Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Friday, March 1, 2019
False, Suppressed, or Unencoded
Memory?
In September of 2018, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
nominee Brett Kavanaugh was accused of sexually assaulting Christine Blasely
Ford, a clinical psychologist, while the two were still teenagers. Many
speculated that the accusation was false for many reasons including the fact
that Ford waited until Kavanaugh’s nomination thirty-six years later to bring
up the allegations. While the Washington Post mentions that Ford had spoken on
the incident in couple’s therapy in 2012, no record besides her husband’s words
mention Kavanaugh’s name specifically. (Brown)
One may begin to wonder if such allegations are true when
considering the way episodic memories are encoded and retrieved under stressful
conditions. While studying the formation and persistence of fear-inducing
context memories, Radulovic et al found that partially redundant and partially
differentiated mechanisms mediate the encoding and retrieval of recent memories
versus the persistence of memories over a long period of time (Yamawaki). This
may imply that Ford’s memory may have been suppressed during the time she did
not speak about it, may have altered over time due to the differentiated
mechanisms of encoding and storing memories, or may be entirely made up in
general.
One may be able to foresee the implications of these
scientific findings beyond the Kavanaugh case of 2018 and may ask the following
questions: Who do we believe? How dependable are lie detector tests if true
memories may be altered or registered incorrectly in the human mind? And
furthermore, how much of the #metoo movement is true?
Sources:
Brown, Emma. “California Professor, Writer of Confidential
Brett Kavanaugh Letter, Speaks out about Her Allegation of Sexual Assault.” The
Washington Post, WP Company, 27 Sept. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/investigations/california-professor-writer-of-confidential-brett-kavanaugh-letter-speaks-out-about-her-allegation-of-sexual-assault/2018/09/16/46982194-b846-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html.
Naoki Yamawaki, Kevin A Corcoran, Anita L Guedea, Gordon M G
Shepherd, Jelena Radulovic; Differential Contributions of Glutamatergic
Hippocampal→Retrosplenial Cortical Projections to the Formation and Persistence
of Context Memories, Cerebral Cortex, , bhy142, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhy142
Capturing the "aha!" moment
This semester we heard a talk from Dr. Carola Salvi. Dr. Carola Salvi discussed boredom, and its effects on insight. Her research suggests that boredom is not always a bad thing. In fact, insight or “aha!” moments are actually much more frequent during moments of boredom. During her talk she referenced Isaac Newton as an example of this. He was simply resting under a tree when he had his epiphany that led him to discover gravity. Some of the greatest inventors in modern time were viewed as lazy, and they themselves often say they were incredibly bored. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, dropped out of college because he was bored. He then created Facebook, one of the most pivotal and innovative social media platforms to date. Society often labels bored people as lazy and associate boredom with laziness or apathy. However, boredom likely isn’t so bad. In fact, instances of idleness are linked to creativity.
In the BBC article “How moments of boredom help us achieve more” The author explores the idea of the “aha!” moment. The article mentions how the greatest moments of human innovation occur in these moments. Whether it be on the morning commute or right before falling asleep at night, people often have their most creative ideas during these idle moments. In a study by psychologist Sandi Mann and Rebekah Cadman, participants were asked to copy numbers from a telephone book before being asked about all the potential uses for plastic cups. The groups who were given the most tedious, mind numbing tasks beforehand came up with more uses than the control. The group given the most mind-numbing task outscored the other groups. The researchers from this study conclude that being in a state of boredom might encourage the brain to explore more inventive pathways because your brain is signaling that the current situation is lacking.
During Dr. Salvi’s talk she discussed insight and the various way to prompt it. One of the most prominent is idleness. During these moments of insight the person is confident in their answers and is typically correct. Dr. Salvi found that insight is typically more useful than analyzing in these situations. Similar to the article, Dr. Salvi agreed that moments of boredom or inactivity are a good thing. If these moments could be duplicated consistently they could be the recipe for future success.
Sources
Giang, V. (2017, July 20). Capital - How moments of boredom help us achieve more. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170719-how-moments-of-boredom-help-us-achieve-more
Kounios, J., & Beeman, M. (2014). The cognitive neuroscience of insight. The Annual Review of Psychology,1-27.
Dr. Carola Salvi's talk at loyola chicago
Have We Reached the ‘Aha’ Moment on the Science Behind Insight Yet?
Sabina Hajdarovic
The power of insight has long been a topic of discussion and interest in the scientific community. Crucial discoveries have been the result of a sudden ‘aha’ or ‘all at once’ moment. Scientists such as Friedrich Kekule would brainstorm solutions to certain issues, rest on it, and dream a sudden discovery of the benzene model for example. Insight is defined as the feeling or thought that helps you to know something essential about a person or thing. As humans, we often rely on our insight to guide us through daily decisions as it provides a sense of self reassurance and accuracy. Much of research in the neuroscience field of insight has dealt with delving into how and where insight can be achieved in the brain.
Dr. Carola Salvi came in to discuss her research on the science behind insight. She explained how insight refers to that “aha” moment that is a result of an unawareness of steps that lead to it. There is also a sense of accuracy when one relies on their own insight, and science has proven that a person is more likely to be correct when following their insight. When using our insight, we are filtering all incoming visual information she argues. Dr. Salvi’s between subjects design conducted forty tDCS stimulations before, during, and after an instance where subjects had to choose whether their decision was based on insight or not. She found that the rATL in the brain facilitates processing of insight solving (i.e. understanding jokes). Alpha neurons were also observed to be the most significant for insight as they are most active in relaxed states.
A relevant study to Dr. Salvi’s research was conducted by a cognitive neuroscientist named John Kounios and his colleague, Mark Beeman. They developed a task for subjects to complete, in order to measure where insight occurs using brain scanning technology. (EEGs and fMRIs) Subjects were asked to solve dozens of word puzzles (i.e. anagrams) while their brains were being scanned for an EEG or fMRI. They were told to press a button as soon as they discovered the answer to the anagram, and then identify whether it came as an ‘aha’ moment of insight or a more deliberative analysis. Kounios and Beeman observed significantly high frequency oscillations around the right superior temporal gyrus. Furthermore, the right visual cortex was suppressed before the flash of insight because it oscillated at a much lower frequency 1.5 seconds before the subject pressed the button. They suggest that the drastic change in frequency may be due to the filtering of visual input prior to developing the insight. A relaxed state of mind can elicit creative insight based on past research, but Kounios and Beeman argue that there must be a solid basis of knowledge surrounding the topic of interest to begin with.
Both studies found certain brain areas that help localize some of the origins of insight, such as the rATL and right superior temporal gyrus. Brain scanning technology coupled with operationalized methods to study the mechanisms for insight are helping to narrow the literature gap of neuroscience research in this field. Further research has the potential to identify how insight can exactly be elicited and the practicality behind it. We will be waiting for our ‘aha’ moment on this insight matter.
References:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yrruoccwcc8fc6i/AAAt1sOFdEa5cLzrRhIITP0Wa/(02.12.19)%20-%20Carola%20Salvi?dl=0&preview=The-cognitive-neuroscience-of-insight-1jie1hg.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1
Effects of Marijuana on Mental Health: Anxiety Disorders
Carola Salvi and her research drew me to the question of the effects of marijuana, specifically the cannabinoids of THC and CBD and their effects on mood, specifically anxiety. In her paper, it states that mood influences the likelihood of insight by modulating attention or cognitive control, which in turn modulates semantic processing or in simpler words: mood . Furthermore stating, positive affect enhances insight and other forms of creativity, both when positive mood (or reduced anxiety) occurs naturally and when it is induced in the laboratory. Therefore, leading me to wonder how the effects of cannabis would affect the components relating to insight and mood. I was able to find this article of the effects of cannabis on anxiety.
Cannabinoids apply their effects through the endocannabinoid system which includes cannabinoid receptors throughout the both and endogenous cannabinoids, which modulate the effects of neurotransmitters and other cellular mechanisms that are not yet fully understood. It is found in all the regions of the brain imperative for the processing of anxiety, fear and stress. The endocannabinoid system is perceived to guarantee an appropriate reaction to stressful events and serve as a regulatory buffer system for emotional response.
The two main active ingredients, cannabinoids, that impact anxiety discussed are THC, the psychoactive component, and CBD, the non psychoactive component of marijuana. Findings show that THC seems to decrease anxiety when administered at low doses but actually increased anxiety at higher doses. In contrast, pure CBD has been shown to decrease anxiety at all doses that have been tested. Stated in this research, marijuana intoxication correlates with euphoria, subjective quickening of associations, relaxation, decreased motor activity, a sense of calm, increased awareness of sensory experience and internal sensations of the body, transient sensory experiences, synesthesia, craving of sweet and salty foods, enhanced perception of current activities, increased salience of stimuli, simultaneous focus on multiple things, impaired shifting of focus, fantasies of power, and belief of having arrived at a transcendent insight. Additionally, the neuro-cognitive effects of marijuana found are associated with deficits in processing speed, attention, working memory, decision making, motivation, time perception, and reality testing.
Of course due to the legalities surrounding marijuana and its medical uses, research is limited and difficult to work with, although a lot more research must be done before deeming the effects of marijuana as a medicinal solution for insight control and regulation. I would be very interested in looking further into how marijuana can impact our daily lives and problem solving processes and hope this article I found was interesting and that you gained knowledge from reading it.
Sources:
Dream Reflection: The Key to Insightful Thought
In the moment of insight, there is a sudden, yet conscious realization that stems from the change in the way one’s problems are interpreted. Since these moments of insight take place following a period of unconscious situational processing, insight appears very suddenly. This presents a stark contrast to the analytical processing that many people may be accustomed to, as analytical processing typically occurs in a stepwise and conscious mechanism.
In Dr. Carola Salvi’s work on insight, she describes the phenomenon of insight as an all-at-once problem solving phenomenon. The process in which an insight is reached is one that involved a level of awareness, according to Salvi. In addition to this, when undergoing the process of insight, we go into a sort of “unplugged” mode where even our visual processing is also redirected away from the problem at hand. Despite this rather unaware state of mind preceding the insight, people tend to be highly confident and sure of their insight (Kounios).
According to Dr. Salvi, the right hemisphere is the dominant hemisphere in insight related processing and thought. Along with insight, the right hemisphere is dominant in the processes for creativity, imagination, and holistic thought. Thus, the right hemisphere of the brain dominates in the spontaneous creativity that is necessary for a sudden insight. Another process that relies on the most part on such spontaneous creativity is dreaming. Because REM sleep is dominated by the right hemisphere of the brain along with creative thought, dreaming is said to be dominated by the right hemisphere as well. This is the reason why many people aren’t able read, or tell time in their dreams, and find it difficult to write down their dreams, as this requires processes of the left hemisphere. Due to the fact that dreams are often dominated by the right hemisphere of the brain, along with insight, the recounting of dreams and their meanings have been shown to be significant in the production of insights.
According to a Time Magazine article, by Alice Robb, when our “ancestors intuited,” they talked about their dreams. Robb points out that the societal aversion of talking dreams is a very recent phenomenon, and that we should go back to the ways of our ancestors. Robb describes that recounting dreams with friends or analyzing them in structured groups can reap many benefits such as bring people closer together. Building off of Dr. Salvi’s ideas of the right brain being the crucial component in insight-related processing and thought, a study from Montage Ullman, a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist has shown that dream recounting and “dream analysis” allow people to “gain insight and social connection from their dreams” (Robb).
In one of the studies performed by Ullman, college students were told to either recount a dream and a very emotional midday experience in a 45 minute rotation session. From this study, Ullman found that recounting dreams lead to a significant increase of the scaled scores of insight compared to that of sharing an emotional midday experience. When asked to qualitatively describe the phenomenon, students described forming exploration insight, saying “I learned more about issues in my waking life from working with the dream,” and also forming personal insight saying, “I got ideas during the session for how to change some aspect(s) of myself or my life,” and “I learned a new way of thinking about myself and my problems” (Robb).
Robb then shows a second study of the significance of dreams in insights, this time by Clara Hill, a psychologist at the University of Maryland. In this study, dream groups are interestingly used to improve a relationship or cope with a breakup. In this experiment, Clara Hill recruited 34 women going through a divorce and put 22 of them through a weekly dream group. Many of their dreams were themed around pain, failure, and their insecurities. The remaining 12 subjects that comprised the control group had to wait until the end the two-month trial to recount their dreams all in one sitting. Through this study, it was found that the 22 subjects that participated in the regular weekly dream group not only attained insight into the roots of their problems, but they also ended the study “higher on measures of overall self-esteem” (Robb). Thus, this interesting finding shows that not only does the recounting of dreams evoke insight into your deeper problems, but doing so regularly is key to achieving insightful thought and potentially a higher self esteem.
Sources:
Kounios, J., & Beeman, M. (2014). The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight. Annual Review of
Psychology, 67 79-85.
Robb, Alice. “Why Talking About a Dream You Had Can Be Good for You.” Time, Time, 16 Nov. 2018, time.com/5456903/why-we-dream-alice-robb/.
Can Resting-State Brain Activity Determine Intelligence
Intelligence is a fairly subjective topic since there are many types of intelligence such as emotional intelligence. One question that many people have is can you tell if a person is intelligent by looking at their brain? Many scientists have thought about this and come up with a variety of theories on how or if we can measure someone’s intelligence simply by looking at their brain. One hypothesis is that the more grooves one has in their brain, gyri and sulci, the smarter one is since there is more surface area in those peoples brains. Although a good theory, it is not a sure-fire way to determine someone’s intelligence.
To tackle this question researchers at the New York University School of Medicine used fMRI on 892 healthy adults to test weather resting state membrane potentials are connected to intelligence or not.In this study the researchers had the participants undergo fMRI scans which can measure resting state brain potentials indirectly and therefore show how much the brain is firing when not at use. They then tested the participants intelligence using different tests with vocabulary and reasoning questions. After gathering all their data these researching found something interesting. The participants that had higher resting state brain potentials scored better on the vocabulary and reasoning tests than those with lower potentials. They found this to be most observed with the prefrontal cortex, inferior temporal lobes, and the cerebellum. Although this is not a direct observation of intelligence, as I mentioned before that there are many aspects to intelligence than just vocabulary and reasoning, these results do further help the topic of how we can determine ones intelligence.
In a different research article by John Kounios and Mark Beeman the topic at interest was insight problems and how they function and what happens in the brain when one solves them. An insight is also called the “aha” moment. For instance when your friend tells you a joke and you do not get it in the moment, but later on you realize what the joke was. In this article the researchers compared testing state Brian activity to the ability to solve insight problems in some participants. Those that could solve more insight problems were called high insight and those that could not solve many were called low insight. These participants then underwent fMRI scans to measure their resting state brain activity and the results show that resting state brain activity and insight problem solving ability have a correlation. Those that were high insight individuals had greater right hemispheric resting state activity than those that were low insight categorized.
Although the second study was not directly measuring intelligence, the research from the resting state brain activity they performed supports the results that were obtained by the researchers at the New York University School of Medicine. Both of these studies tested resting brain potentials and their correlation to topics associated with intelligence, like the ability to solve an insight problem. I think it is a reasonable conclusion to make that through resting state brain activity we can gain an insight into how intelligent a person is. There are limitations to this conclusion since intelligence itself is not something that can be defined, and since it cannot be fully defined it is hard to measure.
Hopefully in the future we see more research into how resting brain potentials can be used to determine a person’s intelligence. An interesting study would be to use other tests such as simple mathematics or to test the resting state brain activity of people who have had better test results than others.
Saxe, G. N., Calderone, D., & Morales, L. J. (n.d.). Brain entropy and human intelligence: A resting-state fMRI study. Retrieved from https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0191582
Kounios, John, and Mark Beeman. “The Cognitive Neuroscience of Insight.” Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 65, no. 1, 2014, pp. 71–93., doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115154.
How Eating, Praying, and Meditating Can Help You Study Better.
Sometimes, finding the right place to study it's not an easy task, and can be harder than it seems.
This can be due to the fact that there could be a lot of distractions or there may be days when we might not be feeling at our best, or with the motivation to do so. But what can we do when there is something that needs to get done?
It is known that our brain consumes half of our daily carbohydrate requirements. In a recent study it was found that when under stress, it requires at least 12 percent more energy. Cognitive tests revealed that subjects who were stressed performed poorly prior to eating but their performance went back to normal after consuming food. (Peters, 2019).
It is then a good advice to eat that treat you are craving, or any food in general, in order to help your mind stay concentrated and perform better, rather than deprive it from it and cause it to secret more stress hormones. (Peters, 2019). So if you want to stay better concentrated, its ok to treat yourself with that chocolate you have been craving for.
Furthermore, how can prayer or meditation help when studying? In the recent review article by Dr. Melissa Hebscher, “ The functional role of cross-frequency coupling” it is explained that low frequencies in brain modulate activity over large spatial regions, whereas high frequencies modulate over small spatial regions. Cross frequency coupling strength is an important aspect of learning and memory, specifically one of the four categories for brain waves, Theta brainwaves are involved in learning and memory. “These brainwaves have low frequencies, which means they happen when a person is in a state of mental relaxation and, consequently they are more prone to a flow of creative ideas. It is typically a very positive mental state, and this time can be an extremely productive period of very meaningful and creative mental activity”. (“What is the function of the various brainwaves?”.n.d.)
These brainwaves only happen when in a relaxation state, having this is mind it would be of a good idea to try to find the right spot to study, somewhere or something that provides you with comfort and can bring happiness, such as when you pray, or meditate , even when listening to your favorite meditation music, or perhaps even a hug.
Hopefully future studies can help us understand better how our surroundings and environment we live in affect the way we think, and how it shapes society as a whole. As of now, I believe the best thing we can do its to listen to ourselves and what makes us truly happy.
Works cited:
Peters, Achim. “Why Do We Crave Sweets When We're Stressed?” Scientific American, 27 Feb. 2019,https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-crave-sweets-when-were-stressed/
“What Is The Functions Of The Various Brainwaves?” Scientific American,https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-function-of-t-1997-12-22
Research talk by Melissa Hebscher, PhD.
Canolty, Ryan T., and Robert T. Knight. “The Functional Role of Cross-Frequency Coupling.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 14, no. 11, 2010, pp. 506–515., doi:10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.001.
The Neuroscience of Decision Making
Sunk cost bias is when a person invests more time waiting for an outcome than they should, just for the reason that they have already invested a lot of time for this outcome. For example, consider waiting in line. How long will you wait in line before you decide it’s not worth it? Or rather, how long will you stay in line, just because you already spent so much time waiting in the line. Some may call this stubbornness, but researchers have been studying this behavior in the field of neuroeconeomics. This area of study seeks to explain the mechanisms behind human decision making. When Dr. Brian Sweiss from the university of Minnesota came to speak earlier this semester, he told us how he has been studying this behavior in a mammalian model organism- rats. Since rats are mammals, they have a similar neural circuit to humans, and so research can be done on them, and the results can be reasonably translated over to humans. It was found that rats and humans both spend a lot of time “foraging” or trying to make a decision rather than making a decision quickly. Humans also don’t always choose the most rational choice because they are not immune to the influence of sunk costs in their decision making. This Many confounding factors also come into play, so it’s difficult to study exactly why we make the decisions we do. His research has not yet come to a conclusion and is ongoing, so perhaps his lab might find something completely unexpected as they investigate deeper.
Another article, “Time varying Risk Aversion” can be compared to the aforementioned one. Here, the study followed Italian bankers and their likelihood to take risk in stocks after the large economic crisis in 2008. Risk aversion is where one avoids unnecessary risk and prefers to remain more cautionary in their choices. This can be taken in conjunction with foraging behavior, as one must balance risk aversion with the aversion of wasting time, yet still making the best decision. One main motivator for financial decisions was thought to be fear, which was proven to not have as big as an affect in this study as previously thought. It does however reduce rationality, and leads to loss in some cases. In this study, investors made poor choices after the 2008 crisis and sold their stocks at less than opportune times, losing money in the process. This was even seen in the classic Pavlov experiment, where fear was a large influence of behavior. However, it is still not clear how much fear can affect risk aversion, and how long fear can affect behavior.
We all make many decisions every day, and no matter how seemingly insignificant or small, our brain works hard to assess every situation and act accordingly. Acquiring more knowledge about human tendencies when making decisions will definitely appeal to more than just the scientific community, but the average person as well, as it’s a common behavior. With these two studies in particular, it can be seen that our knowledge in this area is still inconclusive, but has many interested in knowing more about it. Knowing more about decision making behavior will help in making even more critical and hopefully, rational decisions.
References:
Don't Get Stuck in the Past
We often feel ourselves slipping into ruts we sewed long ago. As the story goes, the walls get steeper with each step forward making it that extra bit harder to crawl out of. We often spend so much time indulging in one path of action that we focus too much on what we've already lost and neglect what could be. It seems illogical to devote resources into a sinking ship. The reality is that due to various psychological and environmental factors people put all their efforts in bucketing out water and are blind to the life raft floating only a few feet away. Most willful decisions incorporate some sort cost/benefit analysis to help parse out the various possibilities. Is it worth abandoning one path and signing away all the resources already spent on it or should one hold out just a little longer, because maybe just that will be enough to see the results hoped for? What if someone else put in that effort for our benefit and are expecting us to live up to those expectations? These two flavors of sunk-costs play a defining role in how we debate with ourselves about our major life choices. It often takes out the agency of individuals as we are simply to follow the expected path laid out before us. It's this feeling of helplessness that leaves many depressed and lacking the ability to will themselves out of the rut- on their own at least.
Dr. Brian Sweis came to Loyola to give a seminar on some of his most recent research- part of it pertaining to the sunk-cost fallacy. At heart this common mistake is an economic one. He and his fellow researchers have observed that this trait is conserved among species- specifically in their research regarding mice. They trained the mice in an array of tests that attempted to distinguish between the amount of time the mice were willing to invest into obtaining food pellet rewards. They also further split the testing area into reward and offer zones. Sweis claims that the heuristic processes we incorporate into our decision making change depending on which “zone” we’re in. Through progressive trials the researchers saw that mice would tend to spend more times at specific types of pellets and were more willing to spend time waiting for their preferred treat. Another component of the fallacy more pronounced in these trials was that of the mouse waiting longer for the same reward than they would’ve earlier. What seemed to happen was that the mice believed that the longer they waited (i.e. the deeper the rut dug) the better the reward they would receive.
This research pairs nicely with a recent Time Magazine article done by Jamie Ducharme last July. Often we make decisions based purely on the sunk cost fallacy. This often leads to economically poorer choices that accumulate in our minds. Christopher Olivola, an assistant professor of marketing at Carnegie Mellon, wrote in the Journal Psychological Science stating that the fallacy itself is derived from the negative outcomes of committing to any decision. He likens it to satisfying a form of cognitive dissonance. We, or others, “pay” for something and we demand to get the appropriate return on that cost. People don’t inherently like being wasteful and thus it’s a natural course of action. Though referring to the previous point, sunk costs become a harm once they start dictating our lives and pushing us toward unfavorable ends. Guilt felt for not living up to someone’s expectations- such as a child not getting into the college their parents have been grooming for. It’s a burden as much as it’s a motivator. One so prevalent in our lives that it becomes our default. It’s a pattern of unhealthy behaviors that, while not a simple task, we need to relieve ourselves of.
Time Article: http://time.com/5347133/sunk-cost-fallacy-decisions/
“Sensitivity to “sunk costs” in mice, rats, and humans” Sweis Et. Al 2018.
Countering Gender Biases Using Insight in Psychological Studies
When given a problem, there are typically two ways one can go about solving it. The first one being through analysis. In this case, one would solve the problem how most people would by making sense of the problem and deduce an answer from that. The second way of solving a problem is through insight. Insight described by Dr. Carola Salvi a professor from Northwestern University, is a surprise, coming from unawareness, usually with accuracy. Insight is usually known as that ‘aha!’ moment when it comes “all at once.”
Dr. Carola Salvi works in the Shirley Ryan Abilitylab and has been studying insight to get a better understanding of how it works. One of her many studies focuses on whether confidence relates to accuracy using four different tests, insight was most likely correct. In these tests what her group had found was that most errors occured in the last five seconds of the test. This is because insight is an all or nothing process so if it will either happen or it will not.
While Dr. Salvi may be doing research in understanding insight more there are many studies which utilize insight as a mechanism. In two studies published by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers utilized the aha moment as a mechanism to eliminate gender bias against women in STEM. This was done through a game in which the goal was to solve a mystery and realize that the scientist was a woman. There were two studies conducted using this game: one on college student and the other on high school students. The game portrayed many characters with genderless names, however, some were given pronouns and others were not. In order to win the game and solve the mystery the students had to realize that the scientist was a woman and therefore the item of interest was hidden in the woman’s bathroom. If the students didn’t solve the mystery the experimenter explained the answer to allow all the participants to have the aha moment. In the first study 23.1% solved it before the answer was explained, while in the second study 38.7% solved it before. In the latter study the game was made easier for the high school participants.
Regardless of whether or not the participants solved the mystery, which would require them to have insight into overcoming gender bias towards women in STEM, the purpose of the game is to find ways to create friendly interventions that break biases such as gender biases or racial biases. While Dr. Salvi’s work focuses more on how insight functions, studies using insight can have practical implications like this one. However, knowing how insight works can better our understanding of how we can increase insight and make better adapted interventions to dispel biases.
Works Cited
Freedman, G., Seidman, M., Flanagan, M., Kaufman, G., & Green, M. (2018). The impact of an "aha" moment on gender biases: Limited evidence for the efficacy of a game intervention that challenges gender assumptions. Journal Of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 162-167.
Episodic Autobiographical Memory
In a talk recently done by Melissa Hebscher, the topic of memory and how we remember different events affects the vividness and accuracy of them. The subject of Hebschers research is that of episodic autobiographical memory and in what ways allocentric (third person) and egocentric (first person) have distinct differences in what is recalled. These two different views represent spatial information in many different ways. Part of this has to do with the different structures in the brain that contribute to each of these functions. For the allocentric view, the hippocampus is what takes responsibility for the recall of memories from a third person perspective. On the other hand, the posterior parietal neocortex supports the egocentric view. Hebscher and her team looked at the volumes of the brains in their participants after cueing them with familiar locations and also familiar non-location words.
Similarly to the study done by Hebscher, a group of researchers at Saarland University in Germany, looked at the differences in episodic memory. They compared the quality of memory in a testing experiment, where participants were asked to retrieve words and in a restudying experiment. The researchers Cheng-Hua Bai, Emma Bridger, Hubert Zimmer, and Axel Mecklinger saw that participants were able to recall more of the testing words when compared with the restudying words. They believe that this has to do with the fact that the testing scenario requires participants to retrieve words rather than just look over them.
Both of these studies are similar in the sense that they are asking participants to recall words. Different scenarios produce different results that show the recalling of words is very complex. In Hebschers study the location-related words were able to be recalled the most. This is showing that in order to most accurately recall a memory or a word as in some studies, the participant has to have a connection to it. Like with the accuracy of those words that were tested, there is a connection in having to remember and recall specific words over and over for the most accurate results.
The Effects of Schizophrenia on the Brain
Earlier this semester, we listened to a talk by Dr. Wang about his research article, “Progressive deterioration of thalamic nuclei relates to cortical network decline in schizophrenia.” In his research, Dr. Wang compared the thalamic nuclei of healthy individuals to those with schizophrenia. They wanted to observe whether there was any differences in the thalamic nuclei of a healthy subject as opposed to one with schizophrenia. The subjects were chosen from a larger 2 year longitudinal study. The researchers utilized high dimension brain mapping in order to observe the thalamic nuclei. The researchers decided to focus on the thalamic nuclei because it is very important in the regulation of cognitive and emotional functions. Since people with schizophrenia have a neural impairment in regards to cognitive and emotional functions, it could be due to a deterioration of the thalamic nucleus. They focused on the deformation of areas of the thalamic nuclei that were directly related to these functions, specifically the mediodorsal, pulvinar, and anterior regions.
They discovered that the subjects with schizophrenia experienced greater volume loss than the healthy subjects. Specifically, there was a progressive deterioration of the mediodorsal and pulvinar regions over time. These findings allowed the researchers to propose a theory that abnormalities in schizophrenia subjects might develop along the thalamus from an anterior to posterior fashion. In conclusion, they determined that this progressive deterioration relates to the cortical decline present in those with schizophrenia, but it is not related to their behavioral changes.
A Scientific American article titled “Brain’s “Brakes” Suppress Unwanted Thoughts,” by Simon Makin relates to the previously discussed research article. In her article, Makin discusses the mechanism in which the brain suppresses unwanted thoughts. New research by neuroscientist Taylor Schmitz, at McGill University, suggests that many schizophrenia symptoms result from this mechanism not functioning properly. They discovered that when someone is attempting to suppress a thought, there is increased activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which causes decreased activity in the hippocampus. A “stop” command from the PFC reduces activity in the hippocampus. This mechanism allows someone to suppress a thought. It is able to do this by using GABA, the brain’s primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. People with schizophrenia suffer from a defect in this mechanism, they are observed to have increased activity in their hippocampus. This may cause many of the symptoms of schizophrenia including hallucinations.
This study brings us one step closer to potentially finding a solution for those with schizophrenia. It gives us an area to specifically focus on in attempting to alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia. If we are able to discover how to fix this faulty mechanism in people with schizophrenia, then we might be able to drastically improve their way of life. One way of fixing it might be to increase the amount of GABA in people with schizophrenia. GABA is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter, so if we increase the amount of GABA, it might possibly be able to reduce the activity in the hippocampus which would then in turn decrease the hallucinations.
These two studies are directly related because they both describe specific areas of the brain that are affected by schizophrenia. The brain is physically impacted which causes many of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Each study however, researches different aspects of schizophrenia. Dr. Wang explored schizophrenia’s effects on the thalamic nuclei and how it relates to cortical decline. Makin’s article describes a different aspect of schizophrenia, the hallucinations and what underlying mechanism causes them. Dr. Wang’s research was unable to discover any new findings regarding behavioral changes while the research highlighted in the article was able to. Together, these two articles provide a more holistic view of just how schizophrenia affects the brain and how that manifests in a person.
References:
Exploration of DREADD
Written by: Destinee Chaidez
During
Dr. Jelena Radulovic’s talk about processing stress related memories in the hippocampal
cortical circuits, she mentioned a recently developed chemogenetic technique
being implemented throughout neurological studies known as DREADD. I had heard
of optigentics before, but had no idea what this designer receptor process entailed.
Due to this growing curiosity I decided to find an article explaining what this
technique was and its utilizations.
DREADD stands for Designer Receptor Exclusively
Activated by Designer Drug. Because of the lack of ability to manipulate GPCR
that are so critical to the systematic workings of our CNS, DREADDs were
invented. They are genetically engineered recombinant class of GPCR that do not
react with endogenous ligands. This allows researchers to control the
activation levels of these receptors. This
tool is used to remotely controlled cell signaling and behavior. Activation of
a designer receptor is dependent on the inert ligand, which is almost always clozapine-N-oxide
(CNO). This activation can either silence or enhance neural firing, as
explained by Dr.Radulovic. These DREADDs are transmitted into tissues of desire
using viral vectors. I found out that this simulation happens in vivo, meaning
freely moving animal preparations! I was
still a confused as to how this “designer compound” targets and activates. It wasn’t
until I read the article “Chemogenetics revealed: DREADD occupancy and
activation via converted clozapine”, that things started to make sense. In this
article scientist address the mechanisms to which DREADD essentially manifest
by and its misconceptions.
Juan L. Gomez, Jordi Bonaventura, Wojciech
Lesniak et al. investigated the degree to which CNO enters
the brain to occupy DREADD , as it was never confirmed in past studies. They
also tested the hypothesis that CNO did not cross blood brain barrier. In this
experiment the cortex of rats was injected into the right or left hemisphere PET
images were than taken and coregistered with simultaneous MRIs. Later they
injected DREADD into the striatum of rats and then harvested organs and brains
to examine uptake of radioligand. Results indicated that CNO
does not enter the brain after systemic drug injections and shows low affinity
for DREADDs. In vivo CNO rapidly converts to Clozapine and shows high DREADD affinity
and potency. Upon systemic CNO injections, converted clozapine readily enters
the brain and occupies central nervous system-expressed DREADDs, whereas
systemic subthreshold clozapine injections induce preferential DREADD-mediated behaviors (Gomez
et al. , 2017). Essentially the findings of this study conclude that DREADDs
expressed in the brain are not activated by the designer compound CNO. This honestly
made more sense compared to my initial perception of the tool. I learned that
DREADDs activated by the CNO metabolite clozapine, a drug with a variation of endogenous
targets.
This is important because it may have significant
implications for the interpretation of results obtained from this promising
technology. I do believe that these advancements are one step closer to translatable
therapeutic gene transfers for humans. However, I would like to note that a limiting
factor of the use of CNO in clinical practice of DREADD can cause controversy
due to the known conversion to clozapine in vivo. Also its important to note that dependence of
DREADD technology on the same inert ligand CNO limits its effectiveness
for variety in chemo genetic control of neuronal activity.
References:
Video about DREADD
Article
Gomez, J., Bonaventura, J., Lesniak, W.,
Mathews, W., Sysa-Shah, P., Rodriguez, L., . . . Michaelides, M. (2017).
Chemogenetics revealed: DREADD occupancy and activation via converted
clozapine. Science (New York, N.Y.),357(6350), 503-507.
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