What Scientists Really Mean In Research Papers
(via Recycling Experiences)
Mind-Melter of the Day
It turns out that if you divide 1 by 998,001 you get all three-digit numbers from 000 to 999 in order.
Except for 998.
(via Futility Closet)
Creative people daydream more, even while concentrating
In 1966, my mentor and colleague, Jerome L. Singer , published his seminal book, Daydreaming: An Introduction to the Experimental Study of Inner Experience . Since then, the scientific study of daydreaming has taken off. A key theme that has emerged is the striking continuity between nightdreaming and daydreaming and the ability of creative people to harness this continuity. Neuroscience has allowed us to take this research to new, creative heights that were unimaginable when Singer published his book in ‘66.
When most of us fall asleep, the brain network that involves attention to the outside world (the working memory network consisting primarily of the lateral frontal and parietal cortices) deactivates and our default brain network (medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices) takes over. The discovery of the default brain network is important, as it involves various aspects of our self, such as our self-representations, dreams, imagination, current concerns, autobiographical memory and perspective-taking ability. Those with higher default network activity during rest have a tendency to daydream more frequently, which makes sense if one thinks of the default network as involving our inner stream of consciousness.
When most of us awaken, our working memory brain network re-engages, and our default brain network recedes into the background. In most people, the working memory network and the default network anticorrelate with each other, meaning that when one network is activated, the other is deactivated. This is generally a good thing! Proper connectivity (i.e., communication) between the two networks allows people to know when it’s important to distinguish between pure fantasy (their inner stream of consciousness) and “reality” (the external world).
But that’s most people. Creative folks and those with schizophrenia tend to have an overactive default network. Prior research has suggested that the thing that seems to differentiate creative but functional individuals from those in a mental institution is that the functional folks appear to have the ability to engage both brain networks, and they can use their working memory network to control their attention. Those who lose grip on reality and become paranoid and delusional have let the floodgates down, so to speak, letting too much of their default network control their attention.
A recent fascinating experiment takes things to the next level. The researchers investigated the functional brain characteristics of participants while they engaged in a working memory task. Importantly, none of their subjects had a history of neurological or psychiatric illness, and all had intact working memory abilities. They administered two different versions of the same working memory task during the fMRI scanning session, one version requiring much more concentration than the other. Their more difficult working memory task required constant updating of information in memory while having to resist distraction.
Participants were asked to display their creativity in a number of ways: generating unique ways of using typical objects, imagining desirable functions in ordinary objects and imagining the consequences of “unimaginable things” happening. The creativity test they used has been linked in prior studies to Openness to Experience and frequency of visual hypnagogic experiences (e.g. lucid dreaming, hallucinations), which in turn have been associated with vividness of mental imagery.
The researchers found that the more creative the participant, the more activity in their default-mode network was altered. Particularly, creative individuals had difficulty suppressing the precuneus area of their default network while engaging in the more effortful working memory task. The precuneus is the area of the default network that typically displays the highest levels of activation during rest (when a person is not focusing on an external task). The precuneus has been linked to self-related mental representations and episodic memory retrieval.
How is this conducive to creativity? According to the researchers, “Such an inability to suppress seemingly unnecessary cognitive activity may actually help creative subjects in associating two ideas represented in different networks.”
➜ The Neuroscience Behind Near Death Experiences
So today I found a neuroscience review dealing with a far-out topic: the neuroscience underlying near death experiences (NDE) and other “paranormal” phenomena such as experiences seeing bright lights, meeting the dead or being convinced that you are dead.
According to Mobbs and Watt (2011), approximately 3% of Americans declare that they have had a near-death experience, which typically involve the feeling that one’s soul has left the body, is approaching a bright light and/or goes to another blissful and peaceful state. The authors go on to suggest that NDE experiences are “the manifestations of normal brain function gone awry, during a traumatic, and sometimes harmless event.”
Although it is hard to study NDE experiences objectively, few scientific studies of NDE do exist. For example, patients of diabetes sometimes report NDE during episodes of hipoglycaemia that occur during the rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep cycle (Note: REM is also a common marker of dreaming.) Obviously, the patient is not in danger, yet they recount many of the classic features of NDE. In addition, Owen and colleagues reported that roughly half (51.7%) of the patients who recounted NDE in their study were not in medical danger or near death. So how is it that the mind can create the illusion of death or being near it? Below I will list the basic features of NDEs, as described by Mobs and Watt (2011).
Basic features of near death experiences (NDEs):
- An awareness of being dead: One of the most common symptoms reported in NDEs, but not limited to NDEs. An awareness of being dead also occurs in the Cotard or “walking corpse” syndrome and has been associated with parietal and prefrontal cortex and has been described following trauma as well as during advanced stages of multiple sclerosis and typhoid disease.
- Out of body experiences: These experiences are described as feelings that one is floating outside of the body. In some cases these involve “autoscopy” or seeing one’s body from above. These experiences are also common during sleep paralysis, a part of the REM sleep cycle that resulst in paralysis while the person is still aware of the external world. Wilder Penfield, a notorious neurosurgeon, argued that the true perception during out of body experiences has a neural basis. In support of this notion, scientists have demostrated that out of body experiences can be induced by stimulating the right temporoparietal junction (see work by Olaf Blanke and colleages). Moreover, the authors suggest that out of body experiences result from a failure of multisensory information integration from one’s body, resulting in the disruption of elements of self-representation.
- A tunnel of light: The perception that one is moving down a dark tunnel and surfacing into a world of light is also associated with NDEs. However, these experiences can be artificially induced as well. For example, pilots flying at G-force experience a similar phenomena called hypotensive syncope that causes tunnel-like peripehral to central visual loss to develop over 5-8 seconds. Importantly, others have suggested that visual activity during retinal ischemia, which happens when the blood and oxygen supply to the eye is depleted, may underlie the light of the end of the tunnel effect. The tunnel of light effect is also found in other visual disorders like glaucoma, which also results in loss of peripheral vision leading to tunnel vision that is associated with feelings of fear and oxygen loss (i.e. hypoxia). Finally, it is important to remember an important neuroscience concept: the organization of the visual cortex, which is divided into cells that process peripheral and central vision. Excitation of these cells will result in a central bright light and a dark periphery (tunnel effect).
- Meeting deceased people: Hallucinations and visions are also present in patients suffering from neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and progressive Parkinson’s. Patients that have seen headless corpses or dead relatives have been linked to pallidotomy lesions. A role for abnormal dopamine functioning, a neurotransmitter implicated in dream and hallucinations, has been postulated. Intrestingly, some of the components of this feeling have been found to be artificially induced. For example, electrical stimulation of the area adjacent to the angular gyrus can result in feeling a sense of presence (of someone else). As mentioned before, vision plays an important role, as macular degeneration (damage to the center of the visual field) can also result in vivid visual hallucinations. A theory that has emerged from these findings is that these hallucinations may occur because of the compensatory over-activation of brain areas nearby the damaged area (which has been reported in other neurological illnesses) or by the action of these areas trying to make sense of the noise coming from the damaged area.
- Positive emotions: Feelings of pure bliss, euphoria and acceptance of death are also common in reports of NDEs. However, many medicinal and recreational drugs like ketamine, for example, can mimic these positive emotions and visions. At varying doses, ketamine (a mu opioid agonist)can produce hallucinations, out of body experiences, euphoria and dissasociation. Finally, let’s not forget that reward and opioid systems may be modulated by environmental factors like the perception of threat or danger. Throughout evolution, these systems have come into play in order to aid the survival of the species. Presumably, these systems are also evoked and work differently when one is under the illusion of danger, such as in NDEs.
As summarized above, the study of the complex phenomena implicated in NDEs is barely understood. However, new theories arise that help account for some of these. Recent theories have implicated the basic arousal systems in the midbrain, especially the locus coeruleus (a key source of noradrenaline/norepinephrine) as a substrate for some of these phenomena. Moreover, noadrenaline has been linked to arousal related to fear, stress and is highly connected to limbic regions such as the amygdala an hippocampus. Other basic midbrain systems such as the periaqueductal gray and the ventral area have also been singled out as likely candidates (directly or indirectly) mediating other features of NDEs such as positive emotions and hallucinations.
But still, NDEs are just creepy.
Sources:
➜ Are you on my wavelength?
You know how when you feel like you really connect with someone, you say you are on the same wavelength? When brain cells want to connect with each other, they synchronize their activity,” Colgin explains. “The cells literally tune into each other’s wavelength. We investigated how gamma waves in particular were involved in communication across cell groups in the hippocampus. What we found could be described as a radio-like system inside the brain. The lower frequencies are used to transmit memories of past experiences, and the higher frequencies are used to convey what is happening where you are right now. [via]
Total lunar eclipse of June 15, 2011.
![psydoctor8:
“The price of your soul: How the brain decides whether to sell out”
An Emory University neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.
The brain imaging data showed a strong correlation between sacred values and activation of the neural systems associated with evaluating rights and wrongs (the left temporoparietal junction) and semantic rule retrieval (the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), but not with systems associated with reward.
The experiment also found activation in the amygdala region, a brain region associated with emotional reactions, but only in cases where participants refused to take cash to state the opposite of what they believe. “Those statements represent the most repugnant items to the individual,” Berns says, “and would be expected to provoke the most arousal, which is consistent with the idea that when sacred values are violated, that induces moral outrage.” [via]
[img]](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly8ashIRF31qan221o1_r1_500.jpg)
“The price of your soul: How the brain decides whether to sell out”
An Emory University neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.
The brain imaging data showed a strong correlation between sacred values and activation of the neural systems associated with evaluating rights and wrongs (the left temporoparietal junction) and semantic rule retrieval (the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), but not with systems associated with reward.
The experiment also found activation in the amygdala region, a brain region associated with emotional reactions, but only in cases where participants refused to take cash to state the opposite of what they believe. “Those statements represent the most repugnant items to the individual,” Berns says, “and would be expected to provoke the most arousal, which is consistent with the idea that when sacred values are violated, that induces moral outrage.” [via]
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Getting 2 more pairs of fingerless gloves . Hand Made in Italy ♥
