Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Level of stress

Locus-of-control affects levels-of-stress. People in charge experience less stress than those whose livelihood is in the hands of others [ link ]. Confidence in keeping their position helps .. even when the organization they lead .. suffers. They test lower for the presence of cortisol among other things.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Neuro news

Neuroscientists have documented the functional neuro-anatomy of the hippocampus and amygdala. They’ve deciphered the role of the hippocampus ..showing how it works to transfer and consolidate information during long-term storage. They have also seen how the amygdala acts to adjust our threshold to threat and assign emotional-value to information transfer. “..what’s unclear however is the way the two regions connect ..and it’s the inter-connectivity that enables complex behavior that occurs so seamlessly.” 
Neuro feedback:  Real-time ‘visual feedback’ showing activity in the brain that’s linked to pain gives patients the ability to adjust and relieve instances of pain. Activity is displayed as a ‘flame’ ..which they can be taught to lower ..thereby reducing the activity and relieving the pain 
Depression :  Anti-depressants have been shown to work by lowering activity in a part of the prefrontal cortex called Broadmann's area 25 [ link ]. According to Neuroscientists “ ..area 25 is a key conduit of neural traffic between the “thinking” frontal cortex and the phylogenetically older limbic region that gives rise to emotion .. area 25 appears overactive in depressed people, like it opens the floodgates and allows negative emotions to overwhelm thinking and mood.” My question is - if they can treat depression in this area with anti-depressants and deep brain stimulation  ....couldn’t they also treat it with neurofeedback training ..?

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Network content

“The meaning of a sentence is derived from the original words by an active, interpretive process. The original sentence which is perceived is rapidly forgotten and the memory is then for the information (meaning) contained in the sentence.” ~ Jacqueline Sachs, 1967 
Apparently the effect of messages from our peers is greater than the content of the messages themselves. James Fowler at UCSD conducted a study to observe the influence of messages read on Facebook [ link ]. He found that messages from peers are more persuasive than purely informational messages. Thirty nine percent more recipients went to the polls and voted after receiving messages from friends reminding them to vote than those who received messages from ‘the sponsor’. This tells me that the power of a message doesn’t reside in the information (meaning) alone.  Or perhaps the social-value is an even greater source of information.