We all intuitively have a sense that we are the architects of our actions. If we raise our arm, then we can say that we willed it. This gives us the feeling that we have free will and that we do things by our own volition. However, there is evidence to suggest that we might not be in control as much as we would like to think. This comes in the form of a discovery by the neurosurgeon Wilfred Penfield and an experiment by the physiologist Benjamin Libet.
Penfield was a neurosurgeon who in the 1940s made a remarkable discovery. Patients undergoing brain surgery are often partly conscious during the surgery. This is because the brain, itself, does not sense pain and because it is important to identify where a person’s speech areas are located before you go tinkering around in someone’s brain. What Penfield found was that if an area of the brain called the primary motor cortex was electrically stimulated during the course of a surgery, the patient would move a particular body part without having willed it. For instance, if the motor cortex that controls arm movement was stimulated, the patient would raise their arm and say that they didn’t mean to do that. This shows that the brain initiates our actions.
Libet conducted his now famous experiment in 1983. Participants watched a clock hand that made a complete revolution in 2.5 seconds. They were instructed to voluntarily flex their hand at a time of their choosing and to note the position of the clock hand when they did this. At the same time, their brain activity was being monitored by an electroencephalograph. A spike in our brain waves, called the readiness potential, occurs when we make motor movements. The experimenters thought that the readiness potential would occur at the same time that people flexed their hands, but what they found was that it actually preceded participant’s actions by 200 to 500 milliseconds (a fifth to a half second). This was an unexpected finding.
Libet’s experiment caused quite a stir. The results show that the brain decides to initiate our actions before we become aware of them. It brings into question whether we actually have free will in our actions. Further research showed that we have about a quarter second to inhibit our actions after a readiness potential. Libet calls this our “conscious veto.” So, even though we might not have free will, we have free won’t.
The discovery that brain processes initiate our actions without our awareness is hard for people to accept. It means that the brain is calling the shots and we follow along. We do, however, have the ability to veto our actions so we aren’t hopeless automatons. It would also be difficult for us to live in a way that we didn’t think we initiated our actions. Free will is perhaps the mind’s best trick. It’s an illusion that makes us feel like we are in control.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Stuck in Neutral
If you’re like me, you know a few people who are constantly on the go doing different things and you know some people who are chronic couch potatoes. What makes people act so differently? Well, it could be a number of things but it is largely due to the three pound organ between your ears – your brain. The brain is a funny thing. It likes to do whatever it is doing. If we give it stimulation, then it will crave more variety. If we are lazy, then it is content not to do much. So, what causes this disparity?
We each have a kind of gear shift in our brains called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC acts as a mediator between our emotional brain and the front of the brain. The front of the brain is the executive part of the brain. It directs our decisions and plans our actions. The ACC helps us change the focus of our attention. Lowered ACC function has been implicated in people who have ADD. When we dwell on things, we are in effect getting our ACC stuck in neutral. Once it gets stuck, it can be hard to change gears.
This is where cognitive-behavioral intervention is useful. If we find ourselves stuck in a rut, we should make ourselves do something else. If we ruminate and worry about things too much, we should change what we are thinking about and redirect our thoughts. This can be very hard to do since the brain gets used to doing whatever it is doing. With a little effort we can get ourselves going again. The first change of action is the hardest, but once we retrain our brains we can get out of neutral and kick ourselves into a higher gear!
We each have a kind of gear shift in our brains called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC acts as a mediator between our emotional brain and the front of the brain. The front of the brain is the executive part of the brain. It directs our decisions and plans our actions. The ACC helps us change the focus of our attention. Lowered ACC function has been implicated in people who have ADD. When we dwell on things, we are in effect getting our ACC stuck in neutral. Once it gets stuck, it can be hard to change gears.
This is where cognitive-behavioral intervention is useful. If we find ourselves stuck in a rut, we should make ourselves do something else. If we ruminate and worry about things too much, we should change what we are thinking about and redirect our thoughts. This can be very hard to do since the brain gets used to doing whatever it is doing. With a little effort we can get ourselves going again. The first change of action is the hardest, but once we retrain our brains we can get out of neutral and kick ourselves into a higher gear!
Mental Time Travel
People can recall things that happened to them years ago. We can also contemplate what might happen to us in the future. This is what some psychologists refer to as mental time travel. The front of the brain gives us the ability to project ourselves into the future, while an area called the hippocampus in the temporal lobes helps us create memories. What would happen if we didn’t have a hippocampus?
To answer this question, we need to look at what happened to a man called H.M. in 1953 (people are not identifed by name in the medical literature). H.M. had severe epileptic seizures that originated in his temporal lobes. His doctors decided that the best course of treatment would be to give him a bilateral temporal lobectomy (they cut out the temporal lobes on both sides of his brain). At the time, the relationship of the hippocampus to memory formation was not know.
After the surgery, H.M. no longer had seizures but he had a unique memory problem. He could no longer remember things that happened to him. Here is an example – someone could come into the room and greet H.M., leave for a couple minutes and return, and H.M. would act as though it were the first time he saw the person. He was in an infinite present, so to speak. Yet, the surgery didn't destroy H.M’s memory completely. He was still able to learn simple procedural tasks. The procedure H.M. had isn’t performed much anymore since anti-convulsive medications have improved vastly since the 1950s.
The case of H.M. was important for furthering our understanding of how memories are formed. When we compare the brains of other mammalian species, we find that they have areas that are similar in cellular makeup to our hippocampus. These areas are referred to as “hippocampal formations” in other mammals.
So, what would it mean that other mammals have a hippocampal formation? It suggests that they might have memories of their past. Of course, we cannot prove this idea since we cannot ask an animal about what they remember. It’s an interesting thing to ponder, though. Your dog just might have memories of when she was a puppy.
To answer this question, we need to look at what happened to a man called H.M. in 1953 (people are not identifed by name in the medical literature). H.M. had severe epileptic seizures that originated in his temporal lobes. His doctors decided that the best course of treatment would be to give him a bilateral temporal lobectomy (they cut out the temporal lobes on both sides of his brain). At the time, the relationship of the hippocampus to memory formation was not know.
After the surgery, H.M. no longer had seizures but he had a unique memory problem. He could no longer remember things that happened to him. Here is an example – someone could come into the room and greet H.M., leave for a couple minutes and return, and H.M. would act as though it were the first time he saw the person. He was in an infinite present, so to speak. Yet, the surgery didn't destroy H.M’s memory completely. He was still able to learn simple procedural tasks. The procedure H.M. had isn’t performed much anymore since anti-convulsive medications have improved vastly since the 1950s.
The case of H.M. was important for furthering our understanding of how memories are formed. When we compare the brains of other mammalian species, we find that they have areas that are similar in cellular makeup to our hippocampus. These areas are referred to as “hippocampal formations” in other mammals.
So, what would it mean that other mammals have a hippocampal formation? It suggests that they might have memories of their past. Of course, we cannot prove this idea since we cannot ask an animal about what they remember. It’s an interesting thing to ponder, though. Your dog just might have memories of when she was a puppy.
There's Something Extra
There are two schools of thought regarding the nature of the mind and brain – materialism and dualism. Materialism contends that the mind is entirely physical (the result of brain activity) while dualism suggests that the mind and brain are separate entities. Dualism is sort of like the “ghost in the machine” point of view. Now, most contemporary philosophers and psychologists endorse the materialist viewpoint. All the neuroscience evidence points to the fact that you need a functioning brain to experience consciousness. Another way to put it is that the mind depends on the brain.
There is one major problem with materialism that has not been resolved -the problem of qualia. Qualia are attributes related to what it is like to have an experience. We describe things as how they look, smell, feel, etc. The problem of qualia can be illustrated by a thought experiment put forth by the philosopher Frank Jackson about a color scientist named Mary.
Mary, as I just said, is a color scientist. She has studied everything about seeing color. She knows about the various wavelengths of light, the different hues and saturations of color, etc. The thing is, Mary lives in a black and white world. Everything she sees is either black or white. So, one day she sees the color red. Is there something about seeing red that differs from her knowledge about that color? Of course there is. It’s the personal experience of seeing the color. All her knowledge about the color red would not equate to the first hand experience of what the color actually looks like. There’s something extra about the experience that Mary did not know.
So, why is this a problem for the materialists? If the mind is a purely physical thing then we should be able to describe it in purely physical terms. Yet, there is no way to quantify the experience that someone has when, say, they are seeing the color red. We can identify specific neurons that are activated when we see red but we still do not know how they produce the experience of red. A totally physical explanation of mind should be able to explain this experience.
Still, the problem of qualia is no reason to discard materialism. Science provides us with an objective third-person (observer) description of the world. It cannot account for our first-person experiences. Knowledge of neural activity does not provide a complete explantaion for what it is like for an individual to have a given experience. This has been referred to as the “explanatory gap” by the philosopher David Chalmers. However, just because our experiences cannot be explained fully in physical terms does not mean that materialism is incorrect. What this points to is the nature of our inner mental life. The experience of having a nervous system that processes information and perceives the world is entirely our own.
There is one major problem with materialism that has not been resolved -the problem of qualia. Qualia are attributes related to what it is like to have an experience. We describe things as how they look, smell, feel, etc. The problem of qualia can be illustrated by a thought experiment put forth by the philosopher Frank Jackson about a color scientist named Mary.
Mary, as I just said, is a color scientist. She has studied everything about seeing color. She knows about the various wavelengths of light, the different hues and saturations of color, etc. The thing is, Mary lives in a black and white world. Everything she sees is either black or white. So, one day she sees the color red. Is there something about seeing red that differs from her knowledge about that color? Of course there is. It’s the personal experience of seeing the color. All her knowledge about the color red would not equate to the first hand experience of what the color actually looks like. There’s something extra about the experience that Mary did not know.
So, why is this a problem for the materialists? If the mind is a purely physical thing then we should be able to describe it in purely physical terms. Yet, there is no way to quantify the experience that someone has when, say, they are seeing the color red. We can identify specific neurons that are activated when we see red but we still do not know how they produce the experience of red. A totally physical explanation of mind should be able to explain this experience.
Still, the problem of qualia is no reason to discard materialism. Science provides us with an objective third-person (observer) description of the world. It cannot account for our first-person experiences. Knowledge of neural activity does not provide a complete explantaion for what it is like for an individual to have a given experience. This has been referred to as the “explanatory gap” by the philosopher David Chalmers. However, just because our experiences cannot be explained fully in physical terms does not mean that materialism is incorrect. What this points to is the nature of our inner mental life. The experience of having a nervous system that processes information and perceives the world is entirely our own.
In You I Trust
It’s widely known that soon after child birth it is important to establish a strong emotional bond between the mother and their child by putting the infant on the mother's chest. Part of how this happens is due to a neurohormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is released by the infant and the caregiver responds with a feeling of well-being. The same thing happens when you hold an infant which often makes a person feel sleepy. I can attest to this when I’ve held my nieces and nephews.
Oxytocin is a peptide that is released during child birth, breast feeding, and orgasm. It is something that helps bond people together. It helps us build trust with our significant others. Two important studies shed light on how this happens. The first is a study that investigated how likely people would give money to people they didn't know and the second involves a little rodent called the prairie vole.
The money lending study was cleverly designed. Participants were part of teams. As a reward for doing simple tasks they were given small monetary rewards. They were instructed that they could share part of their reward with their team members if they wanted to. People who were given a shot of oxytocin prior to the study distributed bigger rewards to their team mates than those who were not given the oxtytocin. This suggests that oxytocin influences whether we will trust someone.
Next is the prairie vole study. Prairie voles stay with their partners for life after they mate. They raise their pups together in seemingly marital bliss. This is quite rare among mammals. Only about 5% of mammals show monogomous biparental behavior. When researchers injected the prairie voles with chemicals that blocked their oxytocin receptors, the prairie voles no longer formed lasting pair bonds. A relative of the prairie vole, the meadow vole, does not form pair bonds with their mates. When researchers injected meadow voles with oxytocin, the meadow voles formed lasting attachments with female partners.
What is the difference between the two kinds of voles? Dopamine receptors, which are involved with pleasure and reward, overlap oxytocin receptors in the prairie vole. This suggests that the prairie vole finds it rewarding to form a pair bond after oxytocin is released. The meadow vole, on the other hand, does not have the same overlap between their dopamine and oxytocin receptors. So, the meadow vole does not experience the pleasant feelings associated with oxytocin and thus does not form pair bonds.
Humans, too, are hardwired to form pair bonds but we are more complex than voles. We learn how to interact with people by watching our parents, siblings, and friends. We can learn to suppress our emotions if we see other people ignore their feelings. Suppressing our emotions causes the oxytocin-dopamine system not to work as it was intended. Of course, we can't form a life lasting pair bond with each of our lovers, but disconnecting ourselves from our emotions continuously can have a detrimental effect on our ability to form lasting pair bonds later. This sort of thing can be unlearned over time if we make the effort. So you see, oxytocin not only bonds a mother to their child, it helps us build trust and lasting attachments with the people we care about the most.
Oxytocin is a peptide that is released during child birth, breast feeding, and orgasm. It is something that helps bond people together. It helps us build trust with our significant others. Two important studies shed light on how this happens. The first is a study that investigated how likely people would give money to people they didn't know and the second involves a little rodent called the prairie vole.
The money lending study was cleverly designed. Participants were part of teams. As a reward for doing simple tasks they were given small monetary rewards. They were instructed that they could share part of their reward with their team members if they wanted to. People who were given a shot of oxytocin prior to the study distributed bigger rewards to their team mates than those who were not given the oxtytocin. This suggests that oxytocin influences whether we will trust someone.
Next is the prairie vole study. Prairie voles stay with their partners for life after they mate. They raise their pups together in seemingly marital bliss. This is quite rare among mammals. Only about 5% of mammals show monogomous biparental behavior. When researchers injected the prairie voles with chemicals that blocked their oxytocin receptors, the prairie voles no longer formed lasting pair bonds. A relative of the prairie vole, the meadow vole, does not form pair bonds with their mates. When researchers injected meadow voles with oxytocin, the meadow voles formed lasting attachments with female partners.
What is the difference between the two kinds of voles? Dopamine receptors, which are involved with pleasure and reward, overlap oxytocin receptors in the prairie vole. This suggests that the prairie vole finds it rewarding to form a pair bond after oxytocin is released. The meadow vole, on the other hand, does not have the same overlap between their dopamine and oxytocin receptors. So, the meadow vole does not experience the pleasant feelings associated with oxytocin and thus does not form pair bonds.
Humans, too, are hardwired to form pair bonds but we are more complex than voles. We learn how to interact with people by watching our parents, siblings, and friends. We can learn to suppress our emotions if we see other people ignore their feelings. Suppressing our emotions causes the oxytocin-dopamine system not to work as it was intended. Of course, we can't form a life lasting pair bond with each of our lovers, but disconnecting ourselves from our emotions continuously can have a detrimental effect on our ability to form lasting pair bonds later. This sort of thing can be unlearned over time if we make the effort. So you see, oxytocin not only bonds a mother to their child, it helps us build trust and lasting attachments with the people we care about the most.
The Beginning of Empathy
People like to ascribe causes to things. We do this so much that the psychologist James Alcock has postulated that one of the main functions of the human brain is to serve as a belief engine. If we find a cause for an action or event, we can go about out business thinking that some part of the world makes sense. But where does this penchant for finding causes come from? Do we always have it?
The answer is what has been called the theory of mind by developmental psychologists. Basically, the way this works is that the infant starts to make assumptions about how the world works. If I throw my sippee cup off my high chair it falls to the ground. By extension, if someone else does the same thing the sippee cup will also fall to the ground. This starts happening around 18 months of age.
Another thing happens around the same time. We start to develop a sense of self. A child around this age will recognize her reflection in a mirror. The child no longer thinks that the reflection is another child. This is contrasted with an animal such as a dog which spooks when it sees its reflection in a patio window. The dog makes the erroneous assumption that the reflection is another dog and starts barking.
So, it seems that our sense of self is intrinsically linked to our theory of mind. When we begin to see ourselves as individuals we can then start seeing other people as separate entities. This might seem simplistic but it’s something that we internalize without even realizing it. A person who does not develop a “normal” theory of mind would have trouble understanding the motives and actions of other people.
This brings us to autism. In recent years, it has been hypothesized that people with autism do not develop a theory of mind the same way other people do. There is actually physiological evidence to support this. Specific neurons were discovered that fired when a monkey picked up a cup. Interestingly, these same neurons would fire if the monkey watched another monkey pick up a cup. As a result these neurons were initially called “monkey see, monkey do” neurons. They are now usually referred to as mirror neurons.
Now the interesting thing about mirror neurons is that they don’t just respond to actions. They are also involved with empathy. If your friend is sad, you can feel the same thing they do, so to speak, because your mirror neurons become activated by their apparent sadness. In a way then, mirror neurons help make us human.
One of the main problems reported with people who have autism is that they appear to lack empathy and often have impaired social interaction with other people. This has bolstered the case that autism is partly due to a deficit in the mirror neuron system. I say partly because it’s assuredly due to a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors as well.
So you see, when your child begins to acquire a sense of self it’s a sign that they are developmentally on the right track. Their mirror neurons are working full throttle as they learn to mimic the actions of other people and start to empathize with others as well. Without this happening, your child wouldn't understand you telling them that it's not a good idea to tease their friend because they wouldn’t like it if they did that to them. We couldn’t put ourselves in "someone else’s shoes” without mirror neurons and a normally developed theory of mind.
The answer is what has been called the theory of mind by developmental psychologists. Basically, the way this works is that the infant starts to make assumptions about how the world works. If I throw my sippee cup off my high chair it falls to the ground. By extension, if someone else does the same thing the sippee cup will also fall to the ground. This starts happening around 18 months of age.
Another thing happens around the same time. We start to develop a sense of self. A child around this age will recognize her reflection in a mirror. The child no longer thinks that the reflection is another child. This is contrasted with an animal such as a dog which spooks when it sees its reflection in a patio window. The dog makes the erroneous assumption that the reflection is another dog and starts barking.
So, it seems that our sense of self is intrinsically linked to our theory of mind. When we begin to see ourselves as individuals we can then start seeing other people as separate entities. This might seem simplistic but it’s something that we internalize without even realizing it. A person who does not develop a “normal” theory of mind would have trouble understanding the motives and actions of other people.
This brings us to autism. In recent years, it has been hypothesized that people with autism do not develop a theory of mind the same way other people do. There is actually physiological evidence to support this. Specific neurons were discovered that fired when a monkey picked up a cup. Interestingly, these same neurons would fire if the monkey watched another monkey pick up a cup. As a result these neurons were initially called “monkey see, monkey do” neurons. They are now usually referred to as mirror neurons.
Now the interesting thing about mirror neurons is that they don’t just respond to actions. They are also involved with empathy. If your friend is sad, you can feel the same thing they do, so to speak, because your mirror neurons become activated by their apparent sadness. In a way then, mirror neurons help make us human.
One of the main problems reported with people who have autism is that they appear to lack empathy and often have impaired social interaction with other people. This has bolstered the case that autism is partly due to a deficit in the mirror neuron system. I say partly because it’s assuredly due to a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors as well.
So you see, when your child begins to acquire a sense of self it’s a sign that they are developmentally on the right track. Their mirror neurons are working full throttle as they learn to mimic the actions of other people and start to empathize with others as well. Without this happening, your child wouldn't understand you telling them that it's not a good idea to tease their friend because they wouldn’t like it if they did that to them. We couldn’t put ourselves in "someone else’s shoes” without mirror neurons and a normally developed theory of mind.
How to Forget Someone
So, you’ve been dating someone for awhile and you break up and then you find that the other person ignores you. This is pretty common. Have you ever wondered why they ignore you? There could be lots of different reasons (need for control, spite, etc.). However, I think the basic reason is related to how memory works. Let’s take a brief look at how we remember and forget things and then we’ll come back to why your ex is ignoring you.
We tend to remember things with increased exposure to them. The more you do something, the more you are going to remember doing whatever it is you are doing. Clearly, repetition or repeated exposure strengthens your memory for something. Attaching meaning or personal significance also increases the likelihood you will remember an event or situation. So that said, what causes forgetting? There are various explanations but the two that probably account for most forgetting are decay and interference.
Decay is basically the effect of time. If I open up my high school yearbook, I won’t remember all the names of classmates. I haven’t thought about them in a very long time. When you don’t access information for a long time, it makes it hard to retrieve from memory. Interference is the effect of intervening information. If I tell you to do something in the morning (and you don’t write it down), all the stuff that happens during the day makes it more likely that you will forget what I asked you in the morning (not always of course). This is a big reason that adults say their memories aren’t as good as when they were younger. It is true that some memory loss is due to aging, but adults usually have more going on than children. This makes the effect of interference much greater for adults.
Another thing is that when you are dating you actually build neural networks specific to the person you are dating. Everytime you see the person, these neural pathways become strengthened. This makes perfect sense. You want to feel a strong connection to the person you are dating. It is debatable whether humans are naturally monogomous or not but the brain is wired to establish solid pair bonds with potential mates. Additionally, the emotional centers that are connected to the memory area also respond every time you see the person. The result is that you have a good feeling when you see your partner.
In coming back to our original question, why is it that your ex is ignoring you? Simple. It’s because of decay and interference. If enough time elapses, the memory of being together fades. If they surround themselves with their friends and busy themselves, they can create enough interference to assist in forgetting about the relationship. So, even though some of our former partners might have malicious motives in how they elect to deal with us after a breakup, the basic reason people ignore each other is that we intuitively know that decay and interference are the best methods for forgetting someone.
We tend to remember things with increased exposure to them. The more you do something, the more you are going to remember doing whatever it is you are doing. Clearly, repetition or repeated exposure strengthens your memory for something. Attaching meaning or personal significance also increases the likelihood you will remember an event or situation. So that said, what causes forgetting? There are various explanations but the two that probably account for most forgetting are decay and interference.
Decay is basically the effect of time. If I open up my high school yearbook, I won’t remember all the names of classmates. I haven’t thought about them in a very long time. When you don’t access information for a long time, it makes it hard to retrieve from memory. Interference is the effect of intervening information. If I tell you to do something in the morning (and you don’t write it down), all the stuff that happens during the day makes it more likely that you will forget what I asked you in the morning (not always of course). This is a big reason that adults say their memories aren’t as good as when they were younger. It is true that some memory loss is due to aging, but adults usually have more going on than children. This makes the effect of interference much greater for adults.
Another thing is that when you are dating you actually build neural networks specific to the person you are dating. Everytime you see the person, these neural pathways become strengthened. This makes perfect sense. You want to feel a strong connection to the person you are dating. It is debatable whether humans are naturally monogomous or not but the brain is wired to establish solid pair bonds with potential mates. Additionally, the emotional centers that are connected to the memory area also respond every time you see the person. The result is that you have a good feeling when you see your partner.
In coming back to our original question, why is it that your ex is ignoring you? Simple. It’s because of decay and interference. If enough time elapses, the memory of being together fades. If they surround themselves with their friends and busy themselves, they can create enough interference to assist in forgetting about the relationship. So, even though some of our former partners might have malicious motives in how they elect to deal with us after a breakup, the basic reason people ignore each other is that we intuitively know that decay and interference are the best methods for forgetting someone.
Capgras Syndrome
Now here’s a real oddity. Imagine waking up in the hospital from an accident and seeing people you don’t know sitting around your bed. The thing is these people are actually people you know. You think they are imposters. It isn’t your mother sitting next to you; it’s an imposter pretending to be your mother. This strange problem is called the Capgras syndrome or delusion. It was named after the person who discovered it, the French psychiatrist Jean Marie Joseph Capgras.
So, what causes this problem? There is a small area in the brain called the fusiform gyrus that is responsible for us recognizing people’s faces. When a trauma such as a stroke effects this part of the brain, we can no longer recognize faces. Can you imagine what that would be like? Weird, huh. Once we recognize someone, the fusiform gyrus sends a signal to a structure called the amygdala which registers the emotional significance of the person you just saw. So, when you see your wife or girlfriend (or son, daughter, etc.) you experience feelings of happiness. Well, in the case of the Capgras delusion the fusiform gyrus is intact but the pathway to the amygdala is not working correctly. The result is that you when you see someone you should recognize you believe they are an imposter posing as someone else.
The interesting thing with this problem is that it only happens you see someone. If your mother calls you on the phone you would have no problem knowing it was her. Since the auditory pathways are not effected by the brain trauma, you do not experience the delusion. This shows that the Capgras delusion is specific to visual processing.
So, what is the prognosis for someone who has Capgras syndrome? The damage to the pathway from the fusiform gyrus to the amygdala is unfortunately irreversible. Treatment usually involves therapy where the person is taught to establish empathy with other people and how not to validate their delusions. Antipsychotics have also been used with variable results. Capgras syndrome is yet another example of how we need a normal functioning brain to experience even simple everyday things.
So, what causes this problem? There is a small area in the brain called the fusiform gyrus that is responsible for us recognizing people’s faces. When a trauma such as a stroke effects this part of the brain, we can no longer recognize faces. Can you imagine what that would be like? Weird, huh. Once we recognize someone, the fusiform gyrus sends a signal to a structure called the amygdala which registers the emotional significance of the person you just saw. So, when you see your wife or girlfriend (or son, daughter, etc.) you experience feelings of happiness. Well, in the case of the Capgras delusion the fusiform gyrus is intact but the pathway to the amygdala is not working correctly. The result is that you when you see someone you should recognize you believe they are an imposter posing as someone else.
The interesting thing with this problem is that it only happens you see someone. If your mother calls you on the phone you would have no problem knowing it was her. Since the auditory pathways are not effected by the brain trauma, you do not experience the delusion. This shows that the Capgras delusion is specific to visual processing.
So, what is the prognosis for someone who has Capgras syndrome? The damage to the pathway from the fusiform gyrus to the amygdala is unfortunately irreversible. Treatment usually involves therapy where the person is taught to establish empathy with other people and how not to validate their delusions. Antipsychotics have also been used with variable results. Capgras syndrome is yet another example of how we need a normal functioning brain to experience even simple everyday things.
We Need to Talk
The break is probably the most important shot in pool. If you scatter the balls and pocket one or more of them, then it was a good break and it makes the rest of the game easier. If you don’t scatter the balls very well and you don’t pocket a ball, then it wasn’t a good break and it has a bad effect on the rest of the game. What about relationships? Is there a good way to end a relationship?
Well, there’s all kind of break ups. You have the Seinfeld breakup – it’s not you, it’s me (meaning it’s definitely you, believe me), the take you out to dinner so you don't make a scene breakup, the we need to talk break up, the don’t bother returning your calls until you get the message breakup, the impersonal text break up, and the sudden breakup you don’t see coming.
So, what should you do after the break up? Sometimes we get a bit lax when we’re dating. We start turning our attention to the other person and stop doing some of the things that probably attracted them to us in the first place. After a break up, it’s important to get back to doing the things you like to do (you shouldn’t have stopped doing them just because you were dating). This will do wonders for your attitude and will make you more appealing to another person when the time comes.
Another thing to keep in mind is how temporary things are. We should enjoy the moment more. In the case of dating, you don’t know how much time you might have with the other person. People come in and out of our lives. Enjoy the time you have dating. Don’t let the whole dating thing get you down. Have fun with it. If you get into a relationship, be aware that things can happen and people change. If we keep this in mind, we can appreciate the time we spend with each other more.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how the break up goes. What’s important is how you deal with it after it’s over. You can be a cool ex or a not so cool one. You can act like a child or you can be mature about it. The way the break up happens is indicative of the maturity level of the person who initiated it. You can choose to take a break up poorly because the other person was immature or you can rise above it. It may be tough to accept but if a person is immature about the break up, then you probably don’t want them in your life.
Well, there’s all kind of break ups. You have the Seinfeld breakup – it’s not you, it’s me (meaning it’s definitely you, believe me), the take you out to dinner so you don't make a scene breakup, the we need to talk break up, the don’t bother returning your calls until you get the message breakup, the impersonal text break up, and the sudden breakup you don’t see coming.
So, what should you do after the break up? Sometimes we get a bit lax when we’re dating. We start turning our attention to the other person and stop doing some of the things that probably attracted them to us in the first place. After a break up, it’s important to get back to doing the things you like to do (you shouldn’t have stopped doing them just because you were dating). This will do wonders for your attitude and will make you more appealing to another person when the time comes.
Another thing to keep in mind is how temporary things are. We should enjoy the moment more. In the case of dating, you don’t know how much time you might have with the other person. People come in and out of our lives. Enjoy the time you have dating. Don’t let the whole dating thing get you down. Have fun with it. If you get into a relationship, be aware that things can happen and people change. If we keep this in mind, we can appreciate the time we spend with each other more.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how the break up goes. What’s important is how you deal with it after it’s over. You can be a cool ex or a not so cool one. You can act like a child or you can be mature about it. The way the break up happens is indicative of the maturity level of the person who initiated it. You can choose to take a break up poorly because the other person was immature or you can rise above it. It may be tough to accept but if a person is immature about the break up, then you probably don’t want them in your life.
Why Do Amputees Have Phantom Limb Pain?
Growing up, we had a family friend who had lost a leg. He lost the limb in an accident. From time to time he had terrible pains from the missing leg. How could this happen? Let’s take a look at how people experience pain and see if we can understand this better.
Pain is a weird thing. Why did evolution equip us with the ability to sense pain? If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. An organism that can feel pain would learn to avoid certain things in the environment that could hurt it. Organisms that could not feel pain would be more likely to get themselves hurt. So, once the pain adaptation arrived, those organisms that had it would be more likely to stay alive and pass on the adaption. Here is a good example. Say, you forget that one of the burners on the stove is on and you put your hand on it. What do you do? You withdraw your hand quickly and probably yell (I can only guess what you might say lol). If you didn’t feel the pain of the burner you would risk hurting yourself badly.
What do we know about how we sense pain? Your skin is the biggest organ your body has. There are free nerve endings near the surface of the skin which enable us to sense touch and temperature. These nerves endings are connected to the spinal cord which relays the sense information to the brain. The brain has an area in each parietal lobe that keeps track of touch sensations. This is called the somatosensory cortex. Sensation from the left side of the body is registered in the right somatosensory cortex and vice versa. So, the parietal lobes are wired for us to sense touch. If someone has an accident and loses a limb, the limb is missing but the nerve connections are still present in the brain. It is for this reason that people have phantom limb pains. All the connections are still present to register touch but the limb is gone.
Okay, so is there any way to treat this problem? The neurologist, V. S. Ramachandran has come up with a novel treatment. He devised a mirror box. He would have a patient who lost his hand put his hand in the mirror box. The patient would see the reflection of his hand in the mirror as though his missing hand were still there. Then Ramachandran would have the patient make a fist and extend his fingers over and over with his good hand. The reflection in the mirror would look like the missing hand was doing the exercises, too. After enough practice, the brain gets faked out and thinks the missing hand is still there. Patients who have used the mirror box report decreased phantom limb pain. I haven’t heard that the mirror box has been used with people who lost an entire arm or leg, but if you had a large enough mirror it would probably work, too.
Pain is a weird thing. Why did evolution equip us with the ability to sense pain? If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. An organism that can feel pain would learn to avoid certain things in the environment that could hurt it. Organisms that could not feel pain would be more likely to get themselves hurt. So, once the pain adaptation arrived, those organisms that had it would be more likely to stay alive and pass on the adaption. Here is a good example. Say, you forget that one of the burners on the stove is on and you put your hand on it. What do you do? You withdraw your hand quickly and probably yell (I can only guess what you might say lol). If you didn’t feel the pain of the burner you would risk hurting yourself badly.
What do we know about how we sense pain? Your skin is the biggest organ your body has. There are free nerve endings near the surface of the skin which enable us to sense touch and temperature. These nerves endings are connected to the spinal cord which relays the sense information to the brain. The brain has an area in each parietal lobe that keeps track of touch sensations. This is called the somatosensory cortex. Sensation from the left side of the body is registered in the right somatosensory cortex and vice versa. So, the parietal lobes are wired for us to sense touch. If someone has an accident and loses a limb, the limb is missing but the nerve connections are still present in the brain. It is for this reason that people have phantom limb pains. All the connections are still present to register touch but the limb is gone.
Okay, so is there any way to treat this problem? The neurologist, V. S. Ramachandran has come up with a novel treatment. He devised a mirror box. He would have a patient who lost his hand put his hand in the mirror box. The patient would see the reflection of his hand in the mirror as though his missing hand were still there. Then Ramachandran would have the patient make a fist and extend his fingers over and over with his good hand. The reflection in the mirror would look like the missing hand was doing the exercises, too. After enough practice, the brain gets faked out and thinks the missing hand is still there. Patients who have used the mirror box report decreased phantom limb pain. I haven’t heard that the mirror box has been used with people who lost an entire arm or leg, but if you had a large enough mirror it would probably work, too.
How to Think Like a Dog
Do you ever feel like you can’t quiet your mind? Sometimes it’s tough to stop all that chatter inside your head. If you’ve ever done yoga, then you know that each routine typically ends in corpse pose where you lie sprawled on the floor and you basically meditate. Some people have told me that this part of yoga makes them uncomfortable because they can’t stop thinking about things. These are the folks that should probably be doing meditation. Training your mind can be difficult. Meditation enables you to clear your head. It has a lot of benefits such as lowering your heart rate and stress hormone levels. So, what is it about meditation that provides these benefits?
Andrew Newberg, a neurologist, has conducted brain scan studies of people practice long-term meditation such as Buddhist monks. The brain scans show increased blood flow to the front part of the brain. This makes sense since meditation takes a fair amount of concentration. There is also markedly decreased activity in the parietal lobes.
The parietal lobes, in part, are responsible for keeping track of where we are in time and space. All our peripheral nerves are wired into the parietal lobes. When you are sitting at a computer typing (like I am right now), the parietal lobes sense that my legs and butt are sitting on the chair and that my back is leaning against the seat back. The parietal lobes are registering all these things even if we are not aware of it. Our sense of touch is also connected to the parietal lobes. If I grab a glass of water with my left hand, the sensory cortex in my right parietal lobe becomes activated (remember the brain is cross-wired). So, what does it mean that there is decreased activity in the parietal lobes during meditation?
People who meditate for long periods of time often report that they feel no sense of time and space. This is probably due to lowered blood flow in the parietal lobes. Without the normal activity in this part of the brain, we feel like we are drifting in an ethereal cosmos. Meditation also produces a feeling of relaxation. I think this is a good example of how all our experiences originate in the brain.
Another thing that happens during meditation is that our language areas become less active in the brain. This is difficult initially because our thoughts are always with us. However, if you quiet your mind and reduce the activity in your parietal lobes, you start to experience things as just here and now. The only thing that exists is the moment. It’s been suggested that animals, such as dogs, live in a constant present because they lack all the language capabilities that humans have. They only experience the now. When you meditate, you are changing your brain’s acitivity so that you lessen the constant influence of thoughts in your head. It’s for this reason, that meditation makes you think like a dog.
Andrew Newberg, a neurologist, has conducted brain scan studies of people practice long-term meditation such as Buddhist monks. The brain scans show increased blood flow to the front part of the brain. This makes sense since meditation takes a fair amount of concentration. There is also markedly decreased activity in the parietal lobes.
The parietal lobes, in part, are responsible for keeping track of where we are in time and space. All our peripheral nerves are wired into the parietal lobes. When you are sitting at a computer typing (like I am right now), the parietal lobes sense that my legs and butt are sitting on the chair and that my back is leaning against the seat back. The parietal lobes are registering all these things even if we are not aware of it. Our sense of touch is also connected to the parietal lobes. If I grab a glass of water with my left hand, the sensory cortex in my right parietal lobe becomes activated (remember the brain is cross-wired). So, what does it mean that there is decreased activity in the parietal lobes during meditation?
People who meditate for long periods of time often report that they feel no sense of time and space. This is probably due to lowered blood flow in the parietal lobes. Without the normal activity in this part of the brain, we feel like we are drifting in an ethereal cosmos. Meditation also produces a feeling of relaxation. I think this is a good example of how all our experiences originate in the brain.
Another thing that happens during meditation is that our language areas become less active in the brain. This is difficult initially because our thoughts are always with us. However, if you quiet your mind and reduce the activity in your parietal lobes, you start to experience things as just here and now. The only thing that exists is the moment. It’s been suggested that animals, such as dogs, live in a constant present because they lack all the language capabilities that humans have. They only experience the now. When you meditate, you are changing your brain’s acitivity so that you lessen the constant influence of thoughts in your head. It’s for this reason, that meditation makes you think like a dog.
Love is Like Music
I’ve played the piano since I was 12 years old. I took private lessons for nearly eight years. I’m a very good pianist. Along the way, I also played the violin, saxophone, and concert percussion. I was even a music major in college for two years. So, I’ve learned a lot about life by playing music. It’s helped me express things I never knew I was capable of. I like to equate love with music. Any suggestion of sex in the description that follows is totally unintentional (I know what you’re thinking lol).
Love is a duet played by two people. You have to be on the same page together. You also need to be in the same “key” as the other person. You usually start at a slow tempo but gradually you can speed up the relationship. When it gets going, you build to a dramatic crescendo and then there’s resolution. And just like music, there’s variation and repetition. You do things you like together so there’s the repetition. Sometimes you have to spice up your relationship so there’s the variation.
A good musician knows what their instrument is capable of and how to get the best sound out of it. I can usually get good results from any piano unless it has a lot of broken keys (the horror! people should take care of their pianos). A piano such as a Steinway can make anybody sound good. It’s a pleasure to play such a beautiful instrument. You also need to keep your instrument tuned. Regular maintenance will ensure a long life for the instrument. The same is true of a relationship. If you treat your partner well and care for them, they will stay in tune with you. When you know them well enough your relationship can really grow.
So, yes I think love is like music. Everything you need to know about love can be learned from music. The piano has always been there for me. She’s never let me down. She’s accepted me unconditionally. She’s forgiven my mistakes. She’s let me be gentle and passionate. She’s let me play with wild and free abandon at times. She’s always the same with 88 keys, 52 white and 36 black. The piano is, without a doubt, my first love.
Love is a duet played by two people. You have to be on the same page together. You also need to be in the same “key” as the other person. You usually start at a slow tempo but gradually you can speed up the relationship. When it gets going, you build to a dramatic crescendo and then there’s resolution. And just like music, there’s variation and repetition. You do things you like together so there’s the repetition. Sometimes you have to spice up your relationship so there’s the variation.
A good musician knows what their instrument is capable of and how to get the best sound out of it. I can usually get good results from any piano unless it has a lot of broken keys (the horror! people should take care of their pianos). A piano such as a Steinway can make anybody sound good. It’s a pleasure to play such a beautiful instrument. You also need to keep your instrument tuned. Regular maintenance will ensure a long life for the instrument. The same is true of a relationship. If you treat your partner well and care for them, they will stay in tune with you. When you know them well enough your relationship can really grow.
So, yes I think love is like music. Everything you need to know about love can be learned from music. The piano has always been there for me. She’s never let me down. She’s accepted me unconditionally. She’s forgiven my mistakes. She’s let me be gentle and passionate. She’s let me play with wild and free abandon at times. She’s always the same with 88 keys, 52 white and 36 black. The piano is, without a doubt, my first love.
What I've Learned So Far
I just turned 40. Yikes. Time goes fast. What have I learned in 40 years? People often try to boil things down to little maxims. In reflecting on what I’ve done and where I’ve been in my life, I came up with a list of 10 things that were important for me to learn. Here they are.
1. Learn from your mistakes.
2. Surround yourself with good people.
3. Time passes regardless what you do with it.
4. The only control you have is how you respond to the future.
5. Life is a process, not a destination.
6. Everything is temporary.
7. Don’t take life too seriously.
8. Tomorrow is another day.
9. Enjoy the moment.
10. If the milk smells bad, don’t bother tasting it.
1. Learn from your mistakes.
2. Surround yourself with good people.
3. Time passes regardless what you do with it.
4. The only control you have is how you respond to the future.
5. Life is a process, not a destination.
6. Everything is temporary.
7. Don’t take life too seriously.
8. Tomorrow is another day.
9. Enjoy the moment.
10. If the milk smells bad, don’t bother tasting it.
Deja Vu All Over Again
Every semester I give a survey to my classes asking them about the kind of paranormal things they believe. The one thing they almost always say they have experienced is déjà vu. Now, it may be that they answer that way because of how the question is worded. I ask them if they have ever had the feeling that they have done something before. A few people have suggested that I should reword the question to ask whether they have ever had the feeling that they did something before and that they thought it meant they had lived in a previous life. I just might do that the next time I give out my survey.
Some people think that every experience you have ever had is encoded in your memory somewhere. That might be the case although there are others who think that every time you retrieve a memory you reconstruct it in a way similar to doing a “save as” with a computer document· If that’s the case, and there is a lot of evidence to support the idea, then you can never get back to your original memory. Still, the emotion connected to a particular memory may be triggered and that gives us the feeling that we are experiencing something again.
I often hear people say that they wish they could go back to an earlier part of their life and do things over knowing what they know now. They tell me that they would do things differently if they were given the chance. That would probably be the case if they knew what they know now, but if you had things to do over without that knowledge you would do everything that same. Who you are at a given time determines the decisions you will make. I for one wish I could change some things I’ve done, but I realize that if I had it to do over again I would do things the same. My decisions were based on who I was at a particular time. It’s sometimes a tough pill to swallow, but we would never learn all the lessons we need to learn if we didn’t experience certain things.
Our interactions in the world are based on prior experiences. We can’t approach anything without our prior knowledge and expectations. As I’ve said before in previous blogs, we are often prisoners to our memories. We can rehash events over in our head. We can replay those tapes, but nothing we do will change the past. All we have control over is how we will react to future events. This is why it’s important to learn from difficult experiences. If we learn from our past and can make peace with it, we won’t be destined to repeat the same things over and over again.
Some people think that every experience you have ever had is encoded in your memory somewhere. That might be the case although there are others who think that every time you retrieve a memory you reconstruct it in a way similar to doing a “save as” with a computer document· If that’s the case, and there is a lot of evidence to support the idea, then you can never get back to your original memory. Still, the emotion connected to a particular memory may be triggered and that gives us the feeling that we are experiencing something again.
I often hear people say that they wish they could go back to an earlier part of their life and do things over knowing what they know now. They tell me that they would do things differently if they were given the chance. That would probably be the case if they knew what they know now, but if you had things to do over without that knowledge you would do everything that same. Who you are at a given time determines the decisions you will make. I for one wish I could change some things I’ve done, but I realize that if I had it to do over again I would do things the same. My decisions were based on who I was at a particular time. It’s sometimes a tough pill to swallow, but we would never learn all the lessons we need to learn if we didn’t experience certain things.
Our interactions in the world are based on prior experiences. We can’t approach anything without our prior knowledge and expectations. As I’ve said before in previous blogs, we are often prisoners to our memories. We can rehash events over in our head. We can replay those tapes, but nothing we do will change the past. All we have control over is how we will react to future events. This is why it’s important to learn from difficult experiences. If we learn from our past and can make peace with it, we won’t be destined to repeat the same things over and over again.
You Gotta Laugh!
Time to change topics. You’ve been getting a lot of my psych musings lately. I want to talk about dating a little. People don’t want to seem shallow and say that all they care about is looks, but dating initially starts with interpersonal attraction. That’s what leads people to each other. So, assuming that both people are attracted to each other, what else is important? Usually people will say that personality is the feature they value the most. However, the one thing that trumps everything is a sense of humor. You don’t have to be fit or smart or have a lot of money if you can make people laugh. Humor can help break the ice. We like to have a good time when we are with the people we are dating. I’ve dated women who have laughed at everything I say and others who don’t get my sense of humor at all. Personally, I like someone more in the middle. It’s kind of weird if a person thinks everything you say is funny and likewise it’s not good if they don’t think you are funny at all.
Humor is subjective. What one person thinks is funny might not be funny to someone else. A lot of humor is basically at someone else’s expense. We like to poke fun at other people. Sometimes, we like to make fun of ourselves. That shows we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Women like to be teased, too. It’s all part of the bantering and flirting that goes on when two people are getting to know each other. Having fun is important. There are enough problems in the world. Dating should be a respite from the concerns we have that weigh on our minds. This isn’t to say that you can’t discuss real issues when you are dating or that eventually you may turn to more important matters as the relationship progresses. You just have to keep in mind that one of the big reasons someone will want to continue seeing you is because they feel good being with you.
Unless you get into a long-term relationship we will find ourselves without a partner from time to time. It may be more important than any other time to laugh when you are single. You have to keep a positive attitude and not let the little things get you down. Then when you do start dating you don’t have to switch gears and think now I need to make this person laugh. Humor is the great equalizer. Sometimes you see real average guys with women who are drop dead gorgeous and you can’t help wonder what they see in them. If a guy can make a woman laugh, nothing else matters. Humor trumps everything. Whatever you do, you gotta laugh!
Humor is subjective. What one person thinks is funny might not be funny to someone else. A lot of humor is basically at someone else’s expense. We like to poke fun at other people. Sometimes, we like to make fun of ourselves. That shows we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Women like to be teased, too. It’s all part of the bantering and flirting that goes on when two people are getting to know each other. Having fun is important. There are enough problems in the world. Dating should be a respite from the concerns we have that weigh on our minds. This isn’t to say that you can’t discuss real issues when you are dating or that eventually you may turn to more important matters as the relationship progresses. You just have to keep in mind that one of the big reasons someone will want to continue seeing you is because they feel good being with you.
Unless you get into a long-term relationship we will find ourselves without a partner from time to time. It may be more important than any other time to laugh when you are single. You have to keep a positive attitude and not let the little things get you down. Then when you do start dating you don’t have to switch gears and think now I need to make this person laugh. Humor is the great equalizer. Sometimes you see real average guys with women who are drop dead gorgeous and you can’t help wonder what they see in them. If a guy can make a woman laugh, nothing else matters. Humor trumps everything. Whatever you do, you gotta laugh!
Sweet Dreams are Made of This
Anything is fair game in a psychology class. Teaching psychology has made me learn the subject much better. Now I can anticipate the kind of questions that students have about various topics. Anybody who has taken an intro psych class knows that one of chapters covered is about sleep and dreams. Personally, this is one of my favorite chapters (although I could go all semester just discussing human memory). Anyway, during my first semester teaching, a student made an interesting comment when we got to the chapter on sleep and dreams. I asked the class where dreams come from thinking that we could discuss the material in the textbook. This student replied that his mom told him that dreams come from another dimension. Let’s take a look at what we know about dreams and then I will tell you how I replied to his comment.
Dreams come from another dimension. How could we know if this was true or not? You can’t test it. You can’t disprove it. But how do you know that it’s not the case? Well, one of the telltale signs of pseudoscience is that they are largely unprovable. This is the case with pseudosciences such as astrology and palmistry. A person who endorses astrology will often try to shift the burden of proof onto the skeptic by saying that they need to disprove its existence. For something to be scientific, we need to be able to formulate hypotheses that can disprove its existence. Anything that is unprovable is by definition not science. Science stipulates the conditions by which a theory is true or not. If the theory stands up to scrutiny and investigation then we accept it; if the theory can be falsified then we discard it.
So, what do we know about where dreams come from? Sleep follows a kind of architecture through the night. Typically, people go through stages 1 to 4, then they come back up to stage 2, and then they alternate between stages 2 and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep for the rest of the night. Stages 1 and 2 are the light stages of sleep, while stages 3 and 4 are the stages of deep sleep. Regardless of whether a person says they usually remember their dreams or not, more than 85% of the time they will report a dream if they are awoken during REM sleep. As a result, REM sleep is the stage most often associated with dreaming.
During REM sleep, a structure in the brainstem called the pons emits electrical discharges to different parts of the brain. When the messages are sent to the visual cortex, we see images; messages sent to the areas of the brain responsible for memory have us access memories; messages sent to the emotional part of the brain have us experience feelings; and messages sent to the front part of the brain cause us to try to make a story out of all these experiences. There is much debate about what dreams mean, but what happens physiologically cannot be disputed.
REM sleep appears to be something that is associated with cognitive development. Infants spend up to 50% of sleep in REM, whereas adult spend only 15 to 20% of their sleep time in REM. Animals that need to fend for themselves right from birth have less REM than other animals. The guinea pig, for instance, is a natural prey animal. The only way it can defend itself is to freeze or run. As a consequence, guinea pigs spend only 10% of their sleep in REM. Humans, on the other hand, are basically helpless from birth. We need caregivers to keep us alive. So, in a way, REM sleep is a luxury that certain animals have. Another interesting thing about REM is that it is something that evolved phylogenetically in mammals. Reptiles and amphibians do not experience REM, whereas mammals do.
This brings us back to the original question about whether dreams comes from another dimension. We can’t test whether this idea is true or not. We do know, however, what happens in the brain while we dream. If beings from another dimension were beaming our dreams to us, then they would know only to do it during the last four hours of the night when the pons was actively transmitting electrical messages to different parts of the brain. The aliens might know about the human sleep cycle. They might know when the right time during the night is to send their messages. All the evidence points to dreaming being a natural phenomenon that aids mammals in cognitive development. So, in response to my student’s question, I said that the aliens might be smart enough to know all these things, but it seems very unlikely this is what is happening. Dreams come from another dimension. I don't think so.
Dreams come from another dimension. How could we know if this was true or not? You can’t test it. You can’t disprove it. But how do you know that it’s not the case? Well, one of the telltale signs of pseudoscience is that they are largely unprovable. This is the case with pseudosciences such as astrology and palmistry. A person who endorses astrology will often try to shift the burden of proof onto the skeptic by saying that they need to disprove its existence. For something to be scientific, we need to be able to formulate hypotheses that can disprove its existence. Anything that is unprovable is by definition not science. Science stipulates the conditions by which a theory is true or not. If the theory stands up to scrutiny and investigation then we accept it; if the theory can be falsified then we discard it.
So, what do we know about where dreams come from? Sleep follows a kind of architecture through the night. Typically, people go through stages 1 to 4, then they come back up to stage 2, and then they alternate between stages 2 and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep for the rest of the night. Stages 1 and 2 are the light stages of sleep, while stages 3 and 4 are the stages of deep sleep. Regardless of whether a person says they usually remember their dreams or not, more than 85% of the time they will report a dream if they are awoken during REM sleep. As a result, REM sleep is the stage most often associated with dreaming.
During REM sleep, a structure in the brainstem called the pons emits electrical discharges to different parts of the brain. When the messages are sent to the visual cortex, we see images; messages sent to the areas of the brain responsible for memory have us access memories; messages sent to the emotional part of the brain have us experience feelings; and messages sent to the front part of the brain cause us to try to make a story out of all these experiences. There is much debate about what dreams mean, but what happens physiologically cannot be disputed.
REM sleep appears to be something that is associated with cognitive development. Infants spend up to 50% of sleep in REM, whereas adult spend only 15 to 20% of their sleep time in REM. Animals that need to fend for themselves right from birth have less REM than other animals. The guinea pig, for instance, is a natural prey animal. The only way it can defend itself is to freeze or run. As a consequence, guinea pigs spend only 10% of their sleep in REM. Humans, on the other hand, are basically helpless from birth. We need caregivers to keep us alive. So, in a way, REM sleep is a luxury that certain animals have. Another interesting thing about REM is that it is something that evolved phylogenetically in mammals. Reptiles and amphibians do not experience REM, whereas mammals do.
This brings us back to the original question about whether dreams comes from another dimension. We can’t test whether this idea is true or not. We do know, however, what happens in the brain while we dream. If beings from another dimension were beaming our dreams to us, then they would know only to do it during the last four hours of the night when the pons was actively transmitting electrical messages to different parts of the brain. The aliens might know about the human sleep cycle. They might know when the right time during the night is to send their messages. All the evidence points to dreaming being a natural phenomenon that aids mammals in cognitive development. So, in response to my student’s question, I said that the aliens might be smart enough to know all these things, but it seems very unlikely this is what is happening. Dreams come from another dimension. I don't think so.
The Best Offense is a Good Defense
Any sports afficianado will tell you that defense wins champoinships. This year’s Steelers are a good example. Another example is how the New York Giants defeated the Patriots last year and the Patriots arguably had the best offense in NFL history. If you watch baseball in October, the games usually come down to pitching. In sports, a good defense can shut down a potent offense. A similar thing is found with the way people cope with their mental life. There is mental offense and mental defense. However, that is where the analogy ends because mental defense can sometimes lead to more problems.
Mental offense can be thought of as anything that promotes action and personal growth. Some examples would be assertiveness, decisiveness, and confidence. Mental defense consists of any of the defense mechanisms that we use for coping with uncomfortable feelings. There are four basic categories of defense mechanisms. Each category will be briefly discussed.
First, there are defense mechanisms that help us to reorganize experiences in order to cope with reality. The most common ones are denial and distortion. Denial is the refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening. Distortion is a mental reshaping of events to meet internal needs. Continuous use of these defenses can lead to serious problems.
Second, there are defense mechanisms that help lessen anxiety but when overused can lead to serious problem in effectively coping. Examples are projection and acting out. Projection involves shifting one’s unacceptable thoughts onto someone else. Acting out is an adolescent coping mechanism and involves outwardly expressing uncomfortable feelings through unacceptable behavior. Reliance on these defenses is seen as a sign that a person is emotionally immature.
Third, there are defense mechanisms that help us cope in the short-term but that can lead to long-term relationship problems when they are your sole source of coping. Examples are rationalization and displacement. Rationalization is the process of justifying one’s actions in a way that separates emotion from thoughts. Displacement is the redirection of uncomfortable feelings toward someone less threatening as a means of avoiding the uncomfrotable feelings. For instance, a mother who yells at her kids when she is upset with her husband is using displacement.
Finally, there are defense mechanisms which are considered the most mature and that enable us to fully integrate conflicting emotions. Examples are altruism, sublimation, and identification. Both of these defenses enable us to channel negative feelings into positive action. Altruism is the use of constructive service to others that creates positive feelings and satisfaction. Sublimation is the transformation of negative emotions into positive actions or behavior. An example would be playing music or painting a picture in a way that enables the channeling of the negative emotions. Identification is finding someone as a role model and modifying our behavior to be more like them.
So, some of our defenses can disort reality, some can lead to short-term coping, and others can enable us to channel negative emotions into positive ones. Distorting reality isn’t a good strategy, defenses that enable short-term coping can lead to long-term problems, and we can’t always find a way to channel our emotions constructively. However, if we can find suitable role models we can deal with difficult emotions by modeling the behavior of people we hold in high regard. With this in mind, we should surround ourselves with people we want to be more like and we should strive to be role models for the people we care most about (spouses, kids, friends, co-workers, etc.). When all is said and done, having good role models will give us the best offense for dealing with difficult emotions and situations.
Mental offense can be thought of as anything that promotes action and personal growth. Some examples would be assertiveness, decisiveness, and confidence. Mental defense consists of any of the defense mechanisms that we use for coping with uncomfortable feelings. There are four basic categories of defense mechanisms. Each category will be briefly discussed.
First, there are defense mechanisms that help us to reorganize experiences in order to cope with reality. The most common ones are denial and distortion. Denial is the refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening. Distortion is a mental reshaping of events to meet internal needs. Continuous use of these defenses can lead to serious problems.
Second, there are defense mechanisms that help lessen anxiety but when overused can lead to serious problem in effectively coping. Examples are projection and acting out. Projection involves shifting one’s unacceptable thoughts onto someone else. Acting out is an adolescent coping mechanism and involves outwardly expressing uncomfortable feelings through unacceptable behavior. Reliance on these defenses is seen as a sign that a person is emotionally immature.
Third, there are defense mechanisms that help us cope in the short-term but that can lead to long-term relationship problems when they are your sole source of coping. Examples are rationalization and displacement. Rationalization is the process of justifying one’s actions in a way that separates emotion from thoughts. Displacement is the redirection of uncomfortable feelings toward someone less threatening as a means of avoiding the uncomfrotable feelings. For instance, a mother who yells at her kids when she is upset with her husband is using displacement.
Finally, there are defense mechanisms which are considered the most mature and that enable us to fully integrate conflicting emotions. Examples are altruism, sublimation, and identification. Both of these defenses enable us to channel negative feelings into positive action. Altruism is the use of constructive service to others that creates positive feelings and satisfaction. Sublimation is the transformation of negative emotions into positive actions or behavior. An example would be playing music or painting a picture in a way that enables the channeling of the negative emotions. Identification is finding someone as a role model and modifying our behavior to be more like them.
So, some of our defenses can disort reality, some can lead to short-term coping, and others can enable us to channel negative emotions into positive ones. Distorting reality isn’t a good strategy, defenses that enable short-term coping can lead to long-term problems, and we can’t always find a way to channel our emotions constructively. However, if we can find suitable role models we can deal with difficult emotions by modeling the behavior of people we hold in high regard. With this in mind, we should surround ourselves with people we want to be more like and we should strive to be role models for the people we care most about (spouses, kids, friends, co-workers, etc.). When all is said and done, having good role models will give us the best offense for dealing with difficult emotions and situations.
That Little Voice in Your Head
Everybody has that little voice in their head. I’m not talking about hearing voices. I’m talking about how we think. Try to think about something without resorting to language. It’s hard to do. Our thoughts are typically in the form of a sentence or a sentence fragment. It is true that some of our thoughts are more like images or pictures, but mostly our thoughts consist of something that involves words. Psychologists call that little voice that guides your thinking inner speech.
Inner speech is something that develops around 18 months of age. It is also at this time that people start to develop a sense of self. A child at this age will typically be able to recognize themselves in a mirror. This is contrasted with an animal such as a dog that will bark at its reflection in a patio window. The dog does not have a sense of self and thus assumes that the reflection is another dog.
Inner speech serves a few different functions. When a child begins to recognize her own thoughts, then she can make the distinction that those thoughts belong to her. That helps create her sense of self. Inner speech is what makes us conscious beings. If we didn’t have inner speech, we would observe and react to the world without being able to think about what we were doing. Inner speech is also important for emotional regulation. If someone makes you mad, you might think to yourself that you want to hit them but then you can tell yourself that that isn’t a good idea. Without inner speech, we would lack impulse control.
Impulse control is very important for getting along with other people. However, it is something that is not highly valued in our culture. We are enamored with extreme anti-social behavior. The attention that people get for extreme behavior reinforces them to continue doing it. After enough exposure to extreme behavior, people will start imitating it. Often, people who engage in outlandish behavior will say that they are living beyond society’s conventions or that they are “out there” or “keeping it real.”
At first you will have to ignore your inner speech to engage in extreme behavior, but after awhile you will no longer have that voice telling you to stop. Depending on the situation, this could be good or bad. Not all outlandish behavior is destructive. Sometimes it is beneficial to cut loose. Ignoring negative self-talk can also help in overcoming shyness. But when we engage in a particular behavior at someone else’s expense, we should ask ourselves if we should be doing whatever it is that we are doing. The next time that little voice in your head tells you not to do something, you might want to take pause and listen to it.
Inner speech is something that develops around 18 months of age. It is also at this time that people start to develop a sense of self. A child at this age will typically be able to recognize themselves in a mirror. This is contrasted with an animal such as a dog that will bark at its reflection in a patio window. The dog does not have a sense of self and thus assumes that the reflection is another dog.
Inner speech serves a few different functions. When a child begins to recognize her own thoughts, then she can make the distinction that those thoughts belong to her. That helps create her sense of self. Inner speech is what makes us conscious beings. If we didn’t have inner speech, we would observe and react to the world without being able to think about what we were doing. Inner speech is also important for emotional regulation. If someone makes you mad, you might think to yourself that you want to hit them but then you can tell yourself that that isn’t a good idea. Without inner speech, we would lack impulse control.
Impulse control is very important for getting along with other people. However, it is something that is not highly valued in our culture. We are enamored with extreme anti-social behavior. The attention that people get for extreme behavior reinforces them to continue doing it. After enough exposure to extreme behavior, people will start imitating it. Often, people who engage in outlandish behavior will say that they are living beyond society’s conventions or that they are “out there” or “keeping it real.”
At first you will have to ignore your inner speech to engage in extreme behavior, but after awhile you will no longer have that voice telling you to stop. Depending on the situation, this could be good or bad. Not all outlandish behavior is destructive. Sometimes it is beneficial to cut loose. Ignoring negative self-talk can also help in overcoming shyness. But when we engage in a particular behavior at someone else’s expense, we should ask ourselves if we should be doing whatever it is that we are doing. The next time that little voice in your head tells you not to do something, you might want to take pause and listen to it.
The Longest Short Amount of Time
I’m a firm believer that people can tolerate difficult life circumstances for about two to three years. This is the “longest short amount of time” that most people can endure. After that, your predicament really starts to weigh on you. I’ve carried this perspective with me through my pursuits in life. However, there is another “longest short amount of time” that is specific to relationships – three months.
What is it about three months? Is there something “magical” about three months? People I’ve talked to tell me that at around three months they often feel the compulsion to “run.” They tell me that around this time period they notice that many of their partners begin to change. It’s like people are on their best behavior for the first two and a half months or so and then something clicks at around three months and suddenly Dr. Jeckyll becomes Mr. Hyde. However, this personality transformation doesn’t happen in every relationship, so I think the three month marker is significant for another reason.
At three months, the relationship isn’t a brief fling or just a passing thing anymore. It’s become an entity unto itself. Three months is the longest short amount of time that someone can say they were in an actual relationship. The risk of getting hurt emotionally increases if the relationship continues. It’s easier for people to dissociate themselves from a situation if it hasn’t gone on very long. At three months, you also have to consider whether you want to fully commit to your partner. Before then, commitment isn’t a factor because it’s such a short length of time. People who have no intention of committing to their partner will bolt at this time. They can, however, say that they were in a relationship, albeit a short one. So, the three month marker helps us differentiate our one night stands, flings and brief encounters, and short relationships from our long-term relationships.
Perhaps we should put the clock away when we date. Baseball is one of the only games that doesn’t have a time limit (so why do the managers wear watches?). Anyway, maybe we should approach dating more like baseball. You begin with your best starting pitcher, then you bring in your middle reliever, and after the seventh inning stretch you get your closing pitcher ready. If the game is real good it goes into extra innings. If we weren’t so concerned about the clock, we might find that more of our relationships would go into extra innings. Otherwise, it might be best to call the game early on and play ball another day.
What is it about three months? Is there something “magical” about three months? People I’ve talked to tell me that at around three months they often feel the compulsion to “run.” They tell me that around this time period they notice that many of their partners begin to change. It’s like people are on their best behavior for the first two and a half months or so and then something clicks at around three months and suddenly Dr. Jeckyll becomes Mr. Hyde. However, this personality transformation doesn’t happen in every relationship, so I think the three month marker is significant for another reason.
At three months, the relationship isn’t a brief fling or just a passing thing anymore. It’s become an entity unto itself. Three months is the longest short amount of time that someone can say they were in an actual relationship. The risk of getting hurt emotionally increases if the relationship continues. It’s easier for people to dissociate themselves from a situation if it hasn’t gone on very long. At three months, you also have to consider whether you want to fully commit to your partner. Before then, commitment isn’t a factor because it’s such a short length of time. People who have no intention of committing to their partner will bolt at this time. They can, however, say that they were in a relationship, albeit a short one. So, the three month marker helps us differentiate our one night stands, flings and brief encounters, and short relationships from our long-term relationships.
Perhaps we should put the clock away when we date. Baseball is one of the only games that doesn’t have a time limit (so why do the managers wear watches?). Anyway, maybe we should approach dating more like baseball. You begin with your best starting pitcher, then you bring in your middle reliever, and after the seventh inning stretch you get your closing pitcher ready. If the game is real good it goes into extra innings. If we weren’t so concerned about the clock, we might find that more of our relationships would go into extra innings. Otherwise, it might be best to call the game early on and play ball another day.
The Karma Connection
Everything is interconnected. Everything you do has an effect on someone else. It’s kind of like a Caprian way of looking at things (Frank Capra directed “It’s a Wonderful Life”). This might also sound like karma. However, the concept of karma is often misunderstood. We tend to think that karma means that people will get what’s coming to them for what they do, but that’s not how it works. Karma isn’t a result; it’s the cause of things. Karma is based on the motivation for what you do. When you do good things, your karma is good. So, it isn’t the result of yours actions. It’s the reason behind your actions.
Still, we have a desire to see that people are punished for "bad" things. This comes from our belief that we live in a just universe. But the fact is, some people will never be punished for doing bad things (at least in this life if you believe in such things). That doesn’t set well with most people. How could bad things go unpunished when good people suffer? We have to make peace with the fact that some people can do bad things and not have any consequence for their actions. Or can they?
You can never be sure what it’s like in someone else’s head. A person would have to have an elaboate network of mental defense mechanisms to continually engage in destructive behavior without their actions effecting them. They might put on a façade and act like they don’t care while they are really struggling inside. They might feel inner tension, extreme anxiety, or might even be making themselves physically sick. But dwelling on whether these people actually feel anything about their actions is a waste of time. They probably need therapy but because they are in deinal they won't pursue it. Instead of focusing on the negative, we should turn our thoughts to more constructive matters, and plow ahead without looking back. If we focus on building up our personal karma then negative people won't be a drain on us.
So, we may live in a karmic universe. We may all get what’s coming to us. It's hard to say for sure, but rest assured, everything you do has an effect on someone else in some way. Just ask any teacher. I can tell you about this firsthand. Sometimes it seems like I’m not getting through to my students and then a student from a prior semester comes and visits and tells me how I changed their life. If this can happen in an environment where students are texting their friends and not paying much attention to what's happening, then I can guarantee that this happens in your everyday life.
Still, we have a desire to see that people are punished for "bad" things. This comes from our belief that we live in a just universe. But the fact is, some people will never be punished for doing bad things (at least in this life if you believe in such things). That doesn’t set well with most people. How could bad things go unpunished when good people suffer? We have to make peace with the fact that some people can do bad things and not have any consequence for their actions. Or can they?
You can never be sure what it’s like in someone else’s head. A person would have to have an elaboate network of mental defense mechanisms to continually engage in destructive behavior without their actions effecting them. They might put on a façade and act like they don’t care while they are really struggling inside. They might feel inner tension, extreme anxiety, or might even be making themselves physically sick. But dwelling on whether these people actually feel anything about their actions is a waste of time. They probably need therapy but because they are in deinal they won't pursue it. Instead of focusing on the negative, we should turn our thoughts to more constructive matters, and plow ahead without looking back. If we focus on building up our personal karma then negative people won't be a drain on us.
So, we may live in a karmic universe. We may all get what’s coming to us. It's hard to say for sure, but rest assured, everything you do has an effect on someone else in some way. Just ask any teacher. I can tell you about this firsthand. Sometimes it seems like I’m not getting through to my students and then a student from a prior semester comes and visits and tells me how I changed their life. If this can happen in an environment where students are texting their friends and not paying much attention to what's happening, then I can guarantee that this happens in your everyday life.
What Causes Handedness?
About 10% of Americans are left handed. Since so many people are right handed, what accounts for lefthandedness? The fact is, we don’t know for sure. It might have something to do with language processing. Of 100 people, 90 would most likely be right handed and 86 of them would have their language areas in the left hemisphere. The remaining 10 people would be left handed and 7 of them would have language in the left hemisphere. This means that of 100 people, about 93 would have language in the left hemisphere, regardless of handedness. So, most righties process language on the left side of the brain. There’s more variability with lefties even though most of them process language on the life side as well. Okay, so what are the basic theories for handedness?
The first theory is the environmental theory. This theory suggests that hand preference is learned by children modelling adults and also through environmental pressure to use one hand over another. We know that some kids who would naturally become left handed are forced by their parents to use their right hands. That’s probably why some people have such bad penmanship. In Asian countries, only about 5% of the population is left handed because it is highly discouraged. Clearly, the environmental theory explains some aspects of why more people are right handed, but it does not account for how handedness develops in the first place. For that, we need to look at genetic theories.
There are three major genetic theories of handedness. The first is called the Right Shift Theory. This theory suggests that there is a factor which, if inherited leads to right handedness (and left brain language specialization). If this trait is not inherited, then there is more balance between right and left-handedness and environmental influences may have a stronger bearing on the development of handedness.
The second theory is called the McManus Model, named after the researcher who proposed it. This model asserts that genes do not pass on information about left or right, but instead determine whether an individual’s brain will be strongly lateralized or not. So, whether or not we are left or right handed is influenced by development in utero, which gives us a predisposition toward specific lateralization, and then by environmental influences after we are born. The third theory is related to brain pathology. This theory basically suggests that we were all meant to be right handed but that left handedness occurs due to some kind of brain injury that causes lateralization to occur in the right hemisphere. While it is true that the incidence of left handedness among people with autism and schizophrenia is much higher than in the population (about 30%), the vast majority of left handers do not have any brain pathology so this theory does not fully account for handedness.
What should we make of these explanations? Well, each theory seems to be partly correct. There are factors that determine which side of the brain controls language and motor processing. For some individuals, the tendency for specific lateralization is much stronger than for others (extremely right handed or extremely left handed). For others, lateralization of motor function is more mixed (e.g., someone who writes left handed but plays pool right handed, like this author for instance lol). Even if a child has a tendency to be left handed, environmental influences play an important role. Depending on how you count people, as much as 15% of the population may actually be left handed. This is probably because the stigma about lefthandedness in Western culture decreased during the 20th century. So, it may be that more people will be born lefthanded in the future but it depends how accepting society is about there being more lefthanders. In the meantime, my advice to those lefties out there is to never use a circular saw designed for a righthander. The result could be deadly!
The first theory is the environmental theory. This theory suggests that hand preference is learned by children modelling adults and also through environmental pressure to use one hand over another. We know that some kids who would naturally become left handed are forced by their parents to use their right hands. That’s probably why some people have such bad penmanship. In Asian countries, only about 5% of the population is left handed because it is highly discouraged. Clearly, the environmental theory explains some aspects of why more people are right handed, but it does not account for how handedness develops in the first place. For that, we need to look at genetic theories.
There are three major genetic theories of handedness. The first is called the Right Shift Theory. This theory suggests that there is a factor which, if inherited leads to right handedness (and left brain language specialization). If this trait is not inherited, then there is more balance between right and left-handedness and environmental influences may have a stronger bearing on the development of handedness.
The second theory is called the McManus Model, named after the researcher who proposed it. This model asserts that genes do not pass on information about left or right, but instead determine whether an individual’s brain will be strongly lateralized or not. So, whether or not we are left or right handed is influenced by development in utero, which gives us a predisposition toward specific lateralization, and then by environmental influences after we are born. The third theory is related to brain pathology. This theory basically suggests that we were all meant to be right handed but that left handedness occurs due to some kind of brain injury that causes lateralization to occur in the right hemisphere. While it is true that the incidence of left handedness among people with autism and schizophrenia is much higher than in the population (about 30%), the vast majority of left handers do not have any brain pathology so this theory does not fully account for handedness.
What should we make of these explanations? Well, each theory seems to be partly correct. There are factors that determine which side of the brain controls language and motor processing. For some individuals, the tendency for specific lateralization is much stronger than for others (extremely right handed or extremely left handed). For others, lateralization of motor function is more mixed (e.g., someone who writes left handed but plays pool right handed, like this author for instance lol). Even if a child has a tendency to be left handed, environmental influences play an important role. Depending on how you count people, as much as 15% of the population may actually be left handed. This is probably because the stigma about lefthandedness in Western culture decreased during the 20th century. So, it may be that more people will be born lefthanded in the future but it depends how accepting society is about there being more lefthanders. In the meantime, my advice to those lefties out there is to never use a circular saw designed for a righthander. The result could be deadly!
Comfort and Anxiety
So one day after class a student asked me if I don’t have any metaphysical beliefs. I replied that as much as I would like to believe in those things I don’t think there is much evidence to support them. She then said that she wasn’t ready to give up her metaphysical beliefs because they give her comfort. She isn’t alone in feeling this way. It is very common for people to say this.
Beliefs serve three major functions: explanation, social cohesion, and comfort. We want to know why things happen, where we came from, and where we are going. Beliefs that provide explanation take care of those questions. We like it when other people share similar beliefs to us. This creates social cohesion and a sense of community. We are, after all, social creatures. When bad things happen, we seek comfort and solace. Beliefs that give us comfort can get us through the bad patches.
What is it about comfort that makes us rely on these kinds of beliefs? Plain and simple it's anxiety. We don’t like it when we feel anxious. We will do just about anything to get rid of feelings of anxiousness. Anxiety creates unpleasant feelings associated with worry, uneasiness, and fear. In fact, anxiety is physiologically indistinguishable from fear. Calling on beliefs that give us comfort can help us eliminate fear and anxiety. But what are we really doing? We are using these beliefs to scaffold ourselves from the fear of the unknown. If we use these beliefs as a crutch, what does that say about these beliefs? We need to be careful about invoking certain beliefs just so that we feel better.
There might come a time when our beliefs let us down and then we will be in for a rude awakening. So, just be aware that comfort is nice but it might not be lasting. Real comfort might come in the form of accepting that everything is temporary and we need to live the best we can while we are here.
Beliefs serve three major functions: explanation, social cohesion, and comfort. We want to know why things happen, where we came from, and where we are going. Beliefs that provide explanation take care of those questions. We like it when other people share similar beliefs to us. This creates social cohesion and a sense of community. We are, after all, social creatures. When bad things happen, we seek comfort and solace. Beliefs that give us comfort can get us through the bad patches.
What is it about comfort that makes us rely on these kinds of beliefs? Plain and simple it's anxiety. We don’t like it when we feel anxious. We will do just about anything to get rid of feelings of anxiousness. Anxiety creates unpleasant feelings associated with worry, uneasiness, and fear. In fact, anxiety is physiologically indistinguishable from fear. Calling on beliefs that give us comfort can help us eliminate fear and anxiety. But what are we really doing? We are using these beliefs to scaffold ourselves from the fear of the unknown. If we use these beliefs as a crutch, what does that say about these beliefs? We need to be careful about invoking certain beliefs just so that we feel better.
There might come a time when our beliefs let us down and then we will be in for a rude awakening. So, just be aware that comfort is nice but it might not be lasting. Real comfort might come in the form of accepting that everything is temporary and we need to live the best we can while we are here.
Why Do We Have REM During Sleep?
Students often ask why our eyes move back and forth while we dream. "Why" is a tricky question. If you mean "why" in terms of what causes the eye movements to occur, the answer appears to be that during REM sleep there is a REM control center in the brainstem which gives off periodic bursts of activity that spread over wide areas of the brain. These chaotically arising signals activate other midbrain structures that control eye movements. If the REM center on the left side of the brain happens to send out a burst, the eyes will move to the left; if the right side center fires, the eyes will move to the right.
If you're asking "why" meaning what are the eye movements for, the answer is less clear. One theory is that it's one of the ways that the brainstem gives the forebrain the raw materials out of which to construct dreams; the forebrain recognizes that the eyes are moving and decides that something in their field of vision is moving, or that they're moving, and builds this information into the ongoing dream narrative. Interestingly, dreams turn out to be chock full of movement, much more than you would normally see in your waking life. So, maybe the rapid eye movements cue us that we are dreaming.
A second theory is called the "scanning hypothesis." The scanning hypothesis proposes that the eyes are actually following the action in a dream, much as your eyes follow the action on a movie screen. However, the anatomy of the brain doesn't seem to encourage this explanation; there are no major pathways that could carry clear information about the dream imagery back down to the brainstem so that it could send signals up to the midbrain to make the appropriate movements.
If you're asking "why" meaning what are the eye movements for, the answer is less clear. One theory is that it's one of the ways that the brainstem gives the forebrain the raw materials out of which to construct dreams; the forebrain recognizes that the eyes are moving and decides that something in their field of vision is moving, or that they're moving, and builds this information into the ongoing dream narrative. Interestingly, dreams turn out to be chock full of movement, much more than you would normally see in your waking life. So, maybe the rapid eye movements cue us that we are dreaming.
A second theory is called the "scanning hypothesis." The scanning hypothesis proposes that the eyes are actually following the action in a dream, much as your eyes follow the action on a movie screen. However, the anatomy of the brain doesn't seem to encourage this explanation; there are no major pathways that could carry clear information about the dream imagery back down to the brainstem so that it could send signals up to the midbrain to make the appropriate movements.
Our Sixth Sense
We all have five senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But we also have a sixth sense. It’s nothing psychic or paranormal. It’s our sense of self. We sense that we are unique individuals separate from other people. Where does this come from? There are clearly biological factors that help create our sense of self. We all have a different temperaments and genetic makeups. Environmental factors also contribute to our sense of self. From early on, our parents, caregivers, and siblings respond to us and nurture us in ways that help create our feeling of self. A positive environment will help us foster a positive sense of self, while a negative environment will do the opposite. But there is one thing in particular that creates our feeling of self more than anything else. This is our ability to form memories about our lives.
Each one of us has within us a unique autobiography, a chronology so to speak, of the events that have happened to us. This autobiography tells us who we are. If you woke up tomorrow without your autobiographical memories, your sense of self would be diminished or maybe even be gone. Our memories tell us where we have been, what we have done, and also influence our futures. In some ways, we are prisoners to our memories. Yet, regardless whether our memories are pleasant or not, they are our own memories. Without our unique memories, we would lose our sense of self.
So, what should we make of this? Our sense of self is largely molded by our actions. We get a lot of who we are from other people, of course, but our actions become our memories which build our sense of self. It is for this reason that we should take care to make our actions positive. When our actions are positive, we will have positive memories and our sense of self will, in turn, also be positive. We should also surround ourselves with positive people. Our sense of self tells us who we are. It is a reflection of the things we have done in life.
Each one of us has within us a unique autobiography, a chronology so to speak, of the events that have happened to us. This autobiography tells us who we are. If you woke up tomorrow without your autobiographical memories, your sense of self would be diminished or maybe even be gone. Our memories tell us where we have been, what we have done, and also influence our futures. In some ways, we are prisoners to our memories. Yet, regardless whether our memories are pleasant or not, they are our own memories. Without our unique memories, we would lose our sense of self.
So, what should we make of this? Our sense of self is largely molded by our actions. We get a lot of who we are from other people, of course, but our actions become our memories which build our sense of self. It is for this reason that we should take care to make our actions positive. When our actions are positive, we will have positive memories and our sense of self will, in turn, also be positive. We should also surround ourselves with positive people. Our sense of self tells us who we are. It is a reflection of the things we have done in life.
The Root of All Evil
The root of all evil isn’t the love of the money; it’s the belief in dualism. Philosophical dualism is the belief that the mind exists separately from the body. Have you thought about this before? Is your mind separate from your body? The mind appears to lack the characteristics of physical things such as volume and density. We all hear that little voice within us. So, where do thoughts come from? It’s because of the seemingly non-spatial aspects of the mind that we make the mistake of thinking that the mind isn’t part of our physical body. However, all the evidence from neuroscience indicates that the mind is what the brain does for a living (beside keeping us alive). You need a fully functioning brain to sense the world, to interact with the world, and to form memories. The idea that the mind is an emergent property of the physical brain is called physical materialism. Materialism is a monist philosophy meaning that it does not advocate a separation of mind and body. So, how does this all figure in with the concept of the root of all evil? Well, when we buy into the idea of mind/brain dualism, we can by extension easily accept the idea that supernatural entities exist which also do not have physical attributes. Dualism is the philosophy that makes belief in god and the paranormal possible. You can’t have belief in evil without buying into the concept of dualism first. So, you see, dualism is the root of all evil. Without dualism, we would have to accept that what we call evil is within each of us and not the result of some supernatural influence.
Why is the Brain Cross Wired?
When the anatomy of the brain is discussed in my classes, students often ask why a particular cerebral hemisphere (left or right) controls the sensory and motor functions on the opposite side of the body (e.g., the left motor cortex controls your right hand). We do not know for sure why the brain is cross wired but there are three theories for explaining it. The first theory is that visual images would be perceived discontinuously if the brain was not cross wired. Stereoscopic vision, the perception of depth, is partly the result of being able to see the left and right visual field on both sides of the brain and then combining the images.
A second theory is that cross wiring permits invertebrates to escape from danger. The only sensory input that is not crossed is the olfactory system. Since smell is used for getting towards food, it initiates a movement towards something. This is contrasted with other sensory input which makes the animal go away.
The third theory is that during the evolutionary development from invertebrates to vertebrates, the orientation of the body rotated 180 degrees with regard to the head. This is based on recent findings suggest that an early ancestor, perhaps transitional between something resembling an early worm and a chordate, underwent a 180-degree torsion or twist half-way along its body and nerve chord, rotating previously ventral structures to a dorsal position, and resulting in a cross-over between much of the body and controlling brain regions. However, this explanation does not account for why some intertebrates such as the octopus and squid have uncrossed nervous systems. So, we still do not know why certain animals went on to develop an uncrossed or crossed nervous system. However, this theory provides a physiological basis for why cross wiring in the brain may have occurred in the first place.
A second theory is that cross wiring permits invertebrates to escape from danger. The only sensory input that is not crossed is the olfactory system. Since smell is used for getting towards food, it initiates a movement towards something. This is contrasted with other sensory input which makes the animal go away.
The third theory is that during the evolutionary development from invertebrates to vertebrates, the orientation of the body rotated 180 degrees with regard to the head. This is based on recent findings suggest that an early ancestor, perhaps transitional between something resembling an early worm and a chordate, underwent a 180-degree torsion or twist half-way along its body and nerve chord, rotating previously ventral structures to a dorsal position, and resulting in a cross-over between much of the body and controlling brain regions. However, this explanation does not account for why some intertebrates such as the octopus and squid have uncrossed nervous systems. So, we still do not know why certain animals went on to develop an uncrossed or crossed nervous system. However, this theory provides a physiological basis for why cross wiring in the brain may have occurred in the first place.
Everything Happens for a Reason
Everything happens for a reason. I hear this from a lot of people. But is this maxim true? Usually when people say this they are trying to make sense of significant life events. What about going to store to pick up milk? Don’t the little things matter? If everything happens for a reason then the little things should matter, too. But like I said, this maxim is something people invoke when significant things happen. Otherwise, we would have to accept that random things happen in life. That just doesn’t set well with a lot of people, especially when tragic things happen.
If everything happens for a reason, then there is a cause for every effect. I certainly wouldn’t argue with that. It’s just that the reason for something happening probably isn’t what people think it is. If we resort to saying that something happened for a reason, and it’s not the thing that just preceded it, then we are grasping at straws trying to attach meaning to experience. Ambiguity is difficult for people to accept. We feel like we are floundering in a chaotic universe in which random things can happen to us. But is it worth resorting to this kind of deterministic thinking?
When we say that everything happens for a reason, we are saying that there must be a reason in the overall scheme of things for why things happen to us. This is a form of rationalization. If we believe we have free will and can make choices in life, then we shouldn’t have to resort to rationalization. We should, instead, plan ahead and adjust how we respond to things. We have no control over the past. All we can do is try to respond differently to things in the future. By owning our lives, living responsibly, and letting the people who matter know that they matter, then when tragedy strikes, we won’t have regrets. We can still feel grief and sadness. We are only human. Bad things happen. Tragedy strikes good people.
So, we need to realize that when something happens and we resort to saying that everything happens for a reason, we aren’t really looking for a reason, we are trying to justify what happened. Trying to attach meaning to experience is natural. But finding that “meaning” isn’t the reason why something happened; it’s just something that helps us sleep better and face the next day. And that’s probably the biggest reason that we say that everything happens for a reason.
If everything happens for a reason, then there is a cause for every effect. I certainly wouldn’t argue with that. It’s just that the reason for something happening probably isn’t what people think it is. If we resort to saying that something happened for a reason, and it’s not the thing that just preceded it, then we are grasping at straws trying to attach meaning to experience. Ambiguity is difficult for people to accept. We feel like we are floundering in a chaotic universe in which random things can happen to us. But is it worth resorting to this kind of deterministic thinking?
When we say that everything happens for a reason, we are saying that there must be a reason in the overall scheme of things for why things happen to us. This is a form of rationalization. If we believe we have free will and can make choices in life, then we shouldn’t have to resort to rationalization. We should, instead, plan ahead and adjust how we respond to things. We have no control over the past. All we can do is try to respond differently to things in the future. By owning our lives, living responsibly, and letting the people who matter know that they matter, then when tragedy strikes, we won’t have regrets. We can still feel grief and sadness. We are only human. Bad things happen. Tragedy strikes good people.
So, we need to realize that when something happens and we resort to saying that everything happens for a reason, we aren’t really looking for a reason, we are trying to justify what happened. Trying to attach meaning to experience is natural. But finding that “meaning” isn’t the reason why something happened; it’s just something that helps us sleep better and face the next day. And that’s probably the biggest reason that we say that everything happens for a reason.
The Myth of the Left and Right Brain
One of my all time pet peeves is how people have been led to believe that their behavior is the result of being left brained or right brained. If the left hemisphere is the more logical hemisphere then would most men want to be left brained or right brained? Probably left brained. If men are supposedly better at math than women, wouldn't they want to be associated with the side of the brain that is good at math? I would think so. The right brain is the side of the brain that is better at performing spatial and abstract reasoning like math. So, would a guy want to be left brained because that's the logical side or right brained because that's the math side? Women have historically been thought of as better at language than men. The left brain happens to be the language side. So, women are more logical than men. The right brain is also the place where emotions are processed. So, if men are good at math they are also very emotional. The whole thing becomes convoluted real fast. There are more right handed people so they must all be bad at math since they are left brained. Only left handed people should be good at math, while right handed people would be good at language. Lastly, unless somebody had a brain scan they would only be guessing whether they were left brained or right brained. You need both hemispheres communicating with each other to do most of the things we do. While it is true that both sides of the brain are specialized for different functions, much of our behavior is learned. Whether a boy is encouraged to be good at math or a girl is encouraged to be nurturing is largely culturally and socially reinforced.
The Real Problem with Astrology
Could it be possible that stars light years away could influence and possibly even predict our futures? Many people will say that the gravitation of the moon has influence over the tides and weather, but the moon is much closer than any of the stars in the constellations. The gravitational effect of even the nearest star on the Earth is essentially zero. Okay, so physics aside, there is a much, much bigger problem with astrology. This is the issue of free will. Most people, including those who endorse astrology, would say that they believe in free will. Free will is the capacity for us to make rational decisions that are of our own volition. Free will means we have a choice in what we do. The belief in free will, that we have choice in our behavior, is what makes us truly human. If the stars are directing our lives then free will doesn't exist. So, the real problem with astrology isn't the implausibility that the gravitational fields of stars light years away are controlling our lives, it's that the belief in astrology is a crutch that prevents us from taking real control of our lives. People born in various months may have similar characteristics, but that doesn't mean that astrology is true. We can all change the way we think and act if we want to do the work. That's the key. Most people don't want to do the work. We want easy answers and quick fixes. I'd rather keep my belief in free will and the human potential than relinquish it to astral bodies light years away.
Can Fish Drown?
This is an interesting question. People regard drowning as not being able to breathe under water. This is the same for fish as they can't breathe in air. So I guess you can say that they drown in air. Sharks are often hunted for their fins and when they are caught their fins are chopped of and they are thrown back into the sea alive. Some species of shark have to keep swimming all of the time even when they sleep. This is to pass water through their mouths and over their gills to allow them to breathe. Without their fins they are unable to swim and therefore can't breathe, so they in effect "drown". Fish, like people, need oxygen to live. A fish out of water is a fish out of its element. A fish comes fully equipped with a pair of gills, which it uses to breathe under water. The gills extract life-sustaining oxygen from the hydrogen in the water molecules, in order to regulate the amount of oxygen intake. This maintains the necessary balance of the two components of water for the fish to survive. When a fish is taken out of water, and exposed only to air, not to oxygen and hydrogen containing water, its gills are unable to control the oxygen intake, the delicate balance cannot be maintained, and the gills inhale a lethal overdose of oxygen. The fish essentially experiences death by "drowning."
Personal Lotto
A lot of people put their hopes in things like the lottery which have very low chances of success (I know, I know, someone always wins...) So, I came up with my own idea that we need to create our own Personal Lotto. This is what happens when we cultivate our talents and try to use them to become successful. I'm a musician. I've written a lot of music. I regularly send demos to the big music houses. Even though hundreds and even thousands of other people send demos, my odds of getting a song signed are still better than playing the lottery. The key is to continue what you are passionate about and not to give up. It may take you a long time to hit your personal lotto but you may never win the lottery in your entire lifetime. See where I'm going with this? Just remember, if you do not quit, you cannot fail!
Relativism and the Blue World
Let's say the world is Blue. Everything is Blue. But let's say that you believe it is Red. The fact that you believe the world is Red does not change the fact that the world is Blue. Now, if for some reason you have a neurological problem that makes you see the world as Red, then it is Red to you. Your reality is that you see the world as Red. That still does not change the fact that the world actually is Blue. It demonstrates that the way we see the world depends on neurological factors. This is not the same as belief. Seeing Red because of your brain is not the same as believing it is Red but seeing it as Blue. This is what happens with peoples' beliefs.
So, the world is Blue. This does not satisfy a lot of people. They want the world to be another color. They decide that it would be better if the world were Red. So, they ignore the fact that the world is Blue and tell everyone that it is Red. After awhile the people who see the world as Blue and are okay with it start to doubt the Blueness of the world and wonder whether the world really is Red and that they aren't seeing it correctly. This creates a lot of doubt for the people who see the world as Blue and it bolsters the confidence of the people who believe the world is Red. Of course one problem is that one person's Blue may not quite be another person's Blue and the person who because of their brain sees the world as Red.
So if the world appears Blue to most people, and people who believe it is actually Red can ignore the Blue and convince themselves that it is Red, and some people see it as Red because of their brains, then what is right? What does the world really look like? Does the world actually look a certain way or does it depend on what you believe? The people who see the world as Blue would be correct because the world is Blue. The people who see the world as Red because of their brains would also be correct. They are seeing the world the way their brain lets them see it. This leaves the people who despite the fact that the world is Blue believe that it is better to see the world as Red. These people may say that we create our own reality and that everything is relative. In actuality, these people are allowing irrational cognition to dictate how they see the world. The belief that the world is Red does not change the reality that the world is Blue.
So, the world is Blue. This does not satisfy a lot of people. They want the world to be another color. They decide that it would be better if the world were Red. So, they ignore the fact that the world is Blue and tell everyone that it is Red. After awhile the people who see the world as Blue and are okay with it start to doubt the Blueness of the world and wonder whether the world really is Red and that they aren't seeing it correctly. This creates a lot of doubt for the people who see the world as Blue and it bolsters the confidence of the people who believe the world is Red. Of course one problem is that one person's Blue may not quite be another person's Blue and the person who because of their brain sees the world as Red.
So if the world appears Blue to most people, and people who believe it is actually Red can ignore the Blue and convince themselves that it is Red, and some people see it as Red because of their brains, then what is right? What does the world really look like? Does the world actually look a certain way or does it depend on what you believe? The people who see the world as Blue would be correct because the world is Blue. The people who see the world as Red because of their brains would also be correct. They are seeing the world the way their brain lets them see it. This leaves the people who despite the fact that the world is Blue believe that it is better to see the world as Red. These people may say that we create our own reality and that everything is relative. In actuality, these people are allowing irrational cognition to dictate how they see the world. The belief that the world is Red does not change the reality that the world is Blue.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)