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NEWS FROM OUR WEB SITE l Our mental simulations of the world
are surprisingly similar to the way video games model physics. l
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How Dogs Perceive Time 00 • Acupuncture 00 • Sugar Brain 00 • Gender and Drugs 00 •
Combating Jet Lag 00 • Materialism Hurts 00 • Hearing with Light 00 • Music for Alzheimer’s 00 •
Head Lines
RESEARCH MADE RELEVANT
Time Perception
MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND 9
M
ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL BLOW
fpo
RESEARCH MADE RELEVANT
RESEARCH MADE RELEVANT
10 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND JULY/AUGUST 2014
Head Lines
We often think of the abstract idea of
time in the concrete terms of space: plot-
ting it out on clocks , calendars and time-
lines, saying we are “looking forward to
the weekend” or “putting t he past be h ind
us.” These adages may be more than just
metaphors. A study published in Janu-
ary in Psychological Science suggests
that thinking of space may be a necessi-
ty to thi nk of time. When people’s minds
are not able to accurately understand
space, researchers found, they have dif-
culty with time as well.
People with a condition called left
hemispatial neglect ignore the left side of
space—not remembering the left half of
a scene or even not eating off the left half
of their plate—after an injury or stroke
in their brain’s right inferior parietal
lobe. In the new study, researchers inves-
tigated these patients’ understanding of
time. Because people who speak lan-
guages written left to right , such as Eng-
lish or French, tend to think of timelines
with the past to the left and the fut ure to
the right, the team focused on how left
hemispatial neglect might alter the left
side of their mental chronology—that is ,
their thinking about the past.
Seven French spe akers with hemispa-
tial neglect, seven stroke patients
without neglect and seven
healthy people participated in
a simple memory study. They
learned facts about a ctional
40-yea r-old man named David —
some of which were true of him
10 years in the past and some of
which would be true 10 years in
the future. They were then asked
to remember as many of the facts
as they could and to say whether
they were true of David at age 30
or age 50. Sure enough, the peo-
ple with hemi spatial neglect were
worse than the others at remem-
bering facts from the past—but
not from the future.
When patients with this type
of brain damage draw a face, says psy-
chologist Lera Boroditsky of the Univer-
sity of California, San Diego, who led the
study, they might depict only the r ight eye
and ear, or they might cluster all the fac e’s
features on the right side. With memory,
she notes, “we se e a mix of those: to some
extent, p eople weren’t good at remember-
ing things that were associated with the
past, and the other error people made
was misremembering things that were
associated with the past as though they
were associated with the future.”
When someone’s internal under-
standi ng of space is thrown off, it seems,
their corresponding ordering of time is
disrupted. Boroditsky is planning to
repeat the study with Hebrew or Arabic
speakers, who read—and plot time-
lines—from right to left, to see if they
neglect the future instead of the past.
— Valerie Ross
Left in the Past
Our brain may not be able to conceptualize time
without a proper understanding of space
>>
Time Sense: How we perceive the passing moments
Same Place, Same Time
The brain processes time,
space and social relationships
in the same area
Time, space and social relationships share a
common language of dist ance: we speak of far-
away places, close friends and the remote
past. Maybe that is because all three share
common patterns of brain activity, according to
a Januar y study in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Curious to understand why the distance meta -
phor works across conceptual domains, Dart-
mouth College psychologists used functional
MRI scans to analyze the brains of 15 p eople
as they viewed pictures of household objects
taken at near or far distances, looked at photo -
graphs of friends or acquaintances, and read
phrases such as “in a few seconds” or “a year
from now.” Small patterns of activity within the
right inferior parietal lobule, a region thought to
process distance information, robustly predict-
ed whether a participant was thinking about
near versus far in any of the categories—indi-
cating that certain aspects of time, space and
relationships are all processed the same way
in the brain. The results, the researchers say,
suggest that higher-order brain functions are
organized more around computations such as
near versus far than conceptual domains such
as time or social relationships. — Nathan Collins
An injector for an opioid antidote gained FDA approval, allowing for swifter treatment of overdoses. The device resembles an EpiPen. l The National Institute of Mental Health is shaking up the methods of psychiatric drug trials, calling the current system “an incredible waste of money.”
Opening illo plus
spot by Paul Blow
M
MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND 11
Small Animals Live in a Slow-Motion World
Time seems to pass more slowly for lighter animals
with faster metabolisms
A Blue Minute
Depressed people gauge time more accurately
Time ies when you’re having fun and passes slowly when you’re not—except when you
are de pressed, in which case your time-gauging abilities are pretty accurate. Repor ting
in PLOS ONE, researchers in England and Ireland asked 39 students —18 with mild
depression—to estimate the duration of tones lasting between two and 65 seconds and
to produce tones of specied lengths of time. Happier students overestimated intervals
by 16 percent and produced tones that were short by 13 percent, compared with
depressed students’ 3 percent underestimation and 8 percent overproduction. The
results suggest that depressive realism, a phenomenon in which depressed people
perceive themselves more accurately (and less positively) than typical individuals, may
extend to aspects of thought beyond self-perception—in this case, time. They speculate
that mindfulness treatments may be effective for depression, partly be cause they help
depressed people focus on the moment, rather than its pas sing. — Nathan Collins
An injector for an opioid antidote gained FDA approval, allowing for swifter treatment of overdoses. The device resembles an EpiPen. l The National Institute of Mental Health is shaking up the methods of psychiatric drug trials, calling the current system “an incredible waste of money.”
Time Flies (But Not If You’re a Fly)
To a y, an incoming swat appears to m ove in slow motion (as many would -be bug killers
have suspected all along). That is because ie s process about four times m ore visual
informa tion per second than humans do—they see 250 frames per seco nd to our 60. Here is
how our perception of t he passa ge of time stacks up against variou s animal s.
Our
movements
appear in
slow motion
Our
movements
appear
sped up
llllllllll
Housey
250 her tz
Pigeon
100 Hz
Dog
80 Hz
Human
60 Hz
Cat
55 Hz
Brown r at
39 Hz
Leatherback
sea turtle
15 Hz
Speakers of different languages envision the future unfolding different directions.
One “dog year” supposedly equals seven
human years. But does one year feel like
seven years to a dog? Evidence sug gests
that distinct species do indeed experience
passing time on different scales. A recent
study in Animal Behavior reveals that body
mass and met abolic rate determine how
animals of dif ferent species perceive time.
Time perception depends on how rapidly
an animal’s nervous system processes
sensor y information. To test this ability,
researchers show animals a rapidly ashing
light. If the light ashes quickly enough,
animals (and humans) perceive it as a solid,
unblinking light. The animal’s behavior or its
brain activity, as measured by electrodes,
reveals the highest frequency at which each
species perceives the light as ashing.
Animals that can detect the blinking at higher
frequencies are perceiving time at a ner
resolution. In other words, movements and
events will appear to unfold more slowly to
them—think slow-motion bullet dodging in an
action movie.
The scientists who ran the new study
gathered data from previous experiments
that assessed how the rate at which visual
information is processed in 34 vertebrates,
including lizards, birds, sh and mammals.
The scientists hypothesized that the ability
to detect incoming sights at a high rate
would be advantageous for animals that
must per form the equivalent of bullet
dodging—responding to visual stimuli very
quickly to catch elusive prey or escape
predators, for instance. These animals tend
to be lighter and have faster metabolisms.
The data bore out the hypothesis: species
that perceived time at the nest resolutions
tended to be smaller and have faster
metabolisms.
These ndings show that differences in
how a mouse and an elephant sense time
are not arbitrar y but rather are nely tuned by
inter actions with their sur roundings. A link
between time perception, body structure and
physiology suggests that different nervous
systems have developed to balance
pressures from the natural environment with
energy conservation. Rapid perception might
be essential for a hawk but would waste a
whale’s precious energy. As for Fido, a year
really does seem longer to him than it does
to you, but probably not by a factor of seven.
Dogs can take in visual information at least
25 percent faster than humans—just enough
to make a television show look like a series
of ickering images. — Emilie Reas
Which Way Is Tomorrow?
English Herew
and
Arabic Spanish
Aymara Kuuk Thaayorre
(spoken in Po rm-
puraaw, an aboriginal
community in
Aust ral ia) Mandarin
(China)
12 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND JULY/AUGUST 2014
Acupuncture for Depression?
The alternative practice may be able to replace medication
or alleviate its side effects
A growing number of peo-
ple are seeking alterna-
tives to antidepressant
medications, and new
research reveals that
acupuncture could be a promising option. One new study found the
traditional Chinese practice to be as ef fective as antidepressants,
and a different study found that acupuncture
may help treat the medic ation’s side effects.
In acupuncture, a practitioner inserts
needles into the skin at various points of the
body thought to cor respond with specic
organs [see illustration at right]. In Chinese
medicine, the process is believed to improve
functioning by correcting energ y blocks or
imbalances in the organs; Western research
suggests the needles may activate natural
painkillers in the brain.
A study published last fall in the Journal
of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
found that electroacupuncture—in which
a mild electric current is transmitted through
the needles—was just as effective as
uoxetine (the generic name of Prozac) in
reducing symptoms of depression. Patients
underwent six weeks of treatment with
either electroacupuncture ve times weekly
or a standard daily dose of uoxetine.
Researchers assessed participants’
depression symptoms every two weeks,
and before and after the treatment period they measured levels of
glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), a neuroprotective
protein that the researchers say plays a role in the development of
depression. Previous studies have found lower levels of GDNF among
patients with major depressive disorder, and in other research the
protein was increased following treatment with antidepressant
medication. After the six-week treatment regimen, both groups of
patients showed a similar improvement in
depressive symptoms, and both treatments
restored GDNF to a normal concentration,
but electroacupuncture began to work
faster, reducing symptoms more
dramatically at weeks two and four than the
drug. Of the patients who got better, a higher
percentage of those who had electro -
acupuncture showed a “great improvement”
than of those who took the drug.
Another study sug gests that acupunc-
ture may help with one par ticularly dif cult
aspect of depression treatment: the sexual
side effects of some medications. Twelve
weeks of acupuncture helped both men and
women with several asp ects of sexual
functioning, according to the work published
in the Journal of Alternative and Comple men-
t ary Medicine. These ndings add to a
growing body of work suggesting acupunc-
ture may be useful for a variety of ailments,
including chronic pain, anxiet y and nausea.
—
Tori Rodriguez
Head LinesHead Lines
>>
Science Explores
Acupuncture
Experts do not agree whether
acupuncture truly works, but several
studies have attempted to unravel the
effects certain acupuncture points
have on our mind and body. So far the
ndings have been ambiguous and hard
to reproduce. Most points fall near
major nerves; these six—two for
treatment (Baihui and Zusanli) and the
other four f or control—were used in the
study that f ound acupuncture to be as
effective as Prozac for depression.
MMental toughness is that one special ingredient that can push you past the competition. | Being bad at video games increases aggression.
Why Is It So Hard to Study Acupuncture?
Bias. Two major hurdles make study design
for acupuncture tricky. First is craf ting a good
fake acupuncture technique to act as a placebo.
The second is keeping the study blinded,
which involves making sure participants and
practitioners do not know whether they are
receiving or giving the real or sham treatment.
Placebo ef fect. Acupuncture is associated
with a robust placebo effect, which c an make
it seem more effective than it really is. On
the ip side, it can also reduce the dif ferences
between the treatment and placebo groups,
potentially masking acupuncture’s true
usefulness.
Overly positive reporting. Several studies
have shown a systematic bias in the medical
literature. For instance, when researchers
reviewed randomized controlled trials per-
formed in China, Japan, Russia and Taiwan,
they found that these studies almost always
showed positive results for acupuncture.
Studies in the rest of the world were much
more likely to nd no benet.—Victoria Stern
Baihui (DU20):
May enhance memor y, but brain -imaging
results are contradictory.
Neiguan (PC6):
May increase circulation and relieve pain.
Shenmen (HT7):
May boost attention and memor y.
Zusanli (ST36):
May increase activity in the hypothalamus,
which regulates production of hormones such
as dopamine and oxy tocin; may also reduce
activity in the amygdala and hippocampus,
the emotional centers of the brain.
Sanyinjiao (SP6):
Associated with pain relief.
Taicho ng (LR3):
Appears to stimulate various br ain regions,
including the rostral anterior cingulate cortex,
which is involved in managing emotional
responses, and the insula, which helps to
maintain the body’s homeostasis.
14 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND JULY/AUGUST 2014
Head LinesHead Lines
Awakening an
Unconscious Mind
Mild electrical stimulation might help
brain-damaged patients communicate
One of the most frustrating and mysterious
medical conditions aec ting the mind is impaired
consciousness, which brain damage sometimes
triggers. Patients in a coma or a vegetative or
minimally conscious state sometimes sp on tane-
ously recover to varying degrees, but in most cases
there is little that doctors can do to help. Now
a rigorous study by a group at Liège University
Hospital Center in Belgium has found that a
simple treatment called transcranial direct-current
stimulation (tDCS) can temporarily raise
awareness in minimally conscious patients.
In tDCS, electro des are glued to the scalp, and
a weak electric current is passed through them to
stimulate the underlying brain tissue. Scientists led
by neurologist Steven Laureys applied the electric
current for 20 minutes to patients’ lef t prefrontal cortex,
an area known to be involved in attentiveness and working
memory. Afterward, the eects on consciousness were
measured by doctors who did not know whether the
patient had received real tDCS or a sham treatment, in
which the apparatus ran, but no current was delivered. For
patients in a vegetative state, who display no communi ca-
tion or purposeful behavior at any time, there were signs
that the stimulation led to improvement in two patients,
but no statistically compelling evidence was seen. Yet
13 of 30 patients in a minimally conscious state—dened
by occasional moments of minimal awareness—showed
measurable improvement in their responses to questions
and sensory stimuli. Some had only recently been injured,
but others had been minimally conscious for months.
The improvements lasted just a few minutes, but
researchers are encouraged—the tDCS apparatus is
inexpensive, easy to use, safe and lacking in side
eects.Laureys is planning new studies to see if the
stimulation can be congured to spur a more lasting
recovery. Even if the eects remain temporary, the ability
to trigger a brief period of awareness could be invaluable,
perhaps allowing patients to communicate in a meaning-
ful way with their loved ones. —William Skaggs
Sugar May Harm Brain Health
High levels of blood glucose are linked to memory impairments
A poor diet can eat away at brain health. Now a study
in Neurology helps elucidate why. It suggests that ele -
vated levels of glucose in the blood —which result from
eating a lot of sugar or other carbohydrates —are haz-
ardous to both brain structure and cognitive function.
Diabetes, which is char acterized by chronically high lev-
els of blood glucose, has been linked to an elevated risk of
dementia and a smaller hippocampus, a brain region critical for
memory. The new study sought to identif y whether glucose had
an effect on memory even in p eople without the disease, which
could induce other brain changes that confound the data. In the
experiment, researchers at the Charité University Medical Center in
Berlin evaluated both short- term and long-term glucose markers in
141 healthy, nondiabetic older adults. The p articipants performed a
memory test and underwent imaging to assess hippocampal struc-
ture. Higher levels on both glucose measures were associated with
worse memory, as well as a smaller hippocampus and compro -
mised hippo campal structure. The researchers also found that the
structural changes par tially accounted for the statistical link
between glucose and memor y. According to lead investigator A gnes
Flöel, a neurologist at Charité, the results “provide fur ther evidence
that glucose might directly contribute to hippocampal atrophy,” but
she cautions that their data are correlational and cannot establish
a causal relationship between sugar and brain health.
These ndings indicate that even in the absence of diabetes
or glucose intolerance, higher blood sugar may harm the brain in
ways that ultimately disrupt memory function. Further research is
needed to characterize how glucose exerts these effects and
whether dietary or lifest yle inter ventions might reverse such patho -
logical changes. — Emilie Reas
>>
>>
MAutism prevalence has increased to one in 68 kids, up from one in 88 two years ago. | Are prions the key to successfully detecting early Alzheimer’s disease? | Occasional “avalanches” of disordered neuronal activity might be key to brain health, according to an emerging theory.
MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND 15
( PHARMA WATCH )
Men are more likely to overdose on prescription painkillers
than women, but women have a harder time quit ting and are
more likely to relapse once they become addicted—particu-
larly in the middle of their menstrual cycle, when glucose lev-
els in the brain are low. Glucose is necessary for self- control.
Women have less binding c apacit y in their blood, meaning
their blood proteins c an absorb or mop up fewer foreign sub-
stances. When taken with other medications, the molecules
of certain tricyclic antidepressants (such as amitriptyline)
could over ow into the bloodstream, potentially
causing more side ef fects.
Most psychotropic drugs are metabolized, or bro -
ken down into usable substances, in the liver.
Because men metabolize the ac tive ingredient
in Ambien and other sleep aids faster than
women, women typically have more of the
drug still in their systems the nex t morn -
ing—creating problems when they have
to be aler t for work and driving.
Several liver enzymes seem to
work at dif ferent speeds in men
than in women, which could
potentially affect how the b ody
responds to certain antide-
pressants, anxiolytics, painkill-
ers and other drugs. The enzy me
CYP3A4, for instance, is especially
active in young women, rendering
some medications—such as anti-
convulsants—less ef fective in that
population.
Women’s stomachs are naturally less acidic
than men’s. As a result, drugs with a more
basic pH, including many antianxiety and anti-
depressant medications, may be absorbed
into women’s bodies more quickly. Women
might feel the effects faster and more power-
fully, and the dr ugs could b e more toxic to
women at st andard doses.
GENDERED MEDICINE
Psychotropic drugs affect men and women differently, in mostly unknown ways
Sex differences in the body’s response to medication have long been
overlooked. In fact, until the 1990s women were banned from par tici-
pating in clinical trials in the U.S., creating a gap in our understanding
of drug ef fects that scientists are still trying to bridge. Women are now
almost twice as likely to be prescribed psychotropic medication than
men, and research has indicated that their different hormones, body
composition and metabolism, among other biological factors, may
make them more sensitive to certain medications. Furthermore,
women are between 50 and 75 percent more likely to experience side
effects. Last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced
the rst sex-specic dosing guidelines for a psychopharmaceutical
drug: the sleep medicine Ambien was discovered to be doubly potent
for women. Here are a few of the known medications that act different-
ly in men and women—but research is just beginning. — Roni Jacobson
TESTING BIAS
From animal studies to clinical trials, drugs are frequently tested
on males only. Yet eight out of 10 drugs pulled from the market
by the fda between 1997 and 2001 posed greater health risks
for women than men, according to a U.S. Government
Accountability Of ce study. This testing bias can be unwitting or
intentional—many clinical trials exclude women because their
different hormones are considered a “con founding variable.”
Pregnant women are also typically excluded from clinical trials
for safety, but mount ing evidence suggests that their hormonal
changes can alter the ef fectiveness of certain medications. For
example, a study last year found that pregnant women with
bipolar disorder require higher doses of the drug Lamictal to
control their depression symptoms. In addition, other
medications taken by women but not men, such as birth-control
pills, may interact with psychotropic medications to unknown
consequence. The fda recently announced that it would step up
its effort to account for sex differences in clinical trials.
Multiple studies have suggested that women may
respond better to SSRI antidepressants than men
(particularly Zoloft), whereas men may have better
luck with tricyclics. The reason for these differences
remains unclear.
First - generation, or “typic al,” antipsychotics such as
haloperidol have been found to be more effective for
managing hallucinations and delusions in women than
in men, who require higher doses of the drugs to improve
their symptoms.
The kidney is the primary or gan that clears
drugs from the body. Men lter and elimi-
nate drug compounds faster than wom-
en. Women may therefore need to wait
longer before taking the second dose
of some medications, especially
benzodiazepines such as Xanax.
Women experience greater pain
relief from opioid painkillers,
perhaps because estrogen,
a hormone that uctuates
through women’s repro-
ductive cycles, has been
found to modulate the
body’s response to pain.
Women have higher concen-
trations of fatt y tissue relative
to muscle mass than men do.
Cert ain drugs, such as SSRIs and
benzodiazepines, are designed to
dissolve in oil and fat to pass through
the blood -brain barr ier, and they may linger
in body fat over time —leading to higher
concentrations in a woman’s body.
Autism prevalence has increased to one in 68 kids, up from one in 88 two years ago. | Are prions the key to successfully detecting early Alzheimer’s disease? | Occasional “avalanches” of disordered neuronal activity might be key to brain health, according to an emerging theory.
16 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND JULY/AUGUST 2014
Head Lines
>>
Travel on the Brain: Get the most out of your next vacation
How to
Be a Better
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Before we had kids, my husband and I loved to
travel—he proposed to me on a bench in Reykjavik
after a road trip across southern Iceland, and
we spent our rst anniversar y jumping into
freshwater cave pools on the Mexican Riviera.
Our last big trip was more than two years ago,
when we attempted to enjoy a small island in
the Bahamas with a teething seven -month- old.
(D’oh.) Now, as the parents of two young girls,
travel mostly seems like more trouble than it’s
worth—and the inherent risks we used to
accept without thinking, such as the possibility
of a plane crash, seem stark now that children
are involved. Sometimes I don’t know if I’ll ever
have the guts to go anywhere cool again. But I
want to, and I want to teach my kids how enrich-
ing and fun it can be to visit somewhere totally
new. With any luck, these mind hacks from psy-
chologists and travel exper ts can help me—and
anyone else an xious about leaving their comfort
zone—become a better traveler.
traveler
A new atlas that maps how a baby’s brain develops aims to uncover the origins of disorders such as autism. l Autism prevalence has
#1Lean into the stress. Anyone who
says travel isn’t stressful is lying.
Crowds, lines, delays and miscommunica-
tions are rampant —and that’s before your
plane even lifts of f. “Travel stress is normal,”
says psychologist Jonathan Bricker of the Uni-
versity of Washington, who has studied peo-
ple’s reactions to tension during travel. “The
key is what to do when you have it. Most peo -
ple either get angry or try to avoid it.” But
being angry or at tempting to avoid stress usu-
ally backres and leads to more stress—or to
a tendency to avoid travel altogether, accord-
ing to his research. The alternative? “Accep-
tance! The willingness to just let the stress be
there, to just notice it, to let it come and go on
its own,” Bricker says. Mindful acceptance is
a proven tactic for stress reduction —the dif -
cult par ts of your trip will be over before you
know it, and you’ll be on your way.
#2Talk to anyone and everyone.
Being out of our element and
immersed in a foreign culture can be tough
for those of us who like security and routine.
“What makes us most uncomfortable in
another culture is our lack of understanding
of it,” says Michael Brein, a travel psycholo-
gist based near Seattle who has analyzed
more than 1,600 people’s travel tales. “But
the more I can get to know what the culture
is all about, often by talking to people, the
more comfortable I’m going to feel.” Doing
so frees us up to just enjoy and take things
in, anxiet y-free. “Some of the best travel
experiences I’ve ever had have just been the
people I’ve interacted with overseas, like in
cafes or shops. As I talked to them and
came to understand the quirks of the cul-
ture, then I began to have more interperson-
ally rewarding experiences.” You can also
use these conversations to step outside the
security blanket of your guidebook, he says.
Discovering unpublished gems, such as
locals’ favorite restaurants or day trips, can
lead to the most memorable adventures.
#3Channel your younger self. What
would you think if a new friend you
met in a pover ty -stricken country with no dip -
lomatic ties to the U.S. asked you and your
traveling partner to come back to his aunt’s
house for dinner? Me, today: “Food poison-
ing! Getting lost in a ‘bad’ neighborhood. Kid-
napping, maybe!” Me, at age 24: “I would be
honored—what bus do we take?” To this day,
eating homemade arroz con pollo and drinking
a mysterious, unlabeled mint liquor in that
family’s living room in central Havana is a
peak experience of my life. “The younger per-
son is more adaptable and learns better,”
Brein says. “When we’re younger, we’re willing
to take more risks—and because of all we
learn by doing that, the outcome of a travel
experience can be so much more sp ecial.”
When an exciting but slightly scary opportuni-
ty arises during travel, Brein observes, just try
channeling your younger self for a moment.
Taking a risk—within reason—can mean the
difference bet ween a trip you remember until
the day you die and one that fades away the
moment you get back home.
#4Practice closer to home. No mat-
ter how much I channel my post-
college self, I know I’m nowhere near ready
to drag my kids onto a hot, sweaty bus in
Havana. So what can I do to slowly but surely
build my condent-traveler muscle? “Take a
staycation near your town and just do some
new and dif ferent things. Walk into mom-
and-pop shops and talk to the owners like
you would if you were abroad, sit in cof fee
shops and interact with patrons,” Brein says.
“If you do some of these around town or on
short trips, you’ll begin to feel the good, posi-
tive consequences of taking a little bit more
of a chance.” Okay, so maybe our next f amily
trip won’t be tur tle -egg watching in Akumal,
but I have a feeling that overnight camping
an hour away from home will be plenty excit-
ing—and perhaps set the stage for bigger
trips to come. —Sunny Sea Gold
M A new app aims to help you conquer jet lag faster by calculating the ideal sleep schedule for your particular trip.
How to Let Go
of Materialism
Enhance your well-being
by focusing on deeper goals
Money can’t buy hap-
piness, but placing
less value on the
things it can buy may
improve your psycho-
logical well- being.
The longest ever
study of materialist
values nds becom -
ing less materialistic leads to more con-
tentment in life—and suggests ways to
get to that happy place.
Four related experiments reported in
the February issue of Motivation and Emo-
tion investigated how changes in material-
ism affect well- being. The rst three stud -
ies surveyed natural changes in material -
istic values over six months, two years
and 12 years in adults in the U.S. and Ice -
land. At all three junctures, a decreasing
focus on acquiring money and things led
to more joy and contentment in life.
Fortunately, materialism can be
purposefully changed, found the fourth
study by the same team. A group of
adolescents from the U.S. participated
in a program designed to lessen the value
they place on materialist goals, whereas
a control group did not receive the inter-
vention. In three sessions lasting three
hours each, participants were taught
about consumer culture and encouraged
to clarif y their intrinsic values (such as
self-growth, closeness with friends and
family, and contributing to the community)
and to make nancial decisions based on
those values. Adolescents who
completed the course experienced
reductions in materialism and increases
in self- esteem over the next several
months, whereas the self-esteem of the
control group actually decreased over the
same period. “Intrinsic goals tend to be
ones that promote greater well-being and
act as a kind of ‘antidote’ to materialistic
values,” says Tim Kasser, one of the
study’s authors and a psychology
professor at Knox College. An important
component of the program was that
participants went through it with their
parents and with other adolescents, so
they had a lot of social support in
changing their values.
“I think it is important to nd some
like-minded folks who want to join you in
shifting away from materialism—they are
out there, I promise,” Kasser says.
— Tori Rodriguez
MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM SCIENTIFIC AMERI CAN MIND 17
increased to one in 68 kids, up from one in 88 two years ago. l Occasional “avalanches” of disordered neuronal activity might be key to brain health,
>>
Travel on the Brain: Get the most out of your next vacation
>>
>
Rural is restorative. In one study, people generally rated
rural settings as providing the best environment for
relieving stress and enhancing mood.
>
A weekend is long enough. The aftereffects may not last long, but research shows that
an impromptu short vacation can improve psychological well-being in the moment.
>
Activity is encouraged. People who spent more time engaging in physical activity on
a winter vacation or weekend getaway repor ted signicantly greater satisfac tion.
>
Planning is half the fun. Some studies show that p eople derive the most vacation-
related pleasure from planning their trip. So if money is tight, try planning a staycation—
mapping out fun new things to do in your hometown may deliver a similar jolt of happiness.
—Victoria Stern
The Psychology of Trip Planning
Research reveals what types of
vacations give the biggest mental boost
Future Drugs
for Jet Lag
Molecular clues
may reveal how
to instantly reset
the brain’s clock
Jet lag is a pain —and
besides the inconvenience
and frustration we feel
when we travel more than
a few time zones, jet lag
causes billions of dollars
in economic losses. The
most effective treatment
is structured exposure to
light (for instance, if travel-
ing west, get more light in
the morning) although the
drug melatonin can also
sometimes be helpful.
Both approaches have
been used for more than
20 years, and during that
time no viable new inter-
ventions have appeared.
Recently, however,
re search into the molecu-
lar biology of circadian
rhythms has raised the
prospect of developing
new drugs that might pro-
duce better results.
Jet lag occurs when the
“biological clock” in the
brain becomes misaligned
with the local rhy thm of
daily activity. The ultimate
goal of circadian medicine
is a treatment that instant-
ly resets the brain’s clock.
Failing that, it would be
helpful to have treatments
that speed the rate of
adjustment. Four recent
discoveries suggest new
possibilities.
The rst involves vaso -
pressin, which is the main
chemical signal used to
synchronize cellular
rhythms of activity in the
brain’s biological clock
nucleus. Blocking vaso-
pressin transmission
makes it much easier to
reset this clock. Potential-
ly, a drug that interferes
with vasopressin could
work as a fast-acting treat-
ment for jet lag.
The second and third
possibilities involve a pair
of brain chemicals called
salt-inducible kinase 1
(SIK1) and casein kinase
1ϵ (CK1ϵ), both of which
limit the ability of light to
reset the brain’s clock.
Drugs already exist that
interfere with their effects
and greatly increase the
effectiveness of light expo-
sure. The existing drugs
are not viable jet-lag treat-
ments because of side
effects and dif cult y in
administration, but
researchers hope better
drugs can be developed
that act in a similar way.
The strongest possibili-
ty in the near term, howev-
er, involves the neuro-
transmitter serotonin. In
addition to its well-known
roles in mood and motiva-
tion, serotonin operates
inside the brain’s clock.
There is some evidence
from small studies that
several drugs that act on
the serotonin system can
speed up recovery from jet
lag, including 5-HTP, the
metabolic precursor for
serotonin, which is widely
available as a “nutritional
supplement.” Scientists
have not yet run a gold
standard clinical trial to
test the supplement’s
effectiveness, however.
Meanwhile, research on
circadian biology is moving
at such a rapid pace that
other possibilities will
surely emerge in the near
future. Travelers can start
looking forward to reclaim -
ing the rst days of their
trips. —William Skaggs
Tenacious students view setbacks as a chance to learn and seek to master material rather than outcompete other students.
18 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND JULY/AUGUST 2014
M
Rethink Your
Thoughts about
Thinking
Targeting metacognition—our beliefs about
thoughts—might alleviate mood disorders
and even schizophrenia
Your beliefs about the way you think can shape your life i n sur-
prising ways. A spate of recent ndings suggest that targeting
such metacognition can help relieve mood and anxiety disor-
ders, and it may even reduce symptoms of psychosis.
Metacognition often takes the form of a value judgment
about one’s thoughts, such as “It’s bad that I overanalyze every-
thing.” Research has shown t hat these metacognitive beliefs can
play an important role in obsessive-compulsive disorder, depres-
sion and generalized anxiet y disorder, among others. In partic-
ular, they may matter more than the way we frame situations in
our mind , such as by focusing on the positive or negative aspec ts
of a life event. That framing, called cognitive appraisal, is typi-
cally addressed in psychotherapy, but metacognition is not, p er-
haps to the patient’s detriment, explains psychologist Jennifer
L. Hudson of Macquarie University in Australia. A study pub-
lished last fall in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent
Psychology found that among 83 children, those with anxiety
disorders held more negative beliefs (“Worrying might make me
go crazy”) and posit ive bel iefs (“Worrying helps me feel better”)
about worry than the nonanxious children. “We think that
these beliefs might play a causal, or at least a maintaining, role
in the an xiety disorders,” says Hudson, a co-author of the st udy.
Metacognitive therapy can successfully treat mood and
anxiety disorders, according to a growing body of research.
Developed in 2008 by Adrian Wells, a clinical psychologist at
the University of Manchester in England, the therapy teaches
patients to recognize and reframe metacognitive thoughts that
reinforce unhelpful coping mechanisms, such as “my frett ing is
uncontroll able,” much in the same way cogn itive-behavior ther-
apy (CBT) targets maladaptive beliefs along the lines of “the
world is unsafe.” The technique also helps people become more
exible in the way they think about their thoughts, instead of
always defaulting to rumination, for example.
One small study from the December 2013 issue of the Japa-
nese Journal of Personality examined whether metacognitive
therapy could reduce depressive rumination by disproving posi-
tive beliefs about this style of thinking, such as “rumination
increas es insight into situat ions.” Twelve undergraduate students
with hig h rumination sc ores were randomly assigned to a n inter-
vention group for two weeks, and 11 others were assigned to a
no-treatment control group. The techn ique reduced the students’
tendency to dwell on their negative thoughts.
More surprisingly, a small study from the Ju ne 2014 issue of
the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Expe rimental Psychiatry
found that metacognitive therapy reduced symptoms of psycho-
sis. Citing the mixed results yielded by studies on the effective-
ness of CBT in treating psychotic disorders, researchers gave 10
patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders up to 12 ses-
sions of metacog nitive therapy over a nine-month p eriod. At the
end of treatment, ve of the participants had at least a 25 per-
cent decrease in symptoms. Four of the ve maintained this
improvement at follow-up three months later.
Although larger studies are needed, many clinicians and
researchers are now beginning to believe treatment should go
beyond addressing a patient’s speci c thoughts to illum inate the
underlying beliefs that might be reinforcing them. “Metacog-
nitive factors are crucial in determining the unhelpful thinking
styles in psychological disorders,” says Robin Bailey, a Ph.D.
candidate at the University of Manchester in England and
author of a recent paper showing that certain metacognitions
are positively correlated with health anxiety. “How a person
thinks may be more important than what a person thinks.”
— Tori Rodriguez
Girls who spent a few minutes playing with Barbie were more likely to see themselves in gender-typical careers than if they had played with Mrs. Potato Head. | Tenacity is vital to academic success. | A single loud—but not deafening—noise could permanently damage the nerves in your inner
>>
MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.COM SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND 19
Head Lines
Girls who spent a few minutes playing with Barbie were more likely to see themselves in gender-typical careers than if they had played with Mrs. Potato Head. | Tenacity is vital to academic success. | A single loud—but not deafening—noise could permanently damage the nerves in your inner
Learn Faster
with Messy Moves
People whose movements
are more variable pick up new
motor skills more quickly
Whether learning to write, swing a golf club or play
the violin, even the most good-natured students
become frustrated by inevitable mistakes. Such
off-target actions were thought to reect neural
noise in the parts of the brain controlling move-
ment—something a good dose of practice would
stamp out. But a new study, published January 12
in Nature Neuroscience, nds that these inconsis-
tencies are not always obstacles to be overcome
but rather key ingredients to learning.
Study participants learned to copy a displayed
curved line without seeing what their hand was
doing. Initially these lines were of f the mark for
everyone, but some people produced more erratic
curves than other people did. During training each
curve was scored on how well it copied the target
curve. All participants gradually produced more
accurate curves over hundreds of trials, but peo -
ple who started out with the most variability
before training attained accurate curves more
quickly than those who began with little irregulari-
ty. Another experiment bolstered this link: when
researchers promoted variability in one aspect of
a movement by applying a force eld that pushed
the par ticipants’ hand off target, they learned the
motion faster.
Bigger uctuations may reect a brain explor-
ing the full spectrum of possible actions, which
would narrow in on accurate movements more
quickly than a restricted search. Stud y author
Maurice Smith, a neuroscientist at Harvard Uni-
versity, suggests proling a person’s range of
movements after a stroke to aid their rehabilita-
tion. “You could focus training on the types of
tasks they are most likely to learn well, as pre-
dicted from their variability,” he says. For the rest
of us, the results mean we should try not to get
frustrated with wild misses when we are learning
a new activity. That clumsiness could be the key
to quick improvement. — Michele Solis
>>
COCHLEAR
IMPLANTS
TO HEAR
WITH LIGHT
ON THE HORIZON
An orchestra crescendos, and deaf
audience members hear every note,
thanks to cochlear implants that trans-
late the complex sounds into a rain-
bow of optical light. That is the vision
of a team of scientists in Germany,
Japan, South Korea and Singapore,
who believe a device that uses optics
instead of sound waves might birth a
rened class of auditory prosthetics.
In people who can hear, spiral gan-
glion neurons in the inner ear allow for
the precise discrimination of sound—
we can recognize hundreds of people
by the sound of their voice and distin -
guish between thousands of different
pitches or frequencies of sound. In tra-
ditional cochlear implants the external
microphone picks up sound and trans-
mits it to these neurons via electrodes,
but the resolution is very poor. The
neurons are lined up like piano keys in
our inner ear, and using electrodes to
simulate them is like playing a concer-
to with sts instead of ngers. The sci-
entists think there is a better way.
In a study that appeared in March
in the Journal of Clinical Investigation,
the researchers used viruses to
implant genes for light sensitivity into
mouse embryos of a deaf lineage. The
genes went to work in the auditory
pathways of the mouse brains, creat-
ing light-sensitive patches on the mem -
branes of their spiral ganglion neurons
and other neurons. The scientists then
directed LED light onto these neurons
and recorded brain stem activity—an
essential integration step in auditor y
processing. The activit y indicated the
deaf mice successfully perceived the
light as sound. Compared with stimula-
tion from traditional cochlear implant
electrodes, the light produced more
precise neural activity in the brain
stem, similar to normal hearing. These
tests revealed that the mice received
not only the ability to hear but also a
high level of sound discrimination that
current prosthetics cannot achieve.
The team envisions that in the
future, deaf people might benet from
gene therapy similar to the approaches
currently being tested in clinical trials
for other diseases. If they so choose,
their cochleae could be altered to
express these light- sensitive channels.
A chain of LED lights could then be
inserted in the ear, which would light
up according to the qualities of an
external sound, allowing auditory neu -
rons to communicate the rich det ails
to the brain. —Abdul-Kareem Ahmed
Next generation cochlear implants
may stimulate the inner ear’s neurons
by converting sound to light.
20 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND JULY/AUGUST 2014
M
A stressful home environment can cause the ends of chromosomes to fray. l
For full stories: ScienticAmerican.com/Mind/july2014/stories
New Roles for Music
Many studies have found that familiar songs enhance mood, relieve stress and
reduce anxiety in patients with Alzheimer’s, perhaps because musical memory is
often spared even when a patient has declined to a low level of cognition. Two new
studies nd that familiar music also improves cognitive symptoms in the disease.
Activating the gene with drugs such as lithium could prevent or slow cognitive decline
More than ve million people in the U.S. have
Alzheimer’s disease. Scientis ts at Harvard Medical
School and their colleagues have made a
break through that could lead to a treat ment for this
currently incurable disease.
Much research on Alzheimer’s has been
directed at understanding the abnormally folded
and entangled proteins in the brain that are key
symptoms of the illness. Until now, though,
scient ists have been stumped to explain why many
people wi th these anomalies do not develop the
disease. A study published in March in Nature nds
that a protein called REST helps the aging brain
respond to stress and prote cts against cell death.
REST is a pr otein encoded by a regulator gene;
it can suppress the expression of other genes. It
was previously thought to be active in the br ain only
during fetal development, when REST overs ees
maturation of neural cells and then becomes
dormant soon af ter birth. Senior author Bruce
Yankner, a professor of genet ics and neurolog y at
Harvard Medic al School, explains that the
surprising reactivation of REST in the mature brain
came to his t eam’s attention through the
researchers’ computer modeling of brain aging.
They then launched a multipar t study to bet ter
understand this protein. Through cell culture
exper iment s, they determined that REST switches
off genes that promote cell deat h and misfolded
proteins.
Using mice, t he team then demons trated that
aged brains that lacked REST had much mor e cell
death and inammation in the hippocampus and
forebr ain, which is also observed in Alzheimer’s.
When the scientists looked at postmortem human
brains, t hey found strong c orrelations between
REST levels and memory function and longevity.
They also obser ved that REST seemed to have a
protective effect: the brains t hat had developed
misfolded and tangled proteins but did not become
demented had high levels of this protein.
The nding sugges ts exciting new possibilities
for drug therapy, one of which is lit hium. “Lithium
very potently activates REST,” Yankner says. The
drug is already a well-established therapy for
bipolar dis order. The dosage has to be low,
however, to avoid side ef fects such as tremor s,
vomiting and kidney failure —which are even more
dangerous in the elderly. “I caution anyone against
taking li thium for dementia at this time because it’s
exper imental and potentially toxic; however, it may
be a prototype for bet ter drugs,” he says. And
becaus e REST wor ks together with a number of
other pr oteins, these proteins are also potential
targe ts for t reatment. —Esther Hsieh
Improving the Quality of Memories
One of the most devastating ef fects of Alzheimer’s is its effec t on
patients’ ability to recall life events. Several studies have found that
music helps to improve the recall of autobiographical memories of
Alzheimer’s patients, and a new paper from the November 2013 Jour-
nal of Neurolinguistics builds on these ndings by exploring the linguis-
tic qualit y of those memories. Researchers instructed 18 patients
with Alzheimer’s and 18 healthy control subjects to tell autobiograph-
ical stories in a silent room or while listening to the music of their
choice. Among the Alzheimer’s patients, the music-cued stories were
stronger in three areas typically impaired by the disease: they con-
tained a greater number of meaningful words, were more grammati-
cally complex and conveyed more information per number of words.
Music may enhance narrative memories because “music and lan-
guage processing share a common neural basis,” explains study co-
author Mohamad El Haj of Lille University in France. —
Tori Rodriguez
Protective Gene Staves Off Dementia
Boosting Self-Awareness
Familiar music may be a safe and effective
way to help patients with Alzheimer’s
become more self-conscious, which
improves overall mental processing and
leads to a more accurate examination
of the world. In a study published in
September 2013 by Eva M. Arroyo- Anlló
of the University of Salamanca in Spain and
her colleagues, patients listened to either
familiar or unfamiliar music three times
a week for three months. Those who heard
tunes they knew showed an immediate
improvement in identity, mood, moral
judgment and body awareness—elements
of self- consciousness that ail in
Alzheimer’s. Those who listened
to unfamiliar music scored worse
on all measures except body
awareness.
The researchers also adminis-
tered a common exam for demen-
tia to test the patients’ overall cog-
nition. The group who heard famil -
iar music sust ained their scores
over time, whereas the group who
listened to unfamiliar music fal-
tered signicantly. According to
the investigators, these ndings
are yet one more reason that caregivers
should provide patients with music from
their past. —Duncan Van Horn
The protective gene REST (green) is dormant
in young adult brains (left), active in healthy
older brains (middle) and reduced in the
brains of people with dementia (right).
Head Lines
>>
Insights into Alzheimer’s: Promising therapies and future treatments
NEWS FROM OUR WEB SITE l Our mental simulations of the world
are surprisingly similar to
the way video games implement physics. l An injector for an opioid antidote gained fda approval
recently, allowing for swifter treatment of overdoses. The device resembles an EpiPen. l The
National Institute of Mental Health is shaking up the way psychiatric drug trials are conducted,
calling the current system “an incredible waste of money.” A new atla s that maps how a baby’s
brain develops aims to uncover the origins of disorders such as autism. l Autism prevalence
has increased to one in 68 kids, up from one in 88 two years ago. l Occasional “avalanches”
of disordered neuronal activity might be key to brain health, according to an emerging
theory. l Half of all neuroscience papers might be statistically awed, a new analysis
concludes. l Pesticides trigger numerous brain changes that can lead to Parkinson’s
disease. l A new atlas that maps how a baby’s brain develops aims to uncover the origins of
disorders such as autism. l A single loud —but not deafening—noise could permanently damage
the nerves in your inner ear. A new app aims to help you conquer jet lag faster by calculating the
ideal sleep schedule for your particular trip. l Girls who spent a few minutes playing with Barbie
were more likely to see themselves in gender-typical careers than if they had played with Mrs.
Potato Head. l Tenacity is vital to academic success. l Tenacious students view setbacks as a
chance to learn and seek to master material rather than outcompete other students. l Being bad
at video games increases aggression. l Years of foreign-language study alter a person’s patterns
of brain activity to mimic those of native speakers. l
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