episode. Flashbacks can elicit a wide array of emotions. Some flashbacks are so intense, it may become difficult to distinguish memory from current life events. Conversely, some flashbacks may be devoid of visual and auditory memory and may lead a person to experience feelings of panic, helplessness, numbness, or entrapment. Many individuals report the onset of flashbacks after surviving a near-death experience or another traumatic situation. Those with posttraumatic stress may experience flashbacks as a recurring symptom of the condition. Posttraumatic stress may develop after exposure to military combat, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, or potentially fatal events such as a car crash.
In addition to PTSD, other mental health conditions such as depression, acute stress, and obsessions and compulsions are associated with the development of flashbacks. The use of some drugs—such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)—may also increase the likelihood of a flashback occurring.
Flashbacks may have a profound impact on a person’s mental health. Due to the emotionally charged and uncontrollable nature of flashbacks, affected individuals may find their ability to carry out everyday activities is diminished. Loss of function may lead to a decrease in quality of life, which in turn may be a contributing factor for mood issues such as anxiety and depression. The psychological distress caused by flashbacks may be more immediate. Feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, confusion, and disorientation may often follow a flashback. An individual may become caught up in the flashback and scream, cry, show fear, or exhibit other behaviors that might lead to shame and embarrassment after the episode. These behaviors may damage self-esteem and create tension in interpersonal relationships. While the exact causes of flashbacks have not yet been identified, neuroscience and neuroimaging investigations have revealed information about how they occur. Neural scans of individuals experiencing flashbacks show that specific brain areas, such as the mid-occipital lobe, primary motor cortex, supplementary motor area, and regions of the dorsal stream, are highly activated during the episode. Current research also suggests that factors such as stress, food deprivation, and temporal lobe seizures may play an important role in the onset of flashbacks. Some people may isolate themselves emotionally in order to survive the aftermath of a highly traumatic events. However these survivors may find that the previously isolated thoughts, emotions, and body sensations are still expressed in the present—sometimes many years after the conclusion of the crisis. At times, it may even seem as if intrusive memories and sensations come from nowhere.
By working with a qualified therapist, many people develop an increased ability to cope effectively with flashbacks. In addition to providing further education on flashbacks, a therapist can help a person in treatment gradually unearth and address the source of the trauma—ensuring that previously repressed thoughts, emotions, sensations, and actions are expressed in a safe, healthy environment.
Due to the elusive nature of involuntary recurrent memories, very little is known about the subjective experience of flashbacks. However, theorists agree that this phenomenon is in part due to the manner in which memories of specific events are initially encoded (or entered) into memory, the way in which the memory is organized, and also the way in which the individual later recalls the event. Overall, theories that attempt to explain the flashback phenomenon can be categorized into one of two viewpoints. The special mechanism view is clinically oriented in that it holds that involuntary memories are due to traumatic events, and the memories for these events can be attributed to a special memory mechanism. On the other hand, the basic mechanism view is more experimentally oriented in that it is based on memory research. This view holds that traumatic memories are bound by the same parameters as all other every-day memories. Both viewpoints agree that involuntary recurrent memories result from rare events that would not normally occur. These rare events elicit strong emotional reactions from the individual since it violates normal expectations. According to the special mechanisms view, the event would lead to fragmented voluntary encoding into memory (meaning that only certain isolated parts of the event would be encoded), thus making the conscious subsequent retrieval of the memory much more difficult. On the other hand, involuntary recurrent memories are likely to become more available, and these are more likely to be triggered by external cues. In contrast to this, the basic mechanism view holds that the traumatic event would lead to enhanced and cohesive encoding of the event in memory, and this would make both voluntary and involuntary memories more available for subsequent recall. What is currently an issue of controversy is the nature of the defining criteria that makes up an involuntary memory. Up until recently, researchers believed that involuntary memories were a result of traumatic incidents that the individual experienced at a specific time and place, but the temporal and spatial features of the event are lost during an involuntary recollection episode. In other words, people who suffer from flashbacks lose all sense of time and place, and they feel as if they are re-experiencing the event instead of just recalling a memory. This is consistent with the special mechanism viewpoint in that the involuntary (unintended) memory is based on a different memory mechanism than its voluntary (intended) counterpart. Furthermore, the initial emotions experienced at the time of encoding are also re-experienced during a flashback episode, and this can be especially distressing when the memory is of a traumatic event. It has also been demonstrated that the nature of the flashbacks experienced by an individual are static in that they retain an identical form upon each intrusion.[9] This occurs even when the individual has learned new information that directly contradicts the information retained in the intrusive memory.
Upon further investigation, it was found that involuntary memories are usually derived from either stimuli (i.e. anything that causes a change in behaviour) that indicated the onset of a traumatic event, or from stimuli that hold intense emotional significance to the individual simply because these stimuli were closely associated with the trauma in terms of timing. These stimuli then become warning signals that if encountered again, serve to trigger a flashback. This has been termed the warning signal hypothesis. For example, a man experiences a flashback upon seeing sun spots on his lawn. This happens because he associates the sun spots with the headlights of the vehicle that he collided with, causing a horrific car accident. According to Ehlers and Clark, traumatic memories are more apt to induce flashbacks simply because of faulty encoding in that the individual fails to take contextual information into account, as well as time and place information that would usually be associated with every-day memories. These individuals become more sensitized to stimuli that they associate with the traumatic event which then serve as triggers for a flashback (even though the context surrounding the stimulus may be unrelated; such as sun spots being unrelated to headlights). These triggers may have elicited an adaptive response during the time of the traumatic experience, but they soon become maladaptive if the person continues to respond in the same way in situations in which no danger may be present.
The special mechanism viewpoint would add to this further by suggesting that these triggers activate the fragmented memory of the trauma, but protective cognitive mechanisms function to inhibit the recall of the original memory of the traumatic event. Dual representation theory enhances this idea by suggesting two separate mechanisms that account for voluntary and involuntary memories; the first of which is called the verbally accessible memory system and the latter is referred to the situationally accessible memory system.
In contrast to this, theories belonging to the basic mechanism viewpoint hold that there are no separate mechanisms that account for voluntary and involuntary memories. The recall of memories for stressful events do not differ under involuntary and voluntary recall. Instead, it is the retrieval mechanism that is different for each type of recall. In involuntary recall, the external trigger creates an uncontrolled spreading of activation in memory, whereas in voluntary recall, this activation is strictly controlled and is goal-oriented.
The hippocampus is highlighted in red.
Several brain regions have been implicated in the neurological basis of flashbacks. The medial temporal lobes, the precuneus, the posterior cingulate gyrus and the prefrontal cortex are the most typically referenced with regards to involuntary memories. The medial temporal lobes are commonly associated with memory. More specifically, the lobes have been linked to episodic/declarative memory and thus damage to these areas of the brain result in disruptions to declarative memory system. The hippocampus, located within the medial temporal regions, has also been highly related to memory processes. There are numerous functions in the hippocampus; these functions also include aspects of memory consolidation.Brain imaging studies have shown flashbacks activate areas associated with memory retrieval. The precuneus, located in the superior parietal lobe and the posterior cingulate gyrus have also been implicated in memory retrieval. In addition, studies have shown activity in areas of the prefrontal cortex to be involved in memory retrieval. Thus, the medial temporal lobe, precuneus, superior parietal lobe and posterior cingulate gyrus have all been implicated in flashbacks in accordance to their roles on memory retrieval. Memory has typically been divided into sensory, short term, and long term processes.According to Rasmuseen & Berntsen, 2009, "long-term memory processes may form the core of spontaneous thought".Thus the memory process most related to flashbacks is long term memory. As well, studies by Rasmuseen & Berntsen, 2009, have shown that long term memory is also susceptible to extraneous factors such as recency effect, arousal and rehearsal as it pertains to accessibility. Compared to voluntary memories, involuntary memories show shorter retrieval times and little cognitive effort. Finally, involuntary memories arise due to automatic processing, which does not rely on higher-order cognitive monitoring, or executive control processing. Voluntary memory is normally associated with contextual information, which is what allows for correspondence between time and place, this is not true of flashbacks. According to Brewin, Lanius et, al, 2009, flashbacks, are disconnected from contextual information, and as a result are disconnected from time and place. To date, the specific causes of flashbacks have not yet been confirmed. Several studies have proposed various potential factors. Gunasekaran et al., 2009, indicate there may be a link between food deprivation and stress on the occurrence of flashbacks. Neurologists suggest temporal lobe seizures may also have some relation. On the reverse side, several ideas have been discounted in terms of their causing flashbacks. Tym et al., 2009, suggest this list includes medication or other substances, Charles Bonnet syndrome, delayed palinopsia, hallucinations, dissociative phenomena, and depersonalization syndrome. A study of the persistence of traumatic memories in World War II prisoners of war investigates through the administration of surveys the extent and severity of flashbacks that occur in prisoners of war. This study concluded that the persistence of severely traumatic autobiographical memories can last upwards of 65 years. Until recently, the study of flashbacks has been limited to participants who already experience flashbacks, such as those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, restricting researchers to observational/exploratory rather than experimental studies. Neuroimaging techniques have been applied to the investigation of flashbacks. Using these techniques, researchers attempt to discover the structural and functional differences in the anatomy of the brain in individuals who suffer from flashbacks compared to those who do not. Neuroimaging involves a cluster of techniques, including computerized tomography, positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging (including functional), as well as magnetoencephalography. Neuroimaging studies investigating flashbacks are based on current psychological theories that are used as the foundation for the research, and one such theory that is consistently investigated is the difference between explicit and implicit memory. This distinction dictates the manner in which memories are later recalled, namely either consciously (voluntarily) or unconsciously (involuntarily). These methods have largely relied on subtractive reasoning in which the participant voluntarily recalls a memory and then the memory is again recalled, but this time through involuntary means. Involuntary memories (or flashbacks) are elicited in the participant by reading an emotionally charged script to them that is designed to trigger a flashback in individuals who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The investigators record the regions of the brain that are active during each of these conditions, and then subtract the activity. Whatever is left is assumed to underpin the neurological differences between the conditions. Imaging studies looking at patients with post-traumatic stress disorder as they undergo flashback experiences have identified elevated activation in regions of the dorsal stream including the mid-occipital lobe, primary motor cortex and supplementary motor area. The dorsal stream is involved in sensory processing and therefore these activations might underlie the vivid visual experiences associated with flashbacks. The study also found reduced activation in regions such as the inferior temporal cortex and parahippocampus which are involved in processing allocentric relations. These deactivations might contribute to feelings of dissociation from reality during flashback experiences. Flashbacks are often associated with mental illness as they are a symptom and a feature in diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), acute stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Flashbacks have also been observed in people suffering from manic depression, depression, homesickness, near-death experiences, epileptic seizures, and drug abuse.[19] Some researchers have suggested that the use of some drugs can cause a person to experience flashbacks;users of lysergic acid diethylamide sometimes report "acid flashbacks". While other studies show that the use of drugs, specifically cannabis, can help reduce the occurrence of flashbacks in people with PTSD.
The psychological phenomenon has frequently been portrayed in film and television. Some of the most accurate media portrayals of flashbacks have been those related to wartime, and the association of flashbacks to post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the traumas and stresses of war. One of the earliest screen portrayals of this is in the 1945 film Mildred Pierce. A flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point in the story. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story's primary sequence of events to fill in crucial backstory. In the opposite direction, a flashforward (or prolepsis) reveals events that will occur in the future. Both flashback and flashforward are used to cohere a story, develop a character, or add structure to the narrative. In literature, internal analepsis is a flashback to an earlier point in the narrative; external analepsis is a flashback to a time before the narrative started. In movies and television, several camera techniques and special effects have evolved to alert the viewer that the action shown is a flashback or flashforward; for example, the edges of the picture may be deliberately blurred, photography may be jarring or choppy, or unusual coloration or sepia tone, or monochrome when most of the story is in full color, may be used.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashback_(narrative)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashback_(psychology)
From brain imaging of mice on psilocybin, Boris Heifets found no difference in brain activation from changes in the setting (empty cage versus full of toys). But for mice on MDMA, there is a totally different activity profile if they are in a social environment or not.
Boris has found specific neurons that recreate the MDMA experience when activated. Perhaps we could use TMS or tFUS to get the same response?
Composite Image [brainASDother675px] using data from Figure 6 [1] and brain imaging from Linder [2].
Image shows the response along the medial bank of cingulate cortex after the revelation of a partner’s decision (‘‘other’’ response pattern) for ASD adolescents (n = 12).
See [3] for a summary of the article [2] in the journal Neuron.
[1] Pearl H. Chiu, M. Amin Kayali, Kenneth T. Kishida, Damon Tomlin, Laura G. Klinger, Mark R. Klinger, and P. Read Montague; Self Responses along Cingulate Cortex Reveal Quantitative Neural Phenotype for High-Functioning Autism; Neuron; Volume 57, Issue 3, Pages 463–473; February 7, 2008.
[2] Christian R. Linder; MRI Saggital transection through the human brain; Wikimedia Commons; 20001013. Accessed 20080208.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Brain_chrischan.jpg
[3] rebornphoenix; News: Study Finds Neural Phenotype for High-Functioning Autism; Glass Jail; 20080209. Accessed 20080209.
glassjail.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/study-finds-neural-phe...
I volunteered for a brain imaging study, unfortunately I didn't get irradiated today and tested for radioactivity as the cyclotron was too warm, but I will get a PET scan in January.
This is an MRI scan, and no I don't have vulcan ears, those are the headphones they give you to keep you entertained.
Composite Image [brainASDself675px] using data from Figure 6 [1] and brain imaging from Linder [2].
Image shows the subsequent response along the medial bank of cingulate cortex following the submission of one’s own decision (‘‘self’’ response pattern) for ASD adolescents (n = 12).
See [3] for a summary of the article [2] in the journal Neuron.
[1] Pearl H. Chiu, M. Amin Kayali, Kenneth T. Kishida, Damon Tomlin, Laura G. Klinger, Mark R. Klinger, and P. Read Montague; Self Responses along Cingulate Cortex Reveal Quantitative Neural Phenotype for High-Functioning Autism; Neuron; Volume 57, Issue 3, Pages 463–473; February 7, 2008.
[2] Christian R. Linder; MRI Saggital transection through the human brain; Wikimedia Commons; 20001013. Accessed 20080208.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Brain_chrischan.jpg
[3] rebornphoenix; News: Study Finds Neural Phenotype for High-Functioning Autism; Glass Jail; 20080209. Accessed 20080209.
glassjail.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/study-finds-neural-phe...
Multi-color image of whole brain for brain imaging research. This image was created using a computer image processing program (called SUMA), which is used to make sense of data generated by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).
For more information, see: fmrif.nimh.nih.gov/course/2015/06_Ziad_20150617
Credit: National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health
I tried to frame their whole bodies but I was too slow and clumsy so this is what I got (after a bit of cropping). I think it's a happy accident.
This brings to mind three things:
1. "One day...little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today." (M.L. King, and don't think I'm not aware of the banality of quoting something so significant in this context; I'm just reporting my thoughts here.)
2. "Hand in hand. No don't ask me to apologize, I won't ask you to forgive me. If I'm gonna go down, you're gonna come with me." (Elvis Costello)
3. This article by Stephanie Rosenbloom called "A Show of Hands" from the NYT of 10/5/06, which you can no longer read online without subscribing:
ON a brisk autumn afternoon, in the shadow of the marble arch in Washington Square Park, a couple visiting from Ohio walked along holding hands like two teenagers going steady, decades after ''going steady'' went out of vogue.
When a stranger asked why they had chosen to join hands during their stroll, the man, Dave Findlay, looked at his wife of seven years and answered in a word: ''Connection.''
Or as the Beatles sang back in 1963: ''When I'll feel that something, I want to hold your hand.''
Those simple lyrics turned an expression of teenage longing and first romantic steps into a No. 1 hit. Yet today, when Justin Timberlake is at the top of the charts with ''SexyBack'' and the digital airwaves are filled with steamy lyrical declarations (''I'm into havin' sex, I ain't into makin' love'' sang 50 Cent in ''In da Club''), couples like Dave and Carey Findlay still intertwine fingers, kiss palms and link pinkies as they meander through parks, cross streets and snake through crowds.
''Hand-holding is the one aspect that's not been affected by the sexual revolution,'' said Dalton Conley, a professor and chairman of the department of sociology at New York University. ''It's less about sex than about a public demonstration about coupledom.''
Nowadays hand-holding has attracted the interest of scientists who are studying its effects on the body and mind. And sexual health educators say it is a much-discussed topic among gay students who now publicly hold hands more than ever before but still must consider whether they want to declare their sexuality.
''I think it remains more important in an era of perhaps more liberal sexual norms,'' Dr. Conley said. ''It remains this thing to be doled out.''
To hold someone's hand is to offer them affection, protection or comfort. It is a way to communicate that you are off the market. Practically speaking, it is an efficient way to squeeze through a crowd without losing your partner. People do it during vigils, marches, weddings and funerals.
Usually it connotes something innocuous and sweet about a couple and their relationship. In rare instances, it takes on added potency, such as when President George W. Bush held the hand of Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in Crawford, Tex., last year -- an act of respect and affection in Arab countries -- reminding some people of the film ''Fahrenheit 9/11,'' which depicted the Bush family's close business ties to Saudi leaders and which ignited conspiracy theories.
But, over all, few things are more innocent than a child grabbing the hand of a parent, for protection, direction and, as Mr. Findlay put it, connection. And with many children these days closer and more outwardly affectionate to their parents, chances are you have spotted a mother and her teenage daughter and perhaps even a father and his adolescent son ambling through a mall, scurrying through a crosswalk or strolling along, hand in hand.
Adult children and their elderly parents also hold hands, for balance, support and as a sign of love.
As for romantic couples, the opinions about hand-holding are as varied as fingerprints. But most people agree that it has merely changed, not lost favor.
''I think that for sure college students hold hands just like the old days,'' said Sandra L. Caron, a professor of family relations and human sexuality at the University of Maine in Orono.
If they do, it is likely only after they are deep into a relationship -- not in those early days of budding romance, when a touch of hands was the first act of intimacy between a couple. That was the hand-holding that the Beatles wrote about. (Followed swiftly by the sexual revolution, whose equivalent anthem might be The Rolling Stones' ''Let's Spend the Night Together.'')
Among more than a half-dozen students at the University of Maine, there seemed to be two universal truths: that hand-holding is the least nauseating public display of affection and that holding hands has become more significant than other seemingly deeper expressions of love and romance.
''It is a lot more intimate to hold hands nowadays than to kiss,'' said Joel Kershner, 23. Because of that, he said, reaching for someone's hand these days has more potential for rejection than leaning in for a smooch at a party where alcohol is flowing.
Libby Tyler, 20, said it was ''weird that hand-holding is more serious,'' but true. ''It's something that you lead up to,'' she said.
There is nothing casual about it any more, said Rachel Peters, 22. ''Hand-holding is something that usually people do once they've confirmed they're a couple,'' she said.
But if that is not complicated enough, where you choose to hold hands also has meaning, the students said.
Drew Fitzherbert, 21, said that public hand-holding ''shows that commitment not only to you and your partner but everyone else in the community.''
Dr. Conley of N.Y.U. agreed. ''In the dark movie theater, in the dorm room, that's a very different social act,'' he said.
Are people holding hands as much as they once did? That's impossible to quantify. But Gregory T. Eells, the director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University in Ithaca, said he didn't think so.
''I see more people on their cellphone than holding hands,'' he said, adding, ''To some extent we are trading real face-to-face relationships, where there's touch and body language, for electronic ones.''
Peter Shawn Bearman, a professor of sociology and the director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University, said that hand-holding in crowded cities like New York may simply be impractical.
''Maybe if the proportion of hand-holders has indeed gone down it has more to do with density (of humans) than the devaluing of hand-holding as a romantic signal,'' he wrote in an e-mail message.
Whatever degree of hand-holding may be happening, there are good reasons to cultivate the habit -- reasons would-be hand-graspers may wish to pass along to their hands-in-pockets partners.
''Based on what we've seen, when we get more physical intimacy we get better relationships, whether a mother and an infant or a couple,'' said Tiffany Field, the director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
Even monkeys understand the importance of a hand squeeze every now and then. In ''Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals,'' Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University, wrote that some monkeys hold hands in reconciliation after a fight.
James Coan, an assistant professor of psychology and the neuroscience graduate program at the University of Virginia, has studied the impact of human touch, particularly how it affects the neural response to threatening situations, and said the results of a recent study were more dramatic than he expected.
''We found that holding the hand of really anyone, it made your brain work a little less hard in coping,'' Dr. Coan said, adding that any sort of hand-holding relaxes the body.
The study, which will be published this year in the journal Psychological Science, involved 16 couples who were rated happily married based on the answers in a detailed questionnaire. The wives were put inside an M.R.I. machine and were told they were to receive mild electric shocks to an ankle. Brain images showed that regions of the women's brains that had been activated in anticipation of pain and that were associated with negative emotions decreased when their husbands reachedinto the machine.
''With spouse hand-holding you also stop looking for other signs of danger and you start feeling more secure,'' said Dr. Coan, who led the study. ''If you're in a really strong relationship, you may be protected against pain and stress hormones that may have a damaging effect on your immune system.''
Perhaps it is why so many people crave it.
Blogs and online forums are rife with complaints of those who say their significant other does not want to hold hands. ''When we go out, we always have a blast, but the one thing that bothers me is that he never holds my hand in public,'' writes a woman on a ''love advice'' forum on www.lovingyou.com.
For older couples, letting go of hand-holding may be one more sign that they are pressed for time and too swamped for little acts of intimacy.
''When do we make time to hold hands?,'' said Dr. Eells of Cornell, talking about his own marriage of 15 years. ''Not very often.''
The couple is often busy shuttling children to and from school and extracurricular activities, not strolling through parks like characters in a Georges Seurat painting.
Sometimes, though, even errands provide opportunities. Recently, Dr. Eells said, he and his 9-year-old daughter were caught in a downpour after her cheerleading practice. The two grabbed hands and raced off into the rain together. When they finally splashed over to the car, the damp girl turned her face to her father. ''That was awesome,'' she sighed.
(Medical Xpress)—The human brain's exquisite complexity and power make it a unique evolutionary marvel. One of the brain's more interesting abilities is known as the placebo effect, in which no more than the expectation of relief can lead to analgesia – the relief of pain, anxiety, depression, nausea, and many other aversive states. However, scientists at University of Gothenburg and University of Oslo recently showed that the placebo effect may not be limited to pain reduction, but may also enhance pleasure, or hyperhedonia. The researchers used the placebo effect to improve both painful and pleasant touch sensations in healthy humans – and by comparing brain processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), found that, depending on whether the starting point was painful or pleasant, neurocircuitry associated with emotion and reward underpinned improvement of both pain and pleasant touch by dampening pain but increasing touch pleasantness.
In an interview with Medical Xpress, PhD candidate Dan-Mikael Ellingsen discussed the paper he and his colleagues published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "In recent years, functional brain imaging studies have shown that expecting a treatment to relieve negative symptoms – like pain, anxiety or unpleasant taste – leads to not only subjective reports of relief, but also suppressed brain activity in sensory circuitry during aversive stimuli, such as noxious heat or touch, threatening images, and unpleasant taste," Ellingsen tells Medical Xpress. "However, both aversive and appetitive experiences – for example, tasty food or a pleasant touch – are affected by context and expectation." Therefore, Ellingsen explains, in forming their hypothesis for this study, the researchers asked whether improvement of good experiences is encoded entirely in higher-level valuation processing, or whether it would mirror the modulation of early stages of sensory processing that is seen for aversive stimuli. "If so, we'd expect such positive sensory signals to be up-regulated, in contrast to the down-regulation of sensory signals we see during placebo-induced reduction of aversive experiences."
In the placebo manipulation procedure, participants were shown a short video documentary convincing them that a nasal spray containing the neuropeptide oxytocin would reduce pain and enhance the pleasantness of pleasant touch. Following this video, they self-administered 10 puffs of a placebo nasal that they were told could contain oxytocin. The pleasant touch stimuli consisted of caress-like light strokes with a soft brush, or a hot/cold pack (resembling a warm hand, applied to the subject's forearm. The pain stimulus was a thermode (~47 degrees Celsius) on the hand.
Ellingsen notes that by comparing brain activation during painful or pleasant touch stimuli after placebo treatment versus no-placebo, the scientists were able to assess differences in activation that was specifically related to having received placebo treatment. "Importantly, the subjective reports showed that, after receiving placebo relative to no-placebo, touch pleasantness was increased while pain unpleasantness was decreased," he adds. "When contrasting placebo and no-placebo on brain activation, we found that sensory activation was increased during pleasant touch stimuli and decreased during painful touch stimuli. In other words, the placebo-induced change in sensory processing reflected the placebo-induced change in subjective reports."
The team also hypothesized that placebo improvement of pleasant touch would recruit the same emotion appraisal neurocircuitry that underpins placebo analgesia. "Neural systems mediating pain and pleasure interact extensively, with pain and pleasure often being mutually inhibitory," Ellingsen says. "For instance," he illustrates, "pleasant stimuli such as music, food, odors, and touch can have analgesic effects – and pain can inhibit pleasure and positive feelings. Further, opioids can induce both potent analgesia and feelings of pleasure." (An opioid is any psychoactive chemical that resembles morphine or other opiate in its pharmacological effects.) Ellingsen points out that previous findings show that relief from pain induces pleasant feelings1,2, and when a normally painful stimulus represents the best possible outcome – that is, when the alternative is even more intense pain3 – it can even become pleasant.
Ellingsen explains that a central element in all placebo effects is that there is an expectation or desire for an improvement, for example, a relief of pain or unpleasantness – and placebo effects have been theorized to arise from a generalized mechanism of reward prediction. This reasoning, he notes, is supported by evidence that placebo responses across modalities – analgesia6, anxiety relief7, and so on – rely on activation of similar neural systems involved in reward and emotion. "In line with this strong link between pleasure and the relief from negative feelings, we hypothesized that improving the pleasantness of an appetitive stimulus would rely on modulatory mechanisms similar to those involved in the improvement of aversive feelings."
A key aspect of the team's research was devising and applying an fMRI crossover study to compare neural processing of placebo hyperhedonia and analgesia. "In order to compare the brain mechanisms of placebo hyperhedonia and analgesia, we assessed the effect of placebo treatment on subjective experiences within the same sensory modality – namely, touch, both pleasant and painful."
A key aspect of the study's analytic design was based on the researchers' knowledge that all dermal information is processed in the same neural pathways – specifically, the sensory thalamus, primary and secondary somatosensory areas, and the posterior insula. "As a result," Ellingsen points out, "we were able to perform two important measurements: we directly compared how expectation of improvement affected the processing of positive and negative somatosensory signals in these pathways, and investigated the effect of higher-level modulatory circuitry on sensory processing of pleasant or painful touch."
Proposed mechanism of placebo analgesia and hyperhedonia. During expectation of hyperhedonia and analgesia, a shared modulatory network up-regulates pleasant touch processing and down-regulates painful touch processing in somatosensory areas, …more
Another factor the scientists had to consider was that the use of subjective rating scales varies widely between individuals (as opposed to a single individual's typical consistency). As a result, these scales are significantly better at detecting changes between placebo and no-placebo within individuals rather than between one group who received placebo and another that received no placebo. "Consequently," Ellingsen explains, "such a design has superior statistical power – that is, a greater ability to detect a true effect."
Further, the potential benefit of a crossover design can be found when the order of treatment – specifically, placebo or no-placebo first – is considered, since it may potentially affect responses. "To control for this potential confounder," notes Ellingsen, "we used a crossover design, that is, half of the subjects got placebo in the first session, and the other half got placebo in the last session." However, he adds, in the analyses they performed, they found that the treatment order had no effect on either subjective placebo improvement or brain activation.
"To our knowledge," Ellingsen continues, "our study is the first to investigate placebo improvement of pleasurable feelings. By directly comparing this effect with the more well-known placebo analgesia effect, we were able to identify both the differences and a potential shared mechanism of these two types of improvement: People with stronger placebo-induced increases in functional coupling between ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and subcortical structures (PAG) reported greater placebo hyperhedonia and analgesia, and had greater analgesic decreases and hyperhedonic increases in somatosensory processing."
Ellingsen says that this finding suggests that endogenous improvement of positive and negative feelings are tightly coupled. "Interestingly, we saw that people with the greatest placebo hyperhedonia responses also had the greatest placebo analgesia responses. Overall, the results provide a piece of the puzzle of how positive expectations affect both positive and negative feelings."
Expanding on the team's findings, Ellingsen describes how the researchers first observed that placebo hyperhedonia was associated with increased activation of a number of cortical and subcortical areas important for placebo analgesia – namely, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, accumbens, amygdala, and the midbrain structures periaqueductal grey and the ventral tegmental area. Not only was there increased activation in these areas after placebo administration compared to no-placebo, Ellingsen adds, but the amount of increase was positively correlated to the magnitude of the reported improvement: Those with largest placebo-induced hyperhedonia and analgesia had the highest placebo-induced activation in these areas. Moreover, those with largest placebo hyperhedonia and analgesia also had the strongest placebo-induced increase in functional connectivity within this circuitry, a measure of how much these areas communicate with each other. "Although our findings show similar patterns of activation between placebo hyperhedonia and analgesia, it's important to point out that they weren't identical. There are likely to be fine-grained differences between these processes within this circuitry that were not identified by this study."
Ellingsen stresses that an important mechanism in placebo analgesia – one that has been replicated several times – is the engagement of the opioid descending modulatory system, which consists of vmPFC, amygdala, and PAG. "When treated with a placebo that is expected to have analgesic effects," Ellingsen explains, "activation of this system suppresses nociceptive" (the neural processes of encoding and processing noxious or painful stimuli) "signaling both in the brain and – since the PAG has descending connections through the rostroventral medulla, RVM, to the spinal dorsal horn, where it can modulate incoming nociceptive signals – at the spinal cord level." Importantly, he notes, placebo analgesia and the activation of this system are reversed when the individual is given the opioid receptor antagonist naloxone, indicating that this mechanism is dependent on opioid signaling.
To ask whether this system is involved also in placebo improvement of pleasantness, we assessed the relationship between 1) the placebo-induced change in functional connectivity between the vmPFC and PAG, and 2) placebo-induced change in sensory processing. Strikingly, we found that the co-activation of vmPFC and PAG was related to opposite effects during placebo hyperhedonia and analgesia: During pain, those with strongest increases in functional coupling had the largest decreases in sensory processing, while during pleasant touch, those with strongest functional coupling had the largest sensory increases. We are now planning to investigate whether placebo hyperhedonia, like (most) placebo analgesia, depends on opioid signaling.
Moving forward, Ellingsen says, their study opens up several important questions for future studies:
Does placebo hyperhedonia, similar to analgesia, rely on opioid or dopamine signaling?
Could expectation of hyperhedonia alone have analgesic effects – and vice versa?
Could including information about potential hyperhedonic effects actually boost treatment effects of analgesic drugs?
What is the exact mechanism of the up-regulation of sensory processing in placebo hyperhedonia? Is it entirely central in its action, or could it involve descending facilitation of touch processing at the spinal cord level, which is a component in placebo analgesia4 and nocebo hyperalgesia5?
(A nocebo – the opposite of a placebo – is a harmless substance that creates detrimental effects in a patient who takes it. Likewise, the nocebo effect is the negative expectation-based reaction experienced by a patient who receives a nocebo.)
Regarding other areas of research that might benefit from their study, Ellingsen cites a growing recognition that health care systems need to be remodeled to target placebo mechanisms – and to do so by altering expectations, motivation, treatment context, and the therapist-patient relationship. "In most medical settings, however, the focus is to ease negative symptoms – to relieve pain, nausea, or discomfort – but to attain positive feelings, people have to seek elsewhere, despite our knowledge that positive experiences, like captivating music, pleasant odors, beautiful pictures, pleasant touch, and support from people we care about, can have potent analgesic effects."
If the tightly-coupling expectations of improvement in pleasurable and painful feelings suggested by their results interact in the clinical setting, Ellingsen believes it to be very likely that increasing the focus on positive appetitive effects of medical care (increased life quality, regained ability to enjoy pleasures, and the like) may have potent effects on the relief of negative symptoms. "In general," he concludes, "our findings shed some light on the complex relationship between positive feelings, negative feelings and expectation in the context of medical treatment. We believe our findings are relevant to the field of medical research in general, and promote widening the scope of medical research to improvement of positive experiences and pleasure."
Explore further: Intranasal application of hormone appears to enhance placebo response
More information: Placebo improves pleasure and pain through opposite modulation of sensory processing, PNAS Published online before print October 14, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1305050110
Related:
1Relief as a Reward: Hedonic and Neural Responses to Safety from Pain, PLoS ONE 6(4): e17870. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017870
2Opponent appetitive-aversive neural processes underlie predictive learning of pain relief, Nature Neuroscience 8, 1234-1240 (2005),
doi:10.1038/nn1527
3The importance of context: When relative relief renders pain
Pleasant, Pain 2013 Mar;154(3):402-10, doi:10.1016/j.pain.2012.11.018
4Direct Evidence for Spinal Cord Involvement in Placebo Analgesia, Science 16 October 2009: Vol. 326 no. 5951 p. 404, doi:10.1126/science.1180142
5Facilitation of Pain in the Human Spinal Cord by Nocebo Treatment, The Journal of Neuroscience, 21 August 2013, 33(34): 13784-13790; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2191-13.2013
6Placebo-induced changes in FMRI in the anticipation and experience of pain, Science, 303(5661): 1162-1167 (2004), doi:10.1126/science.1093065
7Placebo in emotional processing—induced expectations of anxiety relief activate a generalized modulatory network, Neuron, 46(6), 957-969 (2005), doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2005.05.023
Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PLoS ONE Nature Neuroscience Pain Science Journal of Neuroscience Neuron
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hundreds of bright people are rounded up every week by the Thought Police on any old trumped up charge...taken to the "Thought Clinic" & brainwashed to behave like them
They're very scary so glad the Zoggites & others are at war with them......
the brain image was originally taken from a medical source
thanks for looking in....appreciate it.....best bigger & hope you have a Great Day
VETS co-founders, Amber and Marcus (Navy Seal) Capone… they have flown 700 Seals to Mexico for a day of ibogaine treatment. In most cases, the veterans are “cured” of intractable PTSD and opiate addiction. Proper data and pre/post brain imaging analysis is in pre-publication. Their non-profit: vetsolutions.org
For all of you who are or will know returning service members after combat or see them in criminal cases or, indeed, anyone with PTSD (including significant others who have been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused by words, acts, and or neglect), I thought you would be very interested in this article from Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle:
PTSD leaves physical footprints on the brain
Justin Berton, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Dr. Thomas Neylan (left) and physicist Norbert Schuff are...
At a recent conference for some of the area's leading neurologists, San Francisco physicist Norbert Schuff captured his colleagues' attention when he presented colorful brain images of U.S. soldiers who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The yellow areas, Schuff explained during his presentation at the city's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, showed where the hippocampus, which plays major roles in short-term memory and emotions, had atrophied. The red swatches marked hyperfusion - increased blood flow - in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for conflict resolution and decision-making. Compared with a soldier without the affliction, the PTSD brain had lost 5 to 10 percent of its gray matter volume, indicating yet more neuron damage.
Schuff, who was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt just as colorful as the brain images he'd brought, reminded his colleagues that while his findings were preliminary and the trials ongoing, researchers were at least inching closer to finding the biological markers that distinguish a brain affected by PTSD. As the technology of brain imaging improves and the resulting data are refined, doctors believe that one day they will be able to look at a computer screen and see PTSD as clearly as they now see a brain tumor.
"But we're still in the infancy of neuroimaging," Schuff cautioned later in his office. "Do you get PTSD because you have a small hippocampus? Or does a small hippocampus mean you'll develop PTSD? That, we still don't know."
Schuff's research is at the forefront of a bold push by the Department of Defense to address PTSD, the psychological disorder that will haunt an estimated 30 percent of the veterans returning from the current two wars, according to the Pentagon. Forty thousand veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, Pentagon officials say, have already been diagnosed with PTSD, which is defined as an anxiety disorder triggered by exposure to traumatic events; symptoms can include nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks.
Left untreated, clinicians say, patients with PTSD are more likely to engage in anti-social behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse. The disorder, neurologists are now learning, can also lead to long-term maladies, such as Alzheimer's and dementia.
Manhattan Project urgency
The quest is to understand how the disorder begins inside the brain. The Defense Department has invested $78 million in San Francisco's Northern California Institute for Research and Education at the VA center in the past four years, making it the largest VA research institute in the country and the only one that specializes in neuroscience. With 200 researchers on staff, and an estimated 40 ongoing studies that rely on 60 to 80 veterans as research participants, the center has the urgency of a Manhattan Project site, this time searching for a way to end a mental health crisis.
The Department of Defense "has such a compelling need for these answers," said Dr. Thomas Neylan, an associate professor of psychiatry at UCSF and director of the post-traumatic stress disorder program at the VA center. "They want to know these answers now, which is the right approach. We want the answers now; people are still going off to the war, coming back, and a lot of them are suffering for a long time."
The search for PTSD biological markers through brain imagining is the primary concern of five research centers in the country, including teams at Harvard and Emory universities. Researchers believe that once the markers are defined, successful treatments can be developed.
Since 1995, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, has been used to explore the brain through mostly black-and-white images with fuzzy resolution. But in the past few years, advances in computer-imaging technology have enabled neurologists to detect the smallest changes in brain activity.
At the San Francisco VA center, thanks to the installment five years ago of a $4 million MRI machine called the 4T - T stands for Tesla, a unit of magnetic field - Schuff and his colleagues are now able to look into the brain at 1 millimeter resolution, in color and in 3-D. By contrast, Schuff said a 1.5T MRI machine could not register atrophy on PTSD brains. But the 7T MRI machine that was installed at the UCSF Mission Bay campus last year can detect microscopic neuron damage that a 4T is incapable of "seeing."
"With each stronger magnet, we get a finer view of what's going on in the brain," Neylan said.
These advances allow neurologists not only to further understand PTSD, but to study its relationship with brain trauma, one of the leading injuries incurred by soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The effects of IEDs
At the VA conference, titled "The Brain at War: Neurocognitive Consequences of Combat," Col. Karl Friedl, director of the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, explained why brain injuries have become more prevalent. The main cause: the improvised explosive device, or IED, a homemade device that has become the enemy's signature weapon.
While some well-armored soldiers were able to survive the IED blasts, incurring no outward signs of damage, they later complained of dizziness and "having their bell rung," symptoms consistent with the lesser-known mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).
As many as 150,000 troops have been diagnosed with brain injuries, the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force reported last year, but it's unknown how many suffer from mTBI. Mild brain injuries are less often diagnosed because soldiers often believe getting knocked around is part of the job. But over time, with each successive mild brain injury, the effects can become more severe.
The link between mild brain trauma and PTSD is being studied at the VA center in San Francisco by Dr. Gary Abrams, whose preliminary studies show that the overlap between PTSD patients and sufferers of mild brain trauma injury "is tremendous." Abrams has yet to release definitive numbers.
During the next two years, Neylan expects the center will produce a few major findings in terms of possible treatments and advances in neuroimaging. One of the outcomes of the advanced brain imaging could be a prescreen test for soldiers to detect brains already showing PTSD tendencies. Neylan, who specializes in the role sleep plays in a healthy mind, is working on a study of police officers who are resistant to PTSD.
"We're using this opportunity to also see why some people are able to walk away from these situations and live healthy lives," he said, "and why others are not."
Recent attempts to estimate frequency
Iraq and Afghanistan: The number of post-traumatic stress disorder cases is in dispute. The Pentagon estimates 30 percent of veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars will be diagnosed with PTSD. Vietnam War: In 1988, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the rate of Vietnam vets with PTSD at 14.7 percent. But the 1990 National Vietnam Readjustment Study calculated the rate at 30.9 percent. Both relied mainly on self-reporting. In 2006, a paper in the journal Science added to the debate by estimating the rate at 18.7 percent. World War II: Though there was no official PTSD diagnosis until 1980, after World War II the term "shell shock" was reported by veterans troubled by combat experiences. Researchers such as Dr. Charles Marmar at the San Francisco VA center's Northern California Institute for Research and Education estimate the number of WWII vets with PTSD is consistent with the 1-in-5 figures found in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War. - Justin Berton
Experiments probe further into post-traumatic stress disorder
Four PTSD-related research experiments at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center:
Nasal spray: Scott Panter is developing a battlefield-ready nasal spray for troops who suffer brain trauma. After the trauma occurs, the brain swells, causing tissue damage. Panter's nasal spray, applied within 20 minutes of a trauma, would aim to stop the swelling process. Troops could carry the spray in their packs and self-apply or administer to others.
D-cycloserine: Dr. Charles Marmar is conducting trials on PTSD patients using D-cycloserine. The drug, which was originally used as an antibiotic for tuberculosis, has also proved to help lab animals "unlearn fear responses." Given in small doses 30 minutes before a therapy session, D-cyclo is meant to help PTSD patients open up about their traumatic experiences and become more willing to engage in therapy. The hypothesis is that the group taking D-cyclo will make more and faster progress in therapy.
Blood/gene test: Dr. Lynn Pulliam is trying to establish a blood profile to diagnose PTSD. Using gene array technology, researchers will be able to take an RNA test, much like a DNA test, to determine whether a patient "tests positive" for PTSD.
Sleep experiment: Dr. Thomas Neylan is conducting a study on improving veterans' sleep habits without drugs. Neylan said PTSD patients often feel anxious about sleeping, in part because they anticipate insomnia but also because they worry about nightmares. Subjects are coached to avoid substances that interfere with their sleep. "If we get them to sleep better at night," Neylan said, "they'll have fewer nightmares and feel better during the day."
- Justin Berton
E-mail Justin Berton at jberton@sfchronicle.com.
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/27/MNH611UU...
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Using state-of-the-art brain imaging technology, scientists at the National Institutes of Health filmed what happens in the brains of mice that developed cerebral malaria (CM). The results, published in PLOS Pathogens, reveal the processes that lead to fatal outcomes of the disease and suggest an antibody therapy that may treat it.
This image shows the brain of a mouse with cerebral malaria. White regions (left, brainstem and right, olfactory bulb) indicate areas of neuronal cell death and vascular leakage.
More information: www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/raising-curtain-cer...
Credit: Image courtesy of Dorian McGavern, Ph.D., and Phillip Swanson II, Ph.D., National Institutes of Health
Many adolescents with substance use disorders take serious risks, including drunk driving, fighting, heavy drinking, drug injections, and more. To find out why users take such risks, researchers take pictures of the brains of typically developing adolescents and those who have a substance use disorder, while the adolescents are deciding between doing a cautious behavior or a risky one. The first row in the figure above shows brain activity while the kids are making decisions that lead to cautious behaviors. At that time, in many key decision-making areas of the brain – the colored areas – typically-developing adolescents have more brain activation than youths with substance use disorders. Similarly, while making decisions to do risky behaviors, typically developing adolescents again show more brain activation (second row). The brains of adolescents with substance use disorders don't work as hard as the brains of typically developing youths when they're deciding between doing a risky or a cautious action, and that could help explain why substance-using adolescents tend to take more risks. The researchers are now trying to find out whether those differences in activation are due to the drugs that some adolescents use, or whether the differences were there before the drug use began.
Credit: National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health
Burning Man Festival 2009 in Nevada. The theme was Evolution
To see more images from 2009 and other years from Burning Man festival go to: www.dusttoashes.net
I hope you enjoyed the images and thank you for visiting.
Peter Schwindt, Sandia National Laboratories principal investigator for a project to develop room-temperature magnetic sensors for magnetoencephalography, peers at an optically pumped magnetometer sensor array housed inside a person-size magnetic shield that resembles an MRI tube. Researchers want to use the sensors to image the brain in a way that’s simpler and less expensive than the system now used.
Learn more at share-ng.sandia.gov/news/resources/news_releases/brain_im....
Photo by Randy Montoya.
Small images of the left and right half of the human brain
Credit: National Institute of Mental Health, NIH
The mysteries of Alzheimer’s
Despite intensive, worldwide research efforts for more than three decades to better understand Alzheimer’s disease, there are still numerous mysteries surrounding the condition.
Alzheimer’s disease is a slowly progressing brain disorder. In people...
Yoga, Meditation, and the Brain
Cullen College of Engineering Professor Jose Contreras-Vidal presents a NeuroHumanities workshop on the power of yoga and meditation to change the brain. In collaboration with Yoga Better instructors Andrew Royal Dugas, Andria Dugas and Lizzy Bosell, University of Houston participants wore mobile brain imaging headsets to monitor brain activity while practicing yoga during four sessions hosted at The Water Works at Sabine Street in Houston, Texas.
The brain and nearby structures (including the skull, meninges, ventricles and spinal cord). An enlarged inset shows the skull, fluid, and brain. Image is included in this publication:
See also www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/brain
Credit: Alan Hoofring (Illustrator), National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Body Self Perception
Tilt your head forward and take a look at your body. How do you know that this body belongs to you? How do you actually come to perceive this body as part of yourself? This question has been discussed by philosophers and psychologists for centuries but remained outside the scope of experimental investigation. Henrik Ehrsson and colleagues have been addressing this question from a cognitive neuroscience perspective.
About the author: Henrik Ehrsson is a group leader in the Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. He was an HFSP Long-Term Fellow from 2004-2007 in the laboratory of Richard Passingham at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London. In 2007 he moved to Stockholm with an HFSP Career Development Award. He has been successful in obtaining competitive grants such as the Starting Grant from the European Research Council.
The first indication that the self-perception of the body is something that is actually produced by brain comes from the clinical literature. Patients who have suffered from stroke affecting frontal and parietal regions can develop conditions with disturbed perception of their own body. Some of these patients develop a deficit that can take the form of denying or disowning parts of the body. Although these cases indicate that the frontal and parietal association cortices are related to body self-perception they do not pinpoint the specific brain mechanisms involved because typically the lesions are large and affect multiple areas including the underlying white matter tissue.
We have used a classical approach in psychology to investigate body self perception: we studied illusions to learn more about the basic processes that underlie normal perception and combined this with state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques to identify the underlying brain mechanisms in healthy individuals. One particularly informative illusion is the ‘rubber hand illusion’ where people experience that a prosthetic hand is in fact their own hand. When synchronous touches are applied to a rubber hand, in full view, and the real hand, which is hidden behind a screen, most individuals will sense the touches on the rubber hand and experience that the artificial limb is their own. Even more dramatic is the ‘out-of-body’ illusion. In this setup the participants wear a set of head mounted displays in front of their eyes which are connected to two CCTV cameras placed one and a half meters behind them. The two cameras provide a stereoscopic image and the participants, who can thus see themselves from the point of view of the cameras, i.e. from the back. The experimenter then jabs a rod towards a location just below the cameras while simultaneously touching the participant’s chest, which is out-of-view. The visual impressions of a hand approaching a point below the cameras and the felt touches on the chest lead the participants to experience the illusion of being located one and a half meters behind their real body, with loss of self-identification with that body. Subsequent experiments demonstrated that people can perceive an entire artificial body, or another person’s body, as their own. In these experiments the two cameras were attached to a helmet worn by a life-size mannequin (or another individual) and positioned so that they were looking down on the mannequin’s body when it was touched synchronously with the real body (see Figure below).
By clarifying the precise combination of factors that are necessary and sufficient to elicit these changes in body self-perception we can develop models of body self-perception. It turns out that the critical factors are that the information from the eyes, skin and muscles matches both in time and space, that there is an ego-centric visual perspective of the body, and that the object to be owned has a sufficient human-like appearance. We then use these principles to develop testable hypotheses about the neuronal mechanisms of body self-perception.
To this end we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that neuronal substrates of body self perception involve areas in the frontal and parietal lobes that receive convergent visual, tactile, and proprioceptive afferent input, so called multisensory areas. Of particular interest were neuronal populations in the ventral premotor cortex and areas in the intraparietal that integrate visual, tactile and muscle sense information in body-part-centered reference frames in the space near the body. These neurons most probably mediate the perception of a limb as one’s own because our fMRI experiments have found significantly increased activation in these areas when people experience the rubber hand illusion and full-body illusion (see Figure above), and that the activity in this area closely matches the perceptual principles determining these illusions so that the stronger the activity the stronger the illusory self perception.
Taken together these studies represent a major advance in our understanding of the brain mechanisms mediating body self-perception. By applying these principles we can develop new clinical and industrial technologies where the self-perception of the body is deliberately manipulated. For example, one can use the rubber hand illusion to enhance the feeling of ownership of artificial limbs used by amputees, and the projection of ownership onto simulated bodies represents a new direction in virtual reality research which could enhance user control, realism, and the feeling of ‘presence’ in industrial, educational and entertainment applications.
By clarifying the precise combination of factors that are necessary and sufficient to elicit these changes in body self-perception we can develop models of body self-perception. It turns out that the critical factors are that the information from the eyes, skin and muscles matches both in time and space, that there is an ego-centric visual perspective of the body, and that the object to be owned has a sufficient human-like appearance. We then use these principles to develop testable hypotheses about the neuronal mechanisms of body self-perception.
To this end we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that neuronal substrates of body self perception involve areas in the frontal and parietal lobes that receive convergent visual, tactile, and proprioceptive afferent input, so called multisensory areas. Of particular interest were neuronal populations in the ventral premotor cortex and areas in the intraparietal that integrate visual, tactile and muscle sense information in body-part-centered reference frames in the space near the body. These neurons most probably mediate the perception of a limb as one’s own because our fMRI experiments have found significantly increased activation in these areas when people experience the rubber hand illusion and full-body illusion (see Figure above), and that the activity in this area closely matches the perceptual principles determining these illusions so that the stronger the activity the stronger the illusory self perception.
Taken together these studies represent a major advance in our understanding of the brain mechanisms mediating body self-perception. By applying these principles we can develop new clinical and industrial technologies where the self-perception of the body is deliberately manipulated. For example, one can use the rubber hand illusion to enhance the feeling of ownership of artificial limbs used by amputees, and the projection of ownership onto simulated bodies represents a new direction in virtual reality research which could enhance user control, realism, and the feeling of ‘presence’ in industrial, educational and entertainment applications.
By clarifying the precise combination of factors that are necessary and sufficient to elicit these changes in body self-perception we can develop models of body self-perception. It turns out that the critical factors are that the information from the eyes, skin and muscles matches both in time and space, that there is an ego-centric visual perspective of the body, and that the object to be owned has a sufficient human-like appearance. We then use these principles to develop testable hypotheses about the neuronal mechanisms of body self-perception.
To this end we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to show that neuronal substrates of body self perception involve areas in the frontal and parietal lobes that receive convergent visual, tactile, and proprioceptive afferent input, so called multisensory areas. Of particular interest were neuronal populations in the ventral premotor cortex and areas in the intraparietal that integrate visual, tactile and muscle sense information in body-part-centered reference frames in the space near the body. These neurons most probably mediate the perception of a limb as one’s own because our fMRI experiments have found significantly increased activation in these areas when people experience the rubber hand illusion and full-body illusion (see Figure above), and that the activity in this area closely matches the perceptual principles determining these illusions so that the stronger the activity the stronger the illusory self perception.
Taken together these studies represent a major advance in our understanding of the brain mechanisms mediating body self-perception. By applying these principles we can develop new clinical and industrial technologies where the self-perception of the body is deliberately manipulated. For example, one can use the rubber hand illusion to enhance the feeling of ownership of artificial limbs used by amputees, and the projection of ownership onto simulated bodies represents a new direction in virtual reality research which could enhance user control, realism, and the feeling of ‘presence’ in industrial, educational and entertainment applications.
Key references
Ehrsson HH, Spence C and Passingham RE. 'That's my hand!' Activity in the premotor cortex reflects feeling of ownership of a limb. Science, (2004) 305:875-877.
Ehrsson HH. The experimental induction of out-of-body experiences. Science (2007), 317:1048
Ehrsson HH, Weich K, Weiskopf N, Dolan RJ and Passingham RE. Threatening a rubber hand that you feel is yours elicits a cortical anxiety response. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (2007), 104:9828-9833.
Ehrsson HH, Rosén B, Stockselius A, Ragnö C, Köhler P, Lundborg G. Upper limb amputees can be induced to experience a rubber hand as their own. Brain (2008) 131, 3443-3452.
Petkova VI & Ehrsson HH. If I were you: perceptual illusion of body swapping. PLoS One (2008), 3(12):e3832,
Slater M, Perez-Marcos D, Ehrsson HH and Sanchez-Vives MV. Inducing illusory ownership of a virutal body. Frontiers in Neuroscience (2009), 3:214-220
Research into curious bright spots in the eyes on stroke patients’ brain images could one day alter the way these individuals are assessed and treated. A team of scientists at the National Institutes of Health found that a chemical routinely given to stroke patients undergoing brain scans can leak into their eyes, highlighting those areas and potentially providing insight into their strokes.
More information: www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/eye-could-provide-w...
Credit: NINDS Stroke Lab/NIH
Entry in category 1. ©Nicolas Antille; See also bit.ly/snsf_comp_copy
This is an illustration of the neocortical microcircuitry, featuring all 55 morphology types observed in the neocortex. After the publication of a paper – Reconstruction and Simulation of Neocortical Microcircuitry – by Markram et al. in Cell journal, a new version of this illustration was requested for A0 poster printing in July 2016, which is the subject of this competition.
This 3d scene was made in Blender with some Python scripting to access simulation data. The virtual lens is a wide angle 18mm. Compositing was done in Photoshop.
This illustration of a neocortical circuit is a testimony to the hard work of many people at the Blue Brain Project, a joint effort between engineers and scientists to digitally reconstruct and simulate the rodent brain. The morphologies and their location in space come from the simulation data. The aspect of the neurons, the lighting and the environment are left to the artist’s creativity. Only 2% of the neurons are visible here. There is a particular attention to details and a play on light in the way the neurons reflect and refract it, revealing a fragile world.
The composition focuses on a group of pyramidal neurons on layer 5 and places the spectator into a microscopic and fascinating underwater forest. Brain cells are surrounded by liquid, which is why this illustration feels like being underwater, with light seen far above, peeking through a dense cluster of branches. The vertical axis of the composition takes the viewer from the depths of the neocortex to its near surface. This image gives a feel of never ending complexity, they are branches going in all directions. Microscopic cells have become large tree-like structures. We are looking at the neuronal architecture of the brain. ¦ Image#1_16