Lovers’ Brains, and Guts, Show ESP Link
When one partner from a loving couple sees the face of the beloved, the beloved’s brain shows a response, even though the two people are in separate locations. In the study demonstrating this ESP link, conducted by Dean Radin, Ph.D., and published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, each of the two lovers were seated in separate, electromagnetically isolated chambers. In one room was a video camera aimed at the person sitting there. In the other room, there was a video monitor placed in front of the other person, and it could be flipped on to show the image of the person’s lover sitting in the other room. Both persons had their EEG brain waves monitored during the sessions. At random moments, the monitor would come on, showing the one lover’s face to the other. At those moments, the person seeing the face would evidence EEG arousal, and within milliseconds so would the partner’s EEG show this same brain arousal.
In the second study, also published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, rather than using EEG brainwave monitoring, an electrogastrogram (EGG) was used to measure the receiving partner’s intestinal, or gut response. In the other room, the sending partner sat in front of two video monitors. One monitor would be activated at random moments to show the person the face of the lover in the other room. Simultaneous with this first monitor, the other one would show either an emotional video clip, with music, or a neutral scene. During those moments when the one person was viewing the image of the partner’s face, presumably creating an ESP link between the two persons, would those occasions when the person was also confronted with an emotional video clip be associated with their partner experiencing a more active gut response than when the first person was shown the neutral video? Yes. The results demonstrated that there was an elevated gut response in the second person associated with the partner’s emotional experience that was not evident during those sessions with a neutral video.
Sources: Radin, D. I. Event-related EEG correlations between isolated human subjects. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2004, Vol. 10, pp. 315-324. For a copy of this paper, see http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/107555304323062301
Radin, D. I., & Schlitz, M. J. Gut feelings, intuition, and emotions: An exploratory study. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2005, Vol. 11 (1), pp. 85-91. To purchase a copy of this study, see http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/acm.2005.11.85
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Worms Demonstrate Precognitive Ability
A worm gets shook up when the ground is vibrated and this emotional response shows up in the worm’s sweat, in a manner similar to how a human lie detector notes changes in skin conductivity. In a test of the worm’s precognitive ability, conducted by Chester Wildey for his Master’s thesis research at the Department of Engineering, University of Texas, Arlington, the worm was exposed to random moments of having its earth vibrated while its skin conductivity was measured. The results showed that about one second before the earth was to vibrate, the worm showed increased sweating, apparently as a presentiment to being all shook up.
Source: Described on pages 170-171 of Entangled Minds: Extrasensory experiences in a Quantum Reality, by Dean Radin. Paraview Pocket Books, 2006.
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Foundation Established to Promote Spirituality in Health Care
The Global Medicine Education Foundation (globalmeded.org) has been created to provide a unique educational program for health care providers. The program fosters evolving holistic clinical, personal, and global perspectives in the healing arts, creating a foundation for being more effective and compassionate health-care providers. In response to the growing needs of health care providers, medical students, and physicians to lead healthy, whole lives, GMEF provides educational environments that balance intellectual quest, experiential learning, and personal transformation.
For more information, contact GMEF at 75 Woodside Trail, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27517; Phone: (919) 967-2630; Email: info@globalmeded.org
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Compassion Aids A Sense of Well-Being
Churchgoers who evidence more compassion also evidence a greater sense of well-being, according to a study conducted by psychologist Patrick R. Steffen of Brigham Young University in Utah and published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. In the study, 441 Mormon churchgoers who went to church once a month, once a week, and twice a week or more were questioned concerning various aspects of stress, spirituality, and depression. Those who went to church most often also evidenced the highest levels of compassion, and reported the highest levels of well-being. The researchers speculated that it was not religious beliefs that prompted the relationship, but more probably it is the open-hearted attitude of compassion that leads to a more resilient and healthy body.
Source: Spirituality and Health
Issue: March/April 2006
Monks and Mormons lead the way to happiness
Jill Neimark
Scientists studying mental health have their eye on monks and Mormons, for the two groups may have revealed a common pathway to better health: the cultivation of compassion.
In a study in the December 2005 Annals of Behavioral Medicine, psychologist Patrick R. Steffen of Brigham Young University in Utah concludes that high levels of compassion may be the "secret" ingredient that accounts for self-reports of greater well-being among Mormon churchgoers. Scientists had already made a similar discovery in the case of Buddhist monks: in a 2004 study (see page 32), psychologist Richard Davidson used magnetic resonance imaging to study the brains of eight Tibetan Buddhist monks and 10 college students. The monks, whose meditation practices center on cultivating compassion for all living creatures, showed significantly heightened activity in the left prefrontal cortex, the seat of positive emotions. They also had lowered activity in the right prefrontal cortex, which is often linked to anxiety and negative emotions.
For the 2005 study, Steffen recruited 441 Mormon churchgoers from the university and the community. There were three groups: those who went to church once a month, once a week, and twice a week or more. Using questionnaires and tools that are widely relied on to measure stress, spirituality, and depression, Steffen found that those who went to church most often also had the highest levels of compassion, and reported the highest levels of well-being. Social support "seemed to be correlated with well-being until we controlled for compassion, and then the effect disappeared. So it's the compassion that buffers against depression. This is just a beginning step," notes Steffen. "We're going to work with universities to study a random sampling of folks, not just churchgoers. I don't think you have to be religious to be highly compassionate — I know many atheists who are very giving. I do think compassion represents a potential pathway to better health, and perhaps eventually we will be able to show people how to cultivate it."
Cultivating Compassion
In their famous work on gratitude, psychologists Robert Emmons of the
University of California,
and Michael McCullough of the University of Miami showed that by keeping
gratitude journals, individuals could significantly increase their well-being.
Patrick Steffen hopes that soon we will be able to offer folks similar
"compassion interventions" — a protocol for small acts of giving they can
perform daily that will help improve mood and happiness.
See http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/NMagazine/articles.php?id=1424
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Delightful Places Provide Healthy Relaxation
There are certain special environments that help people refresh themselves, according to a survey reported in Spirituality and Health. Catherine O’Brien, in collaboration with the National Center for Bicycling & Walking distributed a “Delightful Places Survey” that asked people to imagine a delightful place they had experienced and to describe how it makes them feel. The results indicated that although sixty per cent of the places mentioned were in urban settings, they tended to be places with natural settings, such as trails, paths, and parks. The most common word used to describe the delightful place was “relaxing.” The sounds that people associated with their delightful place most often were water, the wind, silence, people talking, and birds. The most common smells were the earth, water, flowers, and food. Almost half the people mentioned that their delightful place helped them re-connect with their spirituality.
Issue: March/April 2006
Community Planning: Have You Had Your Dose of Delight Today?
Catherine O’Brien
Over the last few years I have watched the positive psychology research on happiness begin to influence discussions on happiness in the workplace, positive organizational behavior, clinical psychology, spiritual well-being, cancer research, and new indicators of national well-being. Could it also be relevant to how we plan our communities, I wondered? So, in collaboration with the National Center for Bicycling & Walking, I developed the Delightful Places Survey. Our aim was to explore how the natural and built environments may influence well-being. Respondents were asked to imagine a delightful place they know and tell us about how it makes them feel. They could choose a place anywhere in the world.
The results affirmed that delightful places are a wonderful way for us to unwind from the busyness of our lives, and to relax. More than 60 percent of the delightful places were in urban environments, though the majority were natural areas such as trails, paths, and parks. As you would expect, concrete and heavy traffic were not sources of delight! The most common word to describe the impact of a delightful place is RELAXING. Even reading the survey results was relaxing! The sounds that people associated with their delightful place most often were water, the wind, silence, people talking, and birds. Additional comments included a range of sights and sounds from deer to butterflies and dogs, from ferryboats to fish splashing, to frogs and whales. The most common smells were the earth, water, flowers, and food. Some people described very specific scents such as pine trees, chocolate, seaweed, eucalyptus trees, freshly cut grass, and even sweat from other cyclists.
Delightful places nurture a feeling of connection: to oneself, to nature, and to other people. Nearly 40 percent of the respondents told us that these places made them feel more connected to a spiritual essence. "I feel a connection with my children," "I feel connected to history," "I feel happy," "I feel a sense of stewardship," wrote others.
Some said they feel hopeful, humbled, stimulated, peaceful, or creative. One person wrote, "I feel like a good mom — hopeful for my son's future." Some people described the lingering impact of visiting their particular delightful place:
"A delightful place is an area/place you return to over and over and always leave with a smile and a sense of connecting with something bigger than you."
"A place that makes you feel energized, calm, in tune with life and people."
"A place where I can't stop smiling."
My hope is that positive psychology will influence developers and urban planners to recognize that our environment has a profound impact on our well-being and they have the opportunity to leave a legacy of delight. In the meantime, as one person told us, a delightful place may be as close as your backyard or kitchen table when you share a meal with your family. Knowing that we feel better with daily doses of delight, we can choose to bring more of it into our lives.
http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/NMagazine/articles.php?id=1437
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Altruism May be Genetic
Two very different studies provide clues concerning a genetic basis for altruism. In one study, reported in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, children’s tendency to demonstrate altruism was studied in conjunction with an assessment of their genetic makeup. The results indicated that genetic inheritance that favored dopamine production was associated with a greater tendency toward altruism, as if generosity were “hardwired” into certain individuals.
In the other study, reported in Science and Theology News, showed evidence that chimpanzees demonstrate altruistic behavior. In this study, investigators set up a situation where the chimps’ handlers were hanging a sheet on a line while the chimp watched. The handler would drop a clothespin out of reach, try unsuccessfully for ten seconds to grab it, then would look at the chimp and say, “My peg!” Earlier research demonstrated that in over eighty per cent of the time, human toddlers would pick up the clothespin and hand it to the adult. The experiment with chimps showed a similar result, suggesting a native-born altruism. The difference in the two populations was that human toddlers would help even strangers, while chimps would only help their handlers. The results suggested to the researchers that prosocial behavior is hard-wired into at least some primates.
Source:
Issue: January/February 2006
Why Giving Feels So Good
Jill Neimark
Why Giving Feels So Good Jill Neimark
Why help a stranger who stumbles in the street? Why send money to faraway victims of tsunamis? Why volunteer for soup kitchens or offer a caring word to a neighbor? For evolutionary scientists, altruism is one of the great mysteries: it feels good, is linked to better mental and physical health, and is intrinsic to who we are, yet no one can quite explain how it evolved. Some have suggested that when we protect our kin we protect our own genetic legacy; that when we give, others give back to us, and that generosity enhances our reputation. Even so, at the heart of altruism is a big question mark. Why does giving feel so good?
Now a new study suggests that altruism may be partly guided by genes that regulate the neurotransmitter dopamine — the one linked to craving, pleasure, and reward. Subsets of dopamine genes vary in the general population, and the study finds that a specific, common subtype is highly linked to altruistic behavior. The research, conducted at Hebrew University and other centers, was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry in 2005. Psychologists and geneticists looked at 354 families with more than one child, measuring the individuals' tendencies to ignore their own needs and serve the needs of others, as well as their tendencies toward attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — a trait associated with antisocial behavior that is also thought to be regulated by variations in dopamine genes. They then analyzed the individuals' dopamine receptors for well-known variations, or genotypes.
Their fascinating findings: the most common genetic subtype — known as the D4.4 — was significantly linked to altruistic behavior, regardless of whether the receiver was a relative. Another variation — D4.7 — is known to be linked to novelty-seeking, aggressive, more anti-social behavior. The researchers conclude that variations in these genes reward a range of behaviors in humans, so that as a species we have novelty-seekers as well as givers. But in general, say the scientists, this gives us the first hard evidence that many of us are indeed "hardwired" for giving. It may be that generosity feels good because it is rewarded by spikes in dopamine. The scientists even speculate that further research could reveal variations in dopamine genes that favor generosity to kin, and others that favor giving to all. Next time you hold the door open for a stranger struggling to balance a bunch of packages, think of those innumerable little dopamine-loving neurons lighting up your brain with bliss.
http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/NMagazine/articles.php?id=1374
Also see: www.stnews.org and search on altruism
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Music Has Sedative Qualities
Not only will music soothe the savage beast, it can also provide sedative qualities, both for surgery patients and for those with chronic pain.
Patients undergoing surgery were provided with one of three different sound environments during the operation: headphones playing their favorite music, headphones playing white noise, or no headphones and exposure to the various operating room noises. The patients hearing music, according to the study reported in the medical journal Anesthesia & Analgesia, required significantly less sedation during their operations than did the patients in the other two groups.
Patients experiencing chronic pain for over six years (from osteoarthritis, disc problems and rheumatoid arthritis) were divided into two groups in a study reported in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. One listened to music for one hour per day on headsets. The other did not listen to music at all. The results indicated that music brought about a twenty-one per cent reduction in pain levels as well as a twenty-five per cent reduction drop in depression linked to pain. According to the researchers, the patients felt the pain less disabling with music therapy and gave them an increased sense of power over their condition.
Issue: January/February 2006
Don't Like Anesthesia? Add Music to Your Operation
Sheldon Lewis
Whether you're a fan of early Beatles or Mozart, listening to music can lessen your need for sedatives during an operation, suggests a new study published in the medical journal Anesthesia & Analgesia. Thirty-six patients at Yale-New Haven Hospital and 54 at the American University of Beirut Medical Center undergoing procedures using anesthesia were randomly assigned to wear headphones and hear music they liked or white noise, or to wear no headphones and be exposed to operating room noise. O.R. noise can be jarring— up to 80 decibels of sound. LOUD. Researchers found playing music reduced the need for sedatives during surgery, but white noise, which blocked out O.R. sounds, did not. The study suggests that culture plays a role also: the Lebanese patients used less of the sedating drug than the American patients, regardless of whether they heard music, white noise, or operating room sounds.
http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/NMagazine/articles.php?id=1379
Music Eases Perception Of Chronic Pain
Main Category: Pain / Anesthetics News
Article Date: 29 May 2006 - 9:00am (PDT)
A study published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing found that music can significantly ease a patient's perception of chronic pain. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation examined the effect of music on 60 patients who had been experiencing chronic pain for an average of six-and-a-half years. Most of the patients suffered from osteoarthritis, disc problems and rheumatoid arthritis. The majority experienced continuous pain in two or more parts of the body. They were recruited from pain and chiropractic clinics.
The patients were divided into two groups. One listened to music for one hour per day on headsets. The other did not listen to music at all. Among those who listened to music, half could choose the music themselves, while the other half could choose from five relaxation recordings the researchers provided them with.
The researchers found that music brought about a 21% reduction in pain levels as well as a 25% drop in depression linked to pain. The researchers said patients felt the pain less disabling with music therapy. There was no significant difference between those who could chose their own music and those who could select from five recordings given to them.
Dr. Sandra Siedlecki, team leader, said the study showed that music has a significant beneficial effect of pain reduction, less depression, less disability and increased feelings of power. She added that many sufferers of non-malignant pain continue to experience high levels of pain despite using medication. Anything that can provide relief is welcomed.
The team concluded that music does have an important role to play in modern healthcare.
Some people have written to us asking whether this pain relief may only have a short-term effect. Perhaps a long-term study would be useful.
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Weblink: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=44193
---
Effect of music on power, pain, depression and disability
Sandra L. Siedliecki PhD RN CNS and
Marion Good PhD RN FAAN
siedliecki s.l. & good m. (2006) Journal of Advanced Nursing54(5), 553–562
Effect of music on power, pain, depression and disability
Aim. This paper reports a study testing the effect of music on power, pain, depression and disability, and comparing the effects of researcher-provided music (standard music) with subject-preferred music (patterning music).
Background. Chronic non-malignant pain is characterized by pain that persists in spite of traditional interventions. Previous studies have found music to be effective in decreasing pain and anxiety related to postoperative, procedural and cancer pain. However, the effect of music on power, pain, depression, and disability in working age adults with chronic non-malignant pain has not been investigated.
Method. A randomized controlled clinical trial was carried out with a convenience sample of 60 African American and Caucasian people aged 21–65 years with chronic non-malignant pain. They were randomly assigned to a standard music group (n = 22), patterning music group (n = 18) or control group (n = 20). Pain was measured with the McGill Pain Questionnaire short form; depression was measured with the Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression scale; disability was measured with the Pain Disability Index; and power was measured with the Power as Knowing Participation in Change Tool (version II).
Results. The music groups had more power and less pain, depression and disability than the control group, but there were no statistically significant differences between the two music interventions. The model predicting both a direct and indirect effect for music was supported.
Conclusion. Nurses can teach patients how to use music to enhance the effects of analgesics, decrease pain, depression and disability, and promote feelings of power.
Web link: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.03860.x
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Atlantic University Student Creates PMS Treatment
If everything happens for a purpose, then what about PMS, the monthly monster that affects many women? For her Master’s degree culminating project, Atlantic University student Pauline Houle researched a novel treatment based upon the spiritual principle of purposefulness. To design her treatment, she assumed that the occurrence of PMS was an expression of something that the woman was feeling unconsciously and needed to bring into awareness. To help the women find the hidden message, she had them make a list of all the “sufferings” the symptoms brought. Afterwards, she asked them to then make a list of all the “pleasures” that the symptoms created. Although most women balked at the idea that there were any pleasures associated with PMS, upon deeper meditation, they discovered that there were, indeed, certain benefits associated with the PMS symptoms. Upon discovering these, women found that their symptoms declined or disappeared, because once the women could assume responsibility for their feelings, they no longer needed to experience them via the PMS symptoms.
Source:
PMS: A trigger to change!
Pauline Houle
Pauline@paulinehoule.com
Each month, Anna feels like she is getting further and further behind. The smallest incidents set her off. She cries easily and lashes out at her husband and feels alone with her emotions and her confusion. This may sound familiar to you or resembles the symptoms of a friend you know.
Could your PMS be an Expression of your Unconscious Thoughts and Feelings?
“No way!” I hear you say. PMS is a curse and martyrizing moment that some women are plagued with and only medicine and pills can help. Right?
Well… being the no-BS therapist and researcher that I am, I have news for every one of you! Hard to believe? At first, yes.
As a good friend of mine says:
“Truth shall set you free but at first it is going to piss you off!”
Why do so many women suffer from PMS? Why do so many women take for granted that there can be nothing done about this monthly beast that knocks at their door every month and only every now and then for the rest of us? Many women believe that only medicine can help them; at best, many think that natural herbs will provide some relief, and many times, it is true.
Medical science labels about 150 different PMS symptoms and one would think a permanent cure for all of us could have been found, regardless of which symptom we experience! Such is not my findings.
I have been working as a therapist in private practice for over 15 years and have decided to research PMS from a different standpoint. I found every woman is very unique even though we all have a hormonal system that medicine would like to treat identically.
After having grappled with PMS myself and finding no cure through conventional medicine, I undertook my own introspection on a path to find a permanent solution. Having succeeded, I then started investigating the subject with women experiencing very diversified PMS symptoms.
Whether it was Anna who was afraid to lose control of her anger while she was menstruating, or Josette, who had not menstruated for over a year and a half, or even Carmen, whose cycles were reducing in length from one month to the next, to the point of bleeding every day, each one found a cure that turned out to be very intimate, personal and unique.
I borrowed an exercise from Neurolinguistic Programming to elucidate the monthly beast. The result? Once every woman finds the hidden message that PMS is trying to convey to her, a healing at some level happens and at best, the disappearance of symptoms. For some women it was overnight, for others it took examining few cycles to get to the depth of the symptoms.
Here is a bonus for the reader if you want to explore at home on your own. At the top of a blank page, name your symptom, ranging from a headache down to your troubled relationship with whomever and write it down as a ‘label’. I suggest you do this exercise for each major symptom.
On the left side of the sheet, under the word ‘sufferings’ write all the symptom(s) you are most plagued with during the month; some women go through the same pains month after month and others see their sufferings change from one month to the next.
After you finished writing your list of sufferings, on the right side of your page, write the word “pleasure(s)” at the top and ponder. Yes, introspect and find what is really going on.
I propose to every woman they look at the pleasure(s) hiding behind their PMS. At first each one of these women thought the idea being absolutely farfetched, even ridiculous. With a little silent introspection and a desire to find the truth, after listing all the sufferings their PMS provokes every time, the women started to see there could be a benefit of some kind, hence finally making the link with what our subconscious is trying to reveal we have to do about certain issues in our life.
I also discovered PMS as a hideout for all that we have not attended in our recent or ancient past. It feels as if when life decides we should be ready to deal with an old ghost long hiding in our closet, our soul will make numerous attempts at letting us know we have some cleanup to do. Are we attending to it? I would say not the majority of the time!
There are women who suffer from PMS in relation to atrocious childhood experiences, others start their symptoms after age 30 due to their relationship, job dissatisfaction, or forceful passion to be or do something different, often times letting societal pressure dictate what that should be. I think the only pressure we should listen to is our higher Self - our higher values about life and its nature. The rest only encumbers the success of our mission on earth.
I hope to have created an approach that will guide every woman to contemplate on her own and see the change operate in front of her consciousness. I hope to be able to compare my own findings to Dr. Deepak Chopra’s belief that:
“A mind capable of erecting such obstacles must be able to destroy them” and “When patients experience a conversion, it is their perspective on things in their lives that transform, not the facts themselves.”
When I started researching PMS and its realities, nothing was written about linking PMS with our invisible world or our subconscious. I have become convinced that there is little cost to finally heal this beast. On the other hand, there is a great cost for not taking it seriously and not attending to the messages PMS is trying to deliver.
This is a new path to all women who desire to become more conscious and acknowledge they are co-creators of their life, not only their success but their health at all levels.
Web link: www.intuitive-connections.net/2006/pms.htm
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Police Chastised for Using Psychic
When word leaked that an Australian Federal police officer had consulted a psychic in an investigation of a threat to assassinate the Prime Minister, the officer was suspended. It turned out that the officer had shared some classified information with the psychic in an attempt to help the psychic locate the perpetrator of the threat. The media coverage was not sympathetic but asked the government to restore public confidence in the police department. It was not disclosed whether or not the psychic was helpful in locating the perpetrator.
Source:
Labor's homeland security spokesman Arch Bevis says the
Federal
Government should conduct a public investigation into
reports an
Australian Federal Police (AFP) officer consulted a psychic
during a
key investigation.
Newspaper reports claim the senior officer was suspended
after
allegedly disclosing classified information to a clairvoyant
about a
threat to assassinate Prime Minister John Howard.
The AFP has confirmed it is conducting an internal
investigation into
the alleged security breach.
Mr Bevis says while the use of psychics is on one level
humorous, it
is a very serious matter.
"It's obviously not part of standard operating procedure to
consult a
psychic about death threats to senior figures in Australia
and the
Government really needs to have an open investigation into
this so the
public need to have their confidence in the AFP maintained
by knowing
what's happened here," he said.
"You cannot have a situation where our premier
crime-fighting
organisation is acting in this way and expect the public
just to sit
back and wear it.
"This really is a B-grade movie script that's been played
out in real
life and one of the most serious incidents that the AFP
could look
into a threat against the head of government."
Weblink: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1612063.htm
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On a hill near the Bosnian town of Visoko scientists found a structure that matches the triangular dimensions of similar structures in Latin America, with the same flattened top. The structure has 45 degree sloping sides. The four corners correspond to the four directions of the compass. The scientists do not believe that natural forces had anything to do with the structure’s creation. Satellite photos also revealed two other structures in the vicinity with the same features.
The Bosnia pyramids are the only ones found in Europe. The others are in Egypt and Mexico. The Bosnian “Temple of the Sun,” at a height of 220 meters, is the tallest known pyramid, 80 meters taller than the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
Source:
Updated Fri. Apr. 14 2006
11:32 PM ET
CTV.ca
News Staff
Europe
may seem like an unlikely place to find an ancient pyramid, but a group of
scientists believe they've found one -- or possibly three -- in Bosnia.
Scientists investigating a hill near the town of
Visoko
said it matches the triangular dimensions of similar structures in Latin
America, with the same flattened top.
It also
has 45 degree slopes and corners matching the four points of the compass.
The
precise shape of the hill, called Visocica, seems to indicate that nature had
little to do with its formation. Satellite imagery also revealed two other
similar mounds in the
Visoko Valley.
"In the
lack of other processes that would affect their existence, we consider them to
be anthropogenic structures," geophysicist Amer Smailbegovic told a news
conference.
If the
scientists are right, the pyramids will be the only ones found in
Europe. Bosnia would join
other countries famous for the ancient structures, like Egypt and Mexico.
In fact,
archeologist Semir Osmanagic said the suspected pyramid hidden underneath
Visocica is even larger than one of the most well-known pyramids in the world.
"(The)
Bosnian 'Pyramid of the Sun' ... is the highest known pyramid with a height of
220 metres," he said.
"It is
about 80 metres highter than the Great Pyramid in
Egypt."
Visocica
itself measures 650 metres in height, but digging into the hill, the scientists
said they hope to find stones marking the surface of the pyramid, explaining the
smooth 45 degree slopes.
They
have already found what they think is a man-made tunnel system.
"The
notion is that the tunnel connects all the pyramids in the valley, and now we
are at the start of the mapping and excavation process of the tunnel," said
Osmanagic.
The
first to enter the tunnel entrance was a group of rescue workers from a local
coal mine, who explored the network on Friday. They travelled about 260 metres
and found two intersections.
Experts
from
Egypt are scheduled to
join the scientist in May.
Visocica
is located about 30 kilometres northwest of
Sarajevo, Bosnia's
capital.
During
the Middle Ages, Visoko was
Bosnia's capital. Experts
say human settlements existed in the Visoko Valley 7,000 years ago.
Weblink: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060414/bosnia_pyramids_060414?s_name=&no_ads=
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Researchers Explore Electrical Stimulation of the Brain
In some research that evokes comparisons to Edgar Cayce’s recommendation for the use of a wet cell appliance, scientists are exploring the curative value of electrical stimulation of the brain. In this research, reported in New Scientist, researchers place two electrodes on the head and attach them to a nine volt battery.
Called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS),
The methodology has shown promise in improving mental skills, including learning and memory, as well as in treating migraine headaches and improving recovery from strokes. Researchers are also exploring its use for reversing brain deterioration, as in Alzheimber’s disease.
Speculation exists that a commercial model may be one day available. An electrical thinking cap could improve people’s mental functioning in many ways. The military has already requested research on its use to keep pilots awake in the cockpit.
Source:
Electrify your mind - literally
15 April 2006
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
Bijal Trivedi
Testing tDCS against dementia (Image: Marc Asnin/New Scientist)
Enlarge image
Mind jolt
LINDA BUSTEED sits nervously as two electrodes wrapped in large,
wet sponges are strapped to her head. One electrode grazes the
hairline above her left eye while the other sits squarely on her
right eyebrow. Wires snake over her head to a small power pack
fuelled by a 9-volt battery. Busteed drums her fingers on the
table as she anticipates the moment when an electric current
will start flowing through her brain.
It sounds like quackery, but it's not. A growing body of
evidence suggests that passing a small electric current through
your head can have a profound effect on the way your brain
works. Called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS),
the technique has already been shown to boost verbal and motor
skills and to improve learning and memory in healthy people -
making fully-functioning brains work even better. It is also
showing promise as a therapy to cure migraine and speed recovery
after a stroke, and may extract more from the withering brains
of people with dementia. Some researchers think the technique
will eventually yield a commercial device that healthy people
could use to boost their brain function at the flick of a
switch.
“You could use this to boost your brainpower at the flick of a
switch”
Busteed isn't here to test commercial devices, however. The
64-year-old suffers from the degenerative brain disease
frontotemporal dementia, which leads to language loss,
personality changes and mood swings. There is no treatment.
Busteed is one of 20 patients in a phase II clinical trial led
by Eric Wassermann, head of the brain stimulation unit at the US
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
in Bethesda, Maryland. He wants to know whether a 40-minute
burst of direct current directed at her left frontal lobe can
improve her ability to generate lists of words, a hallmark
deficit of her disease. Wassermann's study is double-blind, so
he won't know whether Busteed is receiving current or not.
Busteed probably won't know either - tDCS is silent and elicits
barely a tingle. If she is getting the real thing, Wassermann
hopes that the current will "squeeze more out of the sick
neurons", enabling Busteed to perform better.
If the trial proves successful, Wassermann would like to develop
a brain stimulation device that patients can take home and use
whenever they want. He envisages a gizmo about the size of an
MP3 player, perhaps incorporated into a hat. "Turn it on and you
feel better," he says. "Turn it off and you're back where you
started." It sounds too simple to be feasible, but studies from
around the world suggest that Wassermann has a good chance of
success. "All the scientific literature points in the same
direction," says neurologist Leonardo Cohen, chief of the stroke
and neurorehabilitation clinic at NINDS. "There must be
something to it."
Zapping the brain with electricity to cure various maladies has
slipped in and out of vogue over the past two millennia (see
"Zaps from the past"). In recent years, however, it has fallen
out of favour, superseded by a more powerful non-invasive
technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation. TMS works by
penetrating the skull not with electricity but with a magnetic
field, causing all the neurons in a particular region to fire in
concert. After TMS stimulation stops, depending on the frequency
of magnetic pulses, this can have the effect of either switching
that region on, or turning it off.
TMS has proved exceptionally useful for mapping brain functions
and has also been tested as a therapy, but it can be
unpredictable and dangerous. Neurons in the brain normally fire
asynchronously as they communicate, but TMS can produce a
massive synchrony of activity that can propagate through the
cortex like a Mexican wave through a stadium. If this happens
brain activity shuts down momentarily and causes seizures.
Despite an established safety margin for TMS, there is always a
remote possibility of triggering a seizure, which means that any
treatments have to be monitored by a physician. The bulky nature
of the device also makes it difficult to use outside a hospital.
The rediscovery of electrical stimulation began in 1999, when
neurologists Walter Paulus and Michael Nitsche of the University
of Göttingen in Germany attended a conference at which they
heard about an experimental technique combining TMS with direct
current stimulation. They went back to their lab intending to
try it for themselves, starting with electricity alone. Those
first results were "so amazing and encouraging", says Paulus,
that they wanted to know more.
In that first experiment, Paulus and Nitsche took a group of
healthy volunteers and stimulated their motor cortices with
direct current. They found that tDCS increased the neuronal
firing rate by up to 40 per cent. Where the effect differed from
TMS was that it only affected neurons that were already active -
it didn't cause resting neurons to start firing. They also
discovered that if they applied tDCS for 3 minutes or more, the
effect lingered after the current was switched off, sometimes
lasting for several hours. The experiment suggested that tDCS
was safe, painless and non-invasive and that the effects on
neuronal excitability could potentially have a profound, if
temporary, effect on brain function.
Wassermann was intrigued by the impact of tDCS on healthy brains
and began laying the groundwork for his own trials. In the past
five years, he, the Göttingen team and others have been testing
the potential of tDCS, primarily for the brains of healthy
volunteers but increasingly as a therapy too.
Administering tDCS is relatively easy. It is essentially a
matter of strapping two electrodes to your head, positioning
them, adjusting the current to between 1 and 2 milliamps and
choosing the right duration.
The current is very weak and most people feel nothing, except in
some cases a "slight tingle or itch", says Wassermann. The human
head is a poor conductor, he adds, estimating that at least 50
per cent of the current is lost, shunted across the skin as it
follows the path of least resistance to the other electrode. But
measurements of neural activity prove that some current does
pass through the brain.
What exactly is happening is unknown, but experiments with
humans and animals, as well as recordings from individual
neurons, suggest that it can either increase the activity of
neurons that are already firing, or damp it down, depending on
the direction of the current and how the neurons are aligned.
Neurons in the cerebral cortex tend to be arranged with their
information-gathering dendrites pointing outwards, towards the
scalp, and their information-transmitting axons projecting
inwards. When the positively charged tDCS electrode is close to
the dendrites, the current causes active neurons to fire more
frequently. The negative electrode does the opposite. So if you
know the region of the cortex you want to target, you can zap it
with one of the electrodes to either stimulate it or inhibit it.
Of course, the area under the second electrode is experiencing
the opposite effect. "This bothers me to no end," admits
Wassermann. But he says that if you place the second electrode
just above an eye, it is distanced from the brain by bone and
sinus.
The overall effect of tDCS, says Cohen, is to make the excited
area work more effectively. "It's like giving a small cup of
coffee to a relatively focal part of your brain - the one that
you know will be engaged in the performance of certain tasks,"
he says. "The one you need to do the task better."
So far so good, but does this trickle of charge have any effect
on cognitive performance? In 2003, Paulus's team produced
evidence that it does (Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol
15, p 619).
The researchers asked volunteers to press keys in response to
instructions on the computer screen. What the volunteers didn't
know was that the sequence of keystrokes followed a subtle but
predictable pattern. With stimulatory tDCS applied to their
primary motor cortices, the volunteers learned the sequence
significantly faster than normal. Stimulating different brain
areas or applying inhibitory or "sham" tDCS had no effect.
Paulus and colleagues have since gone on to produce more
positive results. Plying the left prefrontal cortex with
stimulatory tDCS, for example, boosts performance on a different
test of learning and memory. They showed volunteers combinations
of squares, circles, triangles and diamonds and asked them to
guess whether that combination was "sunny" or "rainy". At first
the task is baffling, but eventually, by trial and error,
volunteers discover hidden rules and start scoring higher than
chance. According to the researchers, volunteers who received
tDCS stimulation got the gist significantly faster.
It's not just stimulatory tDCS that can give your brain a boost.
Last year Andrea Antal, a member of Paulus's team, reported that
inhibitory tDCS can work too. She used tDCS to inhibit activity
in a region of the visual cortex called V5, which helps perceive
movement. The result was improved performance on a visual
tracking task in which the subject had to follow a dot on the
computer screen that could come from one of four directions.
"At first we were utterly surprised that inhibitory tDCS makes
something better - it should be worse," says Antal. However, she
says, the task is very complicated and produces a lot of neural
activation and noise. Perhaps tDCS improves the signal to noise
ratio.
The Göttingen team isn't the only one with success stories. Last
year researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in
Boston, Massachusetts, showed that working memory, the sort used
to memorise facts or lists of words, can be improved with
stimulatory tDCS. "It's a bit like increasing the amount of RAM
available," says team leader Alvaro Pascual-Leone.
Wassermann himself tested tDCS on the left prefrontal cortex of
103 volunteers and saw a 20 per cent improvement in their
ability to generate lists of words beginning with a given
letter. A handful of people even noticed the difference. "They
didn't say 'I feel like superman', but they did notice that they
were performing better," says Wassermann. Taken together, he
says, these results suggest that tDCS really can be used to
boost brainpower beyond its normal limits.
It is also showing promise as a therapy. Antal is testing
inhibitory tDCS for migraine and the associated sensations of
flashing lights, strange colours and blurred vision, known as
auras. She says that while tDCS does not work for all types of
migraine, in many people it reduces pain and stops the auras.
Cohen, meanwhile, has tested the technique on stroke patients.
He stresses that he has tried it on less than 40 people so far,
and that up to now the results are only proof of principle.
Still, from what he has seen he thinks that tDCS in combination
with rehab could help some patients regain movements that would
help them do things such as eat, turn pages and grasp small
objects. "The most important point is that the magnitude of
improvements correlates with increases in the excitability of
neurons," he says. "This suggests cause and effect."
Overall, it seems that tDCS has real promise, though many
questions remain. Key among those is the full range of brain
functions that could be enhanced. Wassermann speculates that
almost any brain function associated with a specific, localised
region of the cerebral cortex is potentially amenable to tDCS.
Anything buried deeper in the brain, however, is probably not
accessible except via dangerously strong currents.
Independent experts are somewhat divided. "Whether low DC
current can produce cognitive effects is an open question but I
wouldn't rule it out," says Ralph Hoffman, professor of
psychiatry at Yale University. "The physiology is plausible. It
doesn't sound nutty." Dominique Durand, director of the neural
engineering centre at Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland, Ohio, is less impressed. "I think it is pushing it
because this is not selective," he says. "It basically
stimulates a large part of the brain."
The biggest unknown, however, is whether tDCS will be more than
a flash in the pan. "What we are most concerned about is that it
will work a couple of times and then won't work again," says
Wassermann. Just as you can become habituated to a strong smell
if you are exposed to it for a long time, it is possible that a
brain region exposed to a direct current more than once or twice
in a short space of time will get used to it. If habituation
does occur, says Wassermann, the technique is useless. "If this
can't do something for somebody then forget it. It just becomes
a funny phenomenon."
Wassermann and other researchers, however, are satisfied that at
the very least tDCS is safe. What is more, the device itself is
tantalisingly simple and would be cheap and easy to make. "It's
comfortable, easy and inexpensive, and it seems to work," says
Cohen. Adds Wassermann: "Anyone with the know-how could go to an
electronics store, buy the components and build one." If tDCS
proves its worth, he is interested in developing a commercial
device. He points out that you can already buy headgear that
claims to cure insomnia, anxiety and depression by stimulating
your brain with alternating current, even though there is scant
evidence that it works. Imagine the potential for a brain
stimulator that really does the business.
So if the day comes when you can buy a battery-powered thinking
cap, what use might it be? One possibility is that it could help
you learn new, improved skills. The results with motor learning
and visual tracking, for example, might translate into a better
tennis game or improved piano playing. "And if you can enhance
motor learning with tDCS then it might help you learn something
else," agrees Wassermann. It's conceivable that enhanced
learning and verbal skills could make it easier to learn a
second language or expand your vocabulary, says Cohen. Students
might even be able to raise their game by giving themselves a
blast of tDCS before class.
Another possibility, says Wassermann, is using tDCS to boost
your alertness. Researchers funded by the US military have
already expressed interest in developing that side of the
technology for pilots (New Scientist, 18 February, p 34).
"Fighter pilots land on aircraft carriers at the worst times of
night after working long hours," says Wassermann. "Suppose you
have this device in your helmet, you could flick it on before
landing and get much more alertness."
It sounds too good to be true, and it may turn out to be. But if
tDCS lives up to its promise perhaps all you'll need to boost
your brainpower is a 9-volt battery, a couple of wires and some
pieces of wet sponge. Now there's an electrifying thought.
Weblink:
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/brain/mg19025471.100-electrify-your-mind--literally.html
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Environmental Sensitivity Linked to Psychic Experiences
People with a ‘sensitive’ personality type are far more likely to report apparitional experience, according to a study published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. Such persons commonly report longstanding allergies, chronic pain and fatigue, depression, migraine headaches, or sensitivity to light, sound, and smell. These individuals are also more likely to report that immediate family members suffered from the same conditions. The survey raises the question of whether a ‘neurobiology of sensitivity’ could underlie reports of apparitional experience occurring across societies and throughout history.
Sixty-two self-described ‘sensitives’ participated in the study, along with fifty individuals serving as controls who did not profess any outstanding forms of sensitivity. Persons in the former group were three and a half times as likely, on average, to assert that they’d had an apparitional experience (defined as perceiving something that could not be verified as being physically present through normal means). Sensitive persons were also two and a half times as likely to indicate that an immediate family member was affected by similar physical, mental or emotional conditions.
The following factors were found to be most highly correlated with this condition:
§ Being female
§ Being a first-born or only child
§ Being single
§ Being ambidextrous
§ Appraising oneself as imaginative
§ Appraising oneself as introverted
§ Recalling a plainly traumatic event (or events) in childhood
§ Maintaining that one affects - or is affected by – lights, computers, and other electrical appliances in an unusual way.
Source:
Emotion Gateway Research Center
Spanning disciplines to explore the neurobiology of personality
A Neurobiology of Sensitivity? New Study Suggests a Link
Between Environmental Sensitivity and Anomalous Perceptions
Vienna, Virginia (March 31, 2006) – People with a ‘sensitive’ personality type are far more likely to report apparitional experience, according to a paper in the current issue of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. Such persons commonly report longstanding allergies, chronic pain and fatigue, depression, migraine headaches, or sensitivity to light, sound, and smell. These individuals are also more likely to report that immediate family members suffered from the same conditions. The survey raises the question of whether a ‘neurobiology of sensitivity’ could underlie reports of apparitional experience occurring across societies and throughout history.
Sixty-two self-described ‘sensitives’ participated in the study, along with 50 individuals serving as controls who did not profess any outstanding forms of sensitivity. Persons in the former group were 3.5 times as likely, on average, to assert that they’d had an apparitional experience (defined as perceiving something that could not be verified as being physically present through normal means). Sensitive persons were also 2.5 times as likely to indicate that an immediate family member was affected by similar physical, mental or emotional conditions.
Overall, 8 of the 54 factors asked about in the survey were found to be significant in the makeup of a sensitive personality:
Additionally, synesthesia – the scientifically recognized condition of overlapping senses, such as hearing colors or tasting shapes – was reported by approximately 10% of the sensitive group but not at all among controls. This finding gives added weight to the possibility that apparitional perceptions stem from an underlying neurobiology of sensitivity.
“It seems quite possible,” writes study author Michael Jawer, “that certain individuals are, from birth onward, disposed to a number of conditions, illnesses, and perceptions that, in novelty as well as intensity, distinguish them from the general population. If so, apparitional experience might have a bona fide neurobiological basis that makes it accessible to scientific inquiry.”
The paper is posted online at http://cogprints.org/4810/. The Society for Psychical Research, founded in 1882 by a distinguished group of Cambridge University scholars, is the foremost British organization for the scientific study of anomalous perceptions. Its website is http://www.spr.ac.uk/.
# # #
Michael Jawer directs the Emotion Gateway Research Center, based in Northern Virginia. The Center is an independent organization that investigates the neurobiological basis of personality. Details: emotionalgateway@hotmail.com.
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Scent of Fear Improves Mental Functioning
Animals experiencing stress and fear produce chemical warning signals that can lead to behavioral, endocrinological and immunological changes in their fellow animals of the same species, according to past research. A new study shows that this same phenomenon occurs in humans.
To collect the scent of fear, researchers at Rice Universrity had women wear guaze in their armpits while they watched horror movies, according to a report of the study published in the journal Chemical Senses. In the next stage of the study, college students responded to words flashing on a computer screen. They saw word pairs and had to quickly decide if the words were related (e.g., arm and leg) or not (e.g., arm and toaster). Some students had fear scented gauze pasted between their upper lip and nose, others had neutral sweat scented gauze attached, and some worked with unscented gauze. The results indicated that the students explosed to the scent of fear functioned at a significantly faster and more accurate rate than did the other students. The researchers concluded that humans also demonstrate the phenomena of fear-induced chemical signaling.
Source:
The chemical warning signals produced by fear improve cognitive performance, according to a study at Rice University in Houston.
Women who were exposed to chemicals from fear-induced sweat performed more accurately on word-association tasks than did women exposed to chemicals from other types of sweat or no sweat at all. The study was published this month in the journal Chemical Senses.
"It is well-documented in the research literature that animals experiencing stress and fear produce chemical warning signals that can lead to behavioral, endocrinological and immunological changes in their fellow animals of the same species, but we wanted to see if this applies to humans as well," said principal investigator Denise Chen, assistant professor of psychology at Rice.
For the study, Chen collected samples of sweat from research volunteers who kept gauze pads in their armpits while they watched videos of horror movies and nonthreatening documentaries. The sweat samples were then stored in a freezer until needed for the study.
Next, Chen had 75 female students between the ages of 18 and 22 respond to 320 pairs of words that flashed for three seconds each on a computer screen. For each pair, the participants had to press a key to indicate whether the words were associated with each other (for example, arms and legs) or not (arms and wind). Some of the words were associated with threatening or fear-related topics, like weapons.
Each participant had a piece of gauze attached above their lips so that they were exposed to either chemicals from sweat or none at all during the tests. Chen compared how the chemicals from sweat impacted the speed and accuracy of participants' results on the word-association tests.
When processing meaningfully related word pairs, the participants exposed to the fear chemicals were 85 percent accurate, and those in either the neutral sweat or the control (no-sweat) condition were 80 percent accurate. "The subjects in the fear condition were six percent more accurate, which is a statistically significant difference," Chen said.
When processing word pairs that were ambiguous in threat content, such as one neutral word paired with a threatening word or a pair of neutral words, subjects in the fear condition were 15 to 16 percent slower in responding than those in the neutral sweat condition, and this difference was statistically significant. Chen's theory is that the chemicals from fear-induced sweat prompted subjects to be more cautious.
The research participants were not aware of the nature of the smells, and the smells did not differ on the intensity or pleasantness ratings.
"We demonstrated that in humans, chemical signals from fear facilitated overall accuracy in identifying word relatedness independent of the perceived qualities of the smells," Chen said. "The effect may arise from a learned association, including greater cautiousness and changes in cognitive strategies."
"Human olfaction is a young, vibrant field," Chen said, noting that the behavioral study of this subject is still in the early stage. "Olfactory receptors were discovered in the early 1990s. We now know that olfaction involves hundreds of receptors."
Results like these from Chen's behavioral research and studies from other labs form an integral part of a multipronged approach to the understanding of human olfaction.
Coauthors of Chen's study included former Rice undergraduate students Ameeta Katdare and Nadia Lucas, a Rice Century Scholar.
Chen's research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Weblink:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060401105258.htm