The Musical Brain: Review of a Documentary

I just watched a documentary on CTV at 7h00 PM called "The Musical Brain". It was a very touching and smart introduction on the purpose and on the impact that music has in our lives, but also how music activates the brain and plays an important role in our general brain development. What is extraordinary about music and the brain is that they are both mysteries and will remain so for a long time if not forever. Also, music is an intangible pleasure that we cannot afford losing as it is as important in our lives as eating although biologically speaking we will not die from music starvation... or will we?

Apparently, adults that learned a musical instrument when younger had on average 7 IQ points more than the adults that didn't. The inference that these individuals are more intelligent can be argued since the IQ rating is not the best representative of intelligence. Another interesting thing was that Alzheimer patients in there final stage could not remember a single person, object or event anymore, but music recognition was intact!

One of the highlights of the documentary is Dr. Daniel Levitin (McGill Researcher and Teacher) who did an experiment on the famous musician and song writer Sting. The latter was intrigued about Levitin's Research and decided to participate, which implied putting him in an fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanner of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. Of the interesting findings of Levitin's experiment, there was the results showing that the caudate was strongly involved in creating new songs. Furthermore, Levitin found activation in the visual cortex and uncommon activation of the corpus callosum (being the major commissure in the brain connecting the two hemispheres) during creation of a song. Levitin stated that as pitch is mostly analysed in the right hemisphere, language is mostly in the left and further suggested that as artist grow more experienced and older, there activation while playing or inventing music is more distributed. Also, in another laboratory, it was found that the medial temporal lobe was strongly activated during improvisation. In yet another experiment, pregnant women or more so the foetuses were exposed to a specific song and, later when the child was born, it was found that those young children were more attentive and expressive when shown that specific song. It is important to mention that at 20 weeks, the offspring inside it's mother uterus can hear, but it does not see.

One of the findings that I really picked upon and that I will for sure mention in the second post on oxytocin is that this hormone is also highly secreted when singing in groups, which increased bonding.

I will end this post with this song A Thousand Years by Sting (cannot chose my favorite since there are so many amazing ones by Sting):


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For the official summary of the documentary, refer to:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/show/CTVShows/20090115/musical_brain/20090119
You can also read the book of Daniel Levitin "This is Your Brain on Music".

In H.M.'s Memory

Last year, I listened to this brief audio news concerning the famous patient H.M. from which we learned so much about memory and the specific areas associated with it. Unfortunatly, H.M. died last December 2nd. Henry G. Molaison (aka H.M.) started having generalized and minor seizures at the age of 16. After many failed attempts to control them with medication, Dr. Scoville decided (in 1953) to surgically remove both medial temporal lobes (including the amygdala, hippocampus, rhinal and parahippocampal cortex) that were considered to be the onset point of his seizures. However, that procedure changed his life forever since it resulted in sever anterograde amnesia (memory deficit involving not being able to consolidate new memories). He also had some retrograde amnesia (inability to remember about 2 years prior the surgery). Brenda Milner, who is still involved at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, was his neuropsychologist since 1956. It is due to this tragic memory loss that Milner among others learned about the memory circuit and the areas of involved in the brain.

In this interview below, I was particulary touched by his lack of emotions... Tragically, due to his lack of emotional reaction (mostly due to the removal of both amygdalas), he lived with his confusion without being upset by it...

Listen Now!

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For a summary of H.M.'s life and the article on his death, see:

HM. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 27, 2009, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/hm-patient

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Technology/Famous+neuroscience+patient+dies+memory+lives/1035462/story.html

Also, read one of the original writings by Brenda Milner and collegues:

Milner, B., Corkin, & Teuber (1968). Further analysis of the hippocampal amnesic syndrome:

14-year follow-up study of H.M., Neuropsychologia, 6, 215-234.

Traces of our Passage

Here is a nice picture of the mountains in Innsbruck, Austria. I decided to insert some faces of the four of us that went on that trip last summer. There are 9 faces in total. Tell me if you find them or if it's too ambiguous :) I'll post more pictures or drawings involving competing perceptions. Hopefully, I'll get better at creating these... :D

Here I expect, but it is merely speculation, that the people involved in the picture or the people that know who they are will see more faces since there are more familiar with them.

One of the laws of Gestalt deals with familiarity in perception. In this case, it suggests that we see faces all the time and, hence, are very familiar and can recognize a human face in a picture or a landscape painting. Gestalt Psychology focuses on a holistic, overall pattern of the face, but is vague about the specificity and details of a unique recognisable face... There is new research in face recognition that I will discuss when I'll post the solution for this image locating the faces in the landscape. Enjoy :D

Hormones & Psychology: Oxytocin (Part 1)

I find it crucial to discuss the endocrine system (hormonal system) and its role in behavior. I am quite disappointed that it is not a mandatory subject covered when doing a major in Psychology. It is well known that the nervous system works with the endocrine system to elicit different behaviors. Where some are found to be typical of either gender (influenced greatly by the hormone levels), other behaviors are triggered by experience and the processes of cognition in the brain. The endocrine system is also concerned with the never-ending nature-nurture debate as some hormone secretions depend on your genetic make-up (i.e. predisposition) and others depend on more direct environmental factors and past learning. [We know both genetic factors and environmental are responsible for behavior, therefore we should now focus on to what extent.] In that matter, as the nervous system elicits fast responses depending on the external stimuli, the endocrine system concerns itself with more bureaucratic (i.e. slow cascades of responses) with a few exceptions of course.

What is important to know about the connection between the nervous system and the endocrine system is that they communicate through the hypothalamus (a structure deeper in the brain that is not called a gland but that does secrete many hormones as well).When the hypothalamus secretes a hormone to release in the body or to trigger a cascade of other hormones in the body, this hormone has to pass by the gate called the pituitary gland in order to end up in the blood stream. Substances in the brain are highly controlled and separated from other substances in the rest of the body by the brain-blood barrier (a preventive measure in order to protect the brain from harmful substances). However, you might have guessed that drugs do end up fooling this barrier in order to elicit their effects on the brain. By now, I probably suffocated you with biology… In any case, I would like to discuss, now all that being said, about the hormone oxytocin and its role in behavior.

I haven’t yet done or found a good literature review on the subject of oxytocin. However, I would use a great book published recently on that matter (see its source below). Basically, oxytocin is made by the hypothalamus and secreted by the pituitary gland in the blood stream. Also, when I first learned about oxytocin, I was very intrigued that this hormone is one of the few exceptions that generate a positive feedback on its control center: the hypothalamus. In other words, upon secretion of oxytocin, high levels of this hormone will trigger even more release of that hormone. This being in contrast with most hormones that have a negative feedback on the brain, meaning that a high level of those hormones will trigger the brain to release less precursors (being hormones that will transform in another hormone) or other releasing hormones (hormones that trigger the release of another hormone). One of the major roles of oxytocin is of course during labor when you can understand the importance of a positive feedback as the contractions are getting stronger and more frequent. The second major role is the one of triggering the release of milk once the baby is born (mammary growth, milk production and release being controlled by the other hormones such as progesterone and prolactin). Here is a nice picture of the process of milk release by the mammary glands which is also called the oxytocin reflex or milk ejection reflex.

These bodily reactions are, as you noticed, automatic behaviors that any mother will go through and have no control over. However, some new research found that oxytocin has an important role in more complex behaviors. I would resume on this in a later post…
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BOOK SOURCE:

Neave, N. (2008). Hormones and Behaviour: A Psychological Approach. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

I recommend you read Chapter 1 of this book since it is one of the best written summaries about the nervous system that I have read. It is concise, straightforward and covers the basic you need to know to get around in articles about the brain. Believe me I am quite annoyed with revisions and introductions on that matter and it is the first time I’ve read this part without being bored to death or pulling my hairs out.

Family Tree

Count the number of faces that you see in the picture above...

Here is one of many drawings that challenges your perception and it takes the brain some time to perceive more faces than first observed. The tree and the two people at the bottom are obviously meant to be recognised right away. However, what we see as branches can be analysed and recognised at some point also as faces. While you are searching for faces, the brain tries to find some subtleties in the branches that could be similar to a face. The reason it takes more time to see those faces is because you ask your brain to perceive those obvious branches as something else. Once you see those faces, your are no longer able to ignore them and you cannot see the tree and the faces in the branches at the same time! I'll describe this phenomenon in more detail in later posts. Thus, there are officially 13 faces, but even I didn't see them all...

Also, another one using trees that is nice but more obvious is the cover for the movie Premonition (2007):

It is time!

I modified a program in Java (I took from a website) that is designed to test your reflexes when reacting to a visual stimulus. Depending on the speed it takes you to click on the colored square, a message will appear with your reaction time and some information and statistics on factors that can change your ability to respond like the average individual. Feel free to try it many times at different speeds to learn more about drugs, the average reaction times and how mental disorders are correlated with different responses. Do not take your results too seriously as your internet speed, mental state and the color of your hair[1] can all affect the outcome.

I could not put the script directly on the blog, so here is a link:

Test Your Reflexes!

[1] This is another one of my attempts at humor :)
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Free DHTML scripts provided by Dynamic Drive

Literature Review of Reaction Times
http://biology.clemson.edu/bpc/bp/Lab/110/reaction.htm

Other articles:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VC9-4GCX1RV-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=1149f1f591bff0a0c56a182392f03b8e

Books:

Drug Abuse Handbook

By Steven B. Karch

Edition: 2, illustrated

Published by CRC Press, 2007

ISBN 0849316901, 9780849316906

1267 pages

http://books.google.ca/books?id=F0mUte90ATUC&pg=PA219&lpg=PA219&dq=simple+reaction+time+visual+stimulus+drug&source=bl&ots=f4Mtv4zxGz&sig=LrKQ-hB0kDaoDFDfXPp68W97V7s&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA229,M1

What shall we do with the paranoid schizophrenic early in the morning

This is a video that attempts to illustrates the problem with finding proper, ethical and successful treatment for schizophrenics. It focuses on paranoid schizophrenia which is a subtype of schizophrenia characterized by delusions (often of grandeur or persecution), phobias, hallucinations and anxiety.

BEWARE!: This video uses an extreme form of sarcasm!

Ask your Doctor...

BEWARE!: What you are about to see and read are NOT tips for a healthy physical and psychological state. Sarcasm is heavily in use.
Tip Number Ein:

Tip Number Zwai:
Lay back and concentrate your pretty green eyes on this picture and the facts on the cause of your failures in life will suddenly appear. An Aha!-moment might follow.

Have a nice day ;)

Euphoric Nightmare!

A few months ago I experienced something very unusual. You probably all experienced having nightmares at least when you were kids since children do have more nightmares than adults. The intense feeling of fear makes us wake up suddenly and out of breath as our heart rate is flying. Also, there are other instances when we wake up suddenly from our dreams as when our alarm clock gives us a reality check ;). The rest of the time, dreams end and we don't even remember most of them as they are part of the normal sleep cycle. It is mostly when we wake up in the middle of a dream that we truly remember it vividly. In that matter, some months ago I had a dream that I would not explain in details here since the events are irrelevant. I was passively going around in my dream when I arrived somewhere I didn’t expect and it made me surprisingly and suddenly very happy. The feeling was so strong and sudden that I immediately woke up in a very agitated state. Just for the record, it wasn't a dirty dream as you might be thinking right now! After some light swearing @#$%^&!, I got perplexed by what happened and it made me wonder...

Most of us know that the brainwaves generated during sleep are different than when we are awake. However, when we dream, we enter a specific stage (among other stages) called the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep where the waves resemble most those when awake than any other waves produced during the rest of the sleep cycle (1 cycle = about 90 minutes). My theory is that since REM sleep is the closest to being awake, any strong emotions could disturb sleep and wake you up since the body reaction is strong and the brain is not able to compensates for factors that might wake us up (such as loud noises) at that stage (compared to earlier stages such as deep sleep when practically no loud noise disturbs our sleep). I would explain in more details each stage and theories on the sleeping brain later.

New Disorder on the Horizon of Problems

You probably heard of people suffering from somnambulism that drove a car, killed people or just hurt themselves in their sleep walking. Now, there is a new harmful thing you can do while asleep. As some people make awkward calls when drunk, others just sleep email. This can be very disturbing as you are not aware of what you sent and to whom.

[http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40970/113/]

Tip for a Good Night Sleep

I know this is hard for you chocolate lovers out there but you know it disturbs sleep. Thus, AVOID chocolate before going to bed! However, if you absolutely have to have that special desert after supper, you might as well take white chocolate as it contains little caffeine and no theobromine which increases heart rate. :P
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/health/13real.html?ref=science]

New Drug Latisse: Solution to All our Problems!

In december, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) FINALLY approved the new revolutionary drug Latisse. Latisse has been created to solve the number 1 problem of females: tragically short and thin eyelashes. YES, this new drug enhances the length of our eyelashes that obviously HAVE to be more bushy as well. This drug was derived from the drug Lumigan for treatment of glaucoma (damage to the optic nerve due to high pressure in the eye) as researchers noticed its potential in growth of eyelashes. Botox and Viagra, which are in the same category as Latisse concerning life or death necessity, were derived from other drugs as well. What is also common to those drugs is that you have to buy them regularly, since you cannot permanently enhanced faces, lashes and libido. Latisse is applied to the eyelashes directly and costs $120/month.

You are now probably wondering with growing curiosity and stress: How is this drug related to the brain or psychology? Well my dear-count-on-my-hand-readers, it is quite obvious! This new drug attempts to convince us beautiful women that we desire and need this drug and that this beauty and our social environment is at stake.

However, I must admit I do not find this drug as useless as this other new product developed in Japan by an incredible genius woman who probably knows the meaning of revenge ;)

BEWARE!: This movie might end up giving you a serious brain freeze.

Why guys gives us chocolate? (Part 1)

The second most difficult question ever asked by women is "Why guys gives us chocolate?" (the first, of course, being "Is chocolate the answer to all our problems?"). I will begin to attempt to answer this question by introducing the Stroop effect. You might not see a link right away, but I like my discussions to be eclectic :)

You have all probably seen and did the Stroop task before. In the first part, the participant has to name the color of different stimuli (such as colored shapes or objects). The purpose is to measure the reaction times of the person to say the color out loud. Of course, we consider also the errors in naming the proper color. Then, in another set of stimuli, the participant is presented with words representing colors and having different colors than their meaning such as those below.

Here is where we observe the Stroop effect. We notice a difference in the reaction times of this second set of stimuli since there are conflicting processes occurring at the same time. Also, more errors can occur depending on the process that takes over. This effect has been replicated more than 700 times[1] and anyone can do it and see the increase in difficulty of the task in the second set.

Thus, if we replace the shapes of the first set by some Chinese symbols, we expect to see longer reaction times for Chinese speaking people than those who do not understand the symbols.

[Translation: black, yellow, orange, red, blue, green, pink, purple, white]

By manipulating this effect, researchers found many interesting results. What I would like to discuss here is the concept of self-control. To do this task, one needs self-control in order to ignore the meaning of the words and say the color of the word. The research published in 2007 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Gailliot et al. on the matter of control using this effect and other tasks is one of many. I will not get in the details of each study per se, but the conclusion is after performing such a task, our glucose depletes and the subsequent tasks of self-control show worse performance than the first. This inference sounds obvious, since as in physical tasks, mental control needs energy (i.e. glucose). Now begins a discussion that is somehow far fetched but nevertheless interesting…

The fact that we need glucose (i.e. sugar) in order to control ourselves in complex tasks or just to resist temptation got me wondering about why guys give us girls chocolates, candies and other sugary coated/filled/tasting foods. There are three possibilities according to me…

The first being that they’re just trying to buy us, which might work in some cases or…okay… in most cases.

The next being that they count on the “effects” of chocolate and sugar to give us a high that conditions us to associate this high with the person giving us the chocolates. [Some other time, I will bring up the subject of the effects of chocolate on the mind and body. To give you a heads-up, chocolate dilates the blood vessels and razes heart rates to some extent ;)]

The third possibility is, of course, that guys basically have no idea that we use those huge amounts of sugar in chocolate to basically resist…them! In that matter, from the start we have only enough energy to resist the chocolates and eating those is mandatory in order to resist their owners. When we finally depleted all the chocolates in the box and the sugar in our body, resistance is futile…

BEWARE!: This last exploratory discussion is oversimplifying research data and it is the result of merely my attempt at humor.
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For a short summary of the Stroop effect, check:
[1] Stroop effect. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved January 11, 2009, from Answers.com Web site: http://www.answers.com/topic/stroop-effect

For the full article, please visit: http://www.uky.edu/~njdewa2/gailliotetal07JPSP.pdf