Friday, April 23, 2010

Power of Music

Music governs my life. I believe MP3 players to be one of the greatest innovations in human history. Without music my life would be devoid of color, happiness, and creativity. And I believe the importance of music is something many people can agree without doubt. An interesting blog about music and its influence in brain activity was posted in a South Korean website. The blog post was based off of an episode from National Geographics. When people hear music that is exciting to the point of making them jumpy and full of energy, that means that music is stimulating the release of dopamine in their brain. Moreover, music brings back memories related to that music. Cognitive Daily also introduces a study that demonstrates the power of music which can affect viewer's character evaluations in a film. I don't think human beings can live without music. It makes us move, it makes us remember, it makes us feel--all the qualities that make us human!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Multitaskers

While in a lecture, it is more interesting to observe what people are doing instead of paying attention to the monotonous and droning voice of a professor. If you allow yourself to sit at the back of the classroom, you can get an open view of other people's distraction. Shopping on-line, Facebooking, eating, drinking Red Bulls, Youtubing, etc. Whew~! These people are spectacular multi-taskers. And with the advancement of digital age, becoming a multi-tasker is a requirement or you won't be able to compete with others with such limited time that we are given. But, how much can we multitask? How much can we perform well in the middle of multitasking? Ed Yong gives a nice overview of our brain in the middle of multi-tasking. Referring to a study done by a Parisian scientist, Ed Yong summarizes that...
They have found that the part of our brain that controls out motivation to pursue our goals can divide its attention between two tasks. The left half devotes itself to one task and the right half to the other. This division of labour allows us to multi-task, but it also puts an upper limit on our abilities.

All in all the study suggests that the most multitasking projects that we can engage in is two. Ahh... I agree, it gets hard when you are trying to eat, call someone, and write a report all at the same time.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Your Heart Won't Allow It

These days when you watch television shows, extramarital affairs seem like a stage in marriage relationships that is painful, yet normal. Plus, then there is the dramatic depiction of progress of those affairs which usually justifies such unforgivable act. Well, Vaughan at Mind Hacks gives another good reason to think again before falling into extramarital love affairs--you can die from a heart attack. There was a case report in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine reporting a death of a women who had a heart attack while having sex with her non-husband. Read further here. Even though your desire may ignore the guilt involved with the affair, your heart will not, according to this study.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

The "House" Effect

I am a big fan of HOUSE M.D. series. Hugh Laurie gives an amazing portrayal of a misanthropic, miserable, yet genius Dr. House. An interesting article I read about media's influence on patients appeared in Yahoo News. This article was arguing that the ethical issues portrayed in Dr. House may have a negative effect on the viewers. If you have watched a single episode of House, you will realize that Dr. Gregory House is not so big on keeping the rules or following the ethical standards. Yet, he is respected by his colleagues and loved by many viewers.
A 2008 survey of medical and nursing students conducted by researchers at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University found that 65% of nursing students and 76% of medical students watch the program.

For these pre-health career oriented students, they have a better sense of the unrealistic scenarios depicted in the TV medical drama series. How about the regular viewers? What if they really think that there are leeways to hospital regulations and ways to bend medical staff's ethics? And are these exaggerated, yet amazingly interesting TV series always going to have a negative effect? I was surprised not to see the article mentioning some of the specific negative results from the "House" effect. Instead it said:
Still, a co-author of the new JME study, Ruth Faden, who is the director of the Berman Institute of Bioethics, says there isn't much evidence to support a negative "House effect" in real-life medical settings. She cites a 2002 report in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine as the closest to showing misconceptions about medical-procedure expectations derived from fictionalized TV depictions: in that study, researchers surveyed 820 young adults about their TV-consumption habits, knowledge about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and their expectation of survival of a patient who undergoes CPR in the hospital. The survey found that people who watched medical dramas were more likely than people who didn't to overestimate survival rates for patients needing CPR.

So, does this mean that as long as the viewers have the discretion not to follow the unethical deeds of the characters, the "House" effect can be positive? Yes, quite possibly. By raising commonly misled medical issues like HIV positive women cannot give birth to a healthy child, Grey's Anatomy made an episode that quite successfully clarified the misconception. Sometimes, TV series can be far more effective tool for education purposes because of palatability of information. In that case, TV may not necessarily be an idiot box for us after all.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Maternal Deaths Decline Around the World

WHAT?! There were still that many mothers dying from childbirth in this technology-advanced world? Like women need any more reason to fear child labor! And this article from the NY times says that...
For the first time in decades, researchers are reporting a significant drop worldwide in the number of women dying each year from pregnancy and childbirth, to about 342,900 in 2008 from 526,300 in 1980.

For the first time in decades, it says. Can you believe it? Anyway, because of this positive result of decrease in maternal death, advocates for women's health are urging the politicians to spend more on pregnancy-related health matters. It seems like this progress is a huge one for the safe motherhood movement because there was no impression of progress for twenty years. Well, hopefully, there will be a continuation of decrease in maternal death in the future not only to reduce fear among many women, but also to give birth to a healthy child with a healthy family environment with maternal presence.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

William's Syndrome

Recently, science bloggers were talking about an interesting topic in neuroscience. A recent study has brought up an intriguing side to a genetic disease called William's Syndrome. William's syndrome is a genetic disease with a deletion of about 28 genes from chromosome 7. People with William's Syndrome are known to be very sociable and friendly. A new study about William's Syndrome showed that children with Williams do not show racial biases. Most of the time, children show preference to their own ethnicity. However, children with Williams do not. Ed Yong has posted an extensive review about this study. Also, Page 3.14 gives some direction to discussion about this topic.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Tragedy in the Information Age

The advancement of technology has brought amazing convenience in people's lives. I used to dream of talking on the phone and looking at the speaker at the same time through a screen. Well, today I see MP3 players, cells phones with internet services, MSN, etc. These were devices and technology systems that I was only able to dream of during my childhood. Laptops? They were luxuries that only grown-ups-- wealthy grown-ups--can have the privilege of obtaining. Now these dream-devices of my childhood are rather common and essential tools dominating my life. I cannot believe I used to study those long, long hours without my MP3 player or laptop. I do appreciate the popularity and affordability of these amazing devices that govern my life today. However, it is also easy to realize the vices that entails these technological advancements. I blogged about game addiction previously. But for more general negative side effects people suffer, I say lowered concentration range definitely ranks the top five. We are simply overloaded with information today because obtaining information has become easier than ever. Going to the library has become quite unnecessary for many of us, because we can see the PDF files of books and research papers. Claire Evans posted an article about this matter. She mentioned that the plasticity of our brains will sooner or later adapt to the way our computer and technological devices work--fast, multifaceted, ever-changing. One of her concerns that I also agree with is how will this change the way we interact with people?
Now, "like a computer" represents something else entirely: a ceaseless flow of changing, multifaceted, immediately accessible information-particles -- and all the distraction that entails. It's possible that plasticity of our brains allows us to adapt to these factors, but how will that affect the way we think? Or relate to others?

Instead of spending time to talk with a person, we facebook-stalk our interest target. Instead of meeting together face-to-face to talk about a group project, we open a google-chat and maniacally type what we want to talk about without waiting for the other to respond. Meeting with people face-to-face have become time-consuming. Everything is about speed and ease. It is rather sad to realize that too much information, too much comfort, too much speed has brought loss in our ability to wait, ponder and concentrate.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

When You Can't Reach for the Stars

There comes a time in our lives when we realize that we will never become the president of the United States, or the Nobel-prize winning scientist, or the world-famous movie star. The dreams that we once dreamed of during our childhood oftentimes vanish wistfully like a mirage as we trod our ways to adulthood. And we wonder in vain, why, then, did the grown-ups tell us that we can become anything that we dream of or to keep our dreams alive? They probably were ahead of us to realize that at one point in our lives reality simply wakes us up. And what is it about reality that makes us give up some parts of our dreams? Among many reasons that I was able to come up with, one dominant one that hit me really hard was the fact that there are better people in the world than me. Jonah Lehrer posted an interesting theory about superstar effect which is a form of mental collapse that people experience when they encounter someone who is simply too perfect to the point where there is no competition. In his blog, an example of superstar was the world-renowned golfer, Tiger Woods. However, we see superstar effect in every sector of our lives. Ever heard of beautiful and smart cheerleader in high school who was adored by everyone? I think the superstar effect has more crippling effect on the others when there is a perfect combination of beauty, smarts and good personality--when that person has everything one can wish for. I honestly do not know how to overcome this effect. The question is what if you just can't reach for that stars? Should you simply be happy with the travel to the star? Maybe, then, it is time to express your extent of positive psychology that I blogged about before. In the view of the Universe, your travel to your pined-for star is just as beautiful and just as shiny and just as small as one among a billion stars among billions of galaxies that it holds.

When You Wish Upon a Star

Indeed, we are so caught up in our own world that it is hard to imagine how minuscule and how insignificant our existence may be compared to the universe and cosmos out there. But, if you have had a chance to look up at the sky and just feel the cosmos staring back at you, you will be amazed at the smallness of the earth and the smallness of yourself. People first thought that the sun revolved around the earth. Then they realized that the earth revolved around the sun. And then they found out that sun is just a star among the billions of other stars in galaxy that revolved around each other. Afterward, people realized that our galaxy is one of many billions in the Universe that is constantly expanding. The more scientist study astronomy, the more they are confused and the more they are surprised by the infinity of the universe. So, when you feel like you are about to explode with your current life, look up in the sky at the darkest hour of the night. What looms as an insurmountable problem will dissipate with time. It's just a small thing happening to a small person in a small earth.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey Break Up in Twitter

Just found out that McCarthy and Carrey, the Hollywood’s vaccine-causes-autism couple, announced their break-up in Twitter. Will Carrey continue to support McCarthy and her ferocious march against anti-vaccination movement? Hmm…only time will tell. Now that Carrey is slightly distant from McCarthy’s influence, maybe he will re-consider his position about vaccination.

Bowing Bambis

People always dream of an escape, at least I do. Whenever I get too stressed from the inescapable present, I dream of packing up and heading straight to the airport. Destination? It always changes. One day, I’ll be flying to Paris dreaming of walking the halls of the Louvre; some other days, I’ll be staring at the map of New Zealand wondering where the set of the Lord of the Rings must have been. Today, the evanescent shower of the sakura petals led me to daydream my escape to Japan. A recent article in the LA times introduced Japan’s old capital, Nara. Nara has many historical buildings, shrines, and surprisingly… deers! There is a local mythology in this historical city which says that a deity named Takemikazuchi was led by a white deer which guided and protected the deity to arrive to the city safely. Therefore, for the past 1,300 years, deer of Nara has been considered sacred. Naturally, citizens of Nara respect the deers and the deers have become used to such treatment that they roam around the city with liberty—they may follow you to the stores, bathroom, and elevators! However, these Naran deers have also learned to return the favors by bowing down to the people who give them a treat. Therefore, in this city, you can see a quite bizarre scene of people and deers bowing back to each other. I guess that’s another thing to check-out when I’m finally free to enjoy my too-long imagined escape.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Mental Illness

Mental illness is, more than often, viewed as a chronic and pathological weirdness. And weirdness frequently sabotages one’s social life. However, despite its weirdness stigmatization, the mental illness rate is increasing world-wide. Depression, anxiety disorder, mood disorder… There are so many mental illnesses increasing these days. Therefore, I think it is a great idea that the new healthcare bill is including mental illness. Many times, mentally ill patients were rejected from health insurance because they were categorized as chronic disease. A recent article from NY times stated that President Obama signed a law that expands parity to much wider pool so that people suffering from illnesses like bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia can get coverage for health insurance. I think this is a great movement; mental illness should definitely be part of the health insurance. Many times, mentally ill people do not have stable occupation because of their illness which makes it more difficult for them to buy the medications. This new healthcare bill is going to work better for them.

Self-Sabotage or Self-Defense?

I once blogged about positive psychology and happiness. Recently, I found an another interesting psychological behavior: sabotaging success. A fairly recent article in the NY times introduces couple of cases in which some people victimize themselves. For example, the man introduced in the article saw himself as the victim of failed love relationship and bad luck with promotion. By defining himself to be an unlucky guy and blaming others around him for causing such bad-luck, the man in the article was placing himself in further misery and self-defeat. I think many people have these symptoms of self-defeating behavior and I can think of a reason why some people stick to this idea. By defining themselves as unlucky, these people are avoiding possible disappointments in their life. The worse thing than a bad news itself is the disappointment. However, if you define yourself as a person who always does not get what he or she wants, then why get disappointed? It’s meant to be! It is a form of escape that many people seek in order to avoid confronting themselves. Oh, typical me! This can be only happening to me! I knew this was going to happen to me. Sound familiar? By victimizing ourselves, we pardon our shortcomings and defects unconsciously. Self-sabotage? Maybe rather masochistic self-defense. But always remember, playing the victim will not change anything.