Under the Influence

There are so many instances of people under the influence of hormones, it is quite a concerning phenomenon. I must admit to it as well, why just last night my cortisol levels must have been through the roof with the stress and excitement for studying for my last midterm! They are a subtle part of every one of our actions and since they are constantly coursing through our veins it is difficult to write about one instance where someone's actions were influenced by hormones. Somebody quite close to me (name kept private for confidentiality purposes) experiences alarming mood swings due to the hormone activity prior to menstruation. It is quite frightening sometimes, so if any of you chance upon this person during this period of time, I advise you to get out of the swing zone. Need I mention the numerous arguments I have had as a moody teenager with my parents? Let's just say my oxytocin was very active that day, my mother can induce fear responses in me that I'm sure a lot of people can related to. 

What is Emotion?

This is a question worthy of a place on the philosophical mantlepiece next to "What is the meaning of life?". I have been sitting here for about a half an hour trying to come up with a definition; I keep picturing the emotions of anger, sadness, joy, or disgust but it is extremely difficult to quantify. As cheesy as it sounds, I believe there are two types of emotion; one is an immediate reaction to a stimulus that requires an instinctive, almost survival-type response. For example, when someone feels fearful, it usually means that they are in a position that they deem harmful and dangerous to themselves. If they fear disgust, it could similarly mean that they are in a position they deem unsafe, unsanitary, or dangerous to them. The other type of emotion is something that I cannot better describe than it being one's soul, if one chooses to believe we have souls, reacting as a means to rid the body of reactions to stimuli that if not let out, might be harmful to the body and mind. Sorrow, for example, can be a reaction to something tragic that has happened in our lives, a death in the family for instance. I believe the outpouring of grief is the soul's way of releasing the stress of such an unfortunate occurrence so that the body does not retain it. In this way the person is able to avoid prolonged distress that has detrimental effects on the body and mind. This might be applicable to positive emotion as well; when we see someone, a close friend or family member, for the first time after a long period of time, we experience joy. Is it possible that happiness is detrimental to the body and mind? I hope not, but one may see it as the body must return to an equilibrium, an emotional neutrality. Experiencing joy is one way to return the body to the "status quo". Is emotion this scientific and biological? I don't believe that it is. For all I know this is completely off the mark, but again, it is nearly impossible for me to express in words what emotion means to me. The quality about emotion that amazes me and truly lets me appreciate my humanity is that it escapes definition.

Fun With EEG!

Contrary to the title, I did not particularly enjoy my experience participating in an EEG study. There is a common misconception that the world of EEG is glamorous but alas, behind the scenes one can see the discomfort and boredom that is the sad truth. The study I participated in was for the Woldorff Lab dealing with neuroeconomics. The whole study took about 2.5 hours, about half of which was spent prepping the EEG cap and making sure that the skin on my scalp was clear enough so the electrodes would be able to receive information properly. This was accomplished through "twizzling", where the two research assistants who ran the study used thin wooden sticks, set one end against my scalp, and twisted it back and forth between their fingers until the area was clear enough. This was the most uncomfortable part of the study; it felt like they were trying to bore through my skull.  It was also unfortunately the longest part of the experience because of the number of electrodes on my head. After finally getting the cap properly prepped, they sat me down in a soundproof, dark room (that had the perfect sleep-inducing ambience) in front of a computer where I was given a task to choose between two situations that would give me a better monetary payoff. For each of the tasks, there were two bars divided in different proportions into red and green. The area of the red or green block represented the amount of money involved, and the number inside represented the probability of winning (green) or losing (red) that amount. I had to guess which of the two bars would give me the highest payoff by pressing "F" on a keyboard for the top bar and "J" for the bottom. I had either 3 or .4 seconds to make a decision. Interestingly enough I think I performed better on the .4 second trials because I was forced to perk up and really pay attention to the bars. I got very sleepy sitting there in a dark, warm room for an hour doing a monotonous task, so I think I could've performed better. Overall, I do have to admit it was interesting in that I had never participated in an EEG study before and it was cool to see my brain waves on a screen. It was much too uncomfortable, long, and boring for me to consider doing it again, however. I plan to participate in an fMRI study in late October, which is apparently also uncomfortable, but I look forward to the experience!

Music to My Brain

Anyone that knows me also knows that I am absolutely obsessed with music. I cannot walk anywhere without my huge headphones clamped on my head, so 99% of the time, I will not hear you if you try to call my name (something I am trying to work on!). Naturally, I found a very interesting fMRI study regarding brain activity in pianists; a study that not only did I deeply appreciate because I've been playing piano since I was six, but because one can see from the research just how complex an instrument it is. 12 students were asked to play the right hand of a piece of music, and the fMRI scan showed primary activation of the frontoparietal cortical region. The truly incredible part of the study was the fact that the researchers acknowledged the importance of mental rehearsal for a pianist and implicated brain regions in this as well, which were similar to the the music performance task, with the addition of the bilateral activation of the extrastriate cortex. Music is so wonderfully complex that I found it amazing that they were able to even quantify the expression of music in the brain, especially the rehearsal aspect. Many times before I performed I ran the piece over and over in my mind, something that I always felt was a personal habit. To see this quantified in a study was amazing.

It's Not 1984!

Despite the numerous fascinating techniques that have been developed to examine the mechanics of the brain, I believe it would be even more interesting to have a mind-reading device, simply because it would be amazing to see if something as immeasurable as human thoughts being converted into a format that we could understand through a machine. It would be very frightening to think of the government to use this as a device to invade the privacy of our own minds! The development of any new exciting technology always comes with the risk of it falling into the wrong hands and ultimately becoming a weapon. However, if this technology was carefully researched, harnessed and most of all, protected to be used for certain purposes only, it could mean exciting things for the future. Nothing terrifies me more than a world as described in George Orwell's 1984, which in my opinion would be the kind of world we would risk living in if we let this technology run away from us. If I were to invent this machine, I would recommend its use for scientific and research purposes, not political. We could use this to perhaps tweak social neuroscience experiments to understand what kinds of thoughts accompany the activation of certain brain regions. Emotion is so nuanced and complex that it would be more interesting to discover just what kinds of thoughts are running through someone's head instead of just attributing a vague emotion like "anger" or "fear" to a brain region. Let's not let our thirst for knowledge run away with us though! If I had developed this technology I would sell it only to scientists and keep it out of the realm of politics because that is where the most abuse would occur, plus as much as I love George Orwell, I don't want to live in his world.

Silence of the Lambs- Spoiler Alert!

One of my all-time favorite movies is Silence of the Lambs for two reasons: 1. I am fascinated by serial killers. This may seem odd, but I find the motives and personal histories of serial killers intriguing because in my opinion, these killers are shaped by their environments and it is important to understand the neurological and environmental aspects of psychopathy to find a way to perhaps "cure" it. 2. Anthony Hopkins is one of the greatest actors who ever lived. In the film, Hopkins portrays a brilliant psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer, Hannibal Lecter whose character simultaneously made me loathe and love him. He possesses qualities of a textbook psychopath- high level of intelligence, charm, and lack of remorse or moral qualms about killing. His manipulations of the people around him are astonishing, for instance in the beginning of the film when he convinces the man in the cell next to him to kill himself. He calmly recounts one of his murders: "I ate his liver with some fava beans, and a nice Chianti." His role in the film was to help detective Clarice Starling catch another serial killer, Buffalo Bill, who kidnaps overweight women and starves, kills, and skins them. He then, like the real serial killer he was based on, Ed Gein, wears their skins because he actually wants to be a woman. Lecter provides valuable insight into the mind of Buffalo Bill and ultimately helps Starling track him. The chillingly calm and twisted manner in which Hopkins portrays Lecter is astonishing- Oscar well deserved. He portrays down to every last detail, the charm, menacing calm, and twisted sense of morality of a psychopath.

What is confusing about statistics, experimentation or journal articles?

I have always found that the language of empirical journal articles confuses me the most. In certain articles, the language can be clear, concise, and easy to interpret, but for the majority of the papers I've read, the experimenters seem to try to find the most long-winding method of describing their work. Often, I read a paragraph, then have to pause and think, "Wait...what?" Even after several retries, I still may not completely grasp what the point of the paragraph was. Furthermore, in the "methods" section of each paper, there are so many types of protocols and names of experimentation methods that I struggle to keep track of which method produced which conclusion. When I hear about science in the media, for example, a news article that generalizes a statistic to the general public, I become skeptical of where these results came from and wonder if such generalizations lead to misconceptions about the issue in question. I believe that it is crucial to identify to the readers the caution that must be taken when  analyzing such statistics.